Boston Flora

  • Wednesday, September 23, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm Eastern – Designing the Lush Dry Garden, Online

    On September 23 at 7 pm Eastern on Zoom, Cricket Riley will share the inspiration behind the book Designing the Lush Dry Garden and discuss how personal experience, place, and climate shape the way we design and experience our landscapes. She will explore what it means to create gardens that are vibrant, resilient in the face of a changing climate, and expressive of individual values and aesthetics. The talk will highlight influences from the Ruth Bancroft Garden as well as practical design strategies and thoughtful plant choices that balance beauty with sustainability, offering attendees approachable ideas they can adapt to their own spaces. Cricket will also touch on how observation, experimentation, and seasonal change inform successful garden design over time. The American Horticultural Society presentation will conclude with an interactive Q&A, inviting audience members to ask questions and explore how the concepts, tools, and inspiration from the book can be applied to their own unique landscapes and gardening goals.

    CRICKET RILEY is co-owner of Lush Dry Gardens, a landscape design firm specializing in low-water garden design, and worked at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, CA, from 2017 to 2025. During her tenure she held multiple roles, including founding and serving as Director of the Design Services department. She was the primary instructor for the Dry Garden Design Certificate Program, which she co-created with Alice Kitajima in 2020.

    ALICE KITAJIMA’s deep connection to gardens and landscape design began early, inspired by her father, who immigrated to Los Angeles to design and install Japanese-style gardens. After completing her forestry and music studies at the University of California, Berkeley, she worked at botanical gardens and arboreta across the United States. As Program Director at the Ruth Bancroft Garden, she led the education department with a passion for helping people build meaningful, lasting connections with plants.

    $15 AHS members, $20 for nonmembers. Register at https://ahsgardening.org/ahs-live-designing-the-lush-dry-garden/

  • Mondays, September 28 – November 2, 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm Eastern – Virtual Seed School, Online

    Over six weeks, we’ll follow the seed-saving process from the botany behind it to the community that keeps it growing:

    September 28: The Botany of Seed Saving
    October 5: Harvesting and Cleaning Seeds—Dry Processing
    October 12: Harvesting and Cleaning Seeds—Wet Processing
    October 19: Seed Quality and Storage
    October 26: Growing and Saving Seed with Regional Experts
    November 2: Next Steps—Connecting to Community

    Classes are live on Zoom on Monday evenings, with time for questions and conversation. Recordings will also be available to registered participants. This course is a Seed Savers Exchange offering, sponsored by the Organic Seed Alliance.

    Explore the full course and register: https://seedsavers.org/events/seed-school/. $60 for the full six week program.

  • Tuesday, October 6, 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm Eastern – Matthew Rice: A Year in the Garden, Online

    Grab a chair (and perhaps a trowel) for an evening with gardener and painter Matthew Rice, marking the launch of his new book, A Year in the Garden.

    14 years ago, Matthew bought the last shred of a medieval castle gatehouse in the very edge of the Cotswolds. A decade on, a walled garden, glasshouses, hen runs and an orchard have replaced and where concrete barns, slurry lagoons, and silage pits.

    A Year in the Garden is a record of 12 months spent working, painting, and planning in a garden that is personal and flower filled and undisciplined but super productive. Matthew will talk about his garden’s transformation – and why he’s always glad to return home.

    6 October, 6.30pm – 7.30pm GMT.
    Livestream available, watch live or on demand. Register at the Garden Museum website HERE. £10 Livestream

  • Sunday, September 20, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm – Boston Local Food Festival

    The 2026 Boston Local Food Festival will return Sunday, September 120from 11 am-5 pm (Rain date: 09/27)

    Where: The Rose Kennedy Greenway

    Calling all of New England’s masterful food makers – chefs, fishermen, farmers, and food artisans! Join culinary craftsman for the 2026 Boston Local Food Festival on Sunday, September 20th. On the 20th, we will savor the flavors of Massachusetts and beyond. From chef demos to a Family Fun Zone and a thrilling seafood throw-down, there’s something for everyone. With nearly 100 food vendors, two demo kitchens — one hosting a seafood cooking competition, the other hourly cooking demos from chefs — family activities, and more, there is something for everyone. Every food vendor represents New England’s finest foods — from popsicles made from local fruit to roasted Filipino-style pig, from blueberry crisps from a blueberry farm to raw oyster bar, from Jamaican Jerk sauce made with Maine-grown blueberries to Mexican-style street corn from locally-grown corn-on-the-cob.

