The Garden Club of the Back Bay

In her new book, Chasing Venus, Andrea Wulf tells the extraordinary story of the first global scientific collaboration, set amid warring armies, hurricanes, scientific endeavors, and personal tragedy. On June 6, 1761 and June 3, 1769, the planet Venus passed between Earth and Sun – each time visible as a small black dot against the burning face of the Sun for six hours. Transits of Venus always arrive in pairs – eight years apart – but then it takes more than a century before they are seen again. In the 1760s the world’s scientific community was electrified because the transit would allow them for the first time to calculate the distance between the planets in our solar system. This would require triangulated data to be compiled from various exact points around the globe – all taken simultaneously during the short period of the actual Transit. Join us for an intriguing glimpse at the spirit of the Enlightenment and the collaborative race to measure the heavens. Chasing Venus will be published in May 2012 in conjunction of the Transit of Venus on June 5/6, 2012.  Andrea Wulf will speak on Wednesday, May 30, from 7 – 8:30 at the Weld Hill Research Building at the Arnold Arboretum.  Register at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.  Fee $10 sponsor organization member, $20 nonmember.  Offered by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Historical Society.

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics is holding a special Observatory Night for viewing the Venus transit. Learn more. In 2004 we were treated to a sunrise view of Venus crossing the disk of the sun. On June 5th, we will enjoy a sunset Venus transit. If you miss this one, you won’t get another chance to see it until 2117 – and that’s a very long time to wait. The Center for Astrophysics will hold a special rooftop viewing of the Venus transit beginning at 6:00 pm. The transit will be visible from 6:03 until the sun sets at 8:19. Viewing is weather-dependent so call 617-495-7461 to check for cancellation.

This Thursday, May 31 Massachusetts Horticultural Society presentation will be a talk and walk through the Bressingham Garden at Elm Bank, which Paul Miskovsky of Paul Miskovsky Landscaping, Inc. helped to build and continues to oversee. Paul’s discussion will focus on using the plants of Bressingham in the home landscape. Learn some key points in artful garden creation by choosing plants that complement and contrast each other in structure, texture, color and season.  Paul Miskovsky is the owner and driving creativity behind Miskovsky Landscaping. Paul is also a Trustee of Mass Hort, and the overseer of the Bressingham Garden at Elm Bank. Register on line at www.masshort.org.

An herb garden is more than just a few plants to augment your kitchen needs. Come to Elm Bank on Thursday, May 24, beginning at 7 pm, to learn everything about the wonderful world of herbs – organic growing conditions (sunlight, soil, fertilizer, and water), harvesting techniques and preserving your herbal bounty (vinegars, oils, honeys, cleaning products and so much more).

Rita Wolmering, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society presenter, is the founder, manager, and grower of the Herb FARMacy in Salisbury, Massachusetts.  Register online at www.masshort.org.

The Thornton W. Burgess Society will hold its 31st Annual Herb Festival Friday, May 18 through Sunday, May 20, from 10 – 4, at the Green Briar Nature Center, 6 Discovery Hill Road in East Sandwich.  Enjoy an extensive plant sale, an herb luncheon, garden lectures, children’s programs, wildflower garden walks, and browse the gift shop.  Reservations are required for the luncheon.  Call 508-888-6870, or visit www.thorntonburgess.org.

Several local green space organizations have joined together to present the following educational program about tick awareness and tick bite prevention.  More Ticks in More Places: How the ever-changing ecology of tick-borne diseases in the Northeastern US affects you! will be presented by Thomas N. Mather, Ph.D, Director, The University of Rhode Island Tick Encounter Resource Center, on Thursday, May 17, 6:30–8:00pm in the Hunnewell Building, Arnold Arboretum, 125 Arborway, Boston.

In New England, 2011 was an exceptionally “ticky” year, and there are predictions for a possible 20% increase in the tick population in 2012. Dr. Thomas Mather will discuss current trends in tick encounter risk as well as his efforts to help individuals and communities prevent tick bites and Lyme disease. Learn about tick life cycles, environmental factors contributing to Lyme disease, and what you can do to protect yourself so that you can continue to enjoy the green spaces in and around Boston. Reserve now. Space is limited.

Free, but registration requested.

Register online at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or by phone at 617-384-5277.

