Boston Flora

Tag: University of Cambridge

  • Wednesday, November 9, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm – Unforgettable Gardens: Religious Roots to Riotous Ingenuity: Bury St. Edmunds and its Abbey Gardens

    The Suffolk Gardens Trust is pleased to be offering a series of four talks to highlight some aspects of the county’s rich gardening heritage. It is offered as a companion to the newly-launched co-operative project on ‘Suffolk’s Unforgettable Garden Story’ by The Gardens Trust and the Suffolk Gardens Trust, with funding by Historic England. This seeks to encourage research into the historic parks and gardens, public parks, cemeteries and other good examples of designed landscapes of Suffolk, with the overarching aim of adding layers of protection to these green spaces and to promote their future survival.

    The link HERE is for a ticket that costs £16 for the entire course of 4 sessions or you may purchase a ticket for this individual session, costing £5 via the links HERE. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards.

    The wonderful Caroline Holmes will speak on November 9 on Religious Roots to Riotous Ingenuity: Bury St. Edmunds and its Abbey Gardens. Bury’s religious roots are manifest in and around the Abbey Gardens, a 1000-year-old setting of intriguing ruins dominated by St Edmundsbury cathedral’s soaring millennium tower. We start with the 12th century Bury Herbal and Abbot Samson’s fishponds. Town maps chart its development and legacy: impressive Regency Botanical Gardens inspired by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Brussels which were later open by subscription. Colorful seasonal plantings celebrated George VI’s coronation, a kaleidoscope style which persists in Bury’s favourite public park. Ancient and modern monastic influences can be traced in the Pilgrims Herb Garden, and, the scene of medieval monastic riots, the Guildhall gardens. Will there be gardens celebrating the coronation of King Charles III, we wonder?

    Caroline Holmes is Academic Tutor and Course Director for the University of Cambridge ICE, lecturer for The Arts Society, and is the author of 12 books. Her consultancies include devising planting for The Poison Garden, Alnwick, Humanist Renaissance inspired gardens around Notre Dame-de-Calais and currently for a new development near Thetford, creating two areas to celebrate the Queen’s Green Canopy and other public spaces. She has presented Viking TV features and her garden was filmed in September. Academic but not dry she has spoken on every continent except Antarctica.

  • Thursday, December 2, 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm – Evolution and Conservation in the Deep Sea, Online

    Rus Hoelzel, Professor of Molecular Ecology, Department of Biosciences, Durham University, U.K.; 2020­–2021 Sarah and Daniel Hrdy Visiting Fellow in Conservation Biology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, will speak online on December 2 at 6 pm. Free, but Advance Registration Required.

    The deep sea is a dark, cold habitat, once thought to be inhospitable to life and uniform across its vast expanses. Technologies such as remotely operated vehicles have shown scientists that it is, in fact, home to highly diverse organisms uniquely adapted to its harsh conditions. We still have much to learn, however, about how species and populations evolved in the deep sea. This has important conservation implications because the depletion of nearshore and shallow water species has moved fisheries increasingly into deeper waters. Rus Hoelzel will discuss some of the key environmental drivers and adaptations promoting the evolution of diversity in the deep sea, with a focus on those associated with depth itself.

    Presented in collaboration with the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology. Rus Hoelzel studied biology as an undergraduate at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, evolutionary biology for a MA at the University of Sussex, Brighton, U.K., and earned his PhD in genetics at the University of Cambridge, U.K. He has held postdoctoral positions at Silwood Park, Imperial College, U.K., and the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, U.S. He is currently professor of molecular ecology at the University of Durham, U.K. He has published extensively on evolutionary process and conservation genetics, and has been editor in chief of the Springer-Nature journal Conservation Genetics since 2000. He and his group currently focus their work on understanding the relative roles of genetic drift and natural selection on the evolution of biodiversity in natural systems, both aquatic and terrestrial.

  • James Hearsum Joins Massachusetts Horticultural Society as President and Executive Director

    Effective January 14, James Hearsum became President and Executive Director of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Mr. Hearsum has been Executive Director of St. Andrews Botanic Garden in Scotland since May 2014. In the heart of St. Andrews, the St. Andrews Botanic Garden is widely regarded as a national treasure. Hearsum succeeds Suzanne Maas, who has been the interim head of Massachusetts Horticultural Society since the fall of 2018.   

    As Executive Director of St. Andrews Botanic Garden, Hearsum has been responsible for renewal in all aspects of the organization’s guest experience, outreach, and educational programs, particularly by welcoming previously unreached communities. Notable developments include establishment of a sustainable Urban Farm, Butterfly House and Community Hub, in addition to a core focus on horticultural excellence. Prior to St. Andrews, Hearsum was Curator at the Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan.

    A member of the Charted Institute of Horticulturists, Hearsum began his career in the UK as a working gardener and nursery manager before attending Writtle College for his undergraduate degree in Horticulture and the University of Cambridge for Practical Horticulture and Plantsmanship. He also was a participant in the Longwood Graduate Program in Public Horticulture in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.