Boston Flora

Tag: The New York Times

  • Wednesday, March 12, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Eastern – An Experiment in Lawn to Meadow Conversion: Exceeding Expectations

    Learn how Sara Weaner Cooper converted her lawn into a wildflower meadow while leaving the turf in place and avoiding herbicide, heavy physical labor, and unhappy feedback from neighbors. After two growing seasons, the results have exceeded expectations enough to be featured in The New York Times in 2024. This Grow Native Massachusetts webinar will take place March 12 at 7 pm – free and open to all. Sign up at https://grownativemass.org/Our-Programs/calendar. Sara is Executive Director of New Directions in the American Landscape.

  • Sunday, September 19, 10:15 am – 12:15 pm – Glorious Autumn Container

    Capture colors and textures of autumn with this container garden floral design class with Betsy Williams at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Septembver 19 at 10:15 am. Fill a 14″ pot with brilliant mums and asters, richly colored kales, variegated ivy, heucheras and other hardy plant material. With proper care your autumn container garden will brighten your doorway or patio until Thanksgiving. Plants in containers often make it through the winter if kept in a sheltered location and can be planted outdoors in the spring.

    All materials are included in this program. If you register as a pair you will receive ONE SET of supplies.

    Instructor Betsy Williams teaches, lectures and writes about living with herbs and flowers. A lifelong gardener, herb grower and cook, Betsy trained as a florist in Boston and England. She combines her floral, gardening and cooking skills with an extensive knowledge of history, plant lore and seasonal celebrations. An entertaining lecturer, she weaves stories and legends throughout her informative talks and demonstrations. Her gardens, floral work and retail shop have been featured in many books, national magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The American Gardener, Victoria, Better Homes and Gardens, Country Living Gardener, Colonial Homes, the Herb Companion, and Traditional Homes.

    $85 Member Adult; $100 Adult; $115 Adult Pair (Registration includes admission to the Garden) Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

  • Thursday, March 25, 11:00 am – 12:00 noon – Larry Weaner: Music Composition and Landscape Design, Online

    For landscape designer and composer Larry Weaner, garden design and music composition have much in common. While one may be visual and the other sonic, both look to explore freedom of expression within formal constraints. Both are endlessly engaging pursuits, where no matter how much you know, there is always more to discover. Working with plants—like playing jazz—is a give and take, a call and response, where every action stimulates a reaction—with sometimes unexpected consequences. Weaner believes that understanding the principles and techniques of composition can help designers create “musical” landscapes that can evoke powerfully direct emotional responses, reveal themselves gracefully over time and the seasons, and incorporate elements of improvisation.

    Larry Weaner is a leading figure in North American landscape design and restoration. His award-winning work has been profiled in The New York Times, Garden Design, and Landscape Architecture Magazine, among other publications. His Garden Revolution: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change received the 2017 Book Award from the American Horticultural Society.

    Available CEUs include: APLD and LA CES. To register, visit www.nybg.org.
    This New York Botanical Garden lecture on March 25 from 11 – 12 is funded in part by the Barbara Cushing Paley Fund. Live captioning will be provided.

  • Saturday, February 27, 10:30 am – 12:00 noon – Poupourri For a Joyful Spring

    Potpourri, French for rotten pot, is a fragrant, often beautiful, mix of scented plant material with a long and fascinating history. In this Tower Hill Botanic Garden in-person program on February 27 from 10:30 – noon, we’ll discuss the history of potpourri and the importance of fragrance through the centuries, then learn the basics of creating a modern potpourri: how to dry herbs and flowers, use essential oils, and select fixatives. Each attendee will make a quart of sweetly scented Potpourri that welcomes the coming of Spring and the joyful return of the growing season! All materials will be provided. This program will be held indoors in one of our well-ventilated classrooms. Group size (10 people) will not exceed current state restrictions. $50 for THBG members, $65 for nonmembers. Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

    Instructor Betsy Williams teaches, lectures and writes about living with herbs and flowers. A lifelong gardener, herb grower and cook, Betsy trained as a florist in Boston and England. She combines her floral, gardening and cooking skills with an extensive knowledge of history, plant lore and seasonal celebrations. An entertaining lecturer, she weaves stories and legends throughout her informative talks and demonstrations. Her gardens, floral work and retail shop have been featured in many books, national magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times, The American Gardener, Victoria, Better Homes and Gardens, Country Living Gardener, Colonial Homes, the Herb Companion, and Traditional Homes.

