The Garden Club of the Back Bay

You are invited to join James Hunt, Chief of Environmental and Energy Services for the City of Boston as he discusses innovative programs and policies that the City of Boston is implementing to protect the environment, reduce energy use and control greenhouse gas emissions. The program will take place at the Arlington Street Church, 351 Boylston Street, and is free and open to the public. The mission of the City of Boston’s Environmental and Energy Services Department is to preserve and enhance the resources of the city’s built and natural environment; and to promote safe, reliable, affordable and efficient energy systems. Finding solutions to environmental issues, energy issues, and climate change are of the highest priority to Mayor Menino.

Lyman Estate Greenhouses, Waltham, Mass.; $10 for up to three orchids.
Bring up to three orchid plants for evaluation by experienced horticulturists. Get advice on maintaining healthy blooming plants. Other services offered include repotting and educational hand-outs about orchids. Books, pots, and growing supplies are for sale. For more information, call 781-891-4882, ext. 244;

Dr. Sarah Slaughter will present the keynote address “Designing Sustainable and Resilient Communities”. Dr. Slaughter coordinates the MIT Sloan School of Management Sustainability Business Laboratory and the Sloan Sustainability Initiative.  She works with municipalities and public and private organizations to improve infrastructure performance and reduce organizational risk. Her talk will give us insight into engineering innovations changing the way cities conserve vital water resources and withstand disasters.  Many cities already face dwindling water supplies, severe flooding, and unstable water tables.  In the face of growing risks, Dr. Slaughter’s international perspective has never been more timely or important.  Newton Marriott Hotel, 2345 Commonwealth Avenue.  Meeting begins at 5:30, followed by cocktails at 6 and buffet dinner.  Tickets $65 CRWA members, $75 non-members, $150 premier.  Additional $10 at the door. RSVP by Nov. 12 to Leigh Heffernan, 781-788-0007, x. 231, or visit www.charlesriver.org.

Download and print the 2008 Holiday Wreath Order Form here .

Order your Garden Club Holiday Wreaths and poinsettia plants online !

*(Orders for 2008 Holiday Wreaths are no longer accepted)

The Ellis South End Neighborhood Association’s Green Committee hosts a panel from Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition to discuss “Urban Forests: The Future of Boston’s Trees” on Monday, October 20th from 6 – 8:00 pm at the Lyric Stage located at 140 Clarendon St. in the South End. Thanks to the generosity of the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, admission is free.

Panelists include representatives from the Urban Ecology Institute, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the City of Boston Park’s Department. Topics to be discussed are: the results of the Urban Ecology Institute’s Street Tree Inventory, particularly what it reveals about the South End, Back Bay, and Beacon Hill; the impending threat posed to maple trees by the introduced pest, the Asian Longhorn Beetle, which has been discovered as close as Worcester; and Grow Boston Greener Campaign, a collaboration between the City of Boston and its partner Boston’s Urban Forest Coalition to plant 100,000 trees in Boston by the year 2020.

The Ellis South End Neighborhood Association, founded over 50 years ago, is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to preserving the historic South End as well as ensuring that it remains a diverse, vibrant and safe community for residents and visitors. For more information, please visit www.ellisneighborhood.org.

An exciting flower arranging demonstration by a Master of the Ichiyo School, Anna Nakada, Past International President and teaching assistant to the Ichiyo headmaster will take place Tuesday, October 21 at the U. Mass Waltham Center, 240 Beaver Street in Waltham, beginning at 9:30 with coffee, exhibits, raffle, ginza, and a display of items from Angela Fina Pottery. The Ikebana International Meeting will begin at 10, and the demonstration will start at 10:15. $15 admission fee. For more information, contact Garden Club of the Back Bay member Kaye Vosburgh, newly elected President of Ikebana International Boston Chapter, at vosburghk@aol.com. No advance reservations are necessary.

Revisiting Paradise: Landscape Journeys from South Asia to the Mediterranean. Persian literary and graphic sources in combination with historic accounts of European travelers provide new insights into Safavid gardens and garden cities. The diversity of private, public, and royal spaces is revealed in the vibrant illustrations created by guest speaker, architect Mahvash Alemi. Alemi is a Garden and Landscape Studies Fellow for 2008-2009, Dumbarton Oaks Washington DC. Tickets $15, $12 Seniors, $5 Members of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. For more information call 617-566-1401, or log on to www.gardnermuseum.org.

Join members of the Wollaston Garden Club at Quincy House in Quincy, Massachusetts for a hands-on workshop on how to identify and prune plantings. After the workshop, enjoy free tours of the house and discover how the landscape has changed since 1770. Free admission. For more information, call 617-227-3957, ext. 256.

Follow farm routines and traditions passed down for generations, from helping put the animals to bed to listening to stories by the fire. Visitors get a sound sleep in the upper chamber of the manor house, sleeping in a bedrool (sleeping bags will do), as children did for centuries. Adults may bring air mattresses or pads. Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm, Newbury, MA. Registration required, $19 for Historic New England members, $26 for non members. For more information, call 978-462-2634.

Celebrate the arrival of fall at Cogswell’s Grant in Essex, Massachusetts. Families will enjoy horse-drawn wagon rides, choose pumpkins to decorate, compete in a pumpkin pie-eating contest, do craft activities, play games, and try cider pressing. Enjoy hot mulled apple cider and homemade pumpkin pie. The historic house is open for tours. Free to members of Historic New England, $6 for non members, $4 for children. For more information, call 978-768-3632.

