The Garden Club of the Back Bay

Meadows are not only beautiful landscapes, but also valuable habitats for plants, pollinators and birds. Information on creating and maintaining a meadow are included in the talk. Consider plant selection, siting, planting, cultivation and maintenance of native plants suitable for a meadow garden in this Berkshire Botanical Garden lecture on Saturday, February 11, from 1 – 3. View plants and combinations that will enhance properties in a natural way. In the first hour explore the native and non-native species that call meadows home and learn how meadows function. In the second hour discuss creating meadow gardens and look more closely at the cultural requirements of native meadow species.

Drew Monthie is a horticulturalist, garden designer and ecologist working in upper New York State. He is committed to teaching about the importance of using native plants to provide beauty and preserve biodiversity in yards and gardens. $22 for BBG members, $27 for non-members. Register on line at www.berkshirebotanical.org. Image below from The American Meadow Garden by John Greenlee.

Seduced by begonias? Join the crowd. And who can blame you? Not only are begonias outrageously glam, but they are a cinch as houseplants – if you know the ropes. Join Tovah Martin, curator of the begonia collection at Logee’s Greenhouses for 25 years and lifelong begonia addict, at Berkshire Botanical Garden on Saturday, February 11 from 10 – 12 for a begonia workshop. She’ll spill the goods on which begonias make the best houseplants as well as revealing which begonias to avoid. She’ll recommend begonias that make a smooth transition from indoors to outside. In fact, she’ll introduce you to the entire begonia family with scenic detours to show you her favorite real live plants. Care, maintenance, watering, pruning, repotting, and propagating will be demonstrated with plenty of hands-on interaction. Best of all: Bring home several begonia cuttings in a mini-greenhouse to grow on! Bring hand pruners and a cardboard box to transport plants home. BBG member price $37, non-members $45, and you may register on line at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

Tovah Martin is a horticulturist, writer and garden personality living in Northwest CT. She writes for many horticultural publications and her latest book is The New Terrarium, published in 2009.  Photo below of begonia ‘Chocolate Cream’ from Logee’s Greenhouses 1999.

The quantity and diversity of trees and shrubs in our area provide shelter and food to a wide assortment of birds throughout the year. Three fantastic bird photographers have combed their portfolios for images that capture both floral and avian organisms in tandem. By giving a measure of parity to the plants, these images invite the viewer to consider the vital interactions between all living things. The Arnold Arboretum hosts the show Aviflora: Plants and Birds That Love Them from January 14 – March 11, 2012, in the Hunnewell Lecture Hall at the Arboretum, with an artists reception on Saturday, February 18 from 1 – 3. For more information visit www.arboretum.harvard.edu, or call 617-384-5209.

Judith Sumner, botanist, author, and educator, celebrates women’s many roles in botany, at Garden in the Woods in Framingham on Sunday, February 26 from 10 – 4. Expert practical botanists – as gardeners, cooks, herbalists, and midwives – women have also become recognized professional botanists contributing significantly to plant science through exploration, research, and publication. Beginning with colonial America and the work of Jane Colden, explore the role of women in botanical studies and documentation. Recognize the role of women in protecting biodiversity (including the origins of the New England Wild Flower Society) and the work of Beatrix Farrand and others in ecology and landscape design.  In addition to lecture, slides, and discussion, peruse primary source materials from the Society library and participate in hands-on activities that commemorate the diverse roles of women in botany. This lecture is offered in collaboration with The Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture. Fee for members of either organization is $72 per person, and for non-members, $87. Register on line at www.newfs.org, or at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

The 2012 Boston Flower & Garden Show will kick off with an elegant fundraising Preview Party at The Seaport World Trade Center chaired by Fox 25′s Maria Stephanos and hosted by Mayor and Mrs. Thomas Menino. Proceeds from the Preview Party will help restore Boston Parks Department’s Greenhouses, where plants are propagated for the Public Garden, Boston Common, and dozens of neighborhood parks. Special guests, entertainment, delightful food and beverage and a silent auction make this an exclusive and enjoyable opportunity to view the show’s gardens and exhibits before the show opens to the general public the following day. Tickets are $100 each before February 14, $125 per person thereafter.  You may also purchase a $500 Friend ticket, and your company name or patron name will be displayed in the program.  Ticket includes admission to the private party, exclusive viewing of the Flower Show’s gardens and the chance to meet the designers, open bar, complimentary hor d’oeuvres reception, live music, and one ticket to return to the Flower Show later in the week.  You may download a ticket order form by visiting www.bostonflowershow.com/preview-party/.  Pictured below is the original Olmsted greenhouse in Franklin Park.

