Boston Flora

  • Save the Date: Wednesday, May 5, 11:00 am – Party in the Park 2027

    Since 2003, Party in the Park has heralded spring in Boston and celebrated the area’s largest park system: the Emerald Necklace. This annual Luncheon is the largest fundraiser for the Emerald Necklace Conservancy and an iconic event in Boston’s social calendar.

    Party in the Park is held in honor of Justine Mee Liff, who served as Boston Parks Commissioner from 1996 to 2002. Justine’s belief in the city’s parks, combined with her dynamic personality, launched an all-out effort to restore the Emerald Necklace and establish the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. The event, and the Justine Mee Liff Fund for the Emerald Necklace, are lasting tributes to her passion for Boston and its parks.

    The Liff Spirit Award, named for Justine Mee Liff, honors the vision, wisdom, humanity and joy that Justine brought to her work as a champion of the green spaces that are so vital to our daily life. It is presented annually at Party in the Park to an individual or individuals whose leadership, commitment to cities, passion for public places, dedication the democratic ideals fostered in urban parks, and ability to inspire public servants and private citizens to join together in common cause best reflects Justine’s spirit and legacy.

    Taking place at the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel, Boston, the 2027 Party in the Park will feature immersive experiences, fine cuisine from local chefs, and lively entertainment from community artists. Party in the Park is an inclusive celebration welcoming all who love Boston’s parks. Hats are warmly embraced in honor of tradition—but entirely optional.

    Through Party in the Park, the generosity of friends and supporters ensures the treasured landscapes of the Emerald Necklace remain vibrant, welcoming, and accessible for all. Since its founding, Party in the Park has raised more than $13.8 million, making possible the care of more than 13,500 inventoried trees, significant restorations, and other improvements throughout the historic 1,100-acre Emerald Necklace park system designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

    “Open space—conserving it, designing it well—is a radical act in this country … when you do this work, and when you support this work, whether you like it or not, you are being radical.” – Byron Rushing, 2024 Liff Spirit Awardee

    For complete information and sponsorship opportunities, visit https://www.emeraldnecklace.org/signature-events/party-in-the-park

  • Tuesday, November 17, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern- Southern Women, Southern Landscapes: Real & Imagined Afterlives of Gardens, Online

    A major theme of Southern Women, Southern Landscapes is that gardens have afterlives, whether real or imagined. Authors Judith W. Page and Elise L. Smith are interested in the way that many of the women featured in the book created gardens that either faded after their time and were materially lost, or, more happily, were recreated by gardeners who wanted to restore their vision and preserve a particular garden for future generations, like those of Eudora Welty, Elizabeth Lawrence, Anne Spencer, and Corinne Melchers, among others. In the case of lost gardens, the authors often found archival as well as published material—notes, maps, diaries, letters, even poetry and fiction—that provided them with an imaginative vision of what had been. For instance, they could reconstruct a sense of the exuberant gardening practices of Zora Neale Hurston in Florida and Clementine Hunter in Louisiana, even though none of their gardens survive.

    Dr. Page received her Ph.D. in English Literature and Language from the University of Chicago. After teaching at several institutions, she was named Professor Emerita at the University of Florida. She is the author of numerous articles and has written or co-authored five books on British Romanticism and on women writers, artists, and gardeners in England. She has also co-edited, with Victoria Pagan, two collections on landscape and the natural world. Dr. Smith received her M.A. from Vanderbilt and her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, both in art history, and she is now retired after 37 years at Millsaps College. In addition to a number of journal articles, she has written or co-authored five books, including two co-authored with Judith Page, exploring the garden as a personal and professional space for British artists and writers over the centuries.

