Boston Flora

Tag: wellesley college

  • Tuesday, February 27, 6:45 pm – Frederick Law Olmsted and The Massachusetts Legacy

    On Tuesday, February 27, the Norwood Evening Garden Club will host Alan S. Banks who will discuss Frederic Law Olmsted and The Massachusetts Legacy. The meeting will be held at 6:45 p.m. at the Carriage House behind the First Baptist Church, 71 Bond Street, Norwood. The public is invited to attend for a small donation ($5). Refreshments will be served.

    Founded over a century ago, the Frederick Law Olmsted firm was involved in over 1200 landscape architecture projects throughout Massachusetts, ranging from expansive 500-acre public parks to intimate private gardens. One of its greatest achievements is the six-mile “emerald necklace” of ponds, parks and parkways that winds its way through Boston. Olmsted historian Alan Banks brings this rich landscape legacy alive as he explores the ideas that shaped some of the most treasured lands in Massachusetts.

    Alan Banks is the Supervisory Park Ranger at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline. During the last 16 years, he has developed a variety of landscape walking tours, slide lectures and presentations about the Olmsteds and their work. His programs have been presented to clubs, civic groups, schools, and libraries across Massachusetts. He was a featured speaker at Wellesley College’s Davis Museum as part of their Viewing Olmsted exhibit and was highlighted in the Boston Globe for his walking tours of the Boston Park System. Banks also has served as an Olmsted consultant on various projects including working with Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art on their Art on the Emerald Necklace exhibit and Olmsted’s Landscape Art, a traveling photographic exhibit created in cooperation with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. He also recently worked with National Geographic Magazine and was lauded for his insightful interpretation of Olmsted’s work in Boston. Legacy Magazine published his article Interpreting Cultural Landscapes: Turning the Inside Out. Working with the National Register of Historic Places he produced Boston’s Arnold Arboretum: A Place for Study and Recreation as part of their Teaching with Historic Places program. It is now available to teachers nationwide to use in their classrooms both in print and via the World Wide Web.

    A member of The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, New England Garden Clubs, and National Garden Clubs, Inc., members of the Norwood Evening Garden Club have been providing education and public beautification in Norwood and its surrounding communities since 1996. The Club, open to novice and expert gardeners, draws its members from Norwood, Walpole, Westwood, Dedham, Medfield, Randolph, and Stoughton. For information about the Norwood Evening Garden Club, contact Barbara at 781-762-1270 or visit www.NorwoodEveningGardenClub.com.

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  • Wednesday, October 18 – Friday, October 20, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm – Painting Fall Treasures

    Learn to paint the autumnal treasures that can be found in abundance at this time of year, in this three-day Wellesley College Botanic Garden workshop with two noted botanical artists, Dianne Sutherland and Shevaun Doherty. You will draw and paint a small “table top” collection of subjects, such as richly colored leaves, seed pods, and small, jewel-like fruits. You are encouraged to bring in your own subjects, but subject material will also be provided. Dianne specializes in leaves and Shevaun in fruits, but they are both familiar with all subjects. Benefit from more individual instructor time per student as both Dianne and Shevaun work cooperatively to support the class in the learning process. You will learn about lighting subjects, composing the page, and watercolor techniques such as washes and color mixing. The class takes place October 18 – 20 from 9:30 – 3:30. Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Garden $450, nonmembers $550. Register at 781-283-3094, or email wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu. Image copyright Shevaun Doherty.

  • Thursday, October 5 – Saturday, October 7 – America in Bloom National Symposium

    The 2017 America in Bloom National Symposium is coming to New England for the first time this October.  The Town of Holliston will host the event October 5 – 7, and attendees from out of state will lodge at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel & Conference Center.

