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

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

Letter from the President

Dear Friends,

As the snow continues to pile up, we are thinking green, beautiful colors, fragrant flowers, and of course, the flower show! This year's theme for the Boston Flower and Garden Show is "Romance in the Garden". Mass Hort committees have interpreted that theme for our exhibit: "Romance in the Garden". For Floral Design, Division I, the theme is "That's Amore!", Design Division II's theme is "I do, I do", and for Photography, it's "Budding Affairs".

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society Exhibit tells a love story, inspired by two romantic love stories that took place at Elm Bank in Wellesley. The first begins at the beginning of the the 20th century, when Alice Cheney - daughter of the family who owned the estate at the time - and Dr. William Baltzell fell in love and were married. Their love of each other and this estate began with their two-year world tour honeymoon, during which they shipped unique pieces from far away places back to their estate. turning the property into the beautiful and historic landscape that it is today.

The second love story involves the son of Mrs. Baltzell's estate superintendent, Henry Frost. In 1938 Henry and his family lived in the Superintendent's Cottage. His son, Ray, courted his childhood sweetheart, Betty, at Elm Bank. Ray and Betty enjoyed exploring the beautiful grounds and canoeing along the Charles River. They eventually married and went on to spend seventy years together. The Mass Hort Exhibit, ' Eden on the Charles', recreates an intimate picnic area alongside the bank of the Charles River.

Many brides and grooms have said "I do" at Elm Bank or celebrated their wedding reception on the this beautiful property. Did you? Do you have a romantic story to share? If so, we want to hear from you! Click here to tell your story and to share it at the flower show! The author of the most romantic story will receive two tickets to the flower show!

That's Amore! Happy Valentine's Day to you!

Kathy

Enjoy your Mass Hort Membership Benefit of Flower Show Tickets!

Boston Flower & Garden Show: March 12-16, 2014

FOR ONLINE TICKETS AND INFORMATION:

Mass Hort Member Flower Show tickets available online beginning February 13th!

The Boston Flower & Garden Show will be here soon! The Flower Show will be held this year on March 12 -16^th at the Seaport World Trade Center. Mass Hort is again fulfilling all of its members' Flower Show tickets online with E-ticketing.

Member E-tickets will be ready for online retrieval and printing by members beginning on February 13^th. Mass Hort will send emails and a postcard to each member with instructions on how to retrieve and print each member's allotment of complimentary Flower Show ticket(s). Members will need their Membership ID Number to retrieve their ticket(s).

Additional, discounted tickets may be purchased by Members for $18.00 per ticket. Discounted tickets are ONLY available at time of online ticket retrieval. (There are a limited number of discounted tickets available).

PAPER TICKETS - FOR MEMBERS WITHOUT EMAIL

Member Paper Tickets will be mailed to members that do not have an email address on file with Mass Hort.

If you do not have printer access and need paper tickets, please call Amy Rodrigues at 617-933-4963 or email membership@masshort.org.

Please watch for your notifications and see you at the Show!

Volunteer Opportunities with Mass Hort at the Flower Show

Click on the link below to sign up.

Show dates: We have many volunteer opportunties during the show, March 12-16, 2014, as well as pre and post setup: March 8-17. Volunteering is a great way to enjoy the show, the back of the house scene, and meet lots of new friends!

Mass Hort and the Meaning of Flowers: Thinking Like Tiffany

Maureen Horn, Mass Hort Librarian

As Valentine's Day approaches, it's good to remember that once upon a time, several silver designers were enchanted by the romance of flowers and other plants and the sentimental significance and the messages of love they could convey. Sophia Lufkin, a second year Master's student at the Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture in New York City, has conducted research in Mass Hort's library, as well as in the holdings of the library at Tiffany & Company.

