Jules Janick, James Troop Distinguished Professor of Horticulture at Purdue University, will speak in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on Monday, March 5, from 7 – 8:30, as part of the Director’s Lecture Series. Works of art from antiquity to the present constitute an alternate source of information on horticultural technology and science, providing significant information on subjects such as the history of technology, crop evolution, lost traits, and crop dispersal. Sources include ancient mosaics, sculpture, illustrations of medieval manuscripts, renaissance paintings, and illustrations from illuminated and printed herbals. The uses of art as a source of horticultural technology will be illustrated using examples of Paleolithic sculpture and painting, Egyptian and Mesopotamian sculpture and painting, ancient Greek paintings, Roman mosaics, Medieval illuminated herbals, and Renaissance art in its many manifestations including illustrated prayer books, fresco ceilings, paintings, drawings, sculpture, and woodcuts from printed herbals. The program is free but registration is required at 617-384-5277, or sign up on line at www.arboretum.harvard.edu.

To guarantee the best treatment for their sick children, patient families will travel from across the globe to Children’s Hospital Boston. Many of these families arrive in Boston with just the clothes on their backs and no temporary living arrangements. Newly renovated, named and opened, the Yawkey Family Inn (YFI) is just blocks from the hospital and doubles the amount of affordable housing available to Children’s families. With 22 bedrooms, shared bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen and common areas, the YFI offers all of the comforts of home to families during their greatest time of need.

This house was made possible, in large part, by the Yawkey Foundations, which awarded a $3 million gift to support the new home. Additionally, the Family Inn Foundation, a long-term partner of the Yawkey Foundations, generously donated its independently operated Family Inn on Sewall Avenue to the hospital. Created 25 years ago with the support of Jean Yawkey, the Family Inn has provided much needed accommodation for out-of-town patient families.

Last year, the New England Revolution and Major League Soccer donated a greenhouse to Children’s Yawkey Family Inn, bringing sunshine to families who’ve traveled far from home for their child’s care. The staff is looking for volunteers with green thumbs to help keep this space bright. An experienced gardener or gardeners must assess the required needs of the greenhouse, including maintenance, then schedule seasonal plantings, while giving tips to the program staff regarding continued maintenance of the greenhouse, which is located at 241 Kent Street in Brookline. If you are interested, please contact Sharon Healey at 617-919-3455.

Have you won a blue ribbon for your floral designs? Have you ever wanted to step onto the ‘big stage’ and show your talent?

Division II – the ‘open’ division of Blooms! at the Boston Flower & Garden Show – still has some openings for floral designers. You need not be a member of a garden club, but you should have both experience in designing and have won in competitions.  The payoff for competing is the recognition of your skills and imagination, and the admiration of the 65,000+ attendees at the show.  If you are interested, please contact Julie Pipe at juliepipe@comcast.net.

The long, warm days of midsummer are perfect for enjoying the beautiful natural landscape and unpretentious gardens of Sweden.  American Horticultural Society host John Floyd, along with Tour Escort Antonia Lloyd Owen of Specialtours, will take you on a journey from Uppsala – home of botanist Carl Linneaus – to Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Lund, taking in the formal gardens of historic castles as well as a variety of contemporary gardens.  For complete itinerary and information, call 866-627-6621, or visit www.ahs.org.  Picture below of Uppsala University Botanical Garden.

2012 marks the 100th Anniversary of the original gift of cherry trees from Japan to the United States in 1912. Planted at the Tidal Basin of the Potomac River in the nation’s capital and supplemented with more cherry trees over the years, the blossoming cherry trees of Washington DC have become a national treasure and attract hundreds of thousands of viewers to the “Cherry Blossom Festival” along the Potomac each spring. Japan will mark this Centennial with new gifts of cherry trees to Washington and to a number of other American cities, Boston among them. The Consulate General of Japan in Boston will arrange ceremonial cherry tree plantings in many Boston parks and public places. To accompany the new cherry trees, planning is now underway for a rich festival of Japanese cultural events in Boston, beginning in March 2012 and spanning more than three springtime months. Highlights of this festival include the events listed below. Many, many more festival events will be added during the coming weeks and months. For detailed information, schedules, details, and ticketing, please keep checking this website: www.japansocietyboston.org.

An Evening of Kabuki Dance
March 27: Paramount Theater, Boston
A spectacular presentation of classic dance pieces from the
Kabuki repertory, featuring Kabuki star performer Kotoji Bando.
(Presented by The Japan Society of Boston)

Anime Boston
April 6-8, Hines Convention Center, Boston
New England’s Largest Annual Celebration of
Japanese animation, comics and pop culture.
A not-to-be-missed festival and trade show of Anime art and publications.
Thousands attend, many in incredible anime costumes!

