This Month at Mass Hort
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Festival of Trees 2013 - through December 15!
Festival of Trees Events
Succulent Dish Garden Workshop with Art Scarpa
Thursday, December 12
7pm - 9 pm
As part of our Festival of Trees Celebration Mass Hort is offering this hands-on workshop to create a succulent dish garden to give as a gift or to keep for your own home.
Your succulent dish garden will be planted in a twelve inch Italian terra cotta container with South African succulents. Art has been growing cacti and succulents since he was a boy and is an expert on their care. Art will provide you with all the information you need to care for your garden year round in a fun and informative presentation. Workshop fee includes plants, soil, container, top-dressing, and hand selected decorative stones. All tools will be provided.
Art Scarpa, known for his expertise in growing succulents and for his love for unusual plants, is certified as a judge by the Cactus and Succulent Society of America and has competed and judged at numerous major shows, including Boston, Newport and Philadelphia and many regional cactus and succulent shows. Art is also a 2013 Mass Hort Gold Medal recipient.
Workshop Fee: $45 members; $55 non-members
Register Here!
Festival of Trees Tropical Terrarium Workshop
Saturday, December 14
10 am - 12 pm
As part of our Festival of Trees Celebration Mass Hort is offering this hands-on workshop to create a glass tropical terrarium with lid to give as a gift or to keep for your own home. The terrarium will be suitable for a bright indirect light setting. No direct sun necessary. All materials will be provided. Space is limited to 20 participants.
Register Here!
| Create the Ultimate Gingerbread House | |
| Saturday, December 14 2013, 11:00am - 1:00pm | | |
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 Do you have time to stand and hold the gingerbread pieces together while the royal icing dries? No! Why not learn how to construct a beautiful house with a solid foundation, with all the ingredients provided for you in a fun and festive setting. We will provide the products, you bring the creativity, fun and wonder!
Sign up for this event!
| Location: Whole Foods Market- River Street Cambridge 340 River Street Cambridge, MA 02139
Contact: Lisa Kamer - Massachusetts Horticultural Society - 617-933-4943 - lkamer@masshort.org | | Mass Hort members - $20.00 |
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| Volunteers | |
Volunteer for the Festival of Trees and to help decorate the gardens!
Volunteer today! Mass Hort is looking for volunteers to help run programs, events, and join committees. Use your management, marketing, and people skills to help Mass Hort deliver its mission.
Learn more about volunteering at Mass Hort
Sign up today to volunteer! |
| Join Mass Hort |  For exceptional benefits to help you in the garden- Join Today! If you are a Mass Hort member- please recommend membership to a friend! Forward this newsletter. CLICK HERE TO JOIN |
Book Review
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Gregor Mendel: Planting the Seeds of Genetics
By Simon Mawer
(Abrams, 2006)
Review by Judith Taylor (www.horthistoria.com)
Used with permission of the reviewer
This is a beautifully illustrated biography for all who are interested in the origins of genetic scholarship. It does not get any more basic than this, discovering the secret to heredity and yet Mendel died somewhat disappointed without knowing how the scientific world would eventually adopt his ideas and evidence for a whole new world view. Even he probably did not fully understand what he had accomplished as there was no one else who had the insight and skill to review it with him. He published 2 papers in a provincial Czech scientific society's proceedings in 1865 and it was not until 35 years later that three men with highly prepared minds fell upon his work with joy. We all know that feeling: "where have you been all my life?"
This is a very beautifully produced book with numerous illustrations taking the narrative forward. Simon Mawer is a science journalist and he has done his homework very well. He starts with the environment where Mendel worked. The Augustinian Order's abbey of St Thomas in Brno was a regional focal point for scientific and intellectual endeavor much to the chagrin of the very narrow minded and rigid Bishop Schaffgott. He did not trust Abbot Napp any further than he could throw him and with good reason. On one of his official visits he found a young brother, Gregor Mendel, watching mice copulate. Really!
