Welcome to The Gardens at Elm Bank new Visitors Center! The Vistors Center is located in Flora, the Tudor-style shingle and stucco gardener'scottage, which was built by Benjamin Cheney in 1876. It is adjacent to the parking lot. The staff is there to greet garden visitors and provide information about the property and Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Opening for the garden season, May 1- Columbus Day, the gardens are opened Tuesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Garden admission is $8.00 per adult, children under 12 free. Members enjoy free admission. Memberships may be purchased in the Visitors Center (or online): individuals:  $55 and family:  $90.  Memberships and admissions help support the care and maintenance of The Gardens at Elm Bank and Mass Hort's educational mission.

All parking is in the two main parking lots opposite the Visitors Center. We have established new traffic and walking patterns.  

Also, Flora has a new members lounge so you can relax before or after your garden visit. Thank you to donations by Diane Valle, Susan Mooney, and Needham Bank and many others for their help with our new Visitors Center a reality.

 Art Gallery Opens in Flora Visitors Center

The Flora Visitors Center Art Gallery is currently featuring watercolors by Wellesley artist Yale Nicolls. Yale Nicolls is a watercolorist who has participated in many juried shows throughout New England. She is a board member and past president of Wellesley Society of Artists, and is a member of the Rhode Island and New England Water Color Societies. Enjoy her beautiful paintings of flowers in this show- many were painted from The Gardens at Elm Bank.   

DATE:  Sunday, June 7th

TIME: 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

LOCATION:  The Gardens at Elm Bank -Maple Grove and Crockett Garden

Let's kick off the summer in the gardens!

Enjoy a picnic in the gardens with live music 

Mass Hort members and their families and friends are all welcome! 

Bring chairs, blankets, and a picnic! 

Live Music by

LiveWireBoston

 including jazz, blues & bossa.

RSVP - Amy Rodrigues - amyrodrigues2@aol.com  or 617-933-4961

or just come!

GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:

No rain date.

Tom Wessels

Woodstock VT: The Countryman Press; 1997/2010

I walked with Tom Wessels around Appleton Farms in Ipswich several years ago. This was a game-changing experience for me.  Walking in the woods, along back roads and trails, I would always test my familiarity with trees and understory plants, noting the unfamiliar to check up later in my hort ID manual.  But now I scrutinize every tree, every stone wall, every stump and snag and boulder, and see if I can understand, through careful observation, what has happened to the landscape over the past four hundred years - wherever I am.  Hikes, even casual walks around the neighborhood, are much more interesting and meaningful.

Wessels teaches how to 'read the landscape' by showing how each tree and stone wall reveals clues about the past, no matter what condition they may be in. A horizontal tree, or even a stump, offers its own narrative, contributing a puzzle piece to the layered history that unfolded around it.

Central New England (including Tom's 35 acre wooded Vermont landscape) is a phytogeographic region - an area that shares the same climate and is characterized by similar vegetation. There are only three factors that affect the composition of plant communities:  topography, substrate and disturbance history.  While a weekend horticulturist or botanist might identify the associated plant families by virtue of knowing the first two conditions, the third category is where the interesting story lies.

Reading the Landscape: A Natural History of New England involves more than natural history - it also involves cultural history. Do you know the difference between a stone wall built to frame a pasture vs a crop field?  What runty, crumpled apple trees reveal? What caused a huge wound at the base of the really large, mature oak tree, and what that says about the other trees in the neighborhood?

Interspersed with ecology and botany are narratives about the effects of Native Americans on the New England landscape, logging patterns over two hundred years, and farming practices of the early settlers. A drawing of a particular scene in the woods at the beginning of each chapter sets the stage for Wessels' detective work. Looking at each of these elements, he works backward in time, reading the ages and kinds of trees and saplings, their relationships with each other, evaluating the type of stone walls, characteristics of stumps and fallen trees, even undulations in the topography, to piece together a narrative of what might have occurred on the site over time. 

This is rich and fascinating reading, but more information than one can carry mentally out into the field. Wessels has solved this problem by creating a handy field guide of all these clues to carry around with you.

After Tom Wessels' talk & walk around Elm Bank on May 30, you'll be able to buy his books. If you have to miss his enjoyable and informative visit, I recommend getting both books. Once you learn how to read the landscape - especially your landscape - you will have a better understanding of the patterns that shaped the land, and a deeper emotional connection to the place around you.

Pamela Hartford is a landscape historian, writer and preservation consultant living in Salem MA

Mass Hort has named 2015 the "Year of Kids and Family." In The Gardens at Elm Bank, our goal is to connect as many children as possible to gardening and the natural world. We have introduced several new programs to meet that goal. So be sure to bring gardeners of every age to come, learn and grow.

For families visiting the gardens, we have introduced our Family Discovery Guide. This guide will tour you through our gardens, sharing history of our site and the science of plants. The guide is full of activities to engage the whole family. As the gardens are ever changing, you can use this guide throughout the season. Be sure to pick up a copy at our new Visitors Center, Flora, or download a copy from our website.

