Boston Flora

Tag: New York Botanical Garden

  • Saturday, March 12, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Can I Grow It Here, Now, and How?

    Today’s horticultural climate offers a vast selection of native and exotic plants, soil amendments, watering systems, fertilizers, and methods of pest management. And today’s changing gardening climate offers a vast array of shifting seasons, unexpected storms, early-season heat spikes, late frosts, floods, and droughts, as well as a host of new diseases and insects. What’s a New England gardener to do in the face of all these challenges and choices? On Saturday, March 12 from 10 – noon at the Berkshire Botanical Garden, Dr. Kim Tripp, former Director of the Botanic Garden of Smith College and of the New York Botanical Garden, will identify immediate and pressing climate-change problems while sharing specific solutions for planning, planting, and keeping gardens and gardeners vital. Drawing on her extensive experience with growing thousands of different plants from around the world in stressful native and non-native environments, she will discuss how to design, plan, plant, and maintain diverse garden styles and plants in the northeastern U.S. in the face of increasing environmental change and unpredictability.

    Kim Tripp, D.O., Ph.D. After an extensive career dedicated to plants and botanical gardens, Dr. Tripp is now also a fully licensed osteopathic physician in practice at Goldman/Tripp Osteopathic Healthcare in Sharon, CT. She completed her post-doctoral work in plant science at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and has taught and lectured on a broad range of horticultural and botanical subjects. $35. Register online at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

  • Tuesday, February 23, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Principles of Ecological Landscape Design: Getting It Right

    There is growing expectation and demand that designed landscapes from public parks to backyards should not only be  beautiful and functional, but also sustainable. For constructed landscapes to perform as we need them to, we must get their underlying ecology right. Based upon his recently released Principles of Ecological Landscape Design, Travis Beck helps translate the science of ecology into design practice.

    In this February 23rd Ecological Landscape Alliance webinar from 12 – 1 EST, Mr. Beck explains key ecological concepts and their application to the design and management of sustainable landscapes. Through photos and descriptions, Travis Beck takes us on a tour of Mt. Cuba Center, discussing the real world implementation of ecological concepts from his book.

    Located in the Piedmont region of Delaware, Mt. Cuba Center is a botanical garden that spans nearly 600 acres of natural lands, grounds, naturalistic and formal gardens. Moving along a continuum from the wildest to the most intensively managed areas, Beck will shed light on the opportunities and challenges of applying ecological understanding to landscape design and management.

    Travis Beck is the Director of Horticulture at Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware, where he oversees the care and evolution of 582 acres of native plant gardens and natural areas. Prior to Mt. Cuba, Travis worked at the New York Botanical Garden, where he managed large landscape design and construction projects. He is a registered landscape architect and holds a master’s degree in Horticulture from The Ohio State University. His book, Principles of Ecological Landscape Design, published in 2013 by Island Press, applies current scientific thinking to the design and management of successful, sustainable landscapes. – See more at: http://www.ecolandscaping.org/event/principles-of-ecological-landscape-design-getting-it-right/#sthash.56bDSztJ.dpuf. Free for ELA members, $10 for nonmembers.

  • Thursday, October 15, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Art and Practice of Saving Seeds

    The time-honored tradition of saving seeds merges botany, history, observation, and experience. On Thursday, October 15, from 7 – 8:30 in the Hunnewell Building at the Arnold Arboretum, Lee Buttala, editor of The Seed Garden, by the Seed Savers Exchange, will provide an overview of plant reproduction and pollination, how to preserve varietal traits, and the many reasons for saving seeds from your favorite heirloom and open-pollinated plants. Even if you don’t have seeds to save, Lee will help you understand the origin of that heirloom tomato that you picked up at the farmers market and share knowledge that has been passed down through generations by farmers and home gardeners for preserving the plants that sustain us. Lee Buttala is an Emmy Award–winning television producer of Martha Stewart Living and was the creator, producer, and director of Cultivating Life, a PBS series on outdoor living and gardening. He has written for The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, New York, and Metropolitan Home. He also served as the preservation program manager for the Garden Conservancy and has studied garden design at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, the Chelsea Physic Garden, and the New York Botanical Garden. Free for Arboretum members, $5 nonmembers. Register at my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

  • Thursday, June 4 – Monday, June 8 – Garden Days at the Emily Dickinson Museum

    Take part in one of Emily Dickinson’s favorite pastimes – gardening.  Join the staff of The Emily Dickinson Museum June 4-8 for Garden Days, an annual effort to prepare the Museum’s historic grounds for summer. Volunteers with all levels of experience are welcome to plant, weed, and beautify under the direction of landscape historian Marta McDowell, author of Emily Dickinson’s Gardens.