Illustrations of the Principal Natural Orders of the Vegetable Kingdom, by Professor Daniel Oliver (Chapman and Hall, 1874) , illustrated by Walter Hood Fitch, and Studies of Trees in Winter, by Annie Oakes Huntington (1902), were useful resources for transferring nature's objects in precise detail to silver objects. According to Ms. Lufkin, Thomas Meehan's The Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States in Their Botanical, Horticultural, and Popular Aspects (1878), is one of the most influential books in Mass Hort's current collection that was used by Tiffany designers. Meehan was the organizer

of the Horticulture Hall at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. He wrote the book two years after the fair, so that people would not forget the uplifting effects of horticulture.

During that era, one could not be unaware that the contemplation of nature was held up as a source of improvement. And more than any other silver product, flatware, an intimate part of the family dinner, was constantly before the public eye. Flatware was also a reminder of romance because it was usually acquired as a wedding gift.

The most useful book for supporting Ms. Lufkin's insight into America's fascination with flowers, was by Edward Sprague Rand, Jr., an active member and library supporter at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. His Flowers for the Parlor Garden (1863), says, "There is a secret influence arising from these bright gems of nature, which imperceptibly makes me holier and purer." It is salutary to remember that Mass Hort has not only reflected the culture it lives in, but has also influenced it.

Sophia Lufkin has made a great contribution to the Society by donating her informative paper, "Virtue and Ingenuity on the Table: Floral Imagery on American Silver Flatware, 1870 - 1900".

Book Review
Queen Elizabeth in the Garden: A Story of Love, Rivalry, and Spectacular Gardens

By Trea Martyn

(Katonah, NY: BlueBridge, 2012)

Reviewed by Patrice Todisco

Two gardens, one queen and a competition fueled by passion, power and politics. In the meticulously researched book, Queen Elizabeth in the Garden: A Story of Love, Rivalry, and Spectacular Gardens, Trea Martyn recounts the decade-long struggle between Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and William Cecil, Baron Burghley to win the favor of Queen Elizabeth I by building lavish gardens and providing extravagant entertainments.

Elizabeth's passion for gardens was legendary. Each summer she and her court abandoned London for the countryside where they would lodge, often for weeks at a time, with noble families. These visits were highly coveted by Dudley, a close confidant harboring romantic intentions and Cecil, her chief political advisor intent on keeping Dudley at bay. To entice Elizabeth to visit, and amuse her once she arrived, they created gardens and landscapes of increasing complexity, each bolder and more elaborate than the next. The end results were masterpieces of Renaissance design.

Of the two Dudley was the more flamboyant combining sensory experiences with landscape improvements on a grand scale. On one visit he was rumored to spend more than ten million dollars improving Kenilworth Castle and grounds, building towers with deluxe suites and creating wide-open open spaces resembling piazzas. Elaborate firework displays and entertainments lasted for hours and entire villages were submerged to create a lake on which a dramatic, emotionally-charged performance designed to woo the queen was enacted. A sensational Italian garden, filled with exotic flowers, herbs, statuary and fountains added to Kenilworth's allure.

Not to be outdone, Cecil hired English botanist John Gerard to oversee the gardens at Theobalds Palace. Gerard, the leading expert on herbs and rare plants, had contact with the greatest plantsmen in Europe and he slowly established the garden with such delicacy and seasonal subtlety that it resembled a paradise on earth. Elizabeth, devoted to herbal cures, had a refined sense of smell and particularly enjoyed visiting Theobalds Palace during the spring season.

Queen Elizabeth in the Garden: A Story of Love, Rivalry and Spectacular Gardens contains multiple plot twists as the two battle for Elizabeth's affection. She, ever the monarch, "played one off against the other" and in the process changed the course of English garden history.

Sadly, there are no remaining Elizabethan gardens in England. Martyn notes that Theobalds Palace does not even exist on a modern map having been subsumed by a public park, The Cedars, laid out in the 18th century landscape style. While plans are afoot to develop a conservation plan for Theobalds Palace, the garden at Kenilworth Castle, overseen by English Heritage, has been recreated utilizing advances in garden archaeology and a 1575 description of the garden (the last year Elizabeth visited). It opened to the public in May, 2009 and additional information and a garden plan can be found at: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/kenilworth-castle/elizabethan-garden/introduction/.

