Boston Flora

Tag: Smith College

  • Friday, November 15, 7:30 pm – Maize, Mysteries of an Ancient Grain

    Edward S. Buckler is a Research Geneticist at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, Adjunct Professor of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University. On Friday, November 15, beginning at 7:30 at the Smith College McConnell Hall Room 103 at The Botanic Garden of Smith College, 16 College Lane in Northhampton, he will be talking about genetic diversity of corn and how this diversity is the product of evolution and adaption over the last 5 million years and how it provides the potential for creating a more sustainable crop to satisfy nutritional needs facing many parts of the world. The lecture is free.

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  • Through September 2, 8:30 am – 4:00 pm – From Petals to Paper: Poetic Inspiration from Flowers

    The Smith College Botanic Garden, Lyman Plant House, Northampton, Massachusetts has mounted a display of contemporary poetry inspired by the beauty of nature, selected by student interns at the Smith College Poetry Center, Janan Scott ’13 and Liliana Farrel ’13.  Poets represented in the exhibit include Li-Young Lee, Jean Valentine, and Louise Glück.  As stated by Scott and Farrel, “The shapes, colors, smells and textures in this stunning array of blooming are reflected in poetry’s rhythms, sounds, and images.”  For directions visit www.smith.edu/garden.

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  • Monday, August 13, 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm – Wellesley College Botanic Gardens Greenhouse Tour

    There will be a special tour of the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens Margaret C. Ferguson Greenhouses on Monday, August 13, from 2:30 – 4 pm.  The tour is part of the Massachusetts Botanic Gardens Reciprocal Membership Week, with the participating organizations: the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Botanic Garden at Smith College, Garden in the Woods, Tower Hill Botanic Garden, and Wellesley College Botanic Gardens.  For directions, visit www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

  • Thursday, September 8, 7:00 pm – Massachusetts Horticultural Society 2011 Honorary Medals Dinner

    On September 8, Mass Hort will continue its almost century-long tradition of honoring superior achievements in horticulture when Elm Bank hosts the 2011 Honorary Medals Gala with Lynden B. Miller receiving the George Robert White Medal of Honor for her work as a designer of urban parks.

    Lynden B. Miller is a public garden designer in New York City and director of The Conservatory Garden in Central Park, which she rescued and restored beginning in 1982. Her work includes gardens for The Central Park Zoo, Bryant Park, The New York Botanical Garden, Madison Square Park, and Wagner Park in Battery Park City as well as many smaller projects in all five boroughs and beyond, including waterfront gardens in Red Hook, Brooklyn, improvements to Union Square Park and the 97th Street Park Avenue Mall, renovation of the “Gateway to Harlem” Broadway Mall at 135th Street, Loeb Plaza for Hunter College, and the 67th Street Armory.

    Other winners include Wesley R. Autio, professor of pomology at UMass Amherst, Richard Jaynes of Broken Hill Nursery, volunteer Joyce Bakshi, Theodore Landsmark of Boston Architectural College, Organic Gardening Magazine, author Ellen Ecker Ogden, Carrie Waterman, Russ Billings of Mount Holyoke College, and the Lyman Plant House of the Botanic Gardens at Smith College.

    Tickets are $150 per person to this event. There are also opportunities to either co-host or host a table.  To co-host or host a table, please call our reservation line at 617-933-4995. All proceeds from the dinner will be used to support maintenance and improvement of Mass Hort gardens.

  • Friday, November 19, 7:30 pm – Plants as Design Elements

    Have you ever wondered why some gardens look better than others? Is it just the plants that were chosen or is it how they fill the space? This lecture presents some of the basics of using plants in the landscape. Step by step you will see how shrubs and trees build a landscape. The talk will highlight examples of great designs and why they work. Free admission. The event will take place Friday, November 19, beginning at 7:30 pm at the Church Exhibition Gallery, Lyman Plant House, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts. For more information email garden@smith.edu, or call 413-585-2740.

