Boston Flora

Tag: Pollinators

  • Saturday, August 14 – Sunday, August 22, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm – Pollinator Festival

    What’s all the buzz about? Join Heritage Museums & Gardens on August 14 – 22 from 10 – 5 as we celebrate pollinators – some of the hardest working organisms in the animal kingdom!

    Pollinators come in all shapes and sizes, from the tiny sweat bee to the humming bird – and Heritage Museums & Gardens is a great place to see them all! Visitors of all ages will enjoy discovering a variety of pollinators out in nature in our gardens, as well as in art in our Bugs, Birds & Bricks exhibit!

    • Pick up a self-guide to tour several of our gardens and learn how they provide food and habitat for the many varieties of pollinators native to Cape Cod.
    • Visit the Garden Discovery Cart to learn about pollinators with some of our friendly staff.
    • Families will delight in a special activity guide designed just for them, along with pollinator games in Hidden Hollow.
    • Gardening enthusiasts won’t want to miss the special plant sale at The Shop at Heritage, where Director of Horticulture, Les Lutz, has selected some of the best pollinator-attracting plants for your garden!

    All activities are free with museum admission. Pre-purchase of admission tickets (www.heritagemuseumsandgardens.org) is recommended.

    • MEMBER: FREE
    • NON-MEMBER: $20 Adult / $10 Youth

  • Tuesday, June 15, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm – Container Gardening for Pollinators, Online

    In this online class on June 15 from 4 – 6 taught by Berkshire Botanical Garden Director of Education Bridgette Stone, learn how to create beautiful container gardens for attracting hummingbirds and butterflies. Even a small amount of space can create a BIG impact. Understand the fundamentals of container garden design and care. Learn how using the right color and form can attract winged friends. Students will receive two seedlings to bring home and use to start their own container gardens.

    Bridgette Stone is the Director of Education at Berkshire Botanical Garden. She has been a gardener, farmer and educator for over 12 years and brings a passion for experiential learning, home-scale food production and sustainable gardening practice to her work with BBG.

    $10 for BBG members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/online-container-gardening-pollinators

  • Wednesday, February 24, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Nurturing Native Plants and Pollinators

    This February 24 Tower Hill Botanic Garden webinar with instructor Daphne Minner beginning at 6:30 pm will provide gardeners with guidance on how to make their yards more resilient to the effects of climate change. The focus will be on the basics of habitat gardening and how simple changes in your lawn can make a big difference in the bigger ecological landscape. Once you register you will receive a zoom link in the confirmation. These workshop are RECORDED and offered ONLY TO THOSE WHO HAVE REGISTERED for 2 WEEKS.

    $10 for Tower Hill members, $15 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Wednesday, April 22, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm – Webinar: Save the Pollinators! Save the Planet!

    On Wednesdays at noon, ELA invites you on A Walk in the Garden, a virtual weekly diversion as we adjust to the restrictions that the COVID-19 virus has forced onto our lives.

    Presented as free webinars to gardeners everywhere, these presentations invite garden and landscape experts to share gardening tips, beautiful images, and inspiration. We hope anyone who is isolating, quarantining, or sheltering-in-place will find comfort and collective strength with a communal walk in the garden.

    On April 22 at noon, join Trevor Smith to Save the Pollinators! Save the Planet! Pollinator gardens are about a lot more than bees and butterflies. Regenerative landscape designer Trevor Smith will explain everything we need to know when it comes to designing and planting a pollinator garden. Beyond providing sustenance for our six-legged friends, Trevor will also describe how your garden can play a substantial role in rebuilding the local ecosystem and helping create climate resilience. Start planning your spring garden with pollinators in mind. Register at www.ecolandscaping.org.

    Trevor Smith is the owner of Land Escapes, a full service regenerative landscape design and build company based in the Boston area. Land Escapes specializes in green stormwater infrastructure, such as permeable pavers and rain gardens, as well as in landscapes designed to maximize Earth’s systems while balancing them with the needs and desires of her human inhabitants. Mr. Smith is equally driven by both the form and function of his landscape designs He is passionate about the natural world which inspires his commitment to ecological principles and practices and devoted to creating beautiful landscapes that provide clients with an oasis to reconnect with the natural world. Mr. Smith holds several landscape certifications, including MCH, NOFA AOLCP, LEEDGA, and IPCI, and he is also a past President of the Ecological Landscape Alliance and a current Trustee.

  • AHS Podcasts

    The American Horticultural Society (AHS) has launched a series of podcasts in collaboration with the Green Industry Leaders Network. The debut podcast features a conversation between AHS President and CEO Beth Tuttle and David Mizejewski, a naturalist with the National Wildlife Federation, about creating gardens for pollinators and other wildlife.

