Boston Flora

Tag: Pollinators

  • Saturday, August 27, 10:30 am – 12:30 pm – Slow Flower Arranging: Bee and Pollinator Friendly Bouquets

    On Saturday, August 27, beginning at 10:30 am, fill a graceful glass vase with an abundant, naturalistic bouquet of lovely, freshly harvested, and locally sourced Slow Flowers. Slow Flowers are local, sustainably-grown flowers that are pollinator friendly and enjoyed in season. Gathered from the garden and the wayside or purchased at a near-by farm stand, Slow Flowers bring long-lasting natural beauty and delicate fragrance into your home. Learn when and how to cut garden and wayside flowers for arranging, which nectar rich herbal flowers add color and fragrance to seasonal bouquets and how to condition freshly picked stems for lasting beauty. Then, create your own personal, gardenesque bouquet to take home with you!

    Flowers, greens, mechanics and container are supplied by the instructor Betsy Williams. Class handouts include a list of garden and wild flowers that provide the most nourishment to pollinators. $60 for Tower Hill members, $75 for nonmembers. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Sunday, April 3, 1:00 pm – How to Create a Pollinator Victory Garden

    Many pollinator species have suffered serious declines in recent years. It’s a problem that affects all of us, but most of our landscapes offer little in the way of habitat, nectar and pollen. With simple strategies, you can attract and support not just bees, but an array of pollinators. Come to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History in Brewster on Sunday, April 3 at 1 pm to learn how to win the war on pollinator decline.

    Kim Eierman is a Certified Horticulturist and founder of EcoBeneficial!, a horticulture consulting and communications company dedicated to improving our environment by promoting ecological landscaping and the use of native plants. Join Kim in this informative, educational, enlightening program and learn how you can create your own Pollinator Victory Garden and win the war on pollinator decline. Every landscape counts!

    Lecture Admission is $10 per person APCC Members $5  Tickets available online at www.ccmnh.org The Gardening for Life Speaker Series is sponsored in part by the Friends of CCMNH and APCC (The Association to Preserve Cape Cod). For more information please call: 508-896-3867, ext. 133

  • Saturday, February 20, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Pollinator-Attracting Landscapes: Beyond the Garden Border

    Learning to create a welcoming pollinator habitat is part of stewarding the land. On Saturday, February 20 at the Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, landscape and habitat designer Tom Sullivan offers practical advice for making a landscape welcoming to a variety of beneficial insects and pollinators. Through simple acts such as creating connectivity of habitat and modifying the composition and treatment of grass and lawns, Sullivan educates us on how to increase beneficial insect populations and enhance the diversity of pollinators essential to a healthy ecosystem. $20 for BBG members, $25 for nonmembers. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

    Tom Sullivan, MALD, at PollinatorsWelcome.com, is a pollinator habitat designer, consultant, public speaker, writer, and educator. Tom’s focus is clearly on bee survival through the habitat lens of the nesting, forage, and life cycles, as well as whole system landscape awareness. In Tom’s talks and workshops, self-referred to as his yard-by-yard approach, he offers guidelines and techniques for regenerating native bee habitats in yards, parks, farmland, and other open spaces.  Image from www.amherstbulletin.com.

  • Tuesday, June 9, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm – Gardening for Pollinators

    Pollinators are all the buzz these days, but what are they and why are they so important? In this New England Wild Flower Society class on Tuesday, June 9, from 10 – 12:30, you will learn how essential pollinators are to the reproductive success of the world’s flowering plants, and take away easy tips for attracting and supporting pollinators to your own garden and yard. The class is given by Ellen Sousa at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, and the fee is $33 for NEWFS and Mass Audubon members, $40 for nonmembers, co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Register online at http://www.newfs.org/learn/our-programs/gardening-for-pollinators-1. Image from www.extension.org.

  • Wednesday, May 6, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Land Stewardship for Pollinator Conservation

    Pollinators are essential to our ecosystem — more than 85 percent of the world’s flowering plants and two-thirds of our agricultural crops depend upon them for reproduction. In many places, however, their essential service is at risk. Loss of habitat due to urbanization and use of pesticides are causing declines in both managed honey bee colonies and native pollinator populations.

    Come to the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway on Wednesday, May 6 at 7 pm and learn about the fascinating and diverse world of New England’s native pollinators — bees, butterflies, flies, beetles, and wasps — and about the latest science-based approaches to reversing pollinator declines by protecting and managing habitat for these vital insects.

