Boston Flora

Tag: Zoom

  • Tuesday, May 16, 5:00 pm Eastern (Live) or Wednesday, May 17 – Wednesday, May 24 (Recorded) – A Journey North to Newcastle upon Tyne and Northumbria, Online

    Northumbria is a region steeped in rich history—it boasts some of the most awe-inspiring landscapes in England.

    Tour guide Rob Smith will take us on a digital journey to some of his favorite places in this stunning region. We will uncover the magic and nature of Northumbria from the sand dune-covered coastline to the wild heathland and thick wooded valleys.

    We’ll start with the iconic Hadrian’s Wall, built by the Romans over 2,000 years ago to defend their empire against marauding invaders, and explore National Trust site Lindisfarne Abbey, an ancient holy site from the Viking era, which now features a climate defying garden by Gertrude Jekyll.

    We will pause to admire magnificent castles like Warkworth, which inspired scenes in Shakespeare’s plays, and learn about the county’s fascinating industrial past whose resulting wealth was used in the construction of grand houses like National Trust’s Seaton Delaval and Cragside House, designed by renowned engineer Lord Armstrong.

    Our tour will culminate with a visit to some of the beautifully decorated pubs of Newcastle. With Rob as our guide, we will experience Northumbria in a unique and immersive way, discovering the secrets and beauty of this fascinating region. This Royal Oak Foundation Zoom event is $30 for Royal Oak members, $40 for nonmembers. Complete registration details may be found at https://www.royal-oak.org/events/spring-2023-lectures-and-tours/northumbria/

  • Wednesday, May 10, 2:00 pm Eastern – A Celebration of Play in the Landscape: Playful Gardens

    This Gardens Trust online series of four lectures considers aspects of play and playfulness within the landscape and garden. For children, play is the life’s work. We all want to discover what’s new and explore what’s out of sight. We should never lose this sense of revelry. Families that play together come away walking tall and feeling better about themselves and each other. In the spirit, let us celebrate the importance and life-affirming joy of play. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us). A link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week. This ticket link is for the final individual session on Playful Gardens on May 10 and costs £5: www.thegardenstrust.org

    The history of the English landscape is ‘beyond contrived’, first we have an untimed wilderness next to the imposition of geometry and order, and then the conceit of exploring a wild but contrived landscape. For centuries, many of the most cherished landscape gardens have abounded in playfulness. We create playful gardens ‘just for the fun of it’. Actually, entirely for the fun of it! No garden is too small for entertaining and party giving; we explore some achievable ideas.

    Adrian Fisher MBE is the world’s leading creator of mazes of all kinds, full of challenges, discovery and fun. For 44 years he has been transforming the traditional art of getting lost into state-of-the-art adventures, each with a compelling narrative and storyline. He and his wife Marie live in the village of the Durweston in Dorset. Their garden contains his GEOMITICA art, and a hedge maze with a folly tower, mirrored chamber, spiral staircase and battlements. He is the author of a whole shelf of books about mazes while his website www.mazemaker explains much more about his work.

  • Wednesday, May 10, 7:00 pm Eastern – Oaks and Wasps: Shaping Novel Organs in the Seasonal Round, Online

    Oak gall wasps take advantage of the annual flow of resources throughout an oak tree to produce beautiful and distinctive novel plant organs to feed and protect them. With an estimated 1000 species in North America, each producing two different galls per year, this symbiosis is one of the most engrossing puzzles in nature. On May 10, Adam Kranz, in conjunction with the Athol Bird & Nature Club, would like to equip you to help put it together. Adam Kranz is one of the co-founders of www.Gallformers.org an online database for amateur and academic naturalists studying plant galls in North America. He lives in Austin, TX. 

    You are invited to his Zoom webinar. 

    When: May 10, 2023 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) 

    Topic: Oaks and Wasps: Shaping Novel Organs in the Seasonal Round 

    Register in advance for this webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eHhPGrokR4mspgwFJ7-jcQ

    After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

    Courtesy Effie Yeaw Nature Center

  • Thursday, April 27, 12:00 noon – 1:15 pm Eastern – Chasing Plants, Online

    Join Chris Thorogood, deputy director and head of science at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, for a glimpse into the exhilarating adventures of a field botanist. The Smithsonian Associates Program on April 27 at noon Eastern time is presented on Zoom, live from the UK.

    In his adventures across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, Thorogood has clambered over cliffs and up erupting volcanoes and trekked through typhoons. Along the way, he’s encountered pitcher plants, irises, and orchids of unimaginable beauty. Thorogood brings his travels to life with his vivid paintings, shares details of hair-raising excursions, and explains the vital work he and other botanists are doing to protect the world’s plants.

    The lecture is $20 for Smithsonian members, $25 for nonmembers. Thorogood’s book Chasing Plants: Journeys with a Botanist Through Rainforests, Swamps and Mountains (University of Chicago Press) is available for purchase through the registration link.

