Boston Flora

Tag: New York Times

  • Wednesday, March 5, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Best New Plant Varieties for 2014

    If you enjoy the White Flower Farm mail order catalog, then this Evening Garden Club of West Roxbury presentation on Wednesday, March 5, beginning at 7 pm, is a “must.” The presenter will be Barbara Pierson, WFF nursery manager for 15+ years. Barb is a graduate of Cornell’s School of Horticulture and has appeared on radio, TV and in The New York Times. She is responsible for trialing all of the plants that White Flower Farm sells — which makes for some extraordinary photographs and great insights into what to buy (and what to avoid) for 2014, as well as plants being trialed for 2015 release. In early 2013 Barb gave this presentation to a packed house at Tower Hill Botanic Garden. Her presentation to our club will be her ONLY appearance in MA this year – don’t miss it!  Location: Elks Lodge, 1 Morrell St., West Roxbury, MA. Cost: $10 at the door (one lucky attendee will win a $50 White Flower Farm gift card).  For more information please visit http://gcfm.org/eveninggcwestroxbury/Home.aspx

     

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  • Sunday, February 2, 1:00 pm – Mary Kocol Garden Photography Gallery Talk and Artist Reception

    Mary Kocol is a fine art and editorial photographer based in Boston. She’s a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and several Massachusetts Local Cultural Council grants. Editorial clients include The New York Times Magazine, Boston Magazine, and Doubleday. Kocol is represented by Gallery NAGA on Newbury Street in Boston.

    Mary Kocol’s photography has received acclaim for its transformation of ordinary domestic and street scenes, located often in her residence in Somerville, Massachusetts, into dramatic, richly colored compositions that convey an uncanny sense of both day and night. By photographing at dusk, with prolonged exposures, Kocol creates a melding of daytime and evening that transforms the mundane into the fantastic.

    In addition to her medium format (6×9) work, Kocol shoots with a plastic lens toy camera, producing images in which she uses the camera’s imperfections and its vagaries of focus. Examples of her photography are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

    Meet Mary on Sunday, February 2 at 1 pm at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive in Boylston, for a gallery talk and reception, or visit Tower Hill through February 23 to see the exhibit. Free with admission to the garden.

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  • Saturday, January 11, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – Small-Space Garden Solutions

    When space and time are limited, you need the best performing plants for your patio, beds and borders. Berkshire Botanical Garden will hold a class with Barbara Pierson on Saturday, January 11, from 10 – 12, entitled Small-Space Garden Solutions, particularly applicable to those of us who garden in the City. Barb will highlight new varieties of edibles and annuals for containers, as well as some of the must-have, easy-care classics. “Compact” is the buzzword in breeding today for perennials and shrubs. She will highlight the top picks for performance and hardiness.

    Barbara Pierson is the nursery manager for the prestigious White Flower Farm Nursery in Litchfield, CT. She holds a degree in horticulture from Cornell University and has worked at WFF since 1998. Barbara is a popular speaker at horticultural conferences and has appeared as a guest on TV and radio. She is quoted widely in the print media and was the lead horticultural resource for a 2010 New York Times garden series.  BBG member price $25, non member $30.  Register online at www.berkshirebotanical.org or call 413-298-3926, x 15.

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  • Wednesday, November 20, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Food Chain Restoration in the Face of Climate Change

    Recent years have brought spikes in the frequency of strange weather patterns and severe storms, with many blaming the increase on human-caused climate change. Farmer, author and activist Gary Paul Nabhan proposes that we look to the past for solutions-at crops and techniques used in regions that have historically endured this kind of weather. Hear his thoughts about the need for increased biodiversity on farmlands and strategies to relink the food chain at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University on Wednesday, November 20 at 7:30 pm in the Hunnewell Building. Read his opinions in Grist and the New York Times.
    Fee $10 Arboretum member, $15 nonmember  Students: call 617.384.5277 to register free.

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  • Thursday, September 19, 6:30 pm – Lisa Genova

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay is an institutional member of The College Club of Boston, Inc., and occasionally will publicize an event at the Club, located at 44 Commonwealth Avenue, which is open to the public.  On Thursday, September 19, the 2013/2014 Speaker Series will launch with Lisa Genova, the New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice, Left Neglected, and Love Anthony. Genova, with a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University, travels worldwide speaking about Alzheimer’s, traumatic brain injury and autism.