    In another episode, Seattle-based garden communicator Debra Prinzing discusses the Slow Flowers movement with David J. Ellis, AHS director of communications, and another podcast focuses on the work of Kayri Havens, director of plant science and conservation and senior scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The most recent is a chat with gardening expert Melinda Myers (pictured below) about how to get kids excited about gardening.

    The podcasts can be accessed at http://ahsgardening.org/gardening-resources/gardening-podcasts, and are also available on iTunes and Google Play by searching “Green Industry Leaders Network.”

  • Sunday, June 23, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm – Citizen Science with the Beecology Project

    Join Dr. Robert Gegear, 2018 recipient of the Native Plant Trust’s Regional Impact Award, on Sunday, June 23 at 10 at Nasami Farm in Whately for a hands-on workshop on pollinators. Learn to identify local bumblebee species and then use the Beecology Project phone app to collect and contribute bumblebee data from field observation. This class can be taken alone or in tandem with the Ecological Pollinator Conservation class. $66 for Trust members, $80 for nonmembers. Register at http://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/citizen-science-beecology-project-2/

  • Wednesday, April 3, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – More Than Just The Buzz: Finding Real Solutions to Native Pollinator Decline

    For almost two decades, pollinators have been declining in abundance, species richness, and geographic distribution at an unprecedented rate worldwide. While media attention has focused largely on the domesticated European honeybee, the decline of our native species poses a significant threat to global biodiversity due to the keystone role that pollinators play in terrestrial ecosystems. On April 3 at 7 pm at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway in Cambridge, biologist Robert Gegear, Assistant Professor of Biology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute will explain the beautifully complex interactions between plant species and the insects that pollinate them— intricate ecological systems that we humans are only beginning to understand. Join us to learn how Dr. Gegear’s research on pollination ‘networks’ can help develop truly effective conservation and restoration strategies, and come away with scientifically informed and practical actions you can take to support these vital insects.

    Dr. Robert Gegear is the founder of the Bee-cology Project, an initiative that uses citizen science to collect much-needed ecological data on native pollinator species and pollinator habitat. The Grow Native Massachusetts talk is free and open to the public.

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  • Sunday, November 11, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm – Rooted in Place: 3rd Annual Ecological Gardening Symposium

    This full-day program on November 11 at the Berkshire School in Sheffield focuses on managing the landscape sustainably, led by Neil Diboll, Jeff Lowenfels, Lee Buttala, and Dr. Robert J. Gegear. Please join us as we hear from the experts on topics relevant to all gardeners and growers.

    Neil Diboll: The American Garden: A Life or Death Situation

    Our gardens and landscapes are becoming increasingly important refuges for pollinators, birds, butterflies and other creatures as their former habitats disappear. Diboll will focus on the evolution of the American garden from solely a creation for enjoyment of the owners to becoming a biodiverse refuge for native plants and animals. He will share a step-by-step approach that will provide you with “tried and true” methods to convert a small area to a prairie garden or a large acreage to a beautiful meadow.

    A pioneer in the native plant industry and recognized internationally as an expert in native plant community ecology, Neil Diboll has guided the growth of Prairie Nursery for 30 years. He has dedicated his life to the propagation of native plants and their promotion as uniquely beautiful, ecologically beneficial and sustainable solutions for landscapes and gardens. In 2013 Neil was the recipient of the Great American Gardeners Award from the American Horticultural Society.

    Jeff Lowenfels: Teaming With Microbes and Fungi: The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web

    No one ever fertilizes the Redwoods. How did these trees live over 500 years and grow to 380 feet without Miracle-Gro or other chemicals? In an extremely humorous and entertaining presentation, Jeff Lowenfels will tell you and show you how to successfully use the very same natural principles to maintain your yard and grow your gardens. No more chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other nasty chemicals and a lot less work as Jeff shows you how to team with the microbes in your soil! After just one extremely painless and entertaining hour even the ‘reluctant spouse’ will never use chemicals again. As more and more professionals in all aspects of horticulture are learning about the benefits of mycorrhizal fungi, these symbiotic fungi are becoming readily available to the public as a whole. All gardeners and growers need to learn about mycorrhizal fungi and how to use them as they make a huge, beneficial difference in so many ways. This talk gives you all you need to know, plus a few laughs. Jeff Lowenfels is the author of a trilogy of award winning books on plants and soil, and he is the longest running garden columnist in North America. Lowenfels is a national lecturer as well as a fellow, hall of fame member, and former president of the Garden Writers of America.

