The Garden Club of the Back Bay

Please join Amy Gilley in this exploration of Boston area women landscape architects during the Great Depression.  The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston.  An optional lunch with the speaker ($19) follows the talk.  For more information, click on to the calendar page.

Ellen Messer, Visiting Professor of Anthropology, Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Brandeis, will speak at Boston University, 808 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 117, sponsored by the Boston University Culinary Arts Program.  The lecture is free and open to the public, but please call 617-353-9852 to reserve a space.  For more information, link to www.bu.edu/foodandwine/seminars.

Pack your passports, bags, cameras and binoculars. Get ready to discover a side of nature you’ve never seen before, at the 16th Annual Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show. “Gardens of the World,” is the Show’s theme, which takes you on a journey through distant and exotic places. Your show “passport” transports you through 30 gardens and an expedition into the Australian Outback, over to Mexico and South America with Mayan and Incan ruins, and into Tuscany, Spain and more. Don’t miss your ticket to a horticultural melting pot that brings adventure, warmth and beauty, all with a promise of spring.Thursday through Saturday 10 – 9, Sunday 10 – 6.

Discount tickets to Mass Horticultural Society, American Horticulture Society, Tower Hill Botanic Garden and Rhode Island Horticultural Society members. Present your card at Box Office day of Show

Location: Rhode Island Convention Center
Link out: Click here

The New England Wild Flower Society, in conjunction with the Fells Hardy Plant Club and the Friends of Hort Farm, present three inspirational speakers with the focus on native plants and sustainability.  Elizabeth Farnsworth, Richard Enser, and Gordon Hayward address topics of biodiversity, botany and art as they relate to landscapes.  9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. at Vermont Technical College, Randolph Center, Vermont. $45 NEWFS members, $53 general public, includes cafeteria lunch and free parking.  To register, email tkhewitt@aol.com, or send a check made out to NEWFS Vermont to Thelma K. Hewitt, PO Box 2333, New London, NH 03257. For more information call 508-877-7630, x 3303.

Ikebana International Boston presents a floral exhibition “Celebrating 50 Years” March 13 – 15, 2009 at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston, MA.  Floral exhibits 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. daily.  Demonstrations and videos will be scheduled throughout the weekend.  $10 adults, $7 seniors, $5 youth (ages 6 – 18). For more information visit www.ikebanaboston.org.

Dollars raised through Daffodil Days fund ground-breaking cancer research, programs and services for patients and their caregivers, prevention and education efforts, and advocacy for health policies that prevent cancer and protect those fighting it.  Fresh bouquets include 10 daffodils for $10, potted bulbs have three multistem bulbs in each pot for $15. For more information, log on to www.cancer.org/daffodils.

Photography exhibition at the Harvard Museum of Natural History by Amanda Means.  The dramatic photographs are a monument to the remarkable diversity and beauty of nature’s botanical forms. Means’ fascination with botanical images over the last twenty years is, in part, scientific. The leaves she works with reflect lives lived in the wild, whether in the rain forest or in Central Park. Some show cracks. On others you can see the pathways of insects as they ate their way across the surface. Some reflect the evolutionary history of plants, from the Peacock Plant’s more primitive pattern of parallel leaf veins to the leaves of later plants with brancing veins – relecting how the plants evolved a more efficient way to transport water and nutrients through the leaf’s surface.  26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, open 9-5. Admission $9, seniors and students $7.  For more information log on to www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

Anna Pavord takes us on a marvelous journey – the search for the origins of plant identities. Beginning with treatises from the Classical period, she moves forward to the explorations and discoveries of the European Renaissance that redefined man’s relation to nature and led to a taxonomy of plants. Arab scholars were the vital link between the descriptions of plants created by Theophrastus and the work at the universities of Padua and Pisa. The culture of Islam fostered an active interest in plants and scientific and medical investigations that preserved and extended the ancient knowledge of plants until the Renaissance.  Anna Pavord is the author of two best selling books, The Tulip and The Naming of Names: The Search for Order in the World of Plants. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 The Fenway, $15 general public, $12 seniors, $5 members.  For more information log on to www.gardnermuseum.org, or call 617-278-5156

Recent investigations into Mughal gardens give us new admiration for the garden techniques and designs of this period, and new direction for garden conservation projects. Mughal gardens were often the setting for both ceremonial and family events. Understanding their gardens provides an understanding of Mughal life, architecture, and art.  James Wescoat, the lecturer, has worked on excavations at the Nagaur palace gardens in Rajasthan that have revealed extensive water systems, fountains and pleasure gardens. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 The Fenway.  $15 general public, $12 seniors, $5 members. For more information log on to www.gardnermuseum.org, or call 617-278-5156.