Sponsored by Boston Natural Areas Network; Mass Audubon’s Boston Nature Center; Brookline Parks & Open Space; Emerald Necklace Conservancy; Franklin Park Coalition; Friends of the Blue Hills; New England Mountain Bike Association; Olmsted National Historic Site, NPS; and Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

In 1812, four remarkable men met at Cambridge University: Charles Babbage, John Herschel, Richard Jones and William Whewell. Recognizing that they shared a love of science (as well as good food and drink), they began to meet on Sunday mornings to talk about the state of science in Britain and the world at large. Inspired by the great seventeenth-century scientific reformer and political figure Francis Bacon, the Philosophical Breakfast Club plotted to bring about a scientific revolution—one which privileged an evidence-based, inductive method of discovery, and one which asserted the need for science to serve the public good. In her book, The Philosophical Breakfast Club, Laura Snyder follows the intertwined lives and works of these men over the next 60 years, and shows that by the end of their lives they had succeeded, even beyond their wildest dreams, in bringing about a scientific revolution. She will speak about one aspect of the revolution they wrought: the shift from the amateur natural philosopher to the professional scientist.  Dr. Snyder, Associate Professor of Philosophy at St. John’s University, will speak at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on Wednesday, May 9, from 7 – 8:30 pm.  Register online at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu.  Fee: Free for Arboretum members; $15 nonmembers.

Elizabeth Farnsworth, Senior Research Ecologist with the New England Wildflower Society, will speak at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on Tuesday, May 15, beginning at 6 pm, in a free presentation, although registration is requested at www.my.arboretum.harvard.edu. New England Wild Flower Society’s Go Botany web tool is a fun way to learn about plants in the city and beyond. Elizabeth Farnsworth will guide you through this innovative technology to learn how to identify ore than 1200 of the most common native and naturalized plant species in New England. Bring your laptop computer or tablet and start identifying our fabulous flora! Part of National Urban Biodiversity Week.

The Emerald Necklace Conservancy will shed new light on the connections between 19th Century Women Activists and Reformers and the Back Bay Fens on Sunday, May 13.  The free guided tour will begin at 1 pm at the Shattuck Visitor Center.  For more information, visit www.emeraldnecklace.org.

From meadows and forests to desert or barren glacial till, how do cultures in different environments satisfy their need for gardens? Is the focus on planned order or wild nature, on plants or man made structures? Are there favorite plants or flowers? How do the residents interact with their gardens? Wellesley College Professor Emerita Mary Coyne’s extensive travels to many lands always include garden visits. With her as our guide, we’ll armchair-wander to the Arctic, Europe, Asia, South and North America, and Africa to take a peek at gardens old and new. After many years teaching in Wellesley College’s Department of Biological Sciences, Mary Coyne embarked on a retirement career as a landscape designer. She received her Certificate from the Landscape Institute in 2010. The Harriet B. Creighton Educational Garden (below) across the driveway from the Visitor Center is designed and maintained by her. The May 21 lecture will be preceded by tea at 2 pm. Co-sponsored by the Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture and by the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, the cost to attend is $10 for members of either sponsoring organization, or $15 for non-members. Register at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

Kathi Gariepy of the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association will speak at Elm Bank in Wellesley on Thursday, May 10, beginning at 7 pm, as part of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s ongoing Thursday night series.  Her topic?  The Dirt on Dirt.  Enough said.  Register for this free event on line at www.masshort.org.  Image from River of Love Urban Farmstead.

The yearly Perennial Plant Symposium is the only annual symposium devoted entirely to perennials. It is also the oldest with the first symposium presented in 1983. The location changes each year. Enjoy learning about and observing perennials, gardens, and production facilities all across the USA and Canada. This summer the annual meeting of the Perennial Plant Association takes place in Boston, Massachusetts. The conference includes optional tours before and after the symposium, trips to public and private gardens, a trade show, and retail, grower, or designer’s talks and tours. Selected highlights include:

July 4th: Optional walking horticultural tour of Boston, historical tour by bus of Boston, Lexington and Concord,  and fireworks cruise

July 5th: Public Day Seminar Speakers

Julie Merservy:  Home Outside – Creating the Landscape You Love

Debra Knape: Good Enough To Eat – Designing Edible Landscapes

David Culp:  Best of Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

Adrian Bloom:   Bloom’s Best Perennials and Grasses

Roger Swain: Ace of Shovels: Finding the Perfect Garden Tool

Laura Deeter: Bringing Your Perennials Up Right

July 6th: Eleven fascinating presentations featuring growers, landscape designers, and retailers, plus Keynote by Julie Merservy:  Hearing the Stream With Open Eyes – The Evolution of a Designer

July 7th: Morning Bench to Border Tours of Cavicchio Greenhouses, Stonegate Gardens, Russell’s Garden Center, Garden in the Woods, Weston Nursery, and Tower Hill Botanic Garden.

