Learn how to make unique craft cocktails with a botanical twist. Join the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill on October 29 from 6 – 8 to practice new skills, try new recipes and spirits, and learn fun plant facts. The session features two unique botanical cocktails: a signature drink highlighting the session’s featured spirit and a vodka-based creation with a dedicated mocktail variation. Beyond the recipes, every class introduces a new mixology technique to help you build your craft, one skill at a time.
Recipes will be provided for you to take home. All cocktails will feature nut-free ingredients. All attendees must be 21 and provide ID. Featured spirit: Mezcal
$66 for NEBG members, $78 nonmembers. Register HERE.
The New England Lily Society’s annual show exhibits a wide variety of lilies grown in New England as well as beautiful flower arrangements featuring lilies. On Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19 there will be lots to see and hear.
Since 1960, the Society has presented an annual show to the community. Don’t miss this year’s colorful, showstopping blooms and opportunities to talk with lily enthusiasts who have a wealth of knowledge about growing and propagating these beautiful plants!
Every visitor, including members, must reserve entry tickets in advance. The Lily Society Show & Sale is free with general admission. Reserve your tickets now! For more details, visit https://nebg.org/shows/
The New England Daylily Society welcomes the public to a display of extraordinary daylilies, highlighting the wide variety of sizes, forms, colors, and patterns grown by daylily enthusiasts from the New England region. Every year, hybridizers introduce the latest and greatest of new cultivars, adding to the more than 88,000 already registered varieties. Mid-July is peak season for daylily bloom in our area and therefore the perfect time to showcase the best in Hemerocallis, the scientific name for daylily. Up until the morning of the show, society members don’t know which flowers they will be bringing since each bloom lasts for only one day and you can never be sure which flowers will be open. Come see the show and vote for your favorites! Sales tables will be open (cash or check only) and expert growers will be there to answer your questions. The event takes place on July 11 from 11 – 3:30 at the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill. For more information, and to purchase entrance tickets online, visit https://nebg.org/shows/
What goes better together than chocolate and flowers?
In this New England Botanic Garden event on June 24, a dual-maker workshop, you’ll step into the world of artisanal chocolate with Viviane of Vivilicious Chocolates, learning the craft behind chocolate tempering, making and designing two of your own floral-infused creation. Incorporate botanicals like rose, lavender, and chamomile and explore chocolate not as candy, but as an ingredient of depth and structure, where each botanical is expressed with clarity and balance.
While your chocolate sets, Sam of Sam’s Stems will guide you through the art of creating a colorful summer garden arrangement. Using fresh seasonal blooms, you’ll compose something simple and beautiful and pick up the basics of caring for cut flowers at home, including whatever might already be growing in your garden.
Leave with a chocolate treat you made yourself, a bouquet to brighten your space, and a handful of new skills to carry into the season.
No experience needed. Just a love of beautiful things. And chocolate. Definitely chocolate. $125 NEBG members, $140 nonmembers. Pair pricing: $165 NEBG members, $180 nonmembers, but pair pricing includes only ONE set of materials to share. Register at www.nebg.org
Step inside eight exceptional private gardens across Worcester on June 21 for one special afternoon. This self-guided tour celebrates creativity, craftsmanship, and landscapes rarely open to the public. Proceeds support the Worcester Garden Club’s Civic Projects Program, funding local beautification efforts and youth education initiatives.
Learn more and purchase tickets HERE. Garden tour only – $40. Tour and Secret Garden After Party – $125. All guests must check in at Coal Mine Brook Park, 616 Plantation Street in Worcester.
Elevated celebrates the beauty and wonder of orchids in combination with captivating aerial sculptures by artist Cicely Carew (@cicelycarew). Featuring a stunning display of more than 2,500 orchids, this year’s orchid exhibition transforms the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill’s subtropical conservatories into an immersive world of color, movement, and botanical brilliance. Inspired by the forms and rhythms of nature, Carew’s “flying paintings” soar overhead—a joyful expression of the connection between art and nature.
Cicely Carew (b. 1982, Los Angeles, CA) is a Boston-based artist, educator, and wellness facilitator whose work brings together color, movement, and emotion in joyful and unexpected ways. Her multimedia practice blurs the boundaries between artistic disciplines—mixing painting, collage, sculpture, printmaking, sound, and video—to create vibrant, immersive experiences that invite viewers to pause, breathe, and reconnect.
