The Japan Year
Each year in the spring The Garden Club of the Back Bay decides where to focus its attention for the coming year. Last season members examined many aspects of water conservation. In the past we have looked at ethical gardening practices, trees, women garden designers and patrons, garden history, the science of gardening, art in the garden, plant societies, and more. The last twelve months have been devastating for the country of Japan. Multiple earthquakes, a tsunami, breaches in nuclear facilities, and typhoons have forever altered parts of this beautiful landscape in a country which honors and treasures it horticultural heritage. In honor of the people of Japan, we dedicate 2011/2012 to a study of Japanese culture, from bonsai to ikebana, from garden history to current trends. Our first meeting in September, however, will be a public evening panel discussion on urban tree stewardship, and we encourage you to bring neighbors. Complete details of each meeting will be sent to members prior to each event.
Tuesday, September 27, 7:00 pm – Urban Tree Stewardship Panel Discussion – The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue
Street trees in the Back Bay live a perilous life. Pollution, soil compaction, water stress, tall trucks, plastic wrapped signs, unleashed pets, invasive insects and general vandalism all take a toll. Hear what The Garden Club is doing to keep our neighborhood leafy, and learn how we all can assist the City of Boston’s Department of Parks and Recreation in this important challenge. Past President Margaret Pokorny will be joined by Greg Mosman, Chief Arborist for the City of Boston, and Bob Lorie, Senior Arborist and Manager of Boston Tree Company. A coffee and dessert reception will follow the panel discussion.
Tuesday, October 18, 10:00 am – Tour of the Lars Anderson Bonsai Collection – The Arnold Arboretum, Jamaica Plain
A docent-led guided tour of the Lars Anderson Bonsai Collection at the Arnold Arboretum will kick off our “Japan Year” programs. We will view the historic bonsai collection in the lathe house, then see their full grown counterparts in the landscape. The Collection is one of the premier collections of bonsai in the United States and includes a Hinoki cypress over 250 years old. The Bonsai Pavilion where the trees are housed are part of a complex of buildings known as the Dana Greenhouses. The Collection is on display from mid-April to the end of October, when they are moved and held in cold storage at temperatures slightly above freezing throughout the winter. Comfortable shoes a requirement. The tour is limited to 20 participants.
Thursday, November 10, 2:00 pm – Rita Bond – The Gardens of Kyoto - The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue
Originally from Brooklyn, New York, and New Jersey, Rita W. Bond is a longtime resident of Simsbury, Connecticut. She holds a Master’s Degree from Teachers College, Columbia University in the teaching of English. Rita studied landscape design at the New York Botanical Garden, and has had her own business as a residential landscape designer. Rita resumed her studies in art, and particularly color, in order to refine her skill as a landscape designer. As she has progressed in her art studies, she has found a new love and a new voice for expressing her creativity and love of the New England landscape. Rita’s illustrated lecture will provide a short history of, and an examination of, the cultural and religious significance of the gardens of Japan, in particular those of Kyoto. She will discuss design principles and plants that can be used here as well. The program will be followed by tea.
Monday, December 5 – Thursday, December 8, 8:30 am – 7:00 pm – Wreath Making – The First Lutheran Church of Boston, 299 Berkeley Street
Training, decorating and delivery of holiday wreaths throughout the neighborhood and beyond, with proceeds benefiting the many projects of The Garden Club of the Back Bay.
January (date to be announced), 3:00 pm –Annual Member Tea - The Boston Park Plaza Hotel, 50 Park Plaza at Arlington Street
Thursday, February 16, 10:00 am – 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.
Monday, March 19, 2:00 pm – Bonsai: History, Facts and Myths – Wellesley Botanic Garden, Wellesley, Massachusetts
Pauline F Muth will present a program on the history, art and horticulture of bonsai. She will illustrate her talk with a both a photographic and live collection of various types of bonsai. Listeners can expect to learn how bonsai is created and cared for to keep them alive as long as possible. Pauline has been involved in the art of bonsai for almost 40 years. She maintains a teaching studio in West Charlton NY exclusively dedicated to the art of bonsai. Her gardens are open to the public by appointment. She sits on the executive boards of Mohawk Hudson Bonsai Society, The Midatlantic Bonsai Societies, The American Bonsai Society and Bonsai Clubs International. She has served in many officer positions in these groups. Her writings appear in several bonsai books, magazines and on the internet. The studioʼs web site is www.pfmbonsai.com
Wednesday, April 4, 10:00 am – Ikebana Demonstration with Kaye Vosburgh – The College Club, 44 Commonwealth Avenue
See the art of Ikebana, Japanese floral design, utilizing spring plant materials. Ikebana Instructor of the Sogetsu School Kaye Vosburgh, will explain the technique to both novice and experienced students in this linear form of flower arranging.
Ms. Vosburgh, a member of The Garden Club of the Back Bay as well as Noannet Garden Club, has studied, exhibited and taught in Massachusetts, New York, Japan and Ecuador. She is also a Master Judge in the Federated Garden Clubs and a First Grade Ikebana Teacher in the Sogetsu School. A frequent speaker at flower shows and with garden clubs, Kaye and has earned numerous awards for her designs including the two top awards in the 2008 Boston Flower Show’s Molten Lava category.