Boston Gagaku Concert
“From Centennial to Millennial Spring”
April 9, Boston Symphony Hall, Boston
The Kitanodai Gagaku Ensemble and
Members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra
will perform music by Tchaikovsky, and Gagaku
traditional Japanese Court Music.

Japan Society Annual Dinner
April 18, Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel, Boston
The Japan Society of Boston’s single largest annual gala event.
Keynote Speaker: Mr. Kazuo Inamori (Chairman of Japan Airlines and Founder/Honorary Chairman of Kyocera Corporation). Other guests of honor will include Japan’s internationally acclaimed wheelchair marathoner Ms. Wakako Tsuchida.

The Kioi Sinfonietta
May 1, Sanders Theater, Cambridge
Japan’s celebrated chamber orchestra will present a single concert appearance at Harvard’s beautiful Sanders Theater
(Presented by The Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard, & The Japan Society of Boston).

The Beauty & Mystery of Japanese Textiles
May 2, Remis Auditorium, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Reiko Sudo, Japan’s brilliant textile designer and founder
of the world famous NUNO textile shop will speak on the transformation of traditional Japanese textiles into
contemporary works of art.
(Presented by the MFA and The Japan Society of Boston as the 2012 Rad Smith Program in Japanese Art)
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Many other “Sakura Festival” events in Spring 2012 will include exhibits, performances, demonstrations, receptions, concerts, film programs, and symposia.

The 2012 New England Rose Society Convention will take place Friday, March 23 through Sunday, March 25 at the Best Western Mainstay Inn in Newport, Rhode Island.  This year’s convention will be hosted by the Rhode Island Rose Society.  Enjoy workshops, a rose show, educational programs, and receptions.  For complete information, visit www.arsyankee.org.  Ruby Celebration rose from Apuldram Roses (www.apuldramroses.co.uk)

Join the Philadelphia Horticultural Society at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, 12th and Arch Streets in Philadelphia, for the 2012 Philadelphia International Flower Show.  This year, the theme is Hawaii: Islands of Aloha.  Complete information and ticket purchase capabilities may be found at www.theflowershow.com. The 2012 Philadelphia International Flower Show will introduce visitors to a tropical experience that blends next-stage digital technology with the natural beauty and rich culture of the Hawaiian Islands. Guests will have fun, learn, and be wowed by real-time floral competitions, the world’s largest lettuce wall, internationally renowned speakers, and a new layout of displays.

Guests will enter the Show beneath dynamic projections of crashing waves and one of the most exciting displays of white orchids ever assembled. Towering palms, bamboo, green walls, and a plant canopy will immerse visitors in the Hawaiian rainforest.

A 25-foot-high waterfall will splash down into Pele’s Garden, an island of exotic flowers and plants where performers will conjure volcanic flames and the Fire Goddess. The islands will be celebrated in showcase gardens that highlight their culture through flowers and landscapes, performances and art.

Gardeners of all skill levels will find an ocean of ideas in the 150 free presentations held throughout the week, as well as dozens of educational displays that explore the latest gardening techniques and trends.

Shoppers will find an array of take-home products to get the garden started and wonderful gifts in the Marketplace, Meadowbrook Farm Store and Flower Show Shoppe. A Hawaiian Village will offer authentic crafts and products from the islands.

You are cordially invited to an elegant dinner to benefit Historic New England, with guest of honor Arie L. Kopelman, Vice Chairman of Chanel, Inc, and Event Chair Nina Longtine, on Friday, February 24, beginning at 7 pm (cocktails) and8:30 (dinner.)  The black tie event will be held at Roughwood, 400 Heath Street in Chestnut Hill, a grand chateau-styled shingle and stone house which now serves as the administration building of Pine Manor College. Ticket prices begin at $1,000, $775 of which is tax deductible.  To respond, call the Development Office at 617-994-5951, or email ProgramInfo@HistoricNewEngland.org.

Powerful Vistas/Powerful Views: New Perspectives in Historic Landscape Preservation, the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation 2012 Conference, will be held in Victoria, BC, April 25-28, 2012.