    Register ($15 nonmembers) at https://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/web26-southern-women-southern-landscapes

  • Tuesday, November 10, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm Eastern – Eric Kramer: Tree, Grove, Forest: The Scales of Landscape Architecture, Online

    To plant a tree, to design a garden grove, to nurture an urban forest—these are inherently optimistic acts. Today, landscape architects are working across these scales, designing the spaces of our future and making choices about how we remain in productive dialogue with our past. As partner and principal of Reed Hilderbrand, Eric Kramer, FASLA, is committed to upholding this dialogue through innovative planting detail, the engagement of place and cultural narrative, and the activism of politics and government policy.

    Through the lens of a small urban plaza in Boston, the effusive public gardens of Longwood Reimagined, and the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts’, expansive Urban Forest, Kramer will explore how his design work responds to the complexity of the moment in which we are living.

    This New York Botanical Garden lecture will be presented live online on November 10, and is $41 for nonmembers. Register at NYBG HERE.

  • Saturday, November 21, 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm or 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm – Friends of the Farm Friendsgiving

    This November, Friends of the Farm at Bracken Hill in Northborough are inviting you to join them for Farm Friendsgiving: A Fundraiser for a Brighter Tomorrow!

    Come spend a cozy afternoon at the farm, enjoy some delicious pie, visit your favorite animals, and help us give back to the community that has given us so much.

    The Local Pie Bar — Sample delicious seasonal pies from local farms, bakeries, and businesses!

    Goat Cuddles & Animal Visits — Spend time with your favorite Bracken Hill residents.

    Visit Coffee & Cash — Our alpaca boys will be joining the festivities!

    Warm Cider & Cozy Treats — Because it’s November in New England!

    Mini Goat Walk — Take a little stroll around the farm with some four-legged friends, weather permitting.

    Holiday Photo Booth — The holiday photo setup will be ready early. and there will be someone available to take your picture so the whole family can be in it.

    And the most important part?

    All net proceeds from Farm Friendsgiving will support our Farm & Animal Care Fund and Community Access Fund, helping us care for our animals while making therapeutic farm experiences and mental health services more accessible to individuals and families facing financial barriers.

    $35. Visit www.brackenhillfarm.com to learn more.

  • Thursday, November 12, 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm – River Revel

    You’re invited to a celebration of this year’s accomplishments! Join us Thursday, November 12th for River Revel, an evening to recognize the amazing work of Massachusetts River Alliance community members. $100 for members, $125 for nonmembers. Register HERE.

  • Thursday, November 12, 12:15 pm Eastern – SCMA Conversations: Alma Thomas & the Language of Landscape, Online

    Save the date for the Fall Virtual Program with the Smith College Museum of Art, “SCMA Conversations: Alma Thomas and the Language of Landscape” on November 12, at 12:15 pm ET.

    Join SCMA curator Emma Chubb and Lily Carone, landscape curator at the Botanic Garden of Smith College, for a virtual program exploring connections between Alma Thomas’s vibrant abstract paintings and landscape design. Through conversation and close looking, they’ll examine how rhythm, pattern, color, and the natural world shape both gardens and abstraction. Register at https://scma.smith.edu/calendar/scma-conversations-alma-thomas-and-language-landscape

  • Thursday, November 5, 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm – Plastic Pollution Solutions

    Plastic pollution is everywhere – in our oceans, our communities, and even our bodies. But what can we do about it?

    Join Just Zero and Plastic Free Mass on November 5 at 7 pm at the New England Aquarium for a conversation about the impacts of plastic on human health and the environment – and the solutions that can help protect both.

    Moderated by Kirstie Pecci, Executive Director of Just Zero and a leading expert on recycling and waste policy, the panel of experts will explore what we know about the growing impacts of plastics – from our oceans to our bodies – and what individuals, communities, and policymakers can do to create a healthier, less plastic-dependent future.

    Thursday, November 5 at 7:00 PM
    New England Aquarium | Simons Theatre

    Presented in partnership with Just Zero, an environmental nonprofit working to advance community-centered Zero Waste solutions across the country, and Plastic Free Mass, a coalition of more than 40 Massachusetts organizations working to reduce plastic pollution. Register HERE.

