Boston Flora

Tag: Wellesley College Botanic Gardens

  • Fridays, June 13, 20 & 27, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Field Sketching Techniques

    Carol Govan (see work below) encourages you to achieve your own “voice” by getting comfortable with drawing techniques, especially for field sketching.  Increase your accuracy, speed, and familiarity with the fastest way to achieve the correct color of an object.  Learn how to apply tone to create a three dimensional object no matter what light you have and get that same dimension with color.  Homework is to draw for a short time every day.  This three day class, to be held Fridays, June 13, 20 & 27 from 9:30 am – 12:30 pm at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, is offered by the Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens and the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.  Members of the sponsoring organizations will pay $90, non-members $115.  To register call 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu.

    http://www.ashlandfarmersmarket.org/sites/default/files/images/22_Abandoned%20Parking%20Lot.jpg

  • Monday, February 17, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Spice Plants

    Drop in to the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens anytime between 1 – 4 on Monday, February 17 for a free exploration of Spice Plants.  Meet some plants whose spices inspired long trading voyages, sold for incredible prices, and transformed cooking.  Learn what spice combinations characterize some of the world’s cuisines.  Take a spice taste test and see if you can identify these popular flavors.

    http://img.21food.com/20110609/product/1307464036338.jpg

  • Wednesday, December 4, 1:00 pm – The Botanic Garden and Southeast Asian Cooking

    Items for a Southeast Asian meal in the middle of a New England winter are relatively easy to source in our global world.  this is possible because of research pioneered in botanic gardens, often overlooked immigrant entrepreneurs, and consumers who equate consuming ethnic food with cultural cosmopolitanism.  Professor Alex Orquiza, a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in American Studies at Wellesley College, shows how many of the plants from the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens connect to our everyday lives, with individual histories that include both old and new cultural exchanges.  The Wednesday, December 4 talk, beginning at 1 pm at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens Visitors Center, includes a cooking demonstration.  Professor Orquiza is completing his first book, A Pacific Palate: Food, Culture, and American Imperialism in the Philippines, 1898-1935.  WCBG members free, nonmembers $10.  Sign up by calling 781-283-3094, or visit www.wellesley.edu/wcbgfriends.

    http://pastorderick.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/3751055_f520.jpg?w=560

  • Tuesday, October 15, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – A Living Laboratory Tour

    The Wellesley College Botanic Gardens have some exciting new research gardens that are engaging students in multiple ways.  On Tuesday, October 15, from 1 – 3, journey along with Kristina Jones, Director of the Botanic Gardens, and explore through the eyes of an ecologist the Creighton Educational Garden, the green roof planted with native species, the Climate Change Monitoring Garden, and the in-progress Edible Ecosystem Teaching Garden, all within a short walk from the starting point at the Greenhouse Visitor Center.  The tour is offered in collaboration with New England Wild Flower Society and Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens.  WCBG members $24, non-members $28.  Sign up at www.wellesley.edu/wcbgfriends, or call 781-283-3094.

    http://www.wellesley.edu/sites/default/files/styles/slider/public/img_5754_small.jpg?itok=LcnlpabU

  • Friday, October 11 – Monday, October 14, 9:30 am – 4:00 pm – Fall’s Finer Details with John Pastoriza-Piñol

    Australian botanical artist John Pastoriza-Piñol is coming to the Wellesley College Botanic Garden for four days, October 11 – 14, to teach a master class in Fall’s Finer Details from 9:30 – 4 each day.  An accurate realism artist based in Melbourne, John Pastoriza-Piñol shares the intricacies of achieving fine detail with watercolor masking fluid and NEEF 1/4 Comb, invaluable tools for contemporary botanical artists.  Over the four days, John will also assist you with composition, painting techniques, and color theory as you accurately render the chosen subject.  As a result, your paintings will be brought to a new level of realism and detail.  For artists with intermediate to advanced drawing and watercolor skills.  Member price $550, non-members $660.Call 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu to register.

    http://www.riley-smith.com/crispian/gfx/drawings/botanicalshow/boletsandflindersial.jpg

  • Tuesday, November 6, 4:00 pm – Tea Horse Road

    Ethnobotanist Dr. Selena Ahmed, co-author of Tea Horse Road: China’s Ancient Trade Road with Tibet, explores the culture, ecology and health attributes of Tea (Camellia sinensis,) on Tuesday, November 6 at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens.  Also learn about Selena’s discoveries of the effects of climate change and land-use practices on tea.  Enjoy beautiful images by co-author, award-winning photographer and writer Michael Freeman, one of whose photos is shown below.  Sample a variety of teas traded along the ancient tea route.  $10 for WCBG members, $15 for non-members.  Register by calling 781- 283-3094.

  • Friday, November 2, 6:00 pm – A Passion for Plants: How to Get Students Excited About Botany

    Dr. Kristina Jones, Director of the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens and Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences at Wellesley College will address the New England Botanical Club on Friday, November 2, beginning at 6 pm at the University Museum’s Haller Lecture Hall, Room 102, at 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge.  The public is invited.  Dr. Jones’  topic is A Passion for Plants: How to Get Students Excited About Botany.  For more information, visit www.rhodora.org.

  • Thursday, January 19, 1:00 pm – 3:30 pm – Sustainable Practices for Ecosystem Restoration

    Groundscapes Express has worked on many ecosystem restoration projects throughout the region. Groundscapes’ approach treats the whole site as an ecosystem or a sub-watershed for greatest success. Projects implement best practices for improved water quality, soil compaction, invasive species, and erosion control. At this Roundtable presentation on Thursday, January 19, from 1 – 3:30 pm at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens’ Visitors Center, 106 Central Street in Wellesley,, John Engwer will describe ecosystem restoration projects at sites including Wellesley College, Kent Hospital, the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Mount Auburn Cemetery, and Fresh Pond Reservation.  Though the sites differ widely, the issues of soil compaction, stormwater management, and invasive species control are common to all.  Registrations are limited – call 617-436-5838, or email ela.info@comcast.net.  $20 ELA or Wellesley Friends of Horticulture member price, $25 for nonmembers.