The bishop told Gregor it was unseemly so Mendel obediently switched to vegetable peas. He had been counting the progeny of black mice mated with white mice to see how many pups were black or white or in between. He could do the same sort of thing by crossing yellow peas with green peas. The bishop did not understand that plants have sex lives too.
Brno was the provincial centre for many enlightened landowners who were improving agriculture on their estates. Breeding better livestock was a big part of this and they were particularly interested in Merino sheep. The local natural history society offered very lively discussion on heredity and the transmission of traits, stimulating Mendel's ideas.
The story of how Mendel became a brother at the abbey is awe inspiring. It almost did not happen. His father was a very poor farmer with a very small piece of land and they only managed to eke out a living because the whole family worked. Mendel was the only son and was naturally expected to shoulder the largest burden. When it became obvious that he had a dazzling intelligence his teachers pushed him to continue his education. The trouble was that he had to work on the farm, especially after his father had a terrible accident leaving him crippled for the rest of his life.
Mendel chose to go on studying in spite of the enormous guilt he felt and left the farm. One of his sisters sacrificed her dowry so he could go to university in Vienna. There was never enough money and he went hungry much of the time. He never forgot his sister's generosity and took care of her sons when they needed help later.
At Vienna, he studied biology and mathematics with statistics. This training gave him an inestimable advantage when it came to his research. Mendel was the first person to combine observation with statistics in experimental studies. The seemingly simple act of counting the offspring of his crosses was radical in its implications. At least 2 other observers had conducted very similar experiments with green and yellow peas but had not counted the resulting seedlings and could not draw his extraordinary conclusions.
Mendel knew about Darwin's work but Darwin never heard of Mendel. Mendel read Darwin with great care, underlining significant points. His copy of The Origin of Species is still in the library at Brno.
After his work failed to make any sort of impression he gave it up and devoted himself to abbey affairs, becoming Abbot in his turn. The brothers burned every piece of paper he left at his death except for the Abbey's business.
Copyright © Judith M. Taylor August 2013
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Happy Holidays to You and Your Family!
From the Staff and Trustees of the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society |
 Festival of Trees 2013
Early reviews are in, and the unanimous report is that this year's
Festival of Trees is better than ever before! The old favorites are back, like the Beer Tree and the Deprisco Jewelers Tree (right).
There are new wonders, like the Woodland Winter Solstice Tree from Tree Specialists, which has a large white owl on top (left).
Our decorative carriage house is filled with 69 trees in total, ranging from a little angel tree made from scarves to 9' giants like the Pets tree and Bartlett Tree, which has a bicycle, a razor scooter, a sled and other toys under it. (below, left) Some of the trees aren't exactly trees: we have a small mustang (ok, it's really a donkey) grazing near one of Frank Hamm's fabulous rustic trellises (below, right)  Also a flying pig and the usual assemblage of technical toys (K-nex roller coaster, a telescope, etc), known as the Engineering Tree (right).
The Giving Tree is also back, with over $1600 of gift certificates from local merchants. All the trees will be raffled off on December 15th after the Festival closes.
We were delighted to have LINX Camps donate two trees this year (below) to the Festival of Trees. Their team of creative camp counselors designed two very popular trees this year. Each tree included a free week of camp, which happens to take place at our very own Mass Hort reservation. Don't forget to register for LINX Camps at Elm Bank for Summer 2014!