    Lee Buttala: The Return of the Species

    In a horticultural and agricultural universe where hybrids and vegetative propagation have become commonplace, the biodiversity of many species is being bottlenecked even by those with the best of intentions. In this talk about how to maintain the genetic breadth of species and varieties that allow them to adapt and evolve to local conditions and weather change, Lee Buttala advocates for the importance and ease of growing many of these plants from open-pollinated seed. Citing examples he has learned from writing about seed saving in relation to his work on the preservation of heirloom vegetables at Seed Savers Exchange, Buttala sets forward a simple approach to how we can all contribute to biodiversity in our own backyards, whether we are growing natives, vegetables or ornamental plants, in a manner which is economically and environmentally sound and satisfying, not to mention cost-effective and fun. Learn to preserve the biodiversity of the plant kingdom, one seed at a time.

    Lee Buttala is the Executive Director of Seed Savers Exchange, a seed bank dedicated to the sharing and saving of seeds that define America’s food and garden heritage, and the only non-governmental organization storing seed at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Formerly the director of marketing communications for BBG and the Preservation Manager for the Garden Conservancy, he is also the Chair of the Historic Landscapes Committee of the APGA. He was the Emmy-Award winning garden television producer for Martha Stewart Living, the creator of PBS’s Cultivating Life and editor of the award-winning book: The Seed Garden: The Art and Practice of Saving Seed. He also writes a weekly garden column for the Berkshire Edge and sits on the board of Hollister House Garden in Washington, CT. He studied garden design at the Chelsea Physick Garden, the New York Botanical Garden, and the Kyoto School of Art and Design.

    Dr. Robert J. Gegear: Humming a Different Tune: An Ecological Approach to Native Pollinator Conservation
    Pollinators are declining at an unprecedented rate worldwide due to human-induced rapid environmental change. These declines pose a significant threat to our food supply and consequently, there has been major focus on the development and implementation of conservation strategies to maintain pollination services to crop plants. However, the overwhelming majority of current strategies do not consider the keystone role that pollinators play in natural ecosystems, making them an ineffective tool for maintaining and restoring biodiversity. Dr. Robert Gegear of WPI Department of Biology and Biotechnology, and Director of the New England Bee-cology Project, researches and presents on the importance of developing an ecologically-focused approach to developing and maintaining your garden, citing examples from his ongoing field research in Massachusetts. Dr. Robert J. Gegear is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and Biotechnology at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the Director of the New England Bee-cology Project. Dr. Gegear’s current research focuses on Pollinator neuroecology and conservation, with particular focus on bumblebees native to Massachusetts.

    Sponsored by the Berkshire Botanical Garden, Red Lion Inn, Berkshire School, and the Seed Savers Exchange

    Tuition ($95 for BBG members, $105 for nonmembers) includes lunch. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

    Image result for the seed garden the art and practice of seed saving

  • Sunday, October 28, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm – Pollinator Symposium

    On Sunday, October 28, at the Susan N. McLane Audubon Center in Concord, New Hampshire, attend a day-long symposium to discuss interactions between native plants and pollinators and learn how to combat the pollinator crisis through panels and workshops led by specialists in the field. The symposium addresses such topics as: researching and tracking different types of native pollinators, creating and growing gardens that support the region’s native pollinators, and selecting the most effective pollinator-friendly native plants for particular habitats and ecoregions. With an engaging keynote by Dr. Robert Gegear, creator of The Beecology Project, this symposium offers a fitting culmination to a summer of pollinator programs and a vision for next steps. Register and be part of the solution!  $75 for members of the sponsoring organizations, the New England Wild Flower Society, New Hampshire Audubon, and the New England Field Office of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, $90 for nonmembers. Photo from the Times Free Press. Register at http://www.newenglandwild.org/learn/our-programs/pollinator-symposium

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  • Saturday, August 18, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Pollinator Activity on Native Shrub Cultivars

    Increasingly native plants have been used to support pollinators in the landscape, but consumers and conservation groups want the best plants to support these organisms. Native plants are primarily sold as cultivated varieties (cultivars), which have been questioned for their ability to support as effectively as “straight species”, plants that have been unaltered from their natural form. Dr. Jessica Lubell-Brand and Jacob Ricker have directed research towards pursuing the answer to this question. Six native shrub species and cultivars at the University of Connecticut native shrub planting are being measured for pollinator visitation. Over ten groups of pollinators are being assessed to find potential similarities or differences among the straight species and their varieties in an attempt to encompass as much diversity as possible. This Saturday, August 18 Tower Hill Botanic Garden presentation from 1 – 2 will entail a summary of the results of two complete seasons of research at the shrub planting. Free with admission to the garden. For more information visit www.towerhillbg.org.

    Jacob earned his BS in 2016 at the University of Connecticut, where he is now in his second year of his Masters Degree in Plant Science working in the lab of Dr. Jessica Lubell-Brand.

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