Boston Flora

Tag: Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture

  • Saturday, April 3, 9 am – noon – Pruning Basics

    Learn the why’s and how’s of pruning – why to prune, if you even need to prune, when to prune, and what cuts to make.  Wellesley College Botanic Gardens Senior Horticulturist Tricia Diggins teaches you to make cutting edge decisions about nearly every pruning job from house plants to large tres.  She explores with you how these general principles relate to specific plants like flowering shrubs, evergreens, older trees, young plants and fruit trees.  Approximately half the class time will be indoors and the remaiinder will be outside in the Hunnewell Arboretum and Alexandra Botanic Gardens, looking at the pruning needs of a variety of trees and shrubs.  The Wellesley College Hunnewell Arboretum can be damp under foot in early spring.  Please dress appropriately for the weather.  Class number HOR 10 080, WCFH members $20, non members $25.  To register, or for directions, log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or email horticulture@wellesley.edu.

    Pruning Tools

  • Monday, March 22, 11:00 am – Going Green: Constructing an Environmentally Engineered Home and Landscape

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s March meeting will take place Monday, March 22, at 11:00 am in the 4th floor Seminar Room in Michael VanVolkenberg’s LuLu Wang Campus Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts.  Marie Stella will present an illustrated lecture entitled “Going Green: Constructing an Environmentally Engineered Home and Landscape”, co-sponsored with The Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture, the Arnold Arboretum and the New England Wild Flower Society.

    The Renaissance ideal of the harmony of art and technology drives the design of systems for Marie’s new teaching site and landscape laboratory “Beaver Lodge.”  The objectives address environmental awareness, low energy consumption, the promotion of sustainability and innovative uses of plant material.  An ecological approach is outlined in the use of rain gardens, buffer zones, vegetated roof, and green architecture.  She will highlight the integrated process of building an energy efficient, sustainable house and seamlessly blending it into a responsibly managed landscape.  She questions how we can reduce energy consumption, conserve resources and intelligently choose healthy green materials.  Is the art and technology of our own Shangri-La within reach?

    Marie Stella, MA, MS, is a landscape historian and designer with Graduate Certificates in Landscape Design and Landscape Design History from Radcliffe College, Harvard University. Her firm, Kirin Farm Design specializes in environmental landscapes and in initiatives to foster the preservation of open space. She lectures frequently and leads local and foreign Garden History Tours. Marie teaches in the graduate program at The Landscape Institute, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and currently is an adjunct faculty instructor in landscape design at The New York Botanical Garden, and Tower Hill Botanical Garden. Her ongoing design projects include a 3/4 acre environmental New York City Park, “El Jardin del Paraiso,” a Teaching Herb Garden at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Wellesley, MA (see below), and a master plan study for the new regional headquarters of the American Red Cross, Worcester, MA. She is a Gold Medal winner at the New England Flower Show, and has exhibited at The Urban Center, New York City, and the National Conference of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers.

    This lecture is free to Garden Club of the Back Bay members, $15 for members of the New England Wild Flower Society, the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture, and the Arnold Arboretum.  $18 general public admission.  For more information, log on to www.newfs.org.

    http://www.neuhsa.org/HerbGardenBench1_op_480x600.jpg

  • Saturday, February 6, 10 am – 2:30 pm – Winter Tree Observations: Deciduous Trees

    You may already have taken Carol Govan’s evergreen tree identification class – now move on to deciduous trees.  On Saturday, February 6, from 10 – 2:30, Carol will present a workshop at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden in this program co-sponsored by the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture and the Arnold Arboretum.  Winter is a great time to identify trees based on their overall structure and twig and bud characteristics. Close observation can also reveal clues to the adaptive strategies of various tree species. You will begin indoors at the Wellesley College Greenhouse Visitor Center, carefully looking at twigs and other tree parts, discovering family and genus similarities, and examining indicators of the growth cycles of deciduous trees. After lunch Carol will lead you through the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens to identify trees, observing both large- and small-scale details. Bring a lunch and hand lens and dress for cold weather. (Snow date: February 13)
    Fee $50 WCFH or Arnold Arboretum member, $65 nonmember.  To register, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

    http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/5500733/2/istockphoto_5500733-oak-tree-winter-silhouette.jpg

  • Saturday, January 30, 10 am – 2:30 pm – Winter Tree Observations: Evergreens

    Carol Govan has been a popular speaker with The Garden Club of the Back Bay.  Join her on Saturday, January 30 at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden for this one session class beginning at 10 am.  Winter is a great time to identify trees based on their overall structure and twig and bud characteristics. Close observation can also reveal clues to the adaptive strategies of various tree species. You will begin indoors at the Wellesley College Greenhouse Visitor Center, carefully looking at twigs and other tree parts, discovering family and genus similarities, and examining indicators of the growth cycles of evergreens. After lunch Carol will lead you through the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens to identify trees, observing both large- and small-scale details. Bring a lunch and hand lens and dress for cold weather. (Snow date: February 13) Fee $50 Arnold Arboretum or Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture member, $65 nonmember.  To register, or for more information, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

    Evergreen Needles and Snow by ...Rachel J....

  • Tuesday, November 17, 7:00 pm – Responsible Gardening for the 21st Century: The Sustainable Landscape

    The Maynard Community Gardeners host noted landscape historian and designer Marie Stella for a discussion on Responsible Gardening for the 21st Century: The Sustainable Landscape.

    Ms. Stella teaches in the Graduate program at The Landscape Institute, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, and currently is an adjunct faculty instructor in landscape design at The New York Botanical Garden, and Tower Hill Botanical Garden. She also lectures frequently and leads local and foreign Garden History Tours.  She will be speaking to The Garden Club of the Back Bay in March, in a program co-sponsored by The Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture and the New England Wildflower Society, but this lecture will be on a different topic, so attending on November 17 will not be repetitive.

