The Museum of Science, in partnership with Amira Madison (Aquinnah Wampanoag), Hartman Deetz (Mashpee Wampanoag) highlights the work Indigenous communities are doing to combat climate change across the United States in this seasonal conversation series. This session takes place November 16 at 7 pm. Free with preregistration at www.mos.org
Come to the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Public Science Common for an evening of powerful dialogue exploring how Indigenous knowledge and stewardship shape solutions for cleaner air and a more stable climate. We’ll dive into the role of healthy forests, wetlands, and grasslands in cleaning and cooling the air, the traditional practices, such as cultural burning, that tend the land and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire smoke, and the generations of observation that inform Indigenous understandings of wind, weather, and seasonal change. Together, we’ll explore how Indigenous peoples are renewing relationships between land, sky, and community.
In this two-part Native Plant Trust webinar, you will study theories about early plant evolution. We’ll review the evidence for plant evolution, including fossils, DNA, and morphology, to understand how photosynthetic organisms from ancient seas evolved and adapted to life on land. The second session of the webinar will focus on the evolution of gymnosperms and angiosperms (conifers and flowering plants). A recording of this class will be available for 30 days after the class date. The instructor is Lori Benoit, and the cost is $40. Register at https://nativeplanttrust.org/class/evolution-of-green-plants/
Join the Nichols House Museum for the annual Beacon Hill Holiday House Tour on December 13 from noon – 4 pm. A celebration of this historic neighborhood’s festive best, the Tour offers you the rare opportunity to experience private homes decorated for the holiday season. This fundraiser showcases outstanding examples of historic preservation, as well as creative modern interpretations and adaptations in a broad range of architectural and interior design styles throughout Beacon Hill. The Nichols House Museum will also be open for self-guided tours for guests to experience historically inspired holiday traditions. A reception will follow the tour.
Join Michael Wojtech on November 15 at New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill and discover how trees grow, reproduce, and interact with their environment across days, weeks, seasons, and years and over varying scales—from the intricate details of buds, flowers, leaves, and bark that we use for species identification to the collaborative roles of trees in ecosystems. Learn more about the function and experience the beauty of characteristics such as overwintering buds, lobed or toothed leaves, flowers by the thousands, and seeds that fly on the wind. Please come dressed to walk around the gardens, potentially on the forest trails.
Michael is the author of Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast. As a naturalist and educator, Michael strives to share the science and wonder of trees in an accessible and compelling fashion. He writes, photographs, illustrates, and presents programs about the structure, growth processes, and ecology of trees-including their bark, buds, leaves, roots, and wood-for audiences at all levels of experience. He is especially interested in the process of discovery and engagement and draws his greatest inspiration from sharing the sense of wonder, awe, and the recognition of beauty that result from these investigations.
$55 for NEBG members, $66 for nonmembers. Register at www.nebg.org
Wright=Locke Farm in Winchester loves partnering with local businesses to bring our community unique experiences! Just in time for cozy season, join Wright-Locke Farm and Curio Spice Company for a hands-on tea blending workshop. Explore how premium teas, ethically sourced spices, herbs, and botanicals come together to create delicious flavor combinations. Using Curio’s Tea & Spice Flavor Pairing Wheel, you’ll explore different teas, enjoy interactive aroma and tasting activities, and learn the basics of flavor pairing. Then, experiment with ingredients to create your own custom loose-leaf tea blend to take home, along with a pairing wheel to inspire future creations.
Chef Kelcy will round out the evening with spiced mini desserts and beverages to enjoy along the way. Class fee covers all materials. $60 (tiered pricing opportunities) – Register HERE.
Add festive cheer to your home while helping to keep the Back Bay green and growing. Each holiday wreath (two sizes, plain, with bow, or fully decorated) is unique, handcrafted with care by dedicated volunteer members of the Garden Club of the Back Bay. When you order, you will select your wreath size, ribbon color, and decorative scheme. Your purchase directly supports the Club’s annual $30,000 expenditures for annual tree care across the Back Bay. Order now through November 27 at https://bostonflora.com/store Pick up at the First Lutheran Church of Boston and local delivery will take place December 1 – 3 .
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
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.
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.
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.