Providing a new perspective on landscape history, Queen Elizabeth in the Garden: A Story of Love, Rivalry and Spectacular Gardens, is an engrossing read. The book is extensively notated with a select bibliography and its epilogue brings the past into the present reminding the reader that the gardens were indeed fit for a queen.

First published in Great Britain in 2008, under the title Elizabeth in the Garden by Faber and Faber Limited.

Patrice Todisco writes about parks, gardens and the public realm at www.landscapenotes.com.

Countdown to the Boston Marathon

Pete Isberg, Mass Hort's Marathon runner, tells us that it is 72 days until Patriots Day, and that he is still confident of completing the course. He had a setback last month when he strained his hamstring, but after rest and rehabilitation to build up his mileage, he feels in top form again. Just this past week he achieved 15 miles. The funds that he is raising through his CrowdRise website are also flowing at the expected rate, and he is $2,345 closer to the $4,000 he has pledged for MassHort. If you would like to know how you can help, visit

http://www.crowdrise.com/PeteIsberg2014BostonMarathon/fundraiser/peteisberg.

February Horticultural Hints

by Betty Sanders

www.BettyOnGardening.com

Getting ready for spring. Yes, the forecast is for more snow and more cold, but now is the time to plan, if not plant. If you haven't ordered your seeds yet, pull out the catalogs or go online and do so. The new, the unique, the old favorite seldom are available on the seed racks in stores. It's also time to pull out the books and saved magazine articles and begin making plans for your vegetable garden, a redesign of your yard or just the new plants you want to fill in your beds. One day you will look out quite astonished to find that spring has arrived. Be ready when that happens.

Classes and clubs. Many organizations offer classes during the late winter and early spring to help you get the latest information on plants, insects, diseases, replanting or redesigning your garden. Look around and sign up for those that meet your needs. Also, if you're not already a member of one, consider joining a garden club; most of which offer lectures or workshops at monthly meetings as part of dues. You will be with others who love to garden and learn from folks who will become friends.

Pruning. February is the time to begin pruning anything that does not bloom in the spring. (If you prune spring bloomers now, you are removing flowers.) Bare branches reveal a tree or shrub's true form, making decisions about removing excess growth easier. Always keep the natural shape in mind. Trying to force a tree into a shape that is not natural to it is bad for the tree and a continuing load of work for you.

Cutting back water sprouts is an important and easy task. Damage, bad pruning or genetics can lead a tree to produce these useless branches. They are very easy to spot now since they are almost always vertical, reaching for the sun and lacking side branches. Cut them off now and your tree or shrub will be off to a better start this spring.

Before you begin cutting, sharpen your pruners and loppers. It is a much harder job with dull blades. And, leave anything you can't reach from the ground to the professionals -ladders, sharp tools and power equipment do not mix!

If you had storm damage this winter, a mild day is the perfect time to go out, gather the downed branches and get them ready to be chipped or carted off to the municipal compost pile. There may be more storms, but anything you do now saves you time when spring arrives.

Valentine's Day. In my opinion, February 14th is the worst day to get fresh flowers. I love Valentine's Day (it's the day I was married), but cut flowers have been mistreated in every possible way to have a large supply ready on the one day. They are overpriced because of demand and seldom at their best. For many years now, I have received pots of forced bulbs a week or more before the big day, or a gift certificate from a favorite nursery, taped to a long stick and placed in my favorite vase. In my house these are signs of love and a promise that spring is not so very far away.

Your garden journal. Don't forget to include weather, especially the unseasonably warm or unbearably cold, the amount and type of precipitation and whatever you spy as you look or walk about your garden. What birds are feeding in your garden? Have any buds begun to swell on your plants?

You can find more Horticultural Hints at www.BettyOnGardening.com.