    The conference kicks off with an East Coast Garden Tour on Thursday, October 5 from 10 – 4, advance registration required. If you want to experience horticultural heritage in the Boston area at its best, this tour is for you! We’ll start by visiting one of the oldest and finest garden centers in the Boston area, Weston Nurseries. Known for offering exceptional plants and garden ideas, this nursery in Hopkinton, MA also has an amazing railroad garden. After touring the garden center we’ll enjoy lunch hosted by Peter Mezitt, fourth generation nursery owner. Then we will head to The Gardens at Elm Bank in Wellesley, MA, headquarters of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Here we will enjoy special tours of 12 display gardens, including an historic Olmsted Italianate Garden as well as the Bressingham Garden designed by English nurseryman Adrian Bloom. The last stop on the tour is to Wellesley College, rated one of the most beautiful small college campuses in the country. We will have a special tour of their botanic garden which now focuses on the fundamental role of plants in nature and culture. The cost is $50 and includes lunch. Tour is limited to 50 people so register early.

    If you prefer, take a tour of the Urban Farming Institute from 1 – 4. If you believe in sourcing local, fresh food, don’t miss this tour! The Urban Farming Institute is a brand-new concept in the historically-diverse Roxbury/Dorchester/Mattapan neighborhoods of Boston. The Institute’s mission is to develop and promote urban farming as a commercial sector within the city and to create green collar jobs for residents. It is also committed to engaging its urban community in building a healthier and more locally-based food system. The Fowler-Clark-Epstein Farm, currently under reconstruction, is becoming the center for celebrating the agricultural heritage of the Boston area as well as the cultural and historic heritage of this unique community. On this tour, you will see first-hand the work the Institute is doing to enable urban farming through farm creation, farmer training, public education, and policy change, and how the Institute brings people in urban neighborhoods closer to food production. Your tour leader is Barbara Knecht, partner in “Strategies for Cities.” Barbara has brought 30 years of developing urban land for public good and a love of all things edible to her work developing urban farm sites. The cost is $35. Tour is limited to 11 people so register early.

    Prior to that evening’s silent auction and cocktail reception there will be a Mayor and Elected Leaders Reception, and later, a Celebration Dinner.

    The Symposium begins in earnest on Friday, with a Keynote Presentation by Ken Kruckemeyer, board member of LivableStreets Alliance and partner in “Strategies for Cities.” Ken specializes in the design of civil infrastructure focusing in pedestrian and bicycle corridors as well as roadway and bridge design. Historic preservation has become a fundamental tool for strengthening communities. When understood as a combination of physical and human attributes, it can provide a framework for communities to build on their assets and improve health, affordability, prosperity, and well-being. Historic preservation can make it possible to achieve a wide range of public goals, including small business incubation, affordable housing, sustainable development, neighborhood renewal, heritage tourism, and economic development. By examples primarily drawn from his Boston experience, Ken will address the importance of historic preservation and the role that walkable corridors play in an effective immersion in the historic character of a community.

    Friday brings a host of panel presentations such as Creating a Sense of Place Downtown, and a How-To Guide to Improving Your Town Through Horticulture. Afternoon and evening tours of the Freedom Trail and the Rose Kennedy Greenway, plus Mount Auburn Cemetery, are on offer.

    On Saturday the Showcase of Innovation continues, and America in Bloom President Katy Moss Warner will take a brief look at collective successes in her morning Keynote Speech. A lunch and Holliston Walking Tour round out the afternoon, and that evening, the America in Bloom Awards Banquet will take place.

    Full registration is $345, and by registering online at http://www.americainbloom.org/Symposium/Registration.aspx before September 8 you will receive a discount. You may also call 614-453-0744, or email aib@AmericainBloom.org.

  • Thursdays, July 13, 20, and 27, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Floral Greetings

    Join Ellen Duarte in the greenhouses at the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens on three successive Thursdays, July 13, 20, and 27, from 9:30 am – 12:30 pm, to draw your favorite flowers, then explore ways to have your creations reproduced as notecards and other items. Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Gardens: $115, nonmembers: $140. Register at www.wellesley.edu/wcbg/learn.

  • From the Archives: Road Tripping

    In June of 1982, Club members traveled to Hammersmith Farm in Newport.  Lunch followed at The Inn at Castle Hill. Hammersmith Farm was built by John W. Auchincloss in 1887 as his family’s 28-room summer “cottage.” After Jacqueline Bouvier, daughter of Mrs. Hugh Auchincloss, became Mrs. John F. Kennedy, the wedding reception was held at Hammersmith Farm. President Kennedy and his wife enjoyed visiting the farm when they could find the time, and no wonder. Beautiful rolling lawns and gardens, nature paths and copses of trees—not to mention the lovely old house itself—make the farm a seaside paradise.
    Mrs. Auchincloss sold Hammersmith Farm mansion in 1977, and it was opened to the public until recently, when it was reclaimed as a private residence. Many of its original furnishings from the times when it figured prominently in the news have been sold off. Those who had the opportunity to visit were fortunate indeed.