  • Friday, November 5, 7:30 pm – From Art to Landscape: Unleashing Creativity

    Garden designers face some daunting questions: How do I begin the creative process? Where can I find design inspiration? How will I know if my design is successful? Join W. Gary Smith in the Carroll Room at the Smith College Botanic Garden on Friday, November 5, beginning at 7:30 pm,  to explore how to approach these questions as an artist. With an artist’s tools and ways of looking at the world, you will be able to design gardens that combine the unique character of a place with your innermost creative spirit.

    One of North America’s leading landscape designers, W. Gary Smith specializes in botanical gardens and arboretums, as well as public art installations and private gardens, often weaving together local ecological and cultural themes.

    He received the national Award of Distinction from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers for his work on Enchanted Woods at Winterthur Museum & Country Estate in Delaware and for Peirce’s Woods at Longwood Gardens and the Stopford Family Meadow Maze at Tyler Arboretum, both in Pennsylvania. Peirce’s Woods also received a Design Merit Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. His recent work includes the new Santa Fe Botanical Garden, the Gardens Master Plan and the Children’s Garden at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, the Discovery Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and the Therapeutic Garden at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in Alabama.

    Free admission. For more information, log on to www.smith.edu/garden/Home/visitorinfo.html, or call 413-585-2740.

  • Saturday, November 6 – Fall Chrysanthemum Show Opening

    Come to the Botanic Garden of Smith College on Saturday, November 6, and see the most glorious display of autumn blooming chrysanthemums.  The show will on view through November 21, and you will see many varieties you’ll want to plant in your own garden next season.  Or, just come and enjoy the fabulous color – this is a terrific fall outing for those gray November New England days.  For hours and more information, log on to www.smith.edu/gardens, or email garden@smith.edu.

  • Monday, March 8, 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm – The Inner Beauty of Flowers

    The exhibition entitled The Inner Beauty of Flowers, a collaboration between the Botanic Garden of Smith College, retired radiologist Merrill C. Raikes MD, and University of Massachusetts physics professor Robert B. Hallock, will be shown in the Church Exhibition Gallery of the Smith College Lyman Plant House beginning Saturday, March 6, and will run through September 30, 2010.  Join others for an exploration of light, vision, x-rays and flowers, extending the range of our perception, at the opening reception on Monday, March 8, from 7 – 9.  X-rays open up a new world of the interior structure of objects.  Merril Raike’s superb floral radiography reveals an unseen world of delicacy and beauty.  For more information, log on to www.smith.edu/gardens/Home/events.html.

  • Through March 31 – Susan Hiller: What Every Gardener Knows

    Smith College presents an audio installation in the Palm House in the Lyman Conservatory, presented in collaboration with the Smith College Museum of Art.  This electronically timed carillon plays music composed by internationally renowned artist Susan Hiller.  Originally commissioned for the exhibition Genius Locii in Stadtpark Lahr, Schwarzwald, Germany in 2003, the piece is based on Mendel’s theory of inherited traits in plants.  Hiller’s musical version of Mendel’s code reiterates and celebrates the variety and richness of genetics and inheritance patterns that characterize all living things.  You may listen at www.smith.edu/gardens/Home/events.html.

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  • Friday, March 5, 7:30 pm – Parks, Plants and People

    The Spring Bulb Show at Smith College (March 6 – March 21, 10 – 4 daily) kicks off on Friday, March 5 at 7:30 pm in the Campus Center Carroll Room with a lecture by Lynden Miller entitled Parks, Plants and People, followed by a reception and booksigning at the Lyman Conservatory, with the Bulb Show illuminated.  Lynden Miller is an outstanding Public Garden Designer of international renown. She is Director of the Conservatory Garden in Central Park, which she rescued and rejuvenated in 1982.  Trained as a painter, Miller brings the artist’s sensibility to her work.  She received a Master’s in Studio Art at the University of Maryland and a BA in the History of Art at Smith College, and studied Horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden.  For 25 years, Lynden Miller has focused on the improvement of parks and gardens throughout New York City.  Believing that beautiful and well maintained public open green space can change city life, she has taken a new approach to public horticulture, creating rich plantings that provide interest year-round.  After 9/11, she secured a gift of a million daffodils, to serve as a living memorial to those who died.  In the spring of 2002 they bloomed to raise the spirits of New Yorkers and beautify parks everywhere.  The Daffodil Project continues with over 3 million daffodils planted.