    The menu will include:

    Open face Crabcake Sliders with Saffron Aioli

    Mini Lobster Grilled Cheese

    Sweet Potato with Scallion Crème Fraiche and Caviar

    Chicken Salad Tea Sandwiches with Cranberry Mustard

    Heirloom Tomato Bisque Sip with Pesto Drizzle

    Brie en croute with Dried Fruit, Nuts and Brown Sugar served with Assorted Crackers and Seasonal Fresh Fruit

    Columbia Crest Grand Estates Syrah, Cartlidge & Browne Cabernet Sauvignon, Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay, Mezzacorona Pinot Grigio

    Heineken, Stella Artois, Sam Adams, Amstel Lite and a Seasonal Brew

    Still and Sparkling Water, Coke, Diet Coke and Sprite

    Assorted Cookies and Bars

    Coffee, Decaf Coffee and Assorted TAZO Teas

    $40 plus tax and club charge. Reservations are required. A Visa or MasterCard number and expiration date must be provided at reservation time. To reserve, email donald@thecollegeclubofboston.com, or call 617-536-9510.

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  • Friday, April 12 – Sunday, April 14 – The 10th Annual Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium

    The 10th Annual Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium will take place April 12 – 14 at the world-class Equinox Resort in Manchester, Vermont.  Day only rates are available, as well as overnight symposium packages.  On Friday, April 12, at 7 pm, Presenter Kerry Ann Mendez, garden designer, author and consultant, will welcome guests and speak on The Art of Shade Gardening: Seeing Your Way Out of the Dark.  On Saturday, from 9 – 4, the Gardener’s Marketplace will be open, and past Garden Club of the Back Bay speaker Rich Pomerantz will speak on Design Strategies for Great Gardens.  Jessica Walliser, horticulturist, author, teacher and radio show host, will speak on The Benefits of Beneficials  and Heather Poire of Bailey Nurseries will give a session on Sensational Flowering Shrubs for the Landscape.  After lunch, Ruth Rogers Clausen, former editor of Country Living Gardener, will speak on Successful Gardening in Deer Country.  Saturday winds up with another talk by Kerry Ann Mendez on The Dazzling New Perennial Line-Up for 2013. 

    Sunday will start with an Ask the Experts Panel at 9 am, followed by Jessica Walliser on Forgotten Garden Combinations and the Fabulous Beekman Boys, owners of the Beekman 1802 organic product line, speaking on The Heirloom Life.  Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell have a passion for organic gardening and ‘the simpler life’. They will talk about how the notion of history and permanence influences every aspect of Beekman 1802 from what they do in the garden to the products they produce. Dr. Brent is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and was Vice President of Healthy Living at Martha Stewart Living Omni Media. He writes for The Huffington Post, and is now CEO of Beekman 1802. Josh is the New York Times bestselling author of “The Bucolic Plague”, “I Am Not Myself These Days”, and “Candy Everybody Wants”. Kilmer-Purcell is a monthly columnist for OUT magazine and a contributor to NPR.

    For complete registration information visit www.pyours.com/symposium.  To book online, go to www.equinoxresort.com.

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  • Wednesday, March 27, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm – Rosemary Verey: The Life & Lessons of a Legendary Gardener

    On Wednesday, March 27, from 6:30 – 8 at the Arnold Arboretum, Barbara Paul Robinson will talk from her personal experience as a gardener with Rosemary Verey and from her research for her book, Rosemary Verey: The Life & Lessons of a Legendary Gardener, which was published by David R. Godine in August 2012. This event is co-sponsored by the Garden Conservancy, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, and the Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens. Rosemary Verey was an internationally acclaimed garden legend. Although she embraced gardening late in life, she quickly achieved international renown. She was the acknowledged apostle of the “English style,” on display at her home at Barnsley House, the “must have” adviser to the rich and famous, including Prince Charles and Elton John, and a beloved and wildly popular lecturer in America. A child of a generation born between the two World Wars, she went on to create the gardens at her home that became a mandatory stop on every garden tour in the 1980s and 1990s.

