Boston Flora

Tag: wellesley college

  • 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

  • Monday, October 26, 9:30 am – noon – Volunteer Training at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens

    The Wellesley College Botanic Gardens depends on its many Friends of Horticulture volunteers to assist the WCBG  in gardening tasks, host campus events, lead tours, work on special research projects, and share their enthusiasm with other plant lovers.  Volunteer meetings are the third Monday of the month, and the first volunteer training session of 2009/2010 will be held at the Greenhouses on October 26, with additional training dates of November 2, 9, 16, and February 1 and 8, 2010.  Training for the Arboretum begins March 20, 2010.  Additional information can be found at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or by emailing horticulture@wellesley.edu, or calling 781-283-3094.  Sometimes you just want to hang out in the Greenhouses!

    http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1197/529668793_ae69fe7466.jpg?v=0

  • Wednesdays, October 21 & 28, 7 – 9 pm – Greening Up Your House: A Guide to Growing Indoor Plants

    Not sure your thumb is green enough?  Wellesley College Botanic Garden Senior Greenhouse Horticulturist Tony Antonucci helps dispel any black thumb self-images.  Tony oversaw the Ferguson Greenhouses “greening” and shares how your houseplants can be grown more safely without the use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers.  In the first session, he will show you the basics and special Greenhouse tips for houseplant care: light, water, pruning, and feeding.  Trouble shooting and pest control will also be covered.  Session two will be a hands-on workshop using the same plants the Greenhouse staff grows for the New Student Plant Give Away.  You will get your hands dirty and discover proper techniques for repotting, dividing, and pruning pot bound plants with their masses of tangled roots.  Take home your newly potted plants and watch them grow.

    As a special topic, Tony will cover Indoor Kitchen Gardens.  Apply green methods of growing indoor plants to indoor herbs, lettuce, and other food plants.  Tony explains the particular needs of an indoor kitchen garden and discusses the various methods you can use to successfully create one of your own.  Course Number HOR 10 040.  WCFH members $36, non-members $45.  To register, or for more information, log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH, or email horticulture@wellesley.edu.

    beautiful houseplant by katiescrapbooklady.

  • 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

  • Monday, October 19, 2:00 pm – The Gardens of Paris

    Experience the gardens of Paris as close up as you can hope for without being there.  Wellesley College Botanic Garden docent and former Paris garden tour guide Maureen Bovet provides us with her unique view of Paris’ most beautiful parks and gardens.  Maureen will show us well known historic parks – Luxembourg, Parc Monceau (pictured below, photo courtesy of Marcel Germain), Jardin des Plantes, Medieval Garden of Cluny Museum, and Parc des Buttes-Chaumont – as well as several exciting new Paris gardens – Parc de Bercy, Promenade Plantee and Andre Citroen, with their innovative urban park designs.  She will discuss French garden design and plant cultivation, along with the fascinating history of these parks.  The program will begin with tea at 2:00 pm, and the lecture follows at 2:30.  WCFH members $10, non-members $13.  To register, or for more information, log on to www.wellesley.edu/SCFH, or email horticulture@wellesley.edu.

    Parc Monceau by marcelgermain.

  • 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.