The Garden Club of the Back Bay

Ms. Salas is taking the helm as The Esplanade Association, a not-for-profit organization working to restore and enhance Boston’s historic Esplanade, aims to complete as many park improvements as possible before it launches a year of activities and special events to honor and celebrate the park’s centennial in 2010.

Ms. Salas has twenty years of management experience in the field of organized philanthropy. She has managed charitable trusts, corporate philanthropy and community relations in the investment and finance industries and fund development in the workforce development field. Prior to assuming her role as Executive Director at TEA, Ms. Salas served as Vice President of External Relations and Development for MY TURN, Inc., a youth education and training agency serving Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Previously, Ms. Salas was employed as the director of corporate philanthropy at Nellie Mae, Inc., a secondary student loan market corporation, and formerly was Assistant Vice President at Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Co., where she administered a portfolio of charitable trusts.

The New England Wild Flower Society announces opening day at Garden in the Woods, the largest wild flower landscaped collection in the Northeast, in Framingham, Massachusetts.  For more information, call 508-877-7630, or log on to www.newfs.org.  The Society also owns and operates Nasami Farm and Sanctuary in Whately, Massachusetts, which produces over 75,000 plants annually for homeowners, landscape professionals, restoration projects, and towns.  Nasami Farm reopens to the public on Thursday, April 16.

A lecture by Massachusetts Horticultural Society Master Gardener Betty Sanders, sponsored by the Pinefield Garden Club, will be held Wednesday, April 1 at 7 pm at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 3 Maple Street, Framingham, MA.  Admission $5. For more information call Linda Hughes at 508-320-0041.

Attend the opening reception of the show which will run through April 23 at The Landscape Institute, 30 Chauncy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.  The hours of the show are Monday through Friday, 9-5. Ms. McPeck, on the faculty at Harvard, received her MLA from Harvard Graduate School of Design and is a practicing landscape consultant, a lecturer at Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design and University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of  Beatrix Farrand’s American Landscapes. Her work has appeared in Architectural Digest. To rsvp to the reception, email landscape@arnarb.harvard.edu.

Attend a spectacular show featuring a grand display of America’s most popular houseplants. Workshops on African violet care and propagation will be combined with guided tours of the show.  African violet plants and supplies will be offered for sale.  Tower Hill Botanic Garden, 11 French Drive, Boylston, MA.  Saturday 12 noon to 5:00 pm, Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 5 p.m.  Free with admission to Tower Hill.  For more information log on to www.towerhillbg.org.

Tracy DiSabato-Aust has taught thousands of readers how to design and maintain their gardens. Her first book, The Well-Tended Perennial Garden, is widely considered the bible for perennial maintenance. Now with 50 Favorite Plants for High-Impact Gardens, Tracy presents 50 show stopping plants that are easy to grow. Each has passed Tracy’s test for toughness, beauty, and durability, chosen after years of studying how to make beautiful outdoor spaces with a minimum of maintenance. Tracy’s books will be available for purchase and signing. $15.  Newton South High School, 140 Brandeis Road, Newton, MA.

Julie Moir Messervy, author of Outside the Not So Big House and known for her design of the award winning Toronto Music Garden, will show gardens that engender spirituality and reveal how spirituality can inform garden design.  Trinity Church, 206 Clarendon Street, Copley Square. Call 617-536-0944 for more information. Co-sponsored by the Arnold Arboretum. $20 Parishioners/Arboretum Members, $25 general public.

Title: American Women Landscape Designers
Location: The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Ave.
Description: Nancy Hubert will survey a number of designers, including Rose Nichols, Julie Messervy, Marian Presley, and Carol Kostial Maguire.  Postponed from earlier date.
Start Time: 10:00
Date: 2009-04-29

Our scheduled speaker, Nancy Hubert, will be out of the country on the date of our meeting on American Women Landscape Designers.  If we are able to reschedule for later in the Spring, notices will be sent and posted here.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and hope to see all of you on April 16 at The Country Club at the Boston Committee Spring Meeting.

Judith Tankard provided members attending The Garden Club of the Back Bay’s March 23 meeting with a list of U.S. public gardens designed by either Beatrix Farrand or Ellen Shipman which are open to the public.  For those of you unable to be with us at Wellesley, here is that list:

Beatrix Farrand Garden at Bellefield, Hyde Park, NY (www.beatrixfarrandgarden.org)

Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL (www.cummer.org)

Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC (www.doaks.org)

Garland Farm, Mt. Desert, ME (www.beatrixfarrandsociety.org)

Harkness Memorial State Park, Waterford, CT (www.harkness.org)

Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT (www.hillstead.org)

Longfellow House Garden, Cambridge, MA (www.nps.gov/long)

Longue Vue House and Gardens, New Orleans, LA (www.longuevue.com)

Moonlight Garden, Edison and Ford Winter Estates, Fort Myers, FL (www.efwefla.org)

Peggy Rockefeller Rose Garden, The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY (www.nybg.org)

Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, Cornish, NH (www.nps.gov/saga)