Between now and December 15th, we are open 4 PM - 8 PM weekdays, 10 AM - 8 PM on Saturday, December 14th, and 10 AM to 6 PM on Sunday, December 15th. During that time we will have: - Succulent Dish Workshop on Thursday from 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM ($45 members, $55 non-members, pre- registration required)
- Tropical Terrarium Workshop on Saturday from 10:00 AM - noon ($45 members, $55 non-members, pre- registration required)
- Christmas Pajama Story Time on Friday from 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM (free with admission)
- Horse drawn hay rides from 12:30 PM - 6:00 PM on Saturday ($5/person)
- Santa!!!! From 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM on Saturday (free with admission)
- Wellesley Community Band (25 person brass band) from 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM on Saturday (free with admission)
- Horse drawn hay rides on Sunday from 12:30 PM - 6:00 PM on Saturday ($5/person)
To find specific dates and descriptions of all the events, and to register for workshops, please visit: www.Masshort.org/Festival-of-Trees. Festival Hours: The hall of lighted trees in the Hunnewell Carriage House will be open: Weekdays - 4:00 to 8:00 Weekends - 10:00 to 8:00. Please note that pre-registration will be required for all workshops. Private group tours will be conducted by appointment Monday through Friday during the run of the show. Tours have been offered to Councils on Aging in various towns and to senior residential facilities. There is a discounted admission rate for the group tours, and although response has been enthusiastic, there are still some openings. To inquire about tours, call 617-933-4934 or email Festivaloftrees@Masshort.org. See the Festival of Trees flyer |
Give a Gift of a Massachusetts Horticultural Society Membership
And make the world a greener place!
A gift that keeps on giving all year long!
A gift that is convenient, well priced, and nurturing.
A full year membership in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society is a wonderful way to encourage a friend's or relative's appreciation of gardening, horticulture, and the environment. That's why we're offering a special discounted gift rate for new members--just in time for holiday gift giving.
All levels of membership include admission to the Boston Flower Show, $25 gift certificates from White Flower Farms and Weston Nurseries, subscriptions to Organic Gardening and Leaflet, admission to the splendid gardens at Elm Bank, and more, for a full year.
There are also less tangible benefits--supporting urban gardens, sending the Plantmobile to elementary schools, preserving the historic gardens at Elm Bank, and more.
Select the membership level that is right for your recipient. A membership in Mass Hort will be appreciated in so many ways, and it's easy--just click here.
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 Growing in the City
By Lisa Kamer, Garden-to-Table Coordinator
Over the last year, the Garden to Table program at Mass Hort has been working with its new partner, the HNRCA (Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging) on a variety of programming efforts, using horticultural and culinary practices to increase awareness, as well as teach and translate, in small ways, some of the HNRCA's scientific efforts. As a result, two initiatives have grown: The Talk and Taste lecture series and the Mass Hort-HNRA community garden, which was installed several weeks ago in the lobby of the HNRCA. This is the first urban extension of the Garden to Table Program. The Greater Boston Food Bank will be coming to harvest a variety of vegetables and herbs. Our joint goal is to promote healthy eating habits through the joy of growing, cooking and preserving nutritious food. The Talk and Taste Series, which is a quarterly lecture, was designed with that goal in mind. Mass Hort has provided the seeds as well as detailed planning guides and advice on best practices for the care and maintenance of the garden.
Staff and volunteers from the HNRCA will be responsible for daily care of the beautiful lobby gardens.
We are very excited about this program, and the increased interaction with the Boston community. If you have an opportunity, please walk by the HNRCA located at 711 Washington Street and see how the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Garden to Table program is Growing Everywhere! |
 A Wonderful Gift Idea to Brighten that Special Someone's Winter! Maureen O'Brien, Vice-President of NELDHA Looking for a unique gift for a special gardener or garden lover? Consider taking them to a special reception and lecture sponsored by Massachusetts Horticultural Society and the New England Landscape Design and History Association (NELDHA) on January 23, 2014. Tickets for the lecture by renowned landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy on her new book Landscaping Ideas that Work, start at only $15.00! Messervy is the designer of the award-winning Toronto Music Garden and numerous public and private landscapes, including Weezie's Garden at Mass Hort. She is a distinguished lecturer and the author of seven books on landscape design, including Landscaping Ideas That Work; Home Outside: Creating the Landscape You Love; and Outside the Not So Big House with Sarah Susanka. She is "The New Homestead" columnist for Organic Gardening magazine and was the popular columnist of "Inspired Design" for Fine Gardening magazine. Messervy is the principal of JMMDS in Saxtons River, Vermont, a landscape architecture and design firm serving individuals and organizations. With their Home Outside online design service and Home Outside Palette app for iPhone and iPad, Messervy and JMMDS are pioneering new ways to bring good landscape design to homeowners everywhere. A wine and cheese reception begins at 5:30 followed by the lecture at 6:30. Books will be available for purchase and signing before and after the lecture. Register for the event online by going to the Mass Hort website, www.Masshort.org, and looking under LATEST MASS HORT EVENTS. For more information, email: MHorn@Masshort.org or call 617-933-4912 . Space is limited. Buy your tickets early!