The 34th annual gathering of the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation will discuss new perspectives in historic landscape preservation when it convenes in Victoria, British Columbia in April 2012. Suggested topics for discussion papers include challenges and approaches to the identification, sustainability and protection of historic landscapes and issues of cultural diversity, identity and meaning in landscape preservation. Our vistas will be Canada’s powerful, awe-inspiring West Coast landscape. The First Nations people knew it intimately. Emily Carr lovingly interpreted it in her paintings. Now you can see it for yourself.And Vancouver Island beckons you to engage in this kaleidoscope of ideas. The City of Victoria promotes itself as being “full of life” and we intend to inject as much of that into your conference experience as we can. Centered at the venerable Empress Hotel puts us alongside the Inner Harbour and in the heart of the city both convenient for exploring by foot or as a launching off point for bus tours. Field visits will look at aboriginal, colonial and multicultural engagements with the powerful landscapes of the Canadian west coast.And, as always, while we are not able to accommodate all that the Victoria region has to offer in the short time that we will be together, we’ll provide some ideas about interesting places that you might explore either before/after the conference (including Vancouver across the Georgia Strait or Seattle, if you are coming Stateside).

Learn more about the conference on the Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation website, www.ahlp.org.

For the past few years, Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture docent Vivi Leavy has recorded the blooming of greenhouse flowers—showstoppers as well as those easily overlooked, in her task of updating the “What’s in Bloom” board in the Visitor Center. Come for a great photo tour of the greenhouses in bloom on Monday, February 27 and to hear Vivi’s stories of her favorites from the collection. Tea will be served at 2 pm, followed by the tour and talk. WCFH members $10, non-members $15. Register at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

Meadows are not only beautiful landscapes, but also valuable habitats for plants, pollinators and birds. Information on creating and maintaining a meadow are included in the talk. Consider plant selection, siting, planting, cultivation and maintenance of native plants suitable for a meadow garden in this Berkshire Botanical Garden lecture on Saturday, February 11, from 1 – 3. View plants and combinations that will enhance properties in a natural way. In the first hour explore the native and non-native species that call meadows home and learn how meadows function. In the second hour discuss creating meadow gardens and look more closely at the cultural requirements of native meadow species.

Drew Monthie is a horticulturalist, garden designer and ecologist working in upper New York State. He is committed to teaching about the importance of using native plants to provide beauty and preserve biodiversity in yards and gardens. $22 for BBG members, $27 for non-members. Register on line at www.berkshirebotanical.org. Image below from The American Meadow Garden by John Greenlee.

Seduced by begonias? Join the crowd. And who can blame you? Not only are begonias outrageously glam, but they are a cinch as houseplants – if you know the ropes. Join Tovah Martin, curator of the begonia collection at Logee’s Greenhouses for 25 years and lifelong begonia addict, at Berkshire Botanical Garden on Saturday, February 11 from 10 – 12 for a begonia workshop. She’ll spill the goods on which begonias make the best houseplants as well as revealing which begonias to avoid. She’ll recommend begonias that make a smooth transition from indoors to outside. In fact, she’ll introduce you to the entire begonia family with scenic detours to show you her favorite real live plants. Care, maintenance, watering, pruning, repotting, and propagating will be demonstrated with plenty of hands-on interaction. Best of all: Bring home several begonia cuttings in a mini-greenhouse to grow on! Bring hand pruners and a cardboard box to transport plants home. BBG member price $37, non-members $45, and you may register on line at www.berkshirebotanical.org.

Tovah Martin is a horticulturist, writer and garden personality living in Northwest CT. She writes for many horticultural publications and her latest book is The New Terrarium, published in 2009.  Photo below of begonia ‘Chocolate Cream’ from Logee’s Greenhouses 1999.

The quantity and diversity of trees and shrubs in our area provide shelter and food to a wide assortment of birds throughout the year. Three fantastic bird photographers have combed their portfolios for images that capture both floral and avian organisms in tandem. By giving a measure of parity to the plants, these images invite the viewer to consider the vital interactions between all living things. The Arnold Arboretum hosts the show Aviflora: Plants and Birds That Love Them from January 14 – March 11, 2012, in the Hunnewell Lecture Hall at the Arboretum, with an artists reception on Saturday, February 18 from 1 – 3. For more information visit www.arboretum.harvard.edu, or call 617-384-5209.