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara, CA (www.sbbg.org)

Sarah P. Duke Gardens, Duke University, Durham, NC (www.sarahpdukegardens.com)

Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, Akron, OH (www.stanhywet.org)

Study techniques for depicting the finer details of trees and shrubs – budding boughs, newly unfurled leaves, and blossoming twigs with artist Ruth Ann Wetherby-Frattasio.  Learn to see like an artist in an encouraging atmosphere. A simple drawing method will be demonstrated followed by instruction in painting techniques, including the color mixing necessary for achieving the neutrals of bark, the mossy greens of leaves, the whites of emerging buds, and the delicate pinks, violets, reds, and yellows of flowers. Beginners will start with a technique for placing an image on paper. Continuing students will develop their skills further. During this class, botanical works of artist Esther Heins will be on display in the lecture hall, providing inspiration. List of materials required will be sent upon registration.  Four Mondays, 1-4, in the Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain.   Offered in collaboration with Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture. $130 members of the Arnold Arboretum or the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture, $155 non-members. For more information, call 781-283-3094, or log on to www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

The April meeting of the Garden Club of the Back Bay will be held at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue, beginning at 10 a.m.  Nancy Hubert will speak on American Women Landscape Designers: Pioneers in a New Profession.  Nancy will survey a number of designers, including Rose Nichols, whose home in Boston is open to the public and who was the author of two importants early books on gardens. An optional lunch at the Club will follow the meeting ($19).  Notices will be mailed to Club members.  For more information, contact the Garden Club through the Contact link at the top of the page.

The Borromeo will play one of Bach’s magnificent works for organ – the C Minor Passacaglia and Fugue – transcribed for string quartet by first violinist Nicholas Kitchen.  This will be followed by one of the most wildly expressive of all quartets, Janacek’s Kruetzer Sonata, and will conclude with Beethoven’s first Razumosky Quartet Op. 59, No. 1. Presented by the Forest Hills Educational Trust.  Forest Hills Cemetery, 95 Forest Hills Avenue, Jamaica Plain.  Free Parking. For ticket prices and information, call 617-524-3354, or log on to www.foresthillstrust.org.

You are invited to a family concert by the Solar Winds Quintet featuring Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf on Sunday, March 22, 3 pm, at the First Parish Unitarian-Universalist Church of Watertown, 35 Church Street, near Watertown Square.  $20 individual, $30 families.  For more information contact Charlyn Bethell, 617-744-1987 or email urbeth@rcn.com.  The Food Project is a past recipient of a grant from The Garden Club of the Back Bay

With great sorrow we report the passing of Stella Trafford on Friday, March 14.  Stella’s many accomplishments may be found on the website of The Boston Globe, www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/17/city_loses_tireless_guardian_of_its_most_treasured_spaces/.  A memorial service is planned and the date and time will appear on the web site of The Garden Club of the Back Bay as soon as it is announced.

Hundreds of orchid plants are for sale at the Lyman Estate Greenhouses, Waltham, Massachusetts, including many hard to find varieties.  Among the varieties on display and for sale: cattleyas, laelias, paphiopedilums, and phalaenopsis. Both species and hybrid plants are available in bud or blooming. Free admission.  Call 781-891-4882, ext. 244 for more information and directions.

Celebrate sustainable green preservation at the 22nd Annual Awards Dinner of Preservation Massachusetts at The Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston.  Each May, the Preservation Awards recognizes the efforts and accomplishments of individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to preserving the Commonwealth’s historic resources.  Since 1988 the awards have been a festive gathering for the Massachusetts preservation community and an opportunity to spotlight individuals and corporations that generously support Preservation Massachusetts and its programs. For ticket and sponsorship information email Erin Kelly at ekelly@preservationmass.org, or visit www.preservationmass.org.

Rebecca Cole’s New York floral, garden, and interior design store is creative, hip, and stylish. Her arrangements make fresh, bold statements about modern living.  Join her at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston for this floral demonstration and illustrated lecture for $35, and/or stay for her hands-on master class in flower arranging from 1:30 – 3:30 (class limited to 25, $200 charge). For tickets log on to www.mfa.org/tickets, or call 617-369-3306.

For the last twenty years, Ron Morgan has dazzled lecture and garden club audiences through his imaginative use of flowers, fruits, vegetables, and unusual items in creative arrangements. Hear him give a floral demonstration and illustrated lecture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for $35, and if you’re interested in further study, attend his Master Class in the afternoon from 1:30 – 3:30 for hands-on instruction.  The Master Class is limited to 25, and costs $200.  For tickets, log on to www.mfa.org/tickets or call 617-369-3306.

Meredith Waga Perez honed her aesthetic sensibilities in haute couture. Using her love of texture, color, and design, she opened Belle Fleur, a Manhattan floral and event design firm.  She will give a floral demonstration and illustrated lecture at the Museum of Fine Arts.  Tickets $35 each may be ordered on line at www.mfa.org/tickets, or call 617-369-3306.