  • Tuesday, April 18, 6:45 pm – 8:45 pm Eastern – The Sun: Front and Center, Online

    The Smithsonian’s Grand Tour of the Solar System, a three part Zoom lecture series, begins with the 4.5-billion-year-old star at the center of the solar system, the Sun. As the most massive object around, the sun’s gravity is the glue that holds the solar system together, keeping everything from the biggest planets to the smallest bits of debris in orbit around it. The sun’s activity, from powerful eruptions to the steady stream of charged particles it sends out, influences the nature of space throughout the solar system and provides a protective bubble that shields the planets from damaging galactic radiation. A hot, glowing ball of mostly hydrogen and helium, the Sun emits its own radiation—mainly visible, ultraviolet, x-ray, and infrared. It is the most important source of energy for life on Earth. George Mason University astrophysicist and cosmologist Hakeem Oluseyi shines a light on what astronomers already know about the sun and what they are still trying to understand.

    Each lecture may be purchased separately for $25 (Smithsonian members) or $30 (nonmembers). The Sun will be discussed on April 18 at 6:45 pm Eastern. Future episodes are Mercury, Small but Mighty Interesting (May 9) and Venus, Shrouded in Clouds (May 30). Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/tickets/solar-system-sun

    Photo: NASA/JPL

  • Thursday, April 13 – Saturday, April 15 – National Garden Clubs Gardening School, Course 1, Series 12, on Zoom

    The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts announces the upcoming National Garden Clubs Gardening School Course 1, Series 12, on Zoom April 13 – 15. Full course with exam is $110, full course, no exam, $100, full course for non-club members $125. Deadline for registration April 1. There will be lectures by Dr. Judith Sumner, Professor of Natural Sciences, Assumption College, Kathi Gariepy, Massachusetts Master Gardener, educator, garden writer, and lecturer, and Joann Vieira, former head of horticulture at Tower Hill Botanic Gardens and current head of horticulture for Massachusetts Trustees of Reservations. For more information and to register visit https://www.gcfm.org/gardening-study-school or email lindajean.smith@comcast.net Topics will include Basic Botany, Soils, Techniques for Growing Outdoor Flowers, and Plant Propagation.

  • Wednesday, February 22, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm Eastern- Trailblazers and Trendsetters: Manitoga, Live and Online

    Morven Museum & Garden is pleased to present the 2023 Grand Homes & Gardens Speaker Series: Trailblazers and Trendsetters. Join us as we explore the people and spaces, past and present, who cultivated new opportunities and inspired breakthrough trends for future generations of landscape architects, designers, entrepreneurs, and horticulturalists. Today, these places continue the work of preserving historic and natural landscapes for public benefit and community engagement. The 2023 series will feature Manitoga, Villa Lewaro, Beauport – The Sleeper McCann House, and Bartram’s Garden.
    This year’s Grand Homes & Gardens Speaker Series Sponsor is Hiltons Princeton.

    On Wednesday, February 22, the series kicks off with an examination of designer Russel Wright’s trendsetting mid-century aesthetic through the lens of his iconic home, Manitoga. This program is sponsored by David Schure & Grant Wagner of Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty.

    Russel Wright and his wife Mary shaped modern American design through their iconic dinnerware, furniture, and home accessories ultimately impacting how many Americans organized and lived in their homes in the mid-twentieth century. Manitoga, Wright’s 1960s home in Garrison, New York, stands alone as an iconic and idiosyncratic example of eco-sensitive modernist architecture. The home’s 75-acre woodland garden, a reclaimed quarry restored to its “natural setting,” is a key illustration of the ecological aesthetic in landscape architecture.

    Speaker Vivian Linares, Director of Collections, Interpretation, and Preservation at Manitoga, will explore Russel and Mary Wright’s contributions to American design and the home’s representation of their trendsetting aesthetic.

    All programs will be offered in a hybrid format allowing participants to join in-person or virtually. Tickets are available for individual programs or as series tickets including all four weeks of programming. To register for series tickets, please visit this page. Ticket prices range from $30 (individual) to $90 (series). General public virtual series price is $70 for all four programs.

    The in-person program includes light refreshments featuring a cocktail and mocktail inspired by each week’s featured site. Online participants will receive recipes to make the featured cocktail and mocktail at home.

    Programs begin at 6:30 p.m. Doors and the virtual waiting room open at 6:00 p.m. A Zoom link will be sent to all virtual participants upon registration.