Afternoon Divine by Design Garden Tours of four private gardens, Elm Bank (Massachusetts Horticultural Society), Weston Nursery, and Tower Hill Botanic Garden.

July 8th – Trade Show and Sixteen Lectures on topics ranging from Biological Controls to New and Upcoming Coreopsis Cultivars to Container Gardening.

July 9 – Optional Tour to garden centers and Newport gardens

July 10 – Option Tour:  Journey to the Edge!  The Maine Event.  Visit five wholesale and retail growers in New Hampshire and Maine, and experience a lobster bake at the Coastal Maine Botanic Garden.

Lectures, reception and the trade show will take place at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, 50 Park Plaza at Arlington Street. The room rate is: $129 for Single or $129 for Double.  Non Perennial Plant Association members are invited to register for the entire conference at non-member rates, or just for the public day on July 5th.  Registration information will be available at www.perennialplant.org.  This is a fabulous opportunity for our Boston area gardening community to participate in one of the nation’s premier horticultural events.

Quick: what’s the difference between ‘Sungold’ and ‘Black Cherry’ cherry tomatoes? ‘San Marzano’ and ‘Martino’s Roma’ paste tomatoes? ‘Red Brandywine’ and ‘Mortgage Lifter’ beefsteak varieties? And just exact what kind of tomato is a ‘Missouri Pink Love Apple’, ‘Orange Flesh Purple Smudge’, and ‘Pink Ping Pong’? You’ll have the opportunity to find out the answers to those questions – and to purchase those varieties of tomatoes – on Sunday, May 20 from 9:00 – 3:30 when one of the major horticultural events of the year will be held in MetroWest Boston’s back yard.

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society hosts the Society Row Plant Sale at Elm Bank. Again this year, the Society Row sale is joined by The Great Tomato Celebration , which is hosted jointly by Mass Hort and White Flower Farm of Litchfield, Connecticut. ‘Society Row’ isn’t about high society. Rather, the name refers to the thirteen plant societies that come together for the annual event. These societies, together with a group of specialty nurseries, offer an extraordinary array of high-quality plants for your garden. Among the groups that will be represented are the Hosta Society, Lilac Society, Begonia Society, Rhododendron Society, Miniature Plant Society, Daylily Society, and the Herb Society. Collectively, they’ll offer thousands of plants grown by members; many of them unusual cultivars. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society will also sell perennials and annuals grown in its own greenhouses.

Many of the local chapters of plant specialist societies will continue to offer their own plant varieties including unusual and popular cultivars that Society Row has provided for more than 75 years.

Vendors from around New England will also be selling anything you can think of to help you plant your garden at home including:

- A variety of pots, containers and raised bedding
- Seeds, seedlings and young plants
- Fruits, vegetables, and flowers for planting
- Garden sculpture
- Garden and patio furniture
- Tools and Clothing
- Horticultural vendors: landscape designers, arborists, landscapers

Mass Hort has planned a full day of lectures, children’s’ activities, food vendors, and fun for the whole family.  For more information, visit www.masshort.org.

Special members’ hours: 8:00 -9:00 am
Open to the public: 9:00 am – 3:30pm

It’s time to plant! Come get the information and inspiration you need to garden in whatever space you have! Get advice for window boxes, container gardens, street-side tree gardens, small yards, patios and roof decks. Garden Club of the Back Bay member Janine Mudge-Mullen of City Garden Ideas has put together a program on Saturday, May 5, from 10 – 12 at First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough Street.

Featured presenters are:

Ellen Abdow, Owner of Perennial Gardens.  Ellen will create a container garden before our eyes with step-by-step instructions and offer stories about the hottest trends in gardening.

Tom Smarr, The Garden Concierge and former Superintendent of Horticulture at the Rose Kennedy Greenway.  Tom will offer an overview of gardening basics including tools and soil plus tips to choosing hardy plants for sun and shade. He’ll also talk about the boom in verticulture, a new trend focused on growing plants on the vertical.

Light refreshments begin at 9:30am. Great handouts, door prizes and more! Questions? Contact Janine at 617-267-6500 or email her at janine@citygardenideas.com.

The Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts, Ruth A. Wallack Fund, presents Nature Takes Over: Creations are Collaborations with Nature, featuring Bill Harper, AIFD & AAF, International Floral Artist, Lecturer, Author, and Educator, on Tuesday, May 22, beginning at 10 am at Regis College Fine Arts Center in Weston.  Tickets are $20, and may be obtained by calling Helga Frazzette at 508-255-6664, or Diane Bullock at 207-361-1818.

The visual experience of flowering fruit trees in the home landscape is surpassed only by the delicious variety of summer and fall fruits which they produce. Growing apples successfully can be a horticultural challenge, but it can be done! Dr. Wes Autio will present a program at Elm Bank on Thursday, May 3 beginning at 7 pm  on how to grow apples in the home landscape. Varieties, root stocks, young-tree care, nutrition, pruning, training, and pest control will be covered.

Wes Autio grew up in a rural/tourist part of western Maine and received his B.S. degree in Horticulture from Virginia Tech and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Pomology from UMass. In 1985, he joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts. He currently serves as the UMass Fruit Program Leader and Coordinator of the Stockbridge School of Agriculture’s Fruit & Vegetable Crops Program. He regularly interacts with tree-fruit farmers and the many individuals interested in tree fruit in the landscape. His research focuses on apple and peach rootstocks and controlling growth of apple trees with mechanical and hormonal approaches.  Photo from Through a Glass, Darkly. Free, but registration recommended at www.masshort.org.

In conjunction with the new exhibition, Mollusks, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, 24 Oxford Street in Cambridge,  will screen Shellshocked, a new documentary by Emily Driscoll, on Saturday, May 12 beginning at 2 pm. The film follows efforts to prevent the extinction of wild oyster reefs, which keep oceans healthy by filtering water and engineering ecosystems. Due to overfishing and pollution, much of the world’s wild oyster reefs have been declared “functionally extinct.” Followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker and George Buckley, of the Sustainability and Environmental Management Program at Harvard Extension School.  Regular admission rates apply.  For more information, visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

Boston University Professor of Anthropology Merry White explores the fascinating role that coffee and cafe society have played in Japanese culture in a lecture on Wednesday, May 9, from 6 – 8 at 808 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston.  White’s book, Coffee Life in Japan – part ethnography, part memoir – traces the cafe craze from 1888, when Japan helped to launch the Brazilian coffee industry, up to the present.  Her work examines themes as diverse as gender, privacy, perfectionism, and urbanism.  Learn how coffee and coffee spaces have played essential roles in the formation of Japanese beliefs about public space, social change, modernity, and pleasure.  Hear how the cafe has been a place to encounter new ideas and experiments in thought, behavior, sexuality, dress and taste.  Each person attending this event will receive a copy of White’s book.  Refreshments will be served.  $25.  Register online at www.bu.edu/foodandwine.

The world of plant propagation is cloaked in mystery. What really is a cultivar, a hybrid, or a straight species plant? How are nursery crops typically grown and new plants introduced to the market? Come to the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, on Wednesday, May 2 at 7 pm to hear an expert nurseryman’s point of view, how plants are selected and bred for new characteristics, and what it really takes to successfully propagate both native and non-native trees, shrubs, and plants for the consumer market. Author Wayne Mezitt is Chairman of Weston Nurseries, and has over 50 years experience in his family’s business.  Free admission.

Jerry Coyne, a professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago and author of the seminal book, Why Evolution is True, is one of the world’s most eloquent defenders of evolutionary science in the face of legal, religious, and cultural opposition. In this Wednesday, May 2nd talk beginning at 6 pm, Coyne will explore the multifarious evidence for evolution, why Americans are so resistant to accepting the theory, and what can be done to make the country more evolution-friendly. Free and open to the public, Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Free parking available in the 52 Oxford Street garage. Part of the Evolution Matters lecture series. Supported by a generous gift from Drs. Herman and Joan Suit.  For more information visit www.hmnh.harvard.edu.

Deborah Trickett, MCH, and owner of The Captured Garden, will speak at Weston Nurseries of Chelmsford, 160 Pine Hill Road in Chelmsford, on Saturday, April 28, beginning at 2 pm. Deborah is an award-winning designer whose work has been featured in The Boston Globe, in Garden Gate Magazine, and on the TV show New England Dream Home.  She is a frequent lecturer at the Boston Flower & Garden Show as well as at the Philadelphia International Flower Show. She also teaches classes and workshops at the Arnold Arboretum.  She’ll help make your container gardens the talk of the neighborhood!  Free.  For directions, visit www.westonnurseries.com.