  • Tuesday, November 3, 1:30 pm Eastern – Plants, Places, Growth, Decay, Online

    This Garden Museum session on November 3 brings together artists and collectives who each have a profound relationship with place and environment. Speakers include Alex Hartley, who makes ambitious land art; Tania Kovats, who works across sculpture and installation to explore geological time and bodies of water; Troika, which examines how technology reshapes our understanding of the natural world; and Kultivator, an art practice and experimental farm on the Swedish island of Öland.

    Garden/Art/Garden is a series of talks chaired and curated by landscape historian and critic Tim Richardson. It aims to broaden our ideas of what gardens, landscape and place can mean in the context of artistic practice in an era of climate change. The program will be livestreamed, and you may watch live or later on demand. Register HERE. £10 Livestream

  • Tuesday, November 10, 5:00 am – 6:00 am Eastern (but recorded) – The Tradescants, Online

    This Gardens Trust talk on November 10 looks at John Tradescant and his son, also John, who were an extraordinary pair of 17th Century Gardeners.

    John Tradescant and his son, also John were an extraordinary pair: Gardeners to the aristocracy and royalty in the 17th Century, as well as plant hunters, nurserymen and founders of the first museum to be open to the public. Famous in their own lifetimes, and continuously in the centuries since, their lives have even been romanticised by a modern novelist. John senior worked for the Cecil family at Hatfield, and later the Duke of Buckingham, the royal favorite, and traveled to Europe, northern Russia and North Africa collecting plants and other interesting objects. John junior worked alongside his father and in 1637 went to Virginia to collect plants. He succeeded his father a royal gardener a post he lost because of the Civil War. He published a catalogue of their museum which also included plants in the nursery. The pair are buried under the same elaborate and enigmatic tombstone in the grounds of St Mary’s Lambeth, which is now home to the Garden Museum.

    Presenter Dr David Marsh was awarded his PhD in 2005 for a study of the ‘Gardens and Gardeners of Later-Stuart London’ and has been lecturing and supervising research in Garden History ever since. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Buckingham and was co-course director for their MA in Garden History. A trustee of the Gardens Trust from 2016-2023, he helped set up and run the Trust’s online lecture program and is the author of a weekly blog about garden history.

    This ticket is for this individual session and costs £8 (Gardens Trust members £6 )

    Ticket holders can join the session live and/or view the recording until 24 November .

    Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available until 24 November) will be sent shortly afterwards. Register through Eventbrite UK HERE. Image: One end of the Tradescants’ tomb, St Mary’s Lambeth. Detail from Hollar’s Prospect of London and Westminster from Lambeth 1647.

  • Thursday, November 12, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Eastern – Native Sedges & Grasses

    Looking for strategies to garden smarter and boost your landscape’s ecological impact? Join The American Horticultural Society on November 12 at 2 pm Eastern online to explore how native grasses and sedges do heavy lifting in the garden—far beyond what conventional turfgrasses can offer. Prized as ecological workhorses, these extraordinary plants build and preserve soil, suppress weeds, reduce inputs, and support biodiversity. But their value doesn’t end when the growing season winds down. Native grasses and sedges add beauty and function across the year. In this webinar, we’ll examine what makes grasses special and explore how to put them to work on your site. From sun to shade, short groundcovers to tall accents, learn how native grasses and sedges can increase resilience and provide year-round performance in any landscape.

    Shannon Currey is a horticultural educator with Izel Native Plants. She has worked in the nursery trade since 2006, developing expertise in grasses and sedges and expanding her knowledge into native perennials. Currey has written for national publications and traveled the country speaking to professional organizations, community groups, and at public gardens. She currently serves on the North Carolina Plant Conservation Program Scientific Committee, holds advisory roles with several organizations, and served on the Board of the Perennial Plant Association. Currey lives in Durham, North Carolina and loves exploring gardens and native flora everywhere she goes.

    $15 for AHS members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at https://ahsgardening.org/ahs-live-native-sedges-and-grasses/