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Notes from the Vegetable Garden
By Susan Hammond
 | Italian Red Garlic, ready for planting
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Even though we finish harvesting for the year in October, we were still working in the Vegetable Garden in November. While we're still working on planning next year's garden, some crops - like garlic - should be planted in the fall for next summer's harvest, so in early November we were out planting Italian Red garlic in one of our beds. We were also monitoring how our cover crops were doing, and deciding what beds would need additional work to tuck them away for the winter.
 | Japanese turnips, harvested in November
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We're using overwintering crops in one bed as its cover crop - and one variety, the Japanese Turnips, don't seem to mind the cold at all. This would make a great side dish, fresh from the garden in the early winter! As the weather permits in December, we will be checking on the garden and working to prepare it for the spring. |
Prospecting for Seeds
By Maureen Horn, Mass Hort Librarian
 | Jedediah Strong Smith
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It's never too late to be surprised, and this November the Mass Hort librarian was astonished to learn the story of how one of the American West's most distinguished explorers took time out of his arduous travels to gather seeds which he hoped would be used by settled householders on the Atlantic coast. Jedediah Strong Smith was the fourth of twelve children when he was born to a pious New York farm family in 1799. During his short life, he survived every kind of physical danger as he traveled thousands of miles without maps and laid out the route of the Oregon Trail, traveled over the Mohave Desert, and crossed the Sierra Nevada. The eminent historian, Daniel Walker Howe, in his book What Hath God Wrought, suggests that by 1830, Smith "had seen more of the RockyMountain West than anyone else in his time - and more than most since." Because he left so many maps for posterity, you may think that during this time he did nothing but record trail markings and dodge grizzly bears, but you would be wrong. Jedediah often thought about housewives who gardened at a great distance from him and on December 27, 1830,wrote to John Stuart Skinner, an accomplished botanist and lawyer, who lived in Baltimore: Dear Sir:. . . During my travels of nine years in the country of the sources of the Missouri river and in the Territory of Mexico and the United States, west of the Rocky Mountains, and on the coast of the Pacific, I have at different times gathered the seeds of such shrubs and plants as appears peculiar to that country. Some of these may claim consideration from their inherent qualities , and others may find a place in the gardens of the curious from the fact that they are natives of the most distant and wild territory of our Republic. . . . a few samples I inclose to you, in the hope that you will make such a disposition of them that I may in some future time see the blooming in the gardens of the Atlantic.  | | Josh Brolin portrays Jedediah Smith in the film Into the West |
How homesick he must have been! The letter was found in Volume IX of The New England Farmer and Horticultural Journal, published in Boston in 1831 and discovered recently by Joe J. Molter, a member of the Board of directors of the Jedediah Smith Society headquartered in Stockton, California, www.jedediahsmithsociety.org. Delighted to learn that we still exist 184 years after Jedediah did his prospecting, Mr. Molter contacted the Mass Hort Library on October 7, 2013, enclosing a copy of an article he wrote for his society's newsletter in which he shows that John Stuart Skinner followed up on Jedediah Smith's request that the seeds be passed on to a worthy recipient. It seems that Skinner had recently been invited to join the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and could think of no better sign of his gratitude for that honor than to forward, on February 21, 1831, the eight packets of seeds, with their descriptions of the living plant and wher e they were found. The Proceedings of M. H. S. which summarize a meeting held on March 19 show that our first president General Dearborn acknowledged receipt of the precious package, and, on March 26, it was decreed that the seeds would be distributed by lot to "subscribers".