    During a sabbatical from law firm Debevoise & Plimpton where she was the first woman partner, Barbara Paul Robinson worked as a gardener for Rosemary Verey at Barnsley House. A hands-in-the-dirt gardener herself, she and her husband created their own gardens at Brush Hill in northwestern Connecticut, featured in articles, books, and on television. Barbara has published articles in the New York Times, Horticulture, Fine Gardening, and Hortus; she wrote a chapter in Rosemary Verey’s The Secret Garden, and she is a frequent speaker.  $5 for members of one of the sponsoring organizations, $15 general admission.  To register, call the Arnold Arboretum’s adult education department at 617-384-5277.

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  • Tuesday, March 19, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation

    The Concord Museum and the Concord Museum Guild of Volunteers will host author Andrea Wulf on Thursday, March 19 at the Concord Museum, Cambridge Turnpike at Lexington Road in Concord, for a lecture beginning at 1 pm.  The talk is the 2013 Mary M. Lesneski Memorial Lecture, on Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation. 

    Founding Gardeners offers a fascinating look at the revolutionary generation from the unique and intimate perspective of their lives as gardeners, plantsmen, and farmers. For the founding fathers, gardening, agriculture, and botany were elemental passions, as deeply ingrained in their characters as their belief in liberty for the nation they were creating. Wulf’s stories of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison reveal a guiding, but previously overlooked, ideology of the American Revolution.

    Andrea Wulf was born in India and moved to Germany as a child. She lives in Britain where she trained as a design historian at the Royal College of Art. Her most recent book, Chasing Venus, was published in 2012 in eight countries in conjunction with the last transit of Venus in our century. Wulf has written for the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, and many other newspapers. She has lectured widely to large audiences at the Royal Geographical Society and Royal Society in London, the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, Monticello, and the Chicago Botanic Garden, among many others. She is a three-time fellow of the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and the Eccles British Library Writer in Residence 2013.

    During her visit to Concord, Ms. Wulf will be a Scholar in Residence at the Concord Museum, exploring both the Concord Museum’s collection and the collections of other area institutions for research for a new book.

    As is tradition, Afternoon Tea organized by the Concord Museum’s Guild of Volunteers follows the lecture. The annual Mary M. Lesneski Lecture, begun 34 years ago in memory of a dedicated Concord Museum volunteer, has brought nationally renowned speakers on a variety of topics to the Museum each March. Tickets to the lecture and tea are $30; $25 Concord Museum Members. Reservations are required as space is limited; (978) 369-9763, ext. 216. Books will be available for purchase in the Museum Shop, with a book signing to follow the lecture.

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  • Friday, November 30, 6:00 pm – Art in The Garden, A Lecture by Ken Druse

    Skinner Auctioneers & Appraisers is pleased to present Ken Druse, called the “guru of natural gardening” by the New York Times, for a lecture on art in the garden on Friday, November 30 at 63 Park Plaza in Boston.  A reception will begin at 6, with the lecture at 6:30.  Ken will show many different types of enduring art and discuss ways to display it in a variety of outdoor environments.  He’ll also discuss the use of “living sculptures,” plants, in the creation of more ephemeral designs.  The program is presented by Skinner’s 20th Century Design department.  For more information, or to register, visit www.skinnerinc.com.

  • Thursday, October 25, 7:00 pm – Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley’s Curious Collection

    In Skulls, Simon Winchester presents a spellbinding exploration of an obsessive collector of over 300 animal skulls, including amphibians, birds, fish, mammals, and reptiles and tells the rich and fascinating story of skulls, both human and animal, from every perspective imaginable. Hear him speak at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street, Cambridge, on Thursday, October 25 at 7 pm. For more information, visit www.portersquarebooks.com, or email ellen@portersquarebooks.com. You may also call 617-491-2220.

    At the center of Skulls is a stunning, never-before-seen-in-any-capacity, visual array of the skulls of more than 300 animals that walk, swim, and fly. The skulls are from the collection of Alan Dudley, a British collector and owner of what is likely the largest and most complete private collection of skulls in the world.

    Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including Atlantic, The Professor and the Madman, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa. Those books were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Mr. Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by her Majesty the Queen. He lives in Manhattan and in western Massachusetts.