Explore the complexity of gardens and landscapes of the Islamic world in a lecture by Stephen F. Dale at The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 The Fenway.  Babur, the Timurid founder of the Mughal Empire, built gardens wherever he settled.  In 1494, he became ruler of the Ferghanah valley, east of Samarqand, but his constantly shifting fortunes brought him to Afghanistan and finally to Agra, India, where he died in 1530. Hear examples from Babur’s poetry and his engaging autobiography, rich with descriptions of nature and the gardens he loved.  Tickets $15 General Public, $12 Seniors, $5 members.  For more information log on to www.gardnermuseum.org, or call 617-278-5156.

The Boston Committee of the Garden Club of America will hold its Spring Meeting on Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. at The Country Club in Brookline. The featured speaker will be Peter Vanderwarker. Peter Vanderwarker’s work has been published internationally in books and in magazines. He has currently completed his fifth book project, “Beacon Hill: A Living Portrait,” copies of which will be available for purchase at the meeting, with a portion of the sales price benefiting The Boston Committee.

Peter also travels and exhibits extensively. In 2007, he led a photo expedition to Bhutan. Recent exhibitions include shows in New York and Boston. Upcoming shows include a large one-man show at the Boston Athenaeum in 2009.

The National Endowment for the Arts and the Graham Foundation have supported Peter Vanderwarker’s work, and he has received Institute Honors from the American Institute of Architects.

The Boston Committee Bowl will be presented at this meeting to Garden Club of the Back Bay past President  Margaret Pokorny, honoring her work planting and preserving the trees throughout the Back Bay.

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society, in lieu of the annual Flower Show, will host Greenway Blooms in the lobbies abutting its garden parcels on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway at One International Place, 125 High Street, and the Intercontinental Hotel.  The arrangements will be stunning in these impressive and beautiful marble spaces. Plans also include an educational lecture series highlighted by a presentation by Roger Swain, children’s gardening exhibits, window boxes, a Master Gardener Information Booth, orchid and bonsai exhibits, and a very special Blooms gala party.  For more information log on to www.masshort.org.

An all day (8:30 – 4) conference sponsored by Cape Cod Cooperative Extension and Cape Cod Master Gardeners will be held at the Barnstable Performing Arts Center, Barnstable High School, 744 Main Street in Hyannis on Saturday, April 4.  Featured speakers include Bill Cullina (What the Heck Will Grow Here? – Native Plants for Difficult Situations), Mal Condon (Hydrangeas, Hydrangeas), and Alan Armitage (Crazy Plants for Crazy People). $45 registration fee includes lunch.  Reservations should be made by March 15.  Late reservations or walk-ins are encouraged but will not include lunch.  For more information log on to www.capecodextension.org or call 508-375-6690.

Sterling Greenery will hold a free landscape design seminar from 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. with a focus on curb appeal, privacy, theme gardens, and layout.  44 Redemption Rock Trail (Rt 140), Sterling, MA.  For more information, contact Mark at 978-422-0071, or email mark@sterlinggreenery.com.  For a complete list of upcoming seminars and events, log on to www.sterlinggreenery.com.

With more than 275 varieties of seeds and spores for sale, gardeners of all interests will find a wide selection of wildflowers that will both beautify their gardens and help sustain the biodiversity of New England. The seeds of native woody plants, perennials, and fern spores were collected and prepared by the Society’s Seed Ecologist Dr. Tristram Seidler, staff, and volunteers at Garden in the Woods in Framingham, MA, and at Nasami Farm in Whately, MA. The selection includes natives for woodlands, wetlands, and meadow gardens.  To view the entire catalog and place your order, visit www.newfs.org.