Judith Sumner, botanist, author, and educator, celebrates women’s many roles in botany, at Garden in the Woods in Framingham on Sunday, February 26 from 10 – 4. Expert practical botanists – as gardeners, cooks, herbalists, and midwives – women have also become recognized professional botanists contributing significantly to plant science through exploration, research, and publication. Beginning with colonial America and the work of Jane Colden, explore the role of women in botanical studies and documentation. Recognize the role of women in protecting biodiversity (including the origins of the New England Wild Flower Society) and the work of Beatrix Farrand and others in ecology and landscape design.  In addition to lecture, slides, and discussion, peruse primary source materials from the Society library and participate in hands-on activities that commemorate the diverse roles of women in botany. This lecture is offered in collaboration with The Wellesley College Friends of Horticulture. Fee for members of either organization is $72 per person, and for non-members, $87. Register on line at www.newfs.org, or at www.wellesley.edu/WCFH.

The 2012 Boston Flower & Garden Show will kick off with an elegant fundraising Preview Party at The Seaport World Trade Center chaired by Fox 25′s Maria Stephanos and hosted by Mayor and Mrs. Thomas Menino. Proceeds from the Preview Party will help restore Boston Parks Department’s Greenhouses, where plants are propagated for the Public Garden, Boston Common, and dozens of neighborhood parks. Special guests, entertainment, delightful food and beverage and a silent auction make this an exclusive and enjoyable opportunity to view the show’s gardens and exhibits before the show opens to the general public the following day. Tickets are $100 each before February 14, $125 per person thereafter.  You may also purchase a $500 Friend ticket, and your company name or patron name will be displayed in the program.  Ticket includes admission to the private party, exclusive viewing of the Flower Show’s gardens and the chance to meet the designers, open bar, complimentary hor d’oeuvres reception, live music, and one ticket to return to the Flower Show later in the week.  You may download a ticket order form by visiting www.bostonflowershow.com/preview-party/.  Pictured below is the original Olmsted greenhouse in Franklin Park.

American history is replete with visionary, inspired and willful patrons who supported and shaped beloved and nationally significant estates, parks, plazas and other civic amenities across the country.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation announces the 2012 Landslide®: Landscape and Patronage call for nominations. Landslide, the annual thematic compendium of threatened and at-risk landscapes, in 2012 will focus on those people and/or organizations and the sites they helped create. The goal is to celebrate their accomplishments and inspire new generations of patrons and philanthropists. The landscapes that surround us everyday shape our communities and the people living in them — help bring attention to these sites and the individuals who shaped their creation by nominating an at-risk cultural landscape.  Deadline is May 31! Submit a nomination on line at www.tclf.org.  Below is a photo of A.D. Taylor and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. at Forest Hills Park, Ohio.

The 2012 Esther Steinberg Memorial Architecture Lecture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston will take place Wednesday, March 14, beginning at 7 pm in the Remis Auditorium at the MFA.  Robert Hammond, co-founder and executive director, Friends of the High Line, will share the story of how the High Line, a new public park atop an elevated freight rail structure in Manhattan, became an innovative urban reclamation project.  Hammond and his co-founder collaborated with neighbors, elected officials, artists, local business owners, and leaders in horticulture and landscape architecture, to create a park celebrated as a model for creatively designed, socially vibrant, ecologically sound public space.  A book signing follows.  This is a ticketed event ($15 MFA members, $18 others) and tickets may be reserved by calling 1-800-440-6975, going in person to the Remis Auditorium box office at the Museum, or visiting www.mfa.org.  Because this event will undoubtedly sell out, we recommend buying tickets early.

Give your sweetheart a special gift – learn basic glass blowing theory to produce brilliantly colorful glass flowers and hearts.  No experience necessary to take this Boston Center for Adult Education class on Sunday, February 12 from 2 – 6, taught by the instructors at the Diablo Glass School.  The $145 session will take place at Diablo Glass and Metal, 123 Terrace Street in Roxbury.  To sign up, visit www.bcae.org.  The antique glass flower bouquet pictured below was a gift to Elizabeth C. Ware and her daughter Mary Lee Ware from Leopold Blaschka in 1889.  Photograph by Hillel Burger, copyright President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Considering the weather we’ve been having lately, this event might not come to pass.  However, just in case, here is the information you need to attend the Franklin Park Snow Festival on Saturday, February 4, from 12 – 3: Sign in at the Franklin Park Golf Clubhouse. Come sled, snowshoe, build snowpeople (politically correct term these days, we guess,) and track animal prints in the snow! If you have cross country skis, a guided tour will begin at 1:30. Warm up with hot chocolate and board games in the clubhouse. Bring a sled if you have one, we’ll have plenty for those without. Wear warm clothes and mittens! RSVP and Questions? www.franklinparkcoalition.org / 617-442-4141.  We just couldn’t resist the picture below, although we can’t determine the original photographer.

For complete information, visit www.ecolandscaping.org.