American history is replete with visionary, inspired and willful patrons who supported and shaped beloved and nationally significant estates, parks, plazas and other civic amenities across the country.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation announces the 2012 Landslide®: Landscape and Patronage call for nominations. Landslide, the annual thematic compendium of threatened and at-risk landscapes, in 2012 will focus on those people and/or organizations and the sites they helped create. The goal is to celebrate their accomplishments and inspire new generations of patrons and philanthropists. The landscapes that surround us everyday shape our communities and the people living in them — help bring attention to these sites and the individuals who shaped their creation by nominating an at-risk cultural landscape.  Deadline is May 31! Submit a nomination on line at www.tclf.org.  Below is a photo of A.D. Taylor and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. at Forest Hills Park, Ohio.

The 2012 Esther Steinberg Memorial Architecture Lecture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston will take place Wednesday, March 14, beginning at 7 pm in the Remis Auditorium at the MFA.  Robert Hammond, co-founder and executive director, Friends of the High Line, will share the story of how the High Line, a new public park atop an elevated freight rail structure in Manhattan, became an innovative urban reclamation project.  Hammond and his co-founder collaborated with neighbors, elected officials, artists, local business owners, and leaders in horticulture and landscape architecture, to create a park celebrated as a model for creatively designed, socially vibrant, ecologically sound public space.  A book signing follows.  This is a ticketed event ($15 MFA members, $18 others) and tickets may be reserved by calling 1-800-440-6975, going in person to the Remis Auditorium box office at the Museum, or visiting www.mfa.org.  Because this event will undoubtedly sell out, we recommend buying tickets early.

Give your sweetheart a special gift – learn basic glass blowing theory to produce brilliantly colorful glass flowers and hearts.  No experience necessary to take this Boston Center for Adult Education class on Sunday, February 12 from 2 – 6, taught by the instructors at the Diablo Glass School.  The $145 session will take place at Diablo Glass and Metal, 123 Terrace Street in Roxbury.  To sign up, visit www.bcae.org.  The antique glass flower bouquet pictured below was a gift to Elizabeth C. Ware and her daughter Mary Lee Ware from Leopold Blaschka in 1889.  Photograph by Hillel Burger, copyright President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Considering the weather we’ve been having lately, this event might not come to pass.  However, just in case, here is the information you need to attend the Franklin Park Snow Festival on Saturday, February 4, from 12 – 3: Sign in at the Franklin Park Golf Clubhouse. Come sled, snowshoe, build snowpeople (politically correct term these days, we guess,) and track animal prints in the snow! If you have cross country skis, a guided tour will begin at 1:30. Warm up with hot chocolate and board games in the clubhouse. Bring a sled if you have one, we’ll have plenty for those without. Wear warm clothes and mittens! RSVP and Questions? www.franklinparkcoalition.org / 617-442-4141.  We just couldn’t resist the picture below, although we can’t determine the original photographer.

For complete information, visit www.ecolandscaping.org.

The February meeting of The Garden Club of the Back Bay will take place Thursday, February 16, beginning at 10:00 am at The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Lee Schneller Sligh will present an illustrated lecture entitled Historic Gardens of Japan. Lee Schneller Sligh is a Master Gardener volunteer and has designed and built more than 200 gardens in Maine since 1995 as owner of Lee Schneller Fine Gardens. Her revolutionary perennial garden design system is the subject of her new book, The Ever-Blooming Flower Garden: A Blueprint for Continuous Color (Storey Publishing, March 2009), which has been a continuous bestseller in independent bookstores and on Amazon.com. She lectures frequently and offers four-hour workshops teaching her design method. In addition to continuously blooming gardens, Lee specializes in Japanese-inspired and naturalistic gardens. She lived in Japan for four years, earned degrees in Chinese language and literature and in Asian history and worked for ten years as a Japanese technical translator before starting her gardening business.
Illustrated with striking photos from her travels throughout Japan over thirty years, this talk and slide show introduces very old gardens, some brought to light only recently through the efforts of archaeologists. The oldest Japanese garden discovered so far is a little-known stream garden in rural Mie Prefecture dating from the 4th century A.D., which was just discovered and excavated in the 1990s.  Japanese gardens are widely admired for the sense of intimacy and inner stillness they convey to the viewer, an effect achieved through the sensitive and simple arrangement of elements. These qualities seem ever more precious, both to the Japanese and to foreigner visitors, and make the Japanese garden a timeless refuge from our complicated and fast-paced modern lives.  Lee specializes in creating Japanese-inspired gardens with native New England plants, and travels frequently to Japan to tour and research gardens. Examples of her work can be seen at www.LeeSchneller.com.