Along the Santa Fe Trail on May 27, 1831, Jedediah Smith departed from his wagon train party to look for a water hole. His body was never found, but he has lived on in print and film, most recently in 2005, when he was portrayed by Josh Brolin in the film, "Into the West". Mr. Molter asked the Mass Hort Library if we had any idea what the disposition of the seeds was. We had to answer that we couldn't give any names to the fortunate few who received them, but that we do know that the Society's meetings were held in offices above John B. Russell's seed store. We also know that William Kenrick of Newton, one of our founding members who sat on the Committee on Fruit Trees, had a nursery in Newton, where he sold shrubs and fruits during the 1830's. We proudly possess many of his seed catalogs from the period and invite the public to the library to view our treasures. You may be surprised to learn how many other antique catalogs you can see here. |
Why We Garden - The Thanksgiving Edition
By Neil Sanders
Leaflet Contributor
One of my wife's most popular programs for garden clubs has the somewhat cumbersome title, "Planning, Preparing and Planting the Vegetable Garden". In it, she takes clubs through all the stages of getting involved in creating a home garden; imparting considerable wisdom along the way.  | | Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving |
The program ends with a slide titled 'Why We Garden' and the bullet points are 'Remembering where food comes from', 'Eating truly fresh vegetables' and 'Eating well long after the garden is gone'. Betty expounds on each benefit before raising the lights and asking for questions. The illustration for that slide is an array of home-canned fruits and vegetables in a larder. I have an idea for a much better one: a photograph of our Thanksgiving dinner. This year, we had a sumptuous dinner. The remarkable part is that nearly all of it came from our garden - notwithstanding the fact that the garden was plowed under at the beginning of November. We started with a superb vichyssoise - potato leek soup for the uninitiated. Hours before the garden was eradicated for 2013, I pulled the last of our leeks - more than a dozen plump, succulent and fragrant specimens that had shrugged off the sub-freezing nights. We have been eating those leeks ever since. Our Thanksgiving repast used the last of them and they were delicious. Our main course included creamed onions, green beans, corn, turnips, butternut squash, turkey and dressing. Everything on the table grew in our garden except the turkey and dressing, and those two items were liberally seasoned with rosemary, thyme and sage from our kitchen garden. The dressing contained onions and celery from our garden. I draw the line, though, at growing wheat.  | | Golden Vegetables |
The corn bears special mention. During the prime corn harvesting season in August and September, we ate two or four ears of corn every day as each 'square' ripened. Inevitably, though, there was an overlap when one square was not completely picked while the next was clearly ripe. During that interregnum, we picked, shucked, blanched and quick-froze the excess corn. A day later, we sheared the cobs of their kernels and froze them in plastic bags. The resulting product is startling: it tastes nothing like the frozen corn you find in supermarkets. Rather, it is just a shade off what was picked back in August and September: incredibly sweet and crunchy. We had our salad course after the main meal. I had sincere doubts whether the lettuce we transplanted to our cold frame in September would survive the pair of 15 degree nights and 40 mph winds we endured in mid-November. I covered the cold frame with a tarp and crossed my fingers. To my surprise, several of the lettuce heads came through without freeze damage. It tasted grand. Dessert was a sweet potato chocolate nut cake; a recipe straight out of the Victory Garden Cookbook. I confess we did not grow sweet potatoes this year. However, I did watch them grow in an adjoining plot on our community garden. One enterprising gardener purchased several hundred 'slips' and parceled them out among more than a dozen plot holders. In September, we bartered red peppers and okra for half a dozen plump specimens grown by a gardening neighbor. They were terrific in late November and will be even sweeter in mid-winter. The squash we ate will, at the rate we are consuming it, last until spring. We harvested more than two dozen Waltham Butternut squashes, each weighing several pounds. Like the sweet potatoes, winter squash 'sweetens' as it rests following harvest. I see a lot of squash soup in our future.