In addition to this guide that can be accessed at any time, Mass Hort is excited to offer family programs in Weezie's Garden. In the setting of our children's garden, using the backdrop of trees, flowers, insects and new garden features, we will bring garden lessons to life. Hands-on activities, games, crafts and explorations will connect our youngest visitors to the natural world. Programs are designed for children of all ages and are drop-in from 10am to 11am. To start off the season, during the month of May, they will be held just on Saturdays and Sundays, but for the rest of the summer, they will be held on Tuesday through Sunday.  Open season lasts through Columbus Day. 

On the subject of Weezie's Children's Garden... as I write at my desk I can hear the sound of construction vehicles in Weezie's. Work is currently being done to restore the water elements in the garden. New features will include a new water tower, a pre-historic garden, a pollinators garden, an enchanted woodland and a new garden classroom. There will be many more exciting things for children to explore.  Please pardon our appearances as work is being done; construction should be completed by the end of the month.

Taking Plants on the Road

As the education coordinator for Mass Hort, I hold several roles in serving our mission. Perhaps my favorite is delivering the Plantmobile programs. In this season of community events and end-of-year classroom fun, the Plantmobile is very busy.

Plantmobile

Perhaps you've seen the Plantmobile at an event, or maybe you have had it come to your local school. It's a travelling van that delivers plant science programs to children in preschool through middle school. I've been driving all over Eastern Mass this spring, working with families and students. For example, I visited middle schoolers to review the anatomy and ecology of plants. The students will be installing a native prairie habitat outside their school in Roxbury. We worked with several families on the North Shore to sow the seeds of vegetable gardens and discuss with kids the importance of healthy eating. I'll soon be visiting a preschool in downtown Boston, where we'll plant and study its rooftop garden. The Plantmobile was a part of several Earth Day STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) festivals, planting pollinator friendly plants with kids and talking with them about the importance of plants.

We've worked with more than 1,000 kids already, and there are still two more months of spring programs to be delivered. Thanks to all the volunteers that have helped, and to the garden clubs that have supported Plantmobile visits in their area.

"I am passionate about plants from their cultivation and use to their physiology and interactions with their environment. I am passionate about food systems and access to nutritious and local foods for everyone and work to raise awareness of food justice issues in our state and region. I am enthusiastic about sharing these passions with the members of Mass Hort and our many visitors here at Elm Bank and am looking forward to working within the Massachusetts community to bring educational programming to school children of all ages. I am excited to be at Mass Hort where I can combine my life passions into programming and bring about change that will honor the past, present and future of this society."

She is most likely to be encountered at the Vegetable Garden this summer, and we're sure that conversations will be beneficial to all participants.

by Neal Sanders

Leaflet Contributor

The landscaper didn't bother to reach down and pick up a handful of dirt to assess its merits.  Not that he could have.  Instead, he just tried unsuccessfully to loosen a clod with his heel.  After three attempts he shook his head.

"I see this all the time," he said.  "Builder's crud.  There's nothing you can do with it."

Fifty feet away from where we were standing was a silent testament to the truth of his statement: a large pile of stones and a few square feet of brownish-gray ground where, a week earlier, I had used our ancient, wheezing rototiller.  Every few feet the rototiller would go 'clunk' as it struck more 'potatoes', as Rocks Of A Certain Size are known in the parlance of the landscaping industry.  Three hours with that rototiller convinced me this was not a do-it-yourself project.

At our new home we have nothing but rocks

He was not the first landscaper we contacted and he would not be the last.  We spoke with four in all, each one delivering the same message:  we have a very expensive problem on our hands.

The problem is that, at our new home, we want a garden, not a lawn.  If all we wanted was a lawn, 'builder's crud' would be fine as a base.  Just add six inches of top soil and spray on grass seed.  If we wanted a lawn with a few trees, we need only whack through the rocks with a pickax and add a little compost.

When we explained that there would be no grass on the property, the landscapers' mouths would form a little 'oh'.  That's when kicking the ground would begin.

Digging a foot-deep trench for a light pole pulled up these rocks

The solution was a variant on this:  dig out the top eighteen inches of crud.  Truck it off or use it to create berms, walls, and other topographical features on the property.  Next, bring in two feet of good, screened loam, plus peat moss, plus compost.  Top it off with mulch. Then, plant anything you want.

How much loam will it take to create this garden?  Let's do the math:  Let's say the property has 120 front feet and all but ten feet of that width (the driveway) will be garden.  The house is set back 75 feet from the street.  So, the front garden is 8,250 square feet.  Multiply that by two feet of loam for a requirement of 16,500 cubic feet of loam.  Translate that into cubic yards: 611.

And that's the front part of the property. There's also the back and the side, though it is a little less daunting in size.  Does anyone want to venture a guess as to the cost of a cubic yard of screened loam?

As one of the landscapers delicately put it, "the cost of my crew for three or four days will be a minor component of this job."