The annual floral artistic collaboration between Tower Hill Botanic Garden and the Worcester Art Museum will take place Thursday through Sunday, February 5 – 8, at both venues. Enjoy stunning floral interpretations of international destinations and events remembered for their romantic connections.  Flora in Winter will be a celebration of life through art, music, and the attempt to express love through the language of flowers. Romance may be interpreted as an intense feeling for another person, place, or time, in literature or music, from anywhere around the world. Talented floral designers will reach the heights of artistic expression in this one of a kind show.  For more information and a detailed description of the many special programs and lectures, log on to www.towerhillbg.org.

We again celebrate the successful completion of our holiday wreath project with a sumptuous January winter tea, this year with our newest hotel neighbor, the luxurious Mandarin Oriental, in the lovely Bangkok Room.  After a brief business meeting updating the membership on the Club’s projects and progress to date, we will enjoy the opportunity to socialize with each other.

Executive Chef Nicolas Boutin will bring world-class credentials and culinary artistry to the Mandarin Oriental, Boston.  He has most recently been part of The Landmark, Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong team, earning high praise and glowing reviews for its inspired fare.  Boutin also credits much of his talent to having honed his culinary skills under the tutelage of numerous award-winning chefs, including the acclaimed Chef Pierre and Michel Troisgros, one of the longest-rated, three-star Michelin chefs in France. The sumptuous menu will include a variety of tea sandwiches – smoked salmon on wheat bread with caviar, chicken curry with grapes on walnut bread,  foie gras with fig preserve and cracked black pepper on brioche, Vermont cheddar quiche, plus raisin scones with Devonshire cream, lemon madeleines, raspberry-pistachio financier, honey & ginger pain d’epices, fruit tartlet, and blueberry cheese cake. Did we mention the 64% chocolate and mandarin, and the 70% chocolate and praline, and the individual pots of select loose teas? $40 per person for members, $50 per person for guests.  For more information, call Francine Crawford at 617-859-8865.

The Crystal Garden Club hosts Alan Banks for an informative look at the Emerald Necklace at 7 pm, Reading Senior Center, 49 Pleasant Street, Reading.  $5 fee.  Alan Banks, a supervisory park ranger at the National Park Service, says the beauty of the Necklace is that it functions as a series of neighborhood parks as well as a linear park system. “You can actually walk or bike the entire length of it,” he says. “You can see how each park connects the different neighborhoods.”For more information, email Joyce at eyzuvbrwn@aol.com, or call her at 781- 942-0895.

Perennially Yours will sponsor a weekend symposium at the Mirror Lake Inn in Lake Placid, New York. Paul Tukey will share his wisdom on the why and how or organic lawn care, and horticulture in general. Paul is the editor and publisher of People, Places & Plants magazine, author of the best selling book The Organic Lawn Care Manual, HGTV Co-Host & Executive Producer, 2006 American Horticultural Society Gardening Communicator of the Year, and co-founder of SafeLawns & Landscapes, America’s first 100% organic fertility lawn care company that now offers franchises in the Northeast. Paul is from Cumberland, Maine.

The symposium officially starts Friday evening, April 24 at 6:00 p.m. with a welcome reception followed by a 7:00 p.m. garden talk by award winning landscape writer Tara Dillard. The fun continues on Saturday with four more dynamic lectures, great food, door prizes and more. The symposium concludes at 3:00 p.m. Saturday. For more information, visit  www.pyours.com/Symposium2009.html, or call Kerry Mendez at 518-885-3471.

The 2009 conference features over eighteen seminars and workshops. Friday evening keynote speaker is writer, photographer, farmer, conservationist, and Co-founder & Executive Director of the Center for Whole Communities Peter Forbes speaking on Expanding the Story of Ecological, Sustainable and Organic Landscaping.  David Yarrow will speak at the Saturday luncheon on How Carbon and Nitrogen Feed the Soil. MassMutual Center, Springfield, MA. For a complete schedule of sessions and on line registration, link to www.ecolandscaping.org. Co-hosted by the New England Wild Flower Society.