What will be on the table next year? During the main course, Betty casually noted that the only reason cranberries are grown in bogs is for ease of harvesting; cranberry bushes grow just fine on dry land. Stay tuned for further developments.
Neal Sanders' latest mystery, 'Deadly Deeds', which continues the story of 'The Garden Club Gang' has just been published and is available at Amazon.com and at bookstores.
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December Horticultural Hints
by Betty Sanders
BettyOnGardening.com
The rain helped but...Three plus inches of rain at the end of November and beginning of December certainly helped alleviate the droughty fall we have been suffering, but your plants need more water before the ground freezes and the trees and shrubs can no longer take up water. Plants suffer when they have not stored enough water for the winter. If we have more mild days, pull out the hoses and let them run slowly to soak the ground, especially around those trees and shrubs planted in the last few years.
 After the water, mulch. We all use mulch in the summer to keep weeds down and improve water retention, but it also has a role to play in the winter. A layer of mulch applied now will help prevent plants being dislodged by cycles of freezing and thawing. Cold weather doesn't kill hardy plants, but being pushed out of the soil by mid winter thaws will. A layer of chopped leaves is a great winter mulch that will mostly break down to improve the soil by spring. Who could ask for more than protection and compost in one?
Get ready for spring-clean up your tools. Outdoor gardening season is over, but it's important to clean and organize your gardening equipment now. Send your mower in for service and you won't care if it's not ready for three months. Wash the dirt off shovels, rakes and trowels. Then remove any rust with a piece of steel wool, and finish by rubbing on a light coating of oil. Clean and sharpen edges pruners, loppers and other cutting tools. In the spring you'll be glad you can start gardening without like new tools.
It's also a good time to do an inventory. If you need a new shovel, you lost the hand hoe; whatever it is, put it on your list to Santa. There's nothing like a finding a pair of Felco pruners under the tree.
Reindeer welcome, deer not! If deer are a regular problem for you, there are two steps to take to improve your plants chances of surviving without being "pruned" this winter. First, when the temperature goes over 40° you can spray the trees with a readily available repellents made from putrefied eggs and garlic. The smell disappears for you in a few hours, but it continues to deter the deer for up to a month.
Second, wrap those plants the deer prefer with black plastic wire and secure it to stakes placed a few inches away from the plants. The fencing will be virtually invisible to anyone admiring your winter landscape, but effective at keeping the deer from nibbling your trees and shrubs to death. Small plants (those under four feet) should also have a piece of fencing secured over the top so the deer cannot simply reach in to dine.
Houseplant check-up
Problems pop up quickly inside our hot, dry houses. Keep an eye on plants, particularly the ones that are new or have had problems in the past. Catch it quickly and you'll have the best chance of beating the mites or white flies or scale-or whatever appears.
Evergreen arrangements
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Create inexpensive seasonal arrangements by cutting evergreens, especially pine, spruce and firs, arranging them in a shallow dish or in floral foam. Then cut the flowers from a supermarket bunch of red carnations or white baby's breath to size and you'll have added a great holiday centerpiece to your home.
Betty Sanders is a Lifetime Master Gardener with the Massachusetts Master Gardening Association. You can read more of her Horticultural Hints at www.BettyOnGardening.com
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Limited Edition Guy Wolff Massachusetts Horticultural Society Pot and Amaryllis for the Holidays
This beautiful pot and amaryllis is offered only to Massachusetts Horticultural Society members. White Flower Farm, Guy Wolff, and Massachusetts Horticultural Society have teamed up to develop this unique gift. To order, please visit: http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com/86496-product.html |
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