Garden Club members will receive written notice of this meeting in the mail.  Non-members are cordially invited to attend ($10 meeting only, $25 with lunch following the meeting) with reservations.  Email info@gardenclubbackbay.org, or telephone 617-859-8865.

Join fellow conservation professionals, volunteers and board members for a morning of free topical workshops on Saturday, February 11, from 8:30 – noon at the Canal Club Facility, Trowbridge Road (off the Bourne Bridge Rotary), Quality Inn Hotel in Bourne, Massachusetts. Come hear about: * How to deal with property violations and fund stewardship * The new Massachusetts tax credit incentive for conservation donations * Developing good governance policies for your organization * Using new media to reach out to your members and others. Funding for the Convocation is provided by The Island Foundation of Marion, MA. Co-sponsored by The Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts, Inc, Coalition for Buzzards Bay, Inc, & the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition, Inc.  For more information, visit www.thecompact.net.

Plant a lovely winter garden for your table or window to enjoy indoors while winter still holds sway outside. European container gardens combine potted plants with fresh cut flowers in a decorative container. With proper care, the plants will last for many months and the fresh flowers can be replaced when desired. This Tower Hill Botanic Garden workshop, led by Betsy Williams on Saturday, February 18 from 10 – noon, costs $65 (THBG members) or $70 (nonmembers.) All materials included.  Register at www.towerhillbg.org.

Roberto Burle Marx (1909-1994, Brazil) is recognized as one of the most influential – if not the most influential – landscape architects of the 20th century. “Tablecloth/Toalha”, an exhibition at Rooster Gallery, 190 Orchard Street on New York’s Lower East Side, will be comprised of several late works, mainly executed during his stay in Constância at José Ramoa’s, an art dealer and collector with whom Burle Marx developed an intense friendship. The exhibition will be on display January 6 – March 4, with an opening reception January 26 from 6 – 8, so if you’re planning a trip to the Big Apple this winter, don’t miss this show.

The exhibition is titled after a 141”x59” painted tablecloth specifically designed to fit Ramoa’s dining table. Just like another tablecloth on display at Sítio Burle Marx in Guaratiba, Rio de Janeiro, this work clearly demonstrates Burle Marx’s originality as a multifaceted artist whose work cannot be exclusively categorized as landscape architecture. Lauro Cavalcanti – curator of the retrospective exhibition “Roberto Burle Marx 100 anos: A permanência do Instável” – stated that Burle Marx “…painted every day in the morning and in the afternoon he did his gardens” and did not enjoy the fact that his paintings were relegated to a secondary position.

Also on display will be 12 india-ink works on paper, dated from 1973 to 1990, which reveal Burle Marx’s loose proficiency. While dispensing color – something inherently his due to his activity as a landscape architect – Burle Marx still follows the same provocative abstract morphology that characterized South-American art during the second half of the 20th century, providing the viewer some hints on issues like urbanism and landscaping. Along with these works some never before seen letters and photography of Burle Marx and Ramoa will be available.

“Tablecloth/Toalha” is an exhibition that wants to show Burle Marx’s activity not only as a landscape architect, but also as a prolific and inventive artist. In the end, one might question whether it is the architectural grammar that is present on Burle Marx’s paintings or the pictorial language that is present in his landscape projects.

On Valentine’s Day, The Cambridge Entomological Club will host Christian Rabeling, Junior Fellow at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, as the speaker for its February meeting.  Christian’s studies include the evolutionary biology of social insects, genetic evolution and speciation of social parasites, and the natural history of ants.  CEC meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month from October through May. The evening schedule typically includes an informal dinner (6:15 to 7:15 PM) followed by our formal meeting (7:30 – 9:00 PM) in MCZ 101, 26 Oxford Street, Harvard University. The latter begins with club business and is followed by a 50 minute entomology related presentation. Membership is open to amateur and professional entomologists.  For more information, email CEC President Jessica Walden-Gray at jessisoutside@gmail.com.