    Garden Days begins on Thursday, June 4, during the monthly Amherst Art Walk. A Garden Days volunteer meet-up and orientation starts at 5 pm, followed by an “art in the garden” session until 7 pm. At 6:45 pm, a poetry reading by Amherst-area poets Seth Landman and Kelin Loe will be held in the Homestead parlor.

    On Saturday, June 6, at 3 pm, Marta McDowell will lead a free tour of the museum grounds. This event is open to the public, and begins in the Homestead garden.

    As a special thank you, Garden Days volunteers are invited to tour the Museum at no charge on Sunday, June 7. Tours will be held at 12:30 pm, 1:30 pm, 2:30 pm, and 3:30 pm. For more information, or to sign up for a Volunteer Shift below, visit http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/node/473?utm_source=Garden+Days+2015&utm_campaign=Garden+Days+2015&utm_medium=email

    VOLUNTEER SHIFTS
    Friday, June 5
    9 am – noon and 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
    Saturday, June 6
    9 am – noon and 4 pm – 6 pm
    Sunday, June 7
    9 am – noon
    Monday, June 8
    9 am – noon
    Marta McDowell lives, gardens and writes in Chatham, New Jersey. She teaches landscape history and gardening at the New York Botanical Garden, where she was named “Instructor of the Year” in 2011. Her book, Emily Dickinson’s Gardens, was published by McGraw-Hill in 2005, and she was an advisor for the New York Botanical Garden’s 2010 show.

    Her latest book, Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, was published by Timber Press in 2013. Marta is active in the Chatham Community Garden and is on the board of the NJ Historical Foundation at the Cross Estate in Bernardsville. Her husband, Kirke Bent, summarizes her biography as “I am therefore I dig.”

    Seth Landman is the author of four chapbooks and the full-length poetry collections Confidence (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2015) and Sign You Were Mistaken (Factory Hollow Press, 2013). His work can be found in Boston Review, iO, Jellyfish, Lit, and elsewhere. He received his PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Denver (2013) and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts (2008) where he is currently an Academic Advisor in Humanities and Fine Arts.

    Kelin Loe is the author of These Are The Gloria Stories (Factory Hollow Press 2014) and the chapbook The Motorist (minutesBOOKS 2010). She lives in Northampton, MA, and is working towards a PhD in Rhetoric at UMass Amherst.

    The Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and The Evergreens, opens for 2015 on Wednesday, March 4. Museum hours are 11 am to 4 pm, Wednesday through Sunday. Find out more about visiting here.

    The Emily Dickinson Museum is dedicated to educating diverse audiences about the poet’s life, family, creative work, times, and enduring relevance, and to preserving and interpreting the Homestead and The Evergreens as historical resources for public and academic enrichment.

    The Emily Dickinson Museum is owned by the Trustees of Amherst College and overseen by a separate Board of Governors. The Museum is responsible for raising its own operating and capital funds.

    The Emily Dickinson Museum is a member of Museums10, a collaboration of ten museums linked to the Five Colleges in the Pioneer Valley–Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

  • Through May 31 – Art of the Heirloom

    The Hudson Valley Seed Library is a small, farm-based seed company celebrating heirloom and open-pollinated garden seeds and garden-themed contemporary art.  Each year artists are commissioned to create designs for the seed packets.  The original art for the 2015 packets was first exhibited at the New York Botanical Garden and profiled in The New York Times, and now continues on to Tower Hill Botanic Garden.  Hudson Valley Seed Library packets are available for purchase at the Shop at Tower Hill.  Exhibit free with admission to the Garden.  For directions visit www.towerhillbg.org. Below: Blue Jade Sweet Corn, by Daniel Baxter,  credit Hudson Valley Seed Library Catalog/Courtesy of The New York Botanical Garden.