    Her design firm, Kirin Farm Enterprises specializes in environmental landscapes and in initiatives to foster the preservation of open space.

    Her latest design project is a Platinum certified LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) home and sustainable landscape.

    This lecture is free and open to the public.  For more information, log on to www.maynardgardeners.org, or email info@maynardgardners.org.

    Marie Stella

  • Saturday, October 17, 9:30 – 12:30 – Essential Elements of Botanical Drawing: Getting It Right

    Are you a beginner or even an advanced artist in need of a basic approach to drawing? Jump-start your drawing skills in this five session class with Jeanne Kunze, illustrator and Instructor in Art History and Studio Art. The techniques she teaches are designed to develop accurate observation and definition of shape–both essential to artistic renderings, botanical or not. Learn to represent plants through specialized observation and sketching exercises and techniques for making proportional measurements, depicting foreshortened petals, flowers, and leaves and representing perspective and compositional balance. Jeanne will help you develop your illustration skills through class demonstrations, exercises, and individual teaching moments. Class meets at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens Visitor Center, and is co sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum and the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture.  The first class is October 17, and remaining classes will take place Saturdays October 24, October 31, November 7, and November 14, all 9:30 – 12:30.   To register, log on to www.arboretum.harvard.edu, or www.wellesleycollege.edu/WCFH.

    http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/uploads/2007/09/sassafras_drawing.jpg

  • Saturday, October 10 – Monday, October 12, 9:00 am – noon – An Introduction to Plant Ecology

    When we see a flower or tree in our garden, we are often unaware of the myriad ways in which that plant’s growth and form is affected by other organisms and its environment.  This three consecutive morning course will explore key concepts in plant ecology with environmental scientist Katie Alt Griffith.  Each session will start with a lecture in the Wellesley College Botanic Garden Visitor Center and then move outdoors into the botanic gardens for observational studies and other structured activities in the field.  Please bring a notebook or journal and pencil, as well as a hand lens (available at Staples) and a field guide, if you have them.  Dress appropriately for going outdoors, rain or shine.  The botanic gardens contain stairs and uneven surfaces.  This course is co-sponsored with Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.  WCFH members $75, non-members $90.  For more information, or to register for course number HOR 10 020, log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or email horticulture@wellesley.edu.

    Leaf-footed bug on Adam's needle by Ken-ichi.

  • Tuesday, September 1 – Thursday, September 3, 9:30 – 3:30 – Fern Morphology: Beyond the Fronds

    Spend three days at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden (September 1 – 3, 9:30 – 3:30) with Dick Rauh looking at and drawing ferns.  Learn to appreciate the variety of forms and the subtlety of color and texture that characterize them.  Study the fern life cycle, dissections, diagnostic characters and fern vocabulary.  With Dick’s guidance, compose these elements: a drawing of a frond or habit, details of pinna form, sori and scales into a scientific illustration in graphite or pen and ink.  Members of Friends of Wellesley Botanic Garden – $250, Non-Members $300.  Print a reservation form from the web site, www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or send a check made payable to Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture and mail it to Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481-8203.

  • Monday, July 20 – Friday, July 24, 9:30 – 12:30 – Luscious Leaves

    Spend a week at the Wellesley College Botanic Garden.  Start with basic leaf botany and color mixing for Sarah Roche’s favorite leaf colors.  Then rev up your dry brush watercolors skills and watch as luscious leaves come alive on your paper.  Advanced beginner watercolor skills required.  Members of the Friends of Wellesley Botanic Garden, $225, non-members $275.  For more information, and for a printable registration form, log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or send a check made out to Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture to them at 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481-8203.

  • Thursday, June 25, 7:30 a.m. – 6:45 p.m. – Coast of Maine and Seacoast of New Hampshire Day Trip

    The Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture has organized a fabulous day trip on Thursday, June 25.  Meet in the Gray Parking Lot to carpool at 7:30 a.m.  Expected return time is 6:45.  The first garden stop is Braveboat Harbor Farm in York, Maine, the home of Cynthia and Calvin Hosmer.  These gardens were hay fields which rise from the rockbound coast.  Visit the formal front garden, a vegetable garden, an orchard, a woodland garden, and collections of hostas, lilacs and magnolias.  This bit of paradise was featured in last summer’s issue of “La Vie Claire” and has been a participant in the Garden Conservancy’s Open Gardens Day for the past eight years.

    The lovely home of Vance and Anne Mitchell Morgan on Gemish Island in Kittery Point will be the setting for lunch.  The garden, largely designed and created by them, overlooks a tidal inlet and features a rock garden, perennial beds, a fountain garden and a wonderful shady woodland garden.  Colorful containers on the deck show off choice plants.  The Morgans moved to Maine when Anne retired from the Wellesley College Alumnae Association.

    Fuller Gardens in North Hampton, New Hampshire, is a turn-of-the-century estate garden established by then-Governor of Massachusetts Alvan T. Fuller to please his wife, Viola, who loved flowers and especially roses.  Today Fuller Gardens is known primarily for its extensive collection of roses, and Garden Director Jamie Colen will give a short talk about the roses and other features of the Gardens.  A stop at the nearby home of Anne Sinnott Moore for refreshments preceeds heading back to Wellesley.  Members $48, Non-Members $60, includes lunch, snacks, and gardens.  To sign up, log on to http://www.wellesley.edu/WCFH/Courses/OnTheRoadJune09.pdf,  or mail a check to Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481-8203.