Carew works from a place of improvisation and intuition, using layers of color and texture to explore ideas of freedom, transformation, and play. Her art celebrates the unknown and reminds us that healing and discovery often come through curiosity and openness. Each piece feels alive, full of energy and possibility, offering space for viewers to find their own meaning and sense of balance.
Carew earned her MFA from Lesley University’s College of Art and Design in Cambridge, MA, and her BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, MA. Carew’s work has been featured at institutions across Massachusetts, including the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Fuller Craft Museum, the Fitchburg Art Museum, The Commons in Provincetown, and Simmons and Northeastern Universities. Her work is also part of several permanent collections, such as the Harvard Art Museums, the Boston Public Library, the Fitchburg Art Museum, the U.S. Consulate in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the U.S. Department of State’s Art in Embassies program, Google, and Fidelity Investments.
Design an elegant seasonal showstopper with poinsettias, roses, evergreens, and berries. Learn expert floral design skills and techniques. This New England Botanic Garden class on December 13 from 10:30 – 12:30 is $115 for members, $140 for nonmembers. Register at www.nebg.org
Deck the halls with dazzling winter florals. Join us for a festive floral design workshop where you’ll create beautiful holiday décor for your home. Great for gifting or brightening your own home.
All ability levels are welcome and all supplies will be provided along with a light coffee & tea service. Instructor Mary Beth Hayes is an avid gardener and floral designer who began studying floral design so she could bring the beauty of the garden into her home. She’s taken classes with the Mass Horticultural Society and Cass school of Floral Design in Watertown, Massachusetts. She has studied with noted floral designers Francoise Weeks, Holly Chapple, and Hitomi Galliam. Mary Beth loves to share the techniques she has learned with others so we can all “play with flowers” and create beautiful, natural flower arrangements and more.
Ikebana (Japanese for “arranged flowers” or “living flowers”) has been practiced in Japan for centuries and is now practiced worldwide. Members of Boston Chapter #17 of Ikebana International participate in three of the many schools of Ikebana. The Ikenobo school is the oldest of the schools, dating back to the 1400s, and considers itself the origin of Ikebana. Ikenobo emphasizes the Rikka and Shoka styles, in both traditional and modern forms. The Ohara school, founded in the 1890s, emphasizes naturalistic arrangements and created the popular Moribana style. The Sogetsu school, founded in the 1920s, emphasizes personal expression through Free Style arranging.
Members of Boston Chapter #17 of Ikebana International are pleased to display arrangements and give demonstrations representing these three schools of Ikebana at Tower Hill. Free with Admission to Tower Hill. Hours are Friday, October 24, 12 – 5, Saturday, October 25, 10 – 5, and Sunday, October 26, 10 – 4. For details on hours of special demonstrations and workshops, visit https://nebg.org/shows/
As autumn deepens and the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill slips into its golden hush, guests are invited to explore its more mysterious side in an evening where every herb tells a story, and every dish stirs something ancient. Candlelit tables adorned with vintage apothecary bottles and dried botanicals set the stage for a celebration of folklore, flavor, and enchantment. Seasonal ingredients are transformed into dishes infused with warmth and herbaceous notes that weave through each course. The menu has a touch of magic in each bite as an ode to nature’s healing and indulgent powers. Sip botanical cocktails, herbal tonics, and craft mocktails—elixirs echoing the garden’s flavors. As the night unfolds, the glow of candlelight and warmth of good company create an atmosphere of wonder, connection, and mystery. The October 26 event ($115 NEBG members, $125 nonmembers) is for 21+ age group. For full details, visit https://nebg.org/garden-dining-series/
Indulge your palate at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill with special dining experiences that honor plants, local agricultural, and the craft of cooking. Enjoy thoughtfully curated, multicourse menus provided by Peppers Artful Events. Each dining experience in the series focuses on a different cuisine, reflecting seasonal themes and enhancing experiences at the Garden. Garden dining events are 21+ events. On Friday, October 10 from 6 – 9, join for a Fall New England Harvest Dinner at the Garden. Immerse yourselves in the essence of the autumn harvest season and celebrate nature’s bounty with refined flavors and exquisite aromas amidst the beauty of fall foliage. $115 NEBG members, $125 nonmembers. Register and view full menu at https://nebg.org/garden-dining-series/