    Kelly Gill, the speaker, is the Pollinator Conservation Specialist for the Xerces Society and a Partner Biologist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

    The Xerces Society has worked for over 40 years on pollinator conservation and is well known for its best-selling book Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies. The lecture is free. For more information visit http://grownativemass.org/programs/eveningswithexperts.

  • Saturday, January 4, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Beekeeping for Gardeners

    Learn how to start a honeybee colony, the seasonal management required to keep a healthy hive of bees and the role of pollinators and their relationship to flowering plants. Novice beekeepers, or those who are considering becoming beekeepers, will get an overview of the beekeeper’s job and learn to make the correct choices when starting a backyard apiary. Equipment and tools used by the beekeeper will be discussed, and step-by-step instructions for starting a new colony of bees will be covered. At the end of the workshop, participants should have a solid understanding of how to successfully begin as a new beekeeper. The final hour of the program will be a Q&A session covering questions, issues and problems, with realistic solutions for a successful beekeeping experience.

    The program, led by Dan Conlon, will take place at Berkshire Botanical Garden on Saturday, January 4, from 10 – 1, and bees can be ordered from Dan so participants can start a hive in the spring. Cost of the class is $35 for BBG members, $45 for non members, and you may register on line at www.berkshirebotanical.org, or by calling 413-298-3926 x 15.

    Dan Conlon owns Warm Colors Apiary in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. Warm Colors maintains bee yards in western Massachusetts for honey production and pollination services on area farms. Dan is a full-time beekeeper and President of the Massachusetts Beekeepers Association. He was recognized as the Eastern Apicultural Society’s 2004 Beekeeper of the Year and the Massachusetts 2005 Beekeeper of the Year.

    http://www.honey.com/images/made/images/uploads/suppliers/8043_200_197_75.jpg

  • Friday, July 20, 10:00 am – Nature’s Partners: Pollinators, Plants, and You

    One of the oldest, most interesting, and important phenomena in the natural world is pollination by insects: the transfer of genetic material among plants by bees, flies, butterflies, and beetles. Insect pollinators are critical to both natural plant communities and human food production – yet for many, knowledge of pollinators stops with the honey bee.

    Entomologist Paul Goldstein and Nature Conservancy ecologist Matt Pelikan team up to introduce the science of pollination, discuss how people interact with the Island’s insect pollinators, and present ways to enhance native pollinator diversity in order to better harmonize landscape management and agriculture, at the Polly Hill Arboretum on Friday, July 20 at 10 am. No Fee.  For more information visit www.pollyhillarboretum.org.

  • Wednesday, April 4, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Our Native Pollinators: Intriguing Insects and More

    Scientists now consider our residential landscapes to be a “final frontier” in providing essential habitat for at-risk pollinator species that are vital to environmental health and a functioning food web.

    Come to the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway in Cambridge, on Wednesday, April 4, from 7 – 8:30 to learn about the best plants for helping to feed and shelter our native pollinators, including bees, butterflies, moths, and hummingbirds. There are many easy ways to support pollinator populations in your garden, utilizing a few important principles in your landscaping practices.

    Speaker Ellen Sousa is a garden coach, habitat naturalist, and author, whose writings appear in numerous journals and blogs. The lecture is free, and is sponsored by Grow Native Massachusetts. Photo from flatbushgardener.blogspot.com.

  • Sunday, August 15, 1:30 pm – 4:00 pm – All About Pollination

    In this continuation of Wellesley College’s free series of family explorations, come to the Butterfly Garden at Wellesley on Sunday, August 15, beginning at 1:30 pm, for a session with Wellesley College Visiting Scholar Katie Griffith.  Learn, observe and record pollinators seeking nectar rewards.  Photo below by Alice Russell.  Pre-registration is required.  Call 781-283-3094, or email horticulture@wellesley.edu.

    http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/factsheets/butterflies/icons/butterfly.jpg

  • Sunday, May 16, 1:30 pm – 4:00 pm – All About Flower Shapes and Colors

    On Sunday, May 16, beginning at 1:30 pm,  enjoy a free lecture at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden led by environmentalist and naturalist Katie Griffith.  Explore how a flower’s shape and color attracts the right pollinator for the plant.  Dress appropriately for going outdoors, and children are encouraged to attend, accompanied by an adult.  Pre-registration is required by calling 781-283-3094, or by emailing horticulture@wellesley.edu.

    http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/willow/flower-info0.gif