The Winter Garden Club Meeting

By Neil Sanders
Leaflet Contributor

I was the guest speaker at a garden club on Boston's South Shore in late January. This winter has been a very good time for 'Gardening Is Murder'; clubs want to be entertained rather than educated, especially when there is a foot of snow on the ground. And what I provide is, for all intents and purposes, entertainment: the practice of gardening packaged as humor.

Because my presentation involves PowerPoint, I typically arrive well before the meeting starts so that my setting up is not disruptive. I sit quietly through the business meeting, and then I get up and do my thing.

But as I sit, I also listen, and this club's business meeting was an eye-opener into the purpose and workings of an active garden club. Even in the heart of winter, the club is vibrant.

Like most clubs, this one has a 'garden therapy' group that does outreach at retirement homes. There was a report on the club's most recent outing - making small floral arrangements in vintage teacups with the residents of an area nursing home. There is also a 'junior gardeners' group that teaches horticulture to a group at the local school and it, too, had been active since the club's last meeting. If I heard the report correctly, the junior gardeners will go as a group to the Boston Flower & Garden Show in March under the club's sponsorship.

For its own members, the club is organizing a trip to the greenhouses at Wellesley College in early March as well as an overnight outing to the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden for August. The latter will include a talk by Bill Cullina, the Garden's executive director and a noted horticulturalist.

A wayside garden

Like many garden clubs, this one plants and maintains multiple wayside gardens around town. Those sites are currently under heavy snow cover but keeping up those locales from early May through the first heavy frost is not cheap. Clubs need to raise funds for their planting and this one will hold its annual plant sale at the end of May. Organizing and running such a sale is a volunteer-intensive effort and, through the meeting, a clipboard was circulated for members to sign up for specific tasks.

Garden clubs are also social groups and one of this one has a long-time member who is in uncertain health. The club devoted several minutes to discussing what it will do to make certain the elderly member knows she has not been forgotten by her many friends.

This was one club on one frigid morning in late January. All over the country there are other clubs doing similar things. They are educating themselves, doing outreach to their community, and beautifying their towns.

I guess the takeaway is this: come spring, you will likely read or hear about the garden club in your community raising money through some kind of an event - a plant sale or a garden tour, for example. Please participate. Whatever amount you pay will be recycled within your town to its benefit.

Neal's newest mystery, Deadly Deeds, is now available in bookstores and at Amazon.com in print and Kindle editions.

Advertisement

Collette Vacations and the Royal Horticultural Society Invite You to Tour The Gardens of London

Gardens Galore at the Chelsea Flower Show

Join the Royal Horticultral Society and Collette Vacations on a cultural tour of Britain, highlighted by the annual Chelsea Flower Show. Enjoy 'members only' opening day at this spectacular event! Gather together during a welcome reception with your hosts, the Royal Horticultural Society. Visit Windsor Castle, the official residence of the Royal family. Take a locally-guided panoramic tour of London and choose the perfect spot from a "menu" of the city's great restaurants. Stroll the gardens of Hampton Court Palace, favored home of Henry VIII. Visit Kew, home of the Royal Botanic Gardens - truly one of the world's most impressive horticultural collections. And complete your trip with a private gala dinner hosted at the Royal Horticultural Society flagship garden, Wisley, with cocktails in its world renowned GlassHouse.

Dates: May 17- 24 2014

Pricing: From $2,849* pp | 8 days * 9 meals (*varies depending on tour dates + airfare)

For more information contact:

Suzanne Higham (978)352-4650, srhigham@verizon.net

This is not a Mass Hort sponsored trip.

Tufts University Indoor Garden extends Mass Hort's Garden to Table Program

A Tufts University press release proudly featured its growing partnership with Mass Hort's Garden to Table Program, with Kathy Macdonald and Lisa Kamer:

BOSTON ( January 30, 2014) -The Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (USDA HNRCA) and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society are combining resources to raise vegetables in a new indoor garden on the university's Chinatown campus. Located in the street-level lobby of the USDA HNRCA, the garden is an extension of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society's Garden to Table initiative, which provides hands-on learning opportunities and educational support to people interested in growing their own vegetables. See the full press release

Boston Globe subscribers - Have You Received Your Silver Envelope Yet?

