Boston Flora

Tag: wreath week

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreath Store Now Open

    The Garden Club of the Back Bay is pleased to announce the full resumption of its annual Holiday Wreath Sale, after a couple of years of suspension due to COVID and a year of limited sales and outreach for the same reason. As past customers remember, each wreath is lovingly created, by hand, by talented Club members, to the custom specifications of the purchaser, and all fully decorated wreaths must be ordered in advance. The November 30 deadline allows the committee to acquire all the necessary ribbons, greens, and decorations to enhance the wreath. To see examples and to order online, visit https://bostonflora.com/store Wreaths can be delivered free of charge to addresses in Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and the South End, or can be picked up at The First Lutheran Church of Boston, 299 Berkeley Street, on December 5, 6, and 7. Sadly, the wreaths cannot be mailed due to their fragility. We will post additional wreath pictures on Boston Flora now through Wreath Week as a reminder and incentive to support this important not for profit organization fundraiser. Proceeds benefit the street trees of Boston.

  • Monday, December 5 – Thursday, December 8 – Where We Are This Week

    Looking for a Garden Club of the Back Bay member? Need to discuss wreath delivery options? You will find us at The First Lutheran Church, Boston, 299 Berkeley Street, where, for the first time since 2019, we will be decorating holiday wreaths! If you need immediate assistance, call our new phone number 617-872-2697 (617-USA-BOWS) or email info@bostonflora.com. Follow us on Instagram for up to the minute sneak peeks – @gardenclubbackbay.

  • Wreath of the Day – History

    In a “normal” year we would be beginning our Wreath of the Day features, highlighting our creations from the holiday Wreath Week project just wrapping up. For the second year in a row, that project has been put on hiatus due to COVID concerns. Celebrating our past achievements, however, is still possible. Hard to believe that the picture below was taken thirty years ago, in 1991, in Margaret Pokorny’s basement on Marlborough Street. It wasn’t even the first year of the project, either. Photos from that era are hard to come by. We had no sense of preserving an archive of what was at the time considered a hands-on craft project with a minor fundraising component. Starting out, we worked for two days, taking orders by telephone, and buyers picked up their purchases at Margaret’s. Over the next few decades we moved to a larger venue, The First Lutheran Church of Boston, organized purchasing by mail, newsletters, and ultimately online, maintained extensive databases, and set up a delivery system. Numbers of volunteers grew, and the project expanded from two days to four and one half days of active work, with preparation tasks beginning in October. The essence of the project, however, remained the same – friendship and neighborhood beautification.

  • Monday, December 4 – Thursday, December 7 – Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreath Making

    Monday, December 4 – Thursday, December 7 – Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreath Making

    Pastor Ingo R. Dutzmann and his parish will again host our Club for wreath making on the lower level of The First Lutheran Church of Boston, 299 Berkeley Street (on the corner of Berkeley and Marlborough Streets). We are very, very grateful. Please note that a core group will set up the space on Sunday, December 3  (anyone who can lend a hand is welcome – email info@bostonflora.com for set up times) and we will be ready to work first thing Monday morning – Monday participation by as many of you as possible is critical to our success. The hours are as follows:

    Monday, Dec. 4 – 8:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. (decorating)
    Tuesday, Dec. 5 – 8:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. (decorating and delivery)
    Wednesday, Dec. 6- 8:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. (decorating, delivery)
    Thursday, Dec. 7- 8:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. (decorating, delivery, clean up)

    Please come to the side door on Berkeley Street. We’ll post a sign. Coffee and baked goods will be available each morning, and catered lunches will be delivered all four days. Dried materials and fresh greens can be delivered to the Church no earlier than Monday, December 4. Please have all decorations “cleaned down” – branches cut down, dead leaves removed – so we can contain the mess we inevitably make. Delicate materials can be laid flat in sweater boxes or gently stacked in cardboard containers. We are going to need as many dried items as we can collect, and we especially want interesting fresh evergreen boughs and holly.

    Bring clippers and scissors if you have them, labeled with masking tape for ease of identification. Aprons are also a good idea. Dress comfortably! We need everyone’s help, whether you decorate, deliver, organize, make telephone calls confirming delivery, or sweep. Contact Francine Crawford at 617-859-8865 (info@bostonflora.com) or Margaret Pokorny at 617-536-2920 (MPok384@gmail.com) if you have specific questions, and contact Catherine Bordon at 617-480-8792 (catherinebordon@comcast.net) if you can take a two hour delivery shift. Otherwise, we’ll see you on Monday. If you still plan to order wreaths, send the order forms along as soon as you can, or order online at www.gardenclubbackbay.org. Please try to come for as many hours as possible, on as many days as you can spare – we need you, and you’ll have a great time. Thank you.

     

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  • Wreath of the Day 2011 – Poinsettias

    Wreath of the Day 2011 – Poinsettias

    In addition to wreaths, The Garden Club of the Back Bay sells incredibly full poinsettia plants in three colors, red, white, and pink.  The pink color has varied from year to year, since so many new varieties are introduced to the trade each season, but we’ve tried, for the past few years, to obtain a pastel, rather than a hot, pink hue.  The plants have four major stems and are wrapped in paper for ease of transport.  Once unwrapped at home, buyers are delighted by the size and fullness of the display.  Delivering the plants when the weather is very cold is always a challenge, since these tropicals are quite sensitive to cold.  We were fortunate to experience such mild weather this December, but naturally that isn’t always the case, so we’ve become adept at dashing the plants into heated cars so they will arrive happy and healthy.  Speaking of pink, the lovely wreath below was created by one of our decorators to celebrate the birth of her first grandchild Abigail, who was born on Day Two of wreath week.

  • Garden Club Salon Features Garden Club of the Back Bay Wreath Project

    If you haven’t yet subscribed to Nancy Peck’s superb Garden Club Salon blog, this is your opportunity. Nancy says: “Through my work I’ve discovered that garden clubs and organizations come in all shapes and sizes, all around the world. What they have in common is this—they are made up of individuals who’ve lots of enthusiasm, an innate curiosity, and indefatigable determination. Their appreciation for all things garden and nature is enormous and infinite.”   Today she features our annual wreath project, and we are very flattered.  To read the article, log on to   www.gardenclubsalon.wordpress.com.

  • Garden Club of the Back Bay Holiday Wreaths – Natural Materials

    We are always happy to showcase beautiful natural materials on the wreaths we make during Wreath Week, December 6 – 9 this year.  Where do we find these materials, you may ask, since we live in such an urban environment?  Well, some of us are fortunate enough to have a weekend home or a summer place, or better yet, friends and relatives with a weekend home and a summer place.  We also take trips out to public parks (with permission, naturally!), and have been know to scavenge on road sides.  We walk by friends’ suburban yards with a gleam in our eye and pruners in our pockets.  Supporters have been known to mail us leaves, pods and cones when on their travels.  We buy half dead flowers in the deep discount bin at the flower market, and beg for wilting arrangements from our hairdressers’ front desks.  Even in the middle of the summer, as we sit on a beach, we’re fingering some interesting shells and wondering if we can drill a hole in it without cracking the entire piece.  Some may say we’re obsessed.  Please consider ordering one of our beautiful creations – the order form is right HERE.