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay offers a selection of road trips as part of each year’s program calendar.  This season we traveled to Wellesley for a program at the Botanic Garden on cycads and gymnosperms, to Smith College for a peek at greenhouses and evolutionary plant murals, and to Windermere Community Gardens for a groundbreaking ceremony, in addition to two trips to The Country Club in Brookline for Boston Committee of the GCA meetings and lectures.  Our great disappointment is the lack of widespread support these trips garner.  While in theory everyone wants the opportunity to “get out of town” in practice we find difficulties in scheduling members to attend.  We encourage all members to consider participating in future field trips, and anyone wishing to organize an outing should email info@bostonflora.com.

  • Thursdays, May 4 – 25, June 1, 15, and 22, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Watercolor Landscapes

    Susan Swinand teaches adults at all levels of experience to solve the problems of painting on location.  Follow your own interests in the classroom or work on site in the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens.  This seven session class will be held Thursdays, May 4, 11, 18, 25, and June 1, 15 and 22, from 1 – 4.  Friends price $200, nonmembers $250.  Register online at http://wellesley.edu/wcbg/learn.

  • Saturday, February 25, 10:00 am – 12:00 noon – The Natural History of Bees for Beekeepers and Naturalists Alike

    A focus on bees as pollinators, as well as on honey bees, explores the basic biology of these essential creatures. Come to Berkshire Botanical Garden, 5 West Stockbridge Road in Stockbridge on Saturday, February 25 from 10 – noon to hear an absorbing presentation on the subject. $10 for BBG members, $15 for nonmembers.

    Dr. Heather Mattila of Wellesley College shares information that allows beekeeper and naturalists to better understand the bees they see on flowers, how they live, and what they need in terms of habitat and food sources. To register, visit www.berkshirebotanical.org.

  • Tuesday, January 31, 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm – Tour of Wellesley College’s Margaret C. Ferguson Greenhouses

    Gail Kahn, Assistant Director of the Wellesley College Botanic Gardens, will lead a tour through their 16 interconnected greenhouses, which house the most diverse collection of plants under glass in the greater Boston area.  Highlights of the season may include birds of paradise, orchids, and a blooming Durant camellia, a 130 year old specimen which came from the founder of the college.  The tour is sponsored by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and you may sign up ($12 for Mass Hort members, $20 for nonmembers) at www.masshort.org.

  • Wednesdays, January 25, February 1, 8, 15, and March 1, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm – Landscape Design Studio

    This Wellesley College Botanic Garden five session hands on design studio with Christie Dustman starts with learning about the design principles and elements of a garden – the building blocks. Then, discuss what kinds of goals and problems garden design can resolve. Put all of this together through the eyes of a landscape designer who shows you design projects from start to finish. Try your hand at designing a garden based on sample homeowner criteria and site realities. Then use your own landscape and your list of requirements to work on a plan for your home. The classes will take place January 25, February 1, 8, and 15, and March 1, from 6:30 – 8:30, with a snow date of March 15. Friends of Wellesley Botanic Gardens $110, nonmembers $135. Call 781-283-3094 to register.

  • Friday, January 20, 9:30 am – 12:30 pm – Planting Design

    As you survey your garden, do you have only one of each plant? Do you see other gardens that seem to always be in bloom and wish yours did, too? Does planting design seem to be an innate sense that you just don’t have? With nationally certified landscape designer Christie Dustman and the Friends of Wellesley Botanic Garden, learn to think about plants as their form and function first, then learn some strategies to best lay out your planting plan. The January 20 class (snow date January 27) from 9:30 – 12:30 will consist of a classroom exercise and lecture. $35 for Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Garden, nonmembers $45. Register by calling 781-283-3094.