Character reenactor Jessa Piaia will present a dramatic portrayal set in 1909, six years after the opening of Fenway Court. The portrayal runs approximately an hour in length, and details may be found in the calendar portion of this web site. An elegant optional “period” lunch will follow, featuring vegetable consomme with confetti of root vegetables, duck a l’orange, wild rice, candied baby carrots, and an elegant dessert for $25 per person. Co-sponsored with The College Club of Boston, 44 Commonwealth Avenue, where the event will take place. To reserve, contact The Garden Club of the Back Bay through this web site.

In the newly-renovated space in the Heritage History Museum, see a traveling exhibition from Historic New England, Lost Gardens of New England, supplemented by a special addition about the lost gardens of Cape Cod. Visitors will be transported into a secret garden featuring historic photographs and paintings of what once were some of New England’s most beautiful gardens. The exhibit also features exquisite examples of antique garden seating and statuary. Heritage Museums and Gardens, 67 Grove Street, Sandwich, MA 02563. For times and information, call 508-888-3300.

Lyman Estate Greenhouses, Waltham, MA. Hundreds of orchid plants are for sale, including many hard-to-find varieties. Visit these antique greenhouses and enjoy gorgeous floral colors, shapes, and scents. Among the many varieties on display and for sale will be Cattleyas, Laelias, Oncidiums, Paphiopedilum, and Phalaenopsis. Free admission. For information call 781-891-4882, ext. 244.

Come to the Fuller Conference Center at Old Sturbridge Village, take a guided tour of 4 gardens, and hear a lecture about researching and designing the gardens, criteria used, and selection of historically appropriate plant materials by Christie Higginbottom. Elizabeth Ingleheart, architectural and landscape historian and the National Register Coordinator for the National Park Service, will speak on how to list a garden on the National Historic Register. Karen Herman, Andover Preservation Commission Chair, will speak on Funding through the Community Preservation Act. For more information, and to register, visit www.GCFM.org, or send a check ($17.50 for registration, $12.50 box lunch fee) to GCFM, c/o Winnie Fitzpatrick, Registrar, Box 660, West Falmouth, MA 02574.

The Community Outreach Group for Landscape Design (COGdesign) is presenting a different kind of garden tour – Touring Urban Wilds and Gardens: On the Bus – from 1pm to 4:30 pm. Transformed from neglected lots and urban blight to lush gardens and tranquil places, tour sites in Brookline and Boston have been touched and renewed by COG designers and their community clients. Highlights include a gloriously colorful perennial garden, designed for a windy seaside site, overlooking sparkling Dorchester Bay, a quirky neighborhood park featuring native shrubs and trees, stonedust path for strolling, meadow and orchard, plus a destination for rock climbing, and a sunken urban terrace with arbor and ornamental trees for privacy, leafy gardens, and a ten foot tall stone wall. Afternoon tea will be served at the historic Shirley Eustis Carriage House, once owned by Isabella Stewart Gardner and meticulously rebuilt on its current Roxbury site. Ticket price is $40, which includes the tour bus and tea. Limited seating. Visit www.cogdesign.org to register, or call 781-642-6662. Proceeds benefit community greening projects.

The Fenway Garden Society invites us to attend FensFest garden harvest festival on Saturday, September 20 (rain date Sunday, September 21), from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Fenway Victory Gardens on the central green. Enjoy live music, free cookout, plant swap, white elephant sale, raffles, and garden awards. For additional information email Victoria@notelevision.com.

The Esplanade Association hosts this spectacular event to raise funds to restore and care for the park, repair docks, landings, statues, initiate landscape renewal and preservation projects, renovate athletic facilities, support community outreach, cultural, recreational and educational park programs. For tickets ($750 individual ticket price), call 617-227-0365 or email info@esplanadeassociation.org.

Presented by Bill Yeomans of Shrewsbury to the Garden Club of Back Bay

Where: Tower Hill Botanic Garden Auditorium, – Boylston, Massachusetts

When: Tuesday, September 16th at 10:00 a.m. – Mark your calendar now!

To learn more about Iristhorpe, click here .

For further information contact: Bill Yeomans at 508-842-7173 or send an email to: billyeo@townisp.com Flint Farm, circa 1890 and one of the many gardens created at Iristhorpe, circa 1914 “Iristhorpe of Shrewsbury and Its Magnificent Gardens of the Early 20th Century”

Please join the Charles River Conservancy for a dinner reception to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox following RiverSing – Bridging the Charles with Voice and Light. RiverSing is a free participatory celebration staged in cooperation with Revels from 6 – 7:30 pm at the Weeks Footbridge. Wear comfortable shoes to fully enjoy dancing in the Parklands. This year the Dinner Reception will be held on the banks of the Charles River at the Weld Boathouse, between Anderson and Weeks Bridges in Cambridge, and will feature Live and Silent Auction items. Dinner tickets are $175 and benefit The Charles River Conservancy. To purchase tickets on line, visit www.TheCharles.org before September 12. For parking information, email crc@TheCharles.org. Telephone 617-608-1410.

Please join The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts at the Espousal Center in Waltham from 10 a.m. – noon for an inspiring workshop on how to turn plant materials into handmade jewelry! There will be an opportunity to learn from each other and to share secrets.

Many of you are familiar with the exceptional talented individuals entering into the artistic jewelry at the New England Flower Show. If you have ever considered entering and needed either a little encouragement or a push, this workshop is for you!

Reservations are being accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Fee: $25.00 (includes materials)
Make check out to: GCFM
Please mail check and registration to:
Angela Alessandria
11 Ross Rd
Belmont, MA 02478
617.489.9842

Pre-Registration Required