A public showing of local area artists with complimentary appetizers & beverages to benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank will take place Wednesday, February 1 from 4:30 – 7 pm.  The Blue Glass Cafe at 200 Clarendon Street in Boston (John Hancock Tower)  has teamed up with Smile Boston Artist Bren Bataclan, Daruma, the Factory Inc. artists Minatsu Ariga (picture below) & Kotaro Morita, Faith Hyde & Marjorie Montemayor to support the Greater Boston Food Bank with The Smile Project. The Cafe is collaborating with the Greater Boston Food Bank to hold a can drive, as well as to provide donations on a weekly Smile Project item. The event is free – call 617-275-0250 for more information.

The Rhode Island Flower Show attracts more than 30,000 attendees annually, showcasing garden displays and 250 larger-than-life garden marketplace vendors. From Thursday, February 23 through Sunday, February 26, see demonstrations and lectures, with an emphasis on organic gardening and bring the kids for some family fun. Children under five receive free admission. For almost two decades the Flower Show has been the beacon for early Spring fun in Rhode Island.  Hours are 9 – 8 daily except for the final Sunday, when the Rhode Island Convention Center will close at 6 pm.  Tickets are $16 in advance, $18 at the door, and may be purchased through the website, www.flowershow.com.  Sponsored by the Rhode Island Horticultural Society.

This Tower Hill Botanic Garden demonstration, in conjunction with Flora in Winter, will take you on a vacation for your senses – travel an herbal highway featuring culinary delights such as herb butters, syrups and cordials; scented treasures such as potpourris; feel good body products like massage oil and body powder; and visual delights such as pressed flower bookmarks and miniature dried flower arrangements. You will learn how simple it is to surround yourself with beautiful and unique items of an herbal nature. Handouts will be given to each participant with project directions. THBG member price $5, non-member price $8, presented by Karen O’Brien of The Green Woman’s Garden. The event will be given twice, once from 11 – 12:30, and again from 1:30 – 3:00. Register online at www.towerhillbg.org.

With the abundance of local and raw milk, homeowners can now expand their domestic arts into the realm of cheese making. This Berkshire Botanical Garden program on Saturday, February 4, from 1 – 3 will introduce the craft of basic fresh cheese making, both concepts and process. Participants will watch and help local homesteader/farmer Dominic Palumbo, from Moon in the Pond Farm, make a simple “Farm Cheese.” The program will conclude with a tasting and tips for how to turn your wonderful cheese into the perfect treat for family or guests including how and what to serve it with. This program will be held off site.

Dominic Palumbo owns Moon in the Pond Farm, a NOFA (Northeast Organic Farmers Association) certified organic farm in Sheffield, MA. He produces organic eggs, milk, meat, wool, yarn and honey. Register on line at www.berkshirebotanical.org ($30 BBG members, $35 non-members) and directions will be sent.

This Berkshire Botanical Garden workshop on Saturday, February 4 from 9 – 12 is for everyone with an interest in honeybees and beekeeping. Learn how to start a honeybee colony, the seasonal management required to keep a healthy hive of bees and the role of pollinators and their relationship to flowering plants. Topics provide an overview of the beekeeper’s job, and will help new beekeepers, or those who are considering becoming a beekeeper, to make the correct choices for starting a backyard apiary. Equipment and tools used by the beekeeper will be discussed, and step-by-step instructions for starting a new colony of bees will be covered. At the end of the workshop participants should have a solid understanding of how to successfully begin as a new beekeeper.

Dan Conlon owns Warm Colors Apiary in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. Warm Colors maintains bee yards in western Mass for honey production, and to provide pollination services on area farms. As a full-time beekeeper, concerned with the decline of all bees, Dan focuses on management that improves Queen development & health, colony nutrition, and reduces the environmental risks threatening bees. He is President of the Massachusetts Beekeepers Association, and was recognized as the Eastern Apicultural Society’s 2004 Beekeeper of the Year, and the Massachusetts 2005 Beekeeper of the Year. Register online ($37 BBG members, $45 non-members) at www.berkshirebotanical.org.  Photo of Dan’s Russian Queen Bee Yard below from www.commonweeder.com.