  • Thursday, January 19, 5:00 am – 6:30 am – Country Life: 50 Years of Revolutions in Garden Design, Online

    For 125 years, the weekly magazine Country Life has enjoyed worldwide renown for its coverage of English country houses and gardens. Notably, from its launch in 1897, the magazine recorded the changes and dramatic events which took place during the first half-century of its existence. Alongside, it revealed corresponding changes in garden tastes and ambitions. This Gardens Trust online talk on January 19 gives us an insight into some of the horticultural highlights of the first 50 years, via a cast of characters involved with, or championed by, the influential magazine. Between the last years of Queen Victoria’s reign and the close of the Second World War, English gardens reflected changing priorities in design and upkeep as well as the broadening interests of the readership. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (If you do not receive this link please contact us), and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 1 week. £5 Register HERE

    Kathryn Bradley-Hole is a lifelong gardener and inveterate traveller and was for 18 years the Gardens Editor of Country Life magazine. She is the author of numerous books, including the acclaimed English Gardens from the archives of Country Life (Rizzoli International Publications, 2019), Villa Gardens of the Mediterranean from the archives of Country Life (Aurum Press, 2006) and, recently published, The Naturally Beautiful Garden (Rizzoli International Publications, 2021), which explores contemporary naturalistic gardens across the world. For some 30 years a popular writer for the national and international press, she enjoys growing food and herbs for the kitchen and flowers for wildlife enhancement.

    Heale Water, Val Corbett, ©Country Life

  • Sunday, September 18, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm – English Garden Eccentrics with Todd Longstaffe-Gowen, Live and Online

    Todd Longstaffe-Gowan, the renowned landscape architect and historian, shares anecdotes from his new book English Garden Eccentrics: Three Hundred Years of Extraordinary Groves, Burrowings, Mountains and Menageries (Mellon/Yale, 2022). Longstaffe-Gowan introduces a cast of obscure and eccentric English garden-makers who created intensely personal and idiosyncratic gardens between the early seventeenth and early twentieth centuries. With tales of miniature mountains, intriguingly shaped topiaries, exotic animals, excavated caves, and assembled architectural fragments, Longstaffe-Gowan highlights the follies and foibles of that personified these gardens and their makers.

    Todd Longstaffe-Gowan is an internationally acclaimed landscape architect with a practice based in London. He is gardens adviser to Historic Royal Palaces, lecturer at New York University (London), president of the London Gardens Trust, editor of The London Gardener, and author of several other books including The London Town Garden (Yale, 2001) and The London Square (Yale, 2012). He has developed and implemented long-term landscape management plans for the National Trust (Swindon, United Kingdom), English Heritage (Swindon, United Kingdom), and a wide range of private owners in the United Kingdom and around the world. Longstaffe-Gowan has had extensive input in the conservation and redevelopment of a variety of historic landscapes in London, including the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace Gardens, and the Crown Estate.

    Free. Advance registration for the Zoom transmission is required. The program is sponsored by The Clark in Williamstown, and you may register at www.clarkart.edu


  • Thursday, September 1, 1:30 pm – The Nibbled Leaf Town Hall, Online

    This year the Garden Conservancy rolled out something entirely new for Open Days, the Nature-Friendly Gardens Nibbled Leaf category, and we want your opinions, input, and questions! Please join Page Dickey, Edwina von Gal and Open Days staff Horatio Joyce and Amy Murray for a Town Hall style Zoom. Find out what it’s all about: what we mean by nature friendly, what it takes to “qualify”, why it matters, how we have managed our own challenges, and whatever else is of interest to you. Here’s your chance to chime in. The event will begin at 1:30 Eastern time and is $5 for Garden Conservancy members, $15 for nonmembers.

    A recording of this webinar will be sent to all registrants a few days after the event. We encourage you to register, even if you cannot attend the live webinar. 

    Members of the Frank & Anne Cabot Society for planned giving have complimentary access to Garden Conservancy webinars. All Cabot Society members will automatically be sent the link to participate on the morning of the webinar. For more information about the Cabot Society, please contact us at info@gardenconservancy.org or 845.424.6500.

    More than thirty years ago, Page Dickey served on Frank Cabot’s advisory committee to help launch the Garden Conservancy and went on to cofound the Conservancy’s celebrated Open Days program. Beyond her service to our organization, Page is an unmatched voice in the realm of garden writing. The author of eight books, she has written of the material challenges and successes of creating her own gardens, Duck Hill and Church House, and of transcendent notions such as the spirit of place. She is both garden designer and philosopher, and her distinct perspective is an inspiration for so many passionate gardeners.

    Principal of her eponymous landscape design firm since 1984, Edwina von Gal creates landscapes with a focus on simplicity and sustainability for private and public clients around the world. Her work has been published in many major publications and her book “Fresh Cuts” won the Quill and Trowel award for garden writing in 1998. She has served on boards and committees for a number of horticultural organizations and is currently on the board of What Is Missing, Maya Lin’s multifaceted media artwork about the loss of biodiversity. In 2013, Edwina founded the Perfect Earth Project to promote toxin-free landscapes for the health of people, their pets, and the planet. She is the 2017 recipient of Guild Hall’s Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for the Visual Arts. In 2018 she received the NY School of Interior Design’s Green Design Award and The Isamu Noguchi Award.

    Register online now at www.gardenconservancy.org