    Our annual Boston Local Food Festival has been hailed as one of Boston’s top 10 food events since 2010. We are thrilled to be able to continue celebrating and supporting New England local food producers and businesses with our festival.

  • Saturday & Sunday, September 19 & 20 – Harwich 50th Cranberry Arts & Music Festival

    Come to the Harwich Community Center, 100 Oak Street in Harwich Center, on Saturday and Sunday, September 19 and 20, for a signature event featuring at least 150 juried crafters, community non-profits, kids activities, food trucks, CranJam Music, a Saturday night drone show, dance floor, and ample free parking. For detailed information visit https://www.harwichcranberryartsandmusicfestival.org/harwich-cranberry-arts-and-music-festival-1

  • Wednesday, September 30, 6:30 pm – 7:45 pm Eastern – Apples of Uncommon Character, Online

    The apple may be the most diverse food plant in the world. A century ago, 16,000 varieties existed in the United States alone. Today, thanks to industrial agriculture, only a handful appear in most grocery stores, but hundreds of the most interesting varieties still exist, and a new apple renaissance has many making a comeback. Some have played key roles in American history. Some have languished in obscurity for decades, then swept to national dominance, only to be knocked off by the new apple on the block. Some deliver flavors no Red Delicious ever dreamed of. And some are coming soon to a market near you with brand-new taste surprises.

    From the explosively crisp Pixie Crunch to the dark and moody Kingston Black, the lychee-scented King of the Pippins, and America’s oldest apple, the Roxbury Russet, Rowan Jacobsen, author of Apples of Uncommon Character, explores some of the most exotic, colorful, delicious, mysterious, and downright strange apples you’ll ever meet. Profiling some of the best and brightest, the oddballs and old veterans, Jacobsen tells the tale of the apple in America and reveals a world every bit as magical as it was over a century ago.

    This Smithsonian Associates talk takes place September 30 at 6:30 pm. $20 members, $30 nonmembers. Register at https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/programs/apples-of-uncommon-character

  • Saturday, September 26 – Boston Dance Theater’s Plants: Solos for Native Species

    Boston Dance Theater (BDT) returns to the Garden this September for Plants: Solos for Native Species. On September 26, visitors are invited to experience immersive dance performances throughout the Garden, featuring 20-minute solo works inspired by native plant species. Four solo performances will loop throughout the day in different locations, allowing guests to discover each piece at their own pace and to come and go freely during regular Garden hours. Free with Garden Admission. For more information visit https://www.nativeplanttrust.org/events/plants-solos-for-native-species/

  • Friday, September 25, 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm, & Saturday, September 26, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm – 2026 Fall Native Plant Sale

    Order by September 18 and come by Minuteman High School, 758 Marrett Road in Lexington on September 25 or 26 to pick up your orders and pay (cash). Details can be found at https://middlesexconservationdistrict.org/events/2026-fall-native-plant-sale-minuteman-high-school-pickup-cash-sale-day-1/

  • Tuesday, September 29, 7:00 pm – 8:15 pm Eastern – Healthy Soil Through Maximum Biodiversity: Replicable Models for Resilience, Online

    Evan Abramson, Principal, Landscape Interactions, presents a Massachusetts Pollinator Network monthy free webinar on September 29 at 7 pm Eastern. A first of its kind hybrid regional plan and open source design toolkit, this project demonstrates the opportunities that farms and working landscapes provide for building soil health, increasing soil carbon sequestration and restoring regional biodiversity. Register at https://grownativemass.org/Our-Programs/calendar

  • Thursday, September 17, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm – Cheesecake Brook Bioblitz

    On September 17 from 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm, learn how to use iNaturalist to catalog flora and fauna, and collect vital community science data for our “BioBlitz” biological survey. Explore the impact of a new river restoration project and tell us your vision for the brook and the surrounding area! Cheesecake Brook is located at 256 Albemarle Road in Newton. Free but sign up HERE. And ignore street misspelling in poster below.