Boston Flora

  • 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/

  • Thursday, November 19, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Eastern – Mistletoe, Magic, Myths, & Mysteries, Online

    The mistletoe native to the UK, Viscum album, is a parasitic plant which grows on hundreds of trees; it is often benign and brilliant for biodiversity.

    “Seeming to appear in the trees from nowhere, mistletoe has fascinated people since ancient times and features extensively in folklore. Though we know more about its biology today, mysteries still remain about this intriguing plant. In this talk, I will discuss mistletoe through history, legends, science and the questions that remain.” Participants can log in 5 minutes before the start of the talk to ensure a prompt start. The November 19 event is sponsored by the Oxfordshire Gardens Trust. £4 for members; £5 for non-members. Register at https://ogt.org.uk/2025/12/07/talk-thursday-19-november-2026-mistletoe-magic-myths-and-mysteries/

  • Thursday, November 5, 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm Eastern (but recorded) – What’s In a Name? Online

    Lea Johnson and Uli Lorimer will engage in a lively Native Plant Trust conversation on November 5 about the history and complexities of plant naming. Learn more about how Latin and common names came to be, how they are used by botanists and gardeners alike, and why they matter.⁠
    ⁠
    Our Lunch and Learn webinar brings together Native Plant Trust’s Director of Conservation, Lea Johnson, and Director of Horticulture, Uli Lorimer, for lively conversations about timely issues within the native plant world. This series highlights Native Plant Trust’s unique contributions to conversations about plants by juxtaposing the perspectives of conservation and horticulture, and demonstrating both the overlaps and differences between these fields. Whether you are a seasoned student of plants or just beginning to learn, we hope you will join us.⁠ $25.00
    ⁠
    A recording of this webinar will be available for 30 days after the program date.⁠ https://nativeplanttrust.org/class/lunch-learn-whats-in-a-name/?utm_campaign=feed&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=later-linkinbio