  • Tuesday, December 15, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Frances Palmer: Cultivating a Creative Life, Online

    Frances Palmer centers her creative life-and daily photo shoots-in an airy studio inside her Connecticut barn. The celebrated potter, gardener, cook and entrepreneur was trained as an art historian, but became obsessed with dahlias after spotting one in a gardening book. Today, growing all flowers is her passion, and they fill her extraordinary pots that have been featured in: The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Elle Decor, Martha Stewart Living, Architectural Digest and scores of others. Drawing on insights from her debut book, Life in the Studio: Inspiration and Lessons on Creativity, Palmer focuses on what matter most: determination, routine, prioritization, perseverance, and perspective. This online lecture sponsored by the New York Botanical Garden will take place December 15 from 1 – 2 pm. $15 for NYBG members, $18 for nonmembers. Register at https://www.enrole.com/nybg/jsp/session.jsp?sessionId=212LAN265CO&courseId=212LAN265CO&categoryId=10C211B0

  • Friday, July 27, 5:00 pm – Cocktails in Great Gardens: The Climbery, Germantown, New York

    Featured in The New York Times, Perennial Magazine, and Better Homes and Gardens, The Climbery is both a private garden and a not-for-profit foundation. Upon purchasing the property 30 years ago, Barbara Packer admired the one clematis in residence which became the inspiration for what is now the largest private clematis collection in the world. The seven-acre property overlooking the Roeliff Jansen Kill is a whimsical wonderland of garden sculptures, statuary and furnishings, intriguing planters and containers, nine pond gardens, and garden rooms accentuated by fanciful surprises.

    Of special note are the gazebo and hosta gardens and the round, corner, hill, allée and greenhouse gardens, all developed one at a time to shape the landscape and provide a backdrop for garden art including a life-size horse and bull created from repurposed cans, and an eye-catching sculpture defined by circles welded to form an enormous ball. A July 27 visit to this garden is sure to be a summer highlight as we are joined by friends old and new for Berkshire Botanic Garden’s “Cocktails in Great Gardens.” $40. Register online at https://www.berkshirebotanical.org/events/cocktails-great-gardens-june-29-and-july-27

    Image result for Clematis viticella

  • Tuesday, May 22, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Humane and Happy Gardening

    In this myth-busting talk on Tuesday, May 22, beginning at 7 pm in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum, learn how common growing methods divide the natural world into false dichotomies and perpetuate misperceptions about the wild species living among us. Discover practical ways to put humane gardening philosophies into action by protecting wild nurseries of animals large and small, eliminating unintended hazards to wildlife, nurturing plants that provide food and shelter, and humanely resolving conflicts with mammals and other commonly misunderstood creatures. Nancy Lawson will provide simple principles for both attracting wildlife and peacefully resolving conflicts with all the creatures who share our world. Nancy is the author of The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife and blogs at http://HumaneGardener.com. Fee $10 Arboretum member; $18 nonmember.

    A columnist for All Animals magazine, Nancy Lawson founded Humane Gardener, an outreach initiative dedicated to animal-friendly landscaping methods. Her book and garden have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, O: The Oprah Magazine, and other media outlets. Read Nancy’s recent post, Why Should I Car About These Animals.

    Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

  • Saturday, September 9, 8:00 am – 6:00 pm – Garden Study Weekend VII Symposium: The Exuberant Garden

    Be inspired by a day long symposium on Saturday, September 9 at the Hollister House Garden, 300 Nettleton Hollow Road in Washington, Connecticut,
    featuring:

    Jacqueline van der Kloet – The celebrated Dutch landscape designer will talk about Magical Mixes in the garden. She is known world wide for her innovative designs and her artful combinations of perennials and bulbs in the garden, She has worked on projects ranging from private gardens and city parks to national and international flower exhibitions. She is also the author of nine books, including Colour Your Garden. In this talk Jacqueline will show us her own garden in Weesp as well as her many international projects.