  • Tuesday, April 14, 6:00 pm – Ethnobotany in the 21st Century

    For more than four decades, Michael J. Balick, Vice President for Botanical Science at the New York Botanical Garden, has studied the relationships between plants and people — the field known as ethnobotany — in the Amazon Valley, Central and South America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and most recently in Micronesia and Melanesia. In this Tuesday, April 14 lecture beginning at 6 pm he will discuss the relevance of working with indigenous cultures to document their knowledge of medicinal plants and evaluate their potential for broader applications. He will also highlight some of the medicinal plants used by non-Western cultures, such as ashwagandha and maca, which are becoming available and popular in the West and are discussed in his most recent book, Rodale’s 21st Century Herbal: A Practical Guide for Healthy Living Using Nature’s Most Powerful Plants.

    This free Harvard Museum on Natural History lecture and book signing will be held at the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free parking is available at the 52 Oxford Street Garage.

  • Mondays, March 9 – April 13, 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm – Botanical Illustration with Graphite

    Botanical illustration has been a practiced art for hundreds of years. This Boston Center for Adult Education course will give you a brief overview of the history of this art form and will show you the basics of how to draw flowers and plants with shading, perspective and form in graphite. We will begin with basic graphite techniques and move on to simple flower and plant structure. Students will learn about composition, light and methods to make your artwork “alive.” Each week will focus on a different flower provided by the instructor. Medium used will be graphite pencils.

    Materials List:
    11×14 pad Strathmore drawing paper – 400 series (brown or green cover; NOT yellow 300 series)
    11×14 pad tracing paper (Canson preferred)
    Set of graphite pencils (at least 2B, HB and 2H; you do not need more than that) – Faber- Castill or Prismacolor best brands
    Kneaded grey erasers (2)
    Battery operated pencil sharpener (Panasonic KP-4A is BEST; available online but lesser models should be okay)

    The instructor is Nancy Bentivegna. Nancy Bentivegna was born and raised in Ithaca, NY. Art was always her favorite subject in school and she pursued this passion in the art program at Penn State University where she earned her B.A. After college, she worked in marketing and advertising with several large firms in New York. In 1999, she started her own design firm, Kester House, and began creating custom home décor for clients throughout the New York metropolitan area. Her works include furniture, murals, decorative accent pieces and soft goods (pillows, linens, etc.). In 2008 she began the Botanical Art and Illustration Program at the New York Botanical Garden. Ms. Bentivegna completed all course work in June 2011 and then relocated to Boston. She primarily works in watercolor combined with colored pencil for depth and detail. Her works have been displayed in specialty shops in Connecticut and her original botanical artwork is part of private collections from New York to Florida.

    Classes will meet Mondays, March 9 – April 13, from 7:30 – 9:30 at the BCAE, 122 Arlington Street in Boston. The fee is $204 ($173 for BCAE members) with a materials cost of $15. Register online at http://www.bcae.org/index.cfm?method=ClassInfo.ClassInformation&int_class_id=12403&int_category_id=1&int_sub_category_id=1&int_catalog_id=0, or call 617-267-4430.

  • Wednesday – Friday, August 13 – 15, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm – Botanical Illustration: Colorful Garden Fruits and Berries with Colored Pencil

    This three day intensive Berkshire Botanical workshop on August 13 – 15 from 10 – 4 each day, will focus on colored-pencil techniques for botanical illustration. Learn to capture the vibrant colors of garden fruits and berries. Find out how many multiple overlays of colors it can take to give depth, shine and texture to one berry! Draw from the abundance of the summer garden and make intriguing compositions of fruit, berries and foliage. Explore creative possibilities, whether traditional or whimsical, and make exciting background textures or borders to enhance your artwork. This is a playful workshop suitable for all student levels. Basic skills will be taught in drawing, colored pencil techniques and composition.

    Carol Ann Morley is an illustrator and dedicated teacher of botanical illustration working in Dover, NH. She founded the Botanical Art Illustration Certificate Program at the New York Botanical Garden and teaches illustration there and at other botanical gardens. This is Ms. Morley’s only summer workshop in the Berkshires for 2014. BBG member price $260; non-members $290.  Register at http://www.berkshirebotanical.org/ai1ec_event/botanical-illustration-colorful-garden-fruits-and-berries-with-colored-pencil/?instance_id=2625.

