Boston Flora

Tag: Williamstown

  • Sunday, June 20 – Thursday, June 24 – 2010 Joint Field Meeting of the Northeast Section of the Botanical Society of America, the Torrey Botanical Society, and the Philadelphia Botanical Club

    The 2010 Field Meeting of the Northeast Section of the Botanical Society of America, the Torrey Botanical Society and the Philadelphia Botanical Club, to be held Sunday, June 20 – Thursday, June 24 will explore the Botany of Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Participants will stay at Buxton School in the heart of Williamstown, down the street from the famous Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute and Williams College. This is a lovely country setting with hiking trails close by.

    Accommodations are in the school dormitory rooms in the main building and two other buildings on campus. Men and women will have separate facilities either by building or by floor. Most rooms will have two, three or four occupants and bathrooms are shared. Private rooms for singles or couples will be hard to come by, but we may be able to arrange something depending on the registration number. Also, if anyone would prefer a private room with bath, the Williams Inn is just down the street and will have rooms available for $125 single and $145 double (plus tax) per night. For this, you make your own arrangements. All your meals would be at Buxton.

    Buxton has the reputation of having very good meals using local produce when available. The price of the field meeting will be $350 including four nights lodging and meals from Sunday night thru Thursday breakfast. Linens are included. Without room, price is $225.

    Field trips, by bus, will include Mt. Greylock (below), the highest mountain in Massachusetts with its own unique sub-alpine boreal forest and rare plants, and Bartholomew’s Cobble, National Natural Landmark, where “you’ll find one of North America’s greatest diversity of fern species” and many interesting plants amid the unusual geology of the cobbles. Other trips will depend on the best botanical locations at the time. There will be a variety of evening lectures. For further information, contact Chairperson Nan Williams at nnwrowe@gmail.com, (413) 339-5598, or download the invitation at www.ct-botanical-society.org.

    http://www.innatironmasters.com/images/trail.jpg

  • Saturday, November 21 – Berkshire Grown Holiday Farmers Markets

    There will be two Berkshire Grown Holiday Farmers Markets on Saturday, November 21.  The first will be held in Great Barrington at the old firehouse on Castle Street from 9:00 am – 2:00 pm.  The second will be set up at the Williams College Field House on Latham Street in Williamstown, from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm.

    Berkshire Grown envisions a community where healthy farms define the open landscape, where a wide diversity of fresh, seasonal food and flowers continue to be readily available to everyone, and where we celebrate our agricultural bounty by buying from our neighboring family farms and savoring their distinctive Berkshire harvest.

    For more information, log on to www.berkshiregrown. com.

    Berkshire Grown logo

  • Saturday, July 18, 10 – 4 – Williamstown Open Day

    The Garden Conservancy partners with the Berkshire Botanical Garden to sponsor this Open Day.  For information and to reserve tickets, log on to www.gardenconservancy.org.

    152 Ide Road, Williamstown

    This garden, surrounding an old carriage barn, is divided into rooms to resemble the English gardens loved by the owner/gardener/English professor. A walled garden leads to a formal pool, with an island waterfall and the divine lotus that blooms in mid-July. The entrance, a rustic pergola, borders a trellised, ornamental kitchen garden. A white garden, surrounding clumps of native birch, pays homage to Sissinghurst. A folly, with broken stones and a dripping column, evokes ancient ruins, while an arched window on an old marble base, framing the folly, the long hot border, or the distant landscape, looks into the past and future.

    260 Northwest Hill Road, Williamstown

    This lovely house features a harmonious landscape of interweaving meadow, lawn, stone terrace, gardens, pools, and house. Elegant, yet informal, the outdoor spaces vary in character from a dramatic woodland ravine, to an intimate bedroom shade garden, to an expansive lawn with views of Mount Greylock and Dome Mountain. Guests are immediately welcomed by an arrival garden with a terraced front entrance. They will visit a rhododendron and hosta shade garden, a rock garden with fishpond, and a lower grove with a sitting garden. Each is unique in character, yet intimately connected with the house and the surrounding multi-level terrain.

    Brooks Garden, 36 Keep Hill Road, Williamstown

    This garden surrounds one of the first “modern” houses in Williamstown, which was built in 1948 overlooking the valley and Mount Prospect beyond. The pond and fountain in the entrance circle is one of four made by the owners. On the west side of the circle is a small katsura grove. Connecting the house and garage is an herbal courtyard with a pergola and trellis that holds grapevines, wisteria, and kiwi in profusion. In the middle is a small pond with a quiet fountain surrounded by herbs and pastel spring flowers which give way to warmer colors that attract hummingbirds and butterflies later on in the summer. A larger pond and watercourse is found in the more extensive part of the garden where paths connect different rooms—a shade garden and sedum garden are among them. On the east side of the house is a small vegetable garden, a grove of lilacs, and the patio with a small fountain. All landscaping, garden design, stone walls, and care are provided by the owners.

    Mount Hope Farm, Williamstown

    Views of Mount Greylock and the Taconic Range from informal gardens makes this property enjoyable to see any time of day. Carol and Bob began creating their gardens at their hilltop home in 2000. Carol is interested in newly introduced, native, and sometimes rare plants, Zone 4, that give color, shape, and texture throughout the year and stand up to strong winds and low temperatures. There are mixed grasses at the entrance, native plants and a dry creek with mosses and ferns leading to the front door, and a sculptural installation and a sunken patio/ room where there are tender perennials. Succulents and low-growing plants surround a seating area. Most of the plants have been selected and tended by the owners.

    Wagner Garden, 33 Haley Street, Williamstown

    One of the original Haley houses in Haley Village, Williamstown, this in-town house and garden on a quarter-acre lot has evolved over a period of seventeen years. The garden complements the simple lines of the 1940s house and is a creative example of what can be done in a small landscape. The garden has been designed and entirely maintained by the owner. Mixed borders consisting of perennials, shrubs, and ornamental trees create garden rooms that each have their own character. The lawn is used as a path to lead visitors from one area to another. Annuals and containers are used for continuous color, especially on the stone patio. A variety of vines have been used for privacy fences and to add visual height to the garden. Rather than an abundance of flowers, the main focus of the garden is on foliage textures and plants of personal interest.