    Tom Coward – Tom will speak on leading the restoration of William Robinson’s legendary gardens at Gravetye Manor, where he has been the head gardener in Sussex, England since 2010. Previously he was assistant head gardener at Great Dixter, working under Fergus Garrett. The gardens at Gravetye Manor were first developed in the 1880’s by the legendary gardener William Robinson, who wrote some of the most influential gardening books of his generation, and used the landscape at Gravetye to put his ideas into practice. Over the past seven years Coward has led a team working to restore the historical detail of the site, renovating the garden to its former glory while attempting to move it forward into the modern age.

    Andrew Bunting – Andrew Bunting, Assistant Director and Director of Collections at Chicago Botanic Garden, is an expert on woody plants and author on Plant Lover’s Guide to Magnolias. Prior to coming to Chicago, he was curator at the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College, and is past President of the Magnolia Society International. Andrew will describe the many and diverse magnolias that can be cultivated in the Northeast.

    Jane Garmey– Jane is a noted author and passionate gardener, author of Private Gardens of the Hudson Valley, and Private Gardens of Connecticut. She will speak on A Sense of Place: Challenges, Approaches and Solutions to Creating Gardens. She has also written about gardens for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Her newest book, City Green, will be published next year. In this talk she will give us an inside look at a wide variety of private gardens and will focus on the challenges facing those who set out to make their own gardens and show how inventive and individual their solutions can be.

    The symposium is moderated by Todd Forrest, Arthur Ross Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections at New York Botanical Garden.

    Each reservation includes continental breakfast and lunch at the symposium and cocktails and preview buying at the Sale of Rare and Unusual Plants at Hollister House Garden. The Heritage Hotel has reserved a block of rooms for symposium attendees ($129 + tax) per night. To reserve please call 203-264-8200 and mention Hollister House Garden to secure this special rate.

    Patron $500 – includes invitation to the speaker dinner on Friday evening at Hollister House Garden and reserved seating at the symposium. ($200 of this ticket is tax deductible)
    Friend $185 – HHG and Garden Conservancy members
    Non-members $200
    No cancellations after August 1. To register, visit https://app.etapestry.com/onlineforms/HollisterHouseGardenInc/symposium.html

  • Saturday, March 18, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm – Wild About Perennials

    Noel Kingsbury, the author of Planting: A New Perspective shares his understanding of the naturalistic approach to planting design of landscape designers such as Piet Oudolf, Cassian Schmidt, Thomas Rainer, and Sarah Price. This Saturday, March 18 introduction to the naturalistic style explains the basic philosophy behind the practice of selecting plants for the ecology of the site and gives us lessons on how to create a landscape that looks natural and responsive to site, while also having the long season of interest that gardeners desire. Using his own extraordinary photographs, Kingsbury will illustrate the techniques used in creating these planting designs, with examples of his own work and that of the renowned Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf.

    Noel Kingsbury is an internationally known writer about plants, gardens, and the environment. Best-known for his promotion of what is broadly called an ecological or naturalistic approach to planting design, he has written some 20 books on various aspects of plants and gardens, 3 of them in collaboration with Dutch designer and plantsman Piet Oudolf. Over the years he has written for Gardens Illustrated, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Garden, Hortus, The New York Times, and many other publications. He also teaches and is a garden/planting designer and horticultural consultant.

    Advance registration is highly recommended, but walk-ins are always welcome, space permitting. BBG members $30, nonmembers $35. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org. The lecture takes place at Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, Massachusetts from 1 – 2:30 pm.

  • Sunday, September 11, 10:00 am – 11:00 am – The Gardens of Arne Maynard

    The Gardens of Arne Maynard is the first book on the work of one of the world’s most celebrated and sought-after garden designers working today. Based in Great Britain, Maynard is known for his award-winning gardens at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show and for his many private commissions across the world. Central to his work as a designer is his ability to identify and draw out the essence of a place, something that gives his gardens a particular quality of harmony and belonging. His work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Gardens Illustrated, The New York Times, Garden Design, The World of Interiors, House & Garden, Country Life, The English Garden, Vogue, and many more. Mr. Maynard will speak at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on Sunday, September 11 at 10 am, followed by book signing. Tower Hill members $15, nonmembers $25. Register online at http://www.towerhillbg.org.