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  • Through September 7 – Groundbreakers: Great American Gardens and the Women Who Designed Them

    Those of us who enjoyed the speakers during The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s program theme a few years ago, Women in the Garden, should travel to the New York Botanical Garden now through September 7.  It is hosting Groundbreakers: Great American Gardens and the Women Who Designed Them, an exhibition that focuses on the accomplishments of prominent women whose work influenced landscape architecture and garden design, garden photography, and garden writing in the first three decades of the 20th century.

    Included in the exhibit is Mrs. Rockefeller’s Garden, a reconstruction of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden in Seal Harbor, Maine.  The garden, designed by Beatrix Farrand in 1926, was at the summer home of philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and his wife Abby.  Also featured is Gardens for a Beautiful America: The Women Who Photographed Them,  a display in the Garden’s LuEsther T. Mertz Library of vintage photographs and illustrated books highlighting the work of female photographers.  An outdoor poetry walk will feature the work of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

    During the exhibition, visitors can also enjoy live musical performances featuring pieces by American composers of the time period, hands-on programs for children, public lectures, and a downloadable app that offers additional information about the exhibition.  Visit www.nybg.org or call 718-817-8700 for further details.

  • Friday, April 4, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm, and Saturday, April 5, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium

    The 11th Annual Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium, April 4 & 5, 2014 at The Equinox Resort in Manchester, Vermont , will be sponsored by: The American Horticultural Society, Corona Tools, Equinox Valley Nursery, Espoma, Gardener’s Supply Company, Liquid Fence, Neptune’s Harvest and Proven Winners.

    This premier symposium takes place April 4 & 5, 2014 and will be held at the world-class Equinox Resort (www.equinoxresort.com) in Manchester, VT. The symposium features six dynamic lectures, a Gardener’s Marketplace, great food, door prizes, and gifts. Over 200 gardeners from around the Northeast annually attend this popular event. NEW for 2014 is a special Garden Design Workshop on Friday from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. This workshop is in addition to the symposium. Featured speakers, horticultural experts and notable authors are: David L. Culp: owner of award-winning gardens that have been featured on HGTV and in Martha Stewart Living, VP of Sunny Border Nurseries, instructor at Longwood Gardens (PA), former contributing editor to Horticulture magazine, and author of the top selling book The Layered Garden; Thomas Christopher: a highly respected expert on sustainable gardening practices with articles in The New York Times and Martha Stewart Living; owner of a sustainable lawn consulting business, Greener Grasses/Sustainable Lawns, graduate of the New York Botanical Garden’s school of professional horticulture and editor of a best seller – The New American Landscape: Leading Voices on the Future of Sustainable Gardening, which contains his own chapter on water-wise gardening; Deborah Trickett: a highly applauded container designer who works with clients throughout New England, owner of The Captured Garden, instructor at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, and her work has been featured in The Boston Globe, Garden Gate and New England Home magazines as well as on the TV show New England Dream Home; Adam R. Wheeler: a plant fanatic who is the propagation and new plant development manager for Broken Arrow Nursery – a destination garden center in CT, and adjunct instructor on plant propagation and woody plant identification at Naugatuck Valley Community College; and Kerry Ann Mendez: owner of Perennially Yours, garden designer and consultant, guest on HGTV, former TV garden series host, her gardens have been featured in Garden Gate, Fine Gardening, Horticulture, and Better Homes and Gardens SIP, and author of The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Top Ten Lists and Top Ten Lists for Beautiful Shade Gardens.

    How-to, informative lectures include: 50 Perennials I Could Not Live Without; The Layered Garden: Design Lessons for Year Round Beauty; A Back Yard Revolution – alternative grasses and compatible perennials that provide all the benefits of a conventional lawn; Celebrity Pots, an entertaining presentation on creating flashy containers that portray celebrities like Brad Pitt, Lady Gaga and Grace Kelly; Fun with Color: Variegated Foliage in the Garden; and Flashy New or Underused Perennials for 2014. Overnight packages and day only rates are available. Symposium Day Only rates: $98 per person by March 1, $108 after March 1; special rates for groups and Master Gardeners. Overnight packages including symposium programming, accommodations, meals and all taxes & gratuities start at $300.29 for a single or $430.09 for a double ($215.05 per person). For more information and registration details, visit www.pyours.com/symposium.

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