If you're a Boston Globe print or digital subscriber, you can help Mass Hort get free advertising in the Globe through their GRANT (Globe Readers and Nonprofits Together) program. When a silver envelope arrives in your mailbox, you can make Mass Hort your favorite nonprofit if you:

Open the silver envelope and pull out the form "check" for either $50 or $100.
On the 501 (c)(3) line, write: "Massachusetts Horticultural Society"
On the next location line, write: "Wellesley"
Mail the envelope today in the envelope provide to the Boston Globe
Program ends March 1

To learn more about the program, click here.

https://services.bostonglobe.com/grant/default.aspx

Why choose us?

We educate the public about the best ways to grow and enjoy plants
We promote stewardship of the environment
Our gardens and historical legacy inspire present day visitors with knowledge of what other horticultural practitioners have accomplished.

Thank your from your friends at Mass Hort.

Notes from the Vegetable Garden

By Susan Hammond

Some people think of winter as the quiet season for vegetable gardeners in New England. Not for us!

While winter limits the time we spend outside working in the vegetable garden, there's still plenty going on. In November and December we catch up on garden paperwork - unlike most smaller home vegetable gardens, this one has multiple documents and spreadsheets to keep track of what's going on. We also review the past season, looking at what worked, what didn't, and what should be changed for 2014.

Tours during the Downton Abbey event. Photo courtesy of J.W. Owen Photography

What worked? We gave lots of tours, both for organized events and drop-by visitors, and we want to keep that going. The "New and Unusual" bed attracted a lot of interest and let us show home gardeners the pluses and minuses of new crops. Based on how the crops did, we're going to move the Tomatoberry and Lunchbox Peppers into production and repeat the process with some of this year's new crops from Johnny's.

What will be different for next year? We need to improve our signage and start it earlier (add another spreadsheet for signs!). We need stronger tomato cages and to have them in place earlier (add another work session to build tomato cages). We need better compost - while we make our own, we use quite a lot so we also need to bring some in from outside (new compost sourced, tested).

One of us also attended the biennial New England Fruit and Vegetable Grower's conference in New Hampshire, which is a great way to learn about what's happening in farms all across the area, and what impacts this might have on Garden to Table. And the trade show is full of great ideas, too.

While this is going on, the seed catalogs start to arrive, and we

New crops for 2014 from Johnny's - here's our New and Unusual bed plan

start reading them. And reading them. And reading them again. By the time we do our major planning meeting and write up our seed order, we know the Johnny's catalog pretty much by heart! ("Where is the chard page?" "After Sweet Potatoes - under 'Swiss'".)

Then we get down to the nitty gritty of planning the Home Chef bed themes and what crops will go in them. Some themes return every year like Too Pretty to Eat and First Time Gardner. Others may come back after a hiatus, but be a little different, such as bringing back 2012's Pizza Garden but putting it in a big round planter. We also need to juggle placement of beds so we practice the best crop rotation we can, and we want the bed in the middle of the garden to have an eye-catching theme, different every year. We've picked one for 2014 and will tell you more about it next month.

We also start planning our Production crops at this time. Some Production bed assignments have to be made this early, such as the tomato beds, because we practice a three-year rotation for tomatoes in production. Other decisions will wait until March when we have an idea of what the spring weather might be and if we can sneak in some extra early crops or not.

But it's not all paperwork. We've been able to actually work in the dirt with vegetables at the indoor garden at Tufts (see separate article). The volunteers at Tufts, just like the ones at the Garden to Table garden, are engaged with the process of growing as with the crops, and are a real pleasure to work with. We're working with the Tufts crew to plan summer crops for them, and adding that into our seed order.

It's been a productive "quiet" season so far, and we are looking forward to spring, and to seeing you in the garden!