Wild Holly Lane

So, why are we doing this?  The reason is simple.  Over a period of sixteen years, Betty created a stunningly beautiful garden at our home on Wild Holly Lane.  We opened it for the Garden Conservancy among other charitable organizations, and the Wall Street Journal did a very nice piece on it.  But the garden ultimately became a maintenance burden.  The new garden will retain the beauty of Wild Holly Lane while making low maintenance a key factor in the choice of plant material and overall design.  It will emphasize (though not be limited to) native plants, and will put into practice all of the things that Betty has emphasized in her garden talks and writing.

My job will continue to be to move rocks and dig holes.  The 'builder's crud', I'm leaving to the experts with their heavy machinery.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Neal Sanders is the author of nine mysteries.  His most recent, 'Murder in Negative Space', was published in March and is available at bookstores and through Amazon.com.

Part 4

The Mid-Sixties: "A Service Organization"

From 1963 to 1965, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society strived to extend its voice and influence with a global reach and with social consciousness.  One way to raise awareness of novel gardening practice was through the introduction of Japanese bonsai instruction, and the path to community service was through offering correspondence classes to inmates at the Norfolk County House of Correction, with the hope that the instruction would help them find gainful employment upon release.

In the 1964 Year Book, among the many photographs of varied activities, there is the recognition that "the Massachusetts Horticultural Society is basically a service organization and that, ultimately, its benefits extend far beyond its membership." The leadership was aware that one way to build its influence was to cultivate the friendship of people in high places.  Thus, the annual report shows a picture of President Oliver Wolcott escorting Mrs. Endicott Peabody, the First Lady of Massachusetts, to a preview of the New England Spring Flower Show at Wonderland.

 A focus of outreach for many years was Horticulture magazine, and the waxing and waning of its success was a preoccupation of numerous administrators.  In 1964, it was 60 years old, and the bad news was that in 1963, the subscription renewal rate was only 44.3%, which indicated that something was drastically wrong with the publication.  As a consequence, the content was analyzed and revamped, with the hope that a flow of ideas from readers would sustain a turnaround.

Evidence that the M. H. S. Library enjoyed international renown was the fact that more than 90 libraries from around the world purchased the 3 volume Dictionary Catalog of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society when the reproduction of the catalog cards of all 32,000 volumes was published in 1963.  The facsimile was considered up-to-date technology at the time, but late in the year the first Xerox machine was installed.  The news was heralded as a boon to the library because now exact copies could be sent around the world without the book leaving the building.

In 1963, the Society went through a significant change when Carlton Lees became Executive Secretary and Director of Publications.  He had served in a similar capacity at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.  Always looking forward, he directed the installation of a new telephone system that had a direct line to the library, which was a great convenience to the members.  He arranged for major rewiring to overcome frequent electrical breakdowns, and, for safety, all gas lines were removed from Horticultural Hall.

Carlton Lees was also a leader in helping the public become aware of the need to protect the environment and appreciate its beauty.  He was a delegate to the White House Conference on Natural Beauty, which was called by President Lyndon Johnson in May of 1965.  The Special Medal awards for the year reflected the Society's commitment to helping people enjoy nature when it gave the Jackson Dawson Medal to Peter John Mezitt of Hopkinton because for many years he and his family had shown good plants to the public and displayed them "in many ways to increase the public's desire for horticultural perfection."

Mass Hort is deeply indebted to our amazing crew of volunteers, garden keepers and Master Gardener assistance with the planting and maintenance of our gardens and delivery of programs on behalf of the society.

In an effort to recognize volunteers for outstanding achievement, Mass Hort has begun a new program for volunteer recognition. It began on Earth Day when nearly 100 volunteers gathered together to help kick of our gardening season. 

For 2015, we would like to offer tangible recognition of the hard work, freely given, which contributes to the vibrancy and relevance of the oldest formally organized horticultural institution in the United States.

At the conclusion of each shift, volunteers are asked to record their times in a volunteer log.  Logs will be located in the Mass Hort office, library, garden sheds in Weezie's and The Garden to Table Garden, and the Putnam greenhouse.  Your hours will be tallied and tokens of appreciation will be awarded at the fall volunteer recognition potluck, for use in 2016.

Volunteer levels

25 hours - an Mass Hort memorabilia item

50 hours - complimentary attendance at one "Thursday Night at the Hort" lecture for you and a guest

100 hours - two tickets to the Mass Hort Festival of Trees

200 hours - choice of one greenhouse raised seedling (from a selection chosen by Mass Hort horticultural staff)

300 hours - complimentary season's pass to the 2016 "Thursday Night at the Hort" lecture series

500 hours - private tour for you and a guest of The Gardens at Elm Bank by the Director of Horticulture

The volunteer with the most accrued hours for the 2015 gardening season will receive tickets for him/herself and a guest to the 2016 Honorary Medals Dinner.

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society runs its many gardens and programs with the invaluable assistance of talented and dedicated volunteers.

Thanks again on behalf of the staff and board of Mass Hort!