Distinguished garden writers, renowned landscape professionals, master gardeners, local chefs and the Show’s talented exhibitors will share their expertise at the 2013 Boston Flower & Garden Show in a full program of daily lectures, how-to demos, floral arranging workshops, children’s activities and cooking demonstrations.
We are very pleased to welcome DYI Network TV hosts Dean Marsico & Derek Stearns (“Indoors Out” and “Rock Solid”), two of the most well-respected stonemasons and landscape specialists in the country, to our lecture stage on Sunday, March 17 for programs on two of our favorite topics: “Outdoor Living & Cooking” at 11:30AM and “Designing for Outdoors” at 1:30PM.
Check back often for updates or become a fan of our Facebook page for the most current additions. All programs are complimentary unless otherwise indicated.
2013 Lectures & Demos Schedule
Wednesday, March 13
10:30 AM Lecture: Soak Up the Rain: Gardening to Protect Your Local Waters, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Ecological Landscaping Association
11:00 AM Demo: Seed Starting for Veggie Favorites, Meryl Latronica, CSA Manager, Powissett Farm, The Trustrees of Reservations
Learn seed starting tips and techniques to several of the most popular plants grown at Dover’s Powissett Farm.
11:30 AM Lecture: Feasting from the Garden Year-Round, Barbara Damrosch, Garden Writer
Barbara Damrosch is a garden writer, designer and horticulturist. She writes a weekly column for The Washington Post called “A Cook’s Garden”. She and her husband own Four Seasons Farm, an experimental market garden in Harborside, Maine.
12:00 PM Demo: First Time Backyard Chicken Raising, Rebecca Killigrew, Natick Community Organic Farm
Backyard chicken farming has become a popular hobby amongst New England gardeners. Remembering all the questions she had when she got started, Becky has offered to share her experience and tips, as well as to answer any questions you might have about this rewarding process.
12:30 PM Lecture: Life Cycle Gardening, Betty Sanders, Master Gardener
Inspired by her own experiences and the requests of her clients, Betty Sanders will suggest dozens of ways to adapt your garden, and the work it requires, to your stage in life—busy with children, hectic work schedule, empty nester, senior. It’s all about recognizing that the garden of your dreams changes as your life does.
1:00 PM Demo: Roses 101, Manuel Mendes Jr., New England Rose Society
Flower Show favorite Manny Mendes, president of the New England Rose Society, returns to the show to offer tips and wisdom on one of the region’s most popular plant obsessions. Whether you’re just getting started or need to breathe new life into old plants, Manny’s your man!
1:30PM Lecture: Welcoming Nature Home, Tobias Wolf, Landscape Architect & Principal, Wolf Lighthall Landscape Architecture
Is your garden an extension of your home, or is it a place where you can experience nature? This lecture will demonstrate that you don’t have to choose. No matter where you live, you can welcome nature into your home landscape without giving up the style and comfort you love.
2:30 PM Lecture: The Evolution of Arboriculture: Then & Now, Paul Fletcher, Bartlett Tree Experts
(Presented by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society)
3:00 PM Demo: Cactus & Succulents 101, Art Scarpa, Cactus & Succulent Society
They say these plants are some of the easiest to grow but there’s a big difference between keeping something alive and watching it thrive. You’ve probably been enjoying Art Scarpa’s plant collection for years in the show’s Amateur Horticulture displays, so come here what he has to say about succeeding with these interesting plants.
3:30 PM Lecture: Shade Gardens Re-Visited, Tina Bemis, Bemis Farms Nursery
You may be mourning the loss of impatiens to the disease called Downy Mildew, but suppose you viewed their sudden exit from our palette of plants as an opportunity to expand your creativity? Learn how to create an even more stunning shade garden that has the look you want with plants you know and others you may not.
Thursday, March 14
11:00 PM Demo: Jaw-Dropping, Traffic-Stopping, Get-Your-Neighbors-Talking Container Gardens, Deborah Trickett, Owner, The Captured Garden
Award-winning container garden designer Deborah Trickett is the owner of The Captured Garden. Deborah is a Massachusetts Certified Horticulturist and Certified Landscape Professional. She also teaches at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston.
11:30 AM Lecture: The Right Plant for the Right Place, Wayne Mezitt, Owner, Weston Nurseries
The easiest way to increase the success of your garden is to use plants that are proven to succeed in your region. The Cary Award program educates the public on these plants. Join Wayne Mezitt, owner of Weston Nurseries, to learn about the latest award winners and why some plants do and don’t make a go of it in your landscape.
12:00 PM Demo: Body Flowers, Bling & More, Cindy Mattson, Given-Erwin Florist
North Show Florist Cindy Mattsen will take you far beyond the average wrist corsage with her creative, flashy and fashionable design ideas for wearing your favorite blooms.
12:30 PM Lecture: Edible Landscapes: For Health, Habitat, Families & the Future, John Forti, Curator of Historic Landscapes at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH, Ethnobotanist, and Garden Writer
An illustrated lecture to help you explore how to eat locally and enjoy the fruits of your own labors. Delve into planting edible gardens and landscapes that offer healthy alternatives to our lawns and hedges. Whether learning to explore our own back yards or the newest landscape style of the 21st century, this talk offers meaningful ways to engage ourselves, our kids and our community in cultivating a sense of place from seed to table.
1:00 PM Lecture: Living with Lavendar, Betsy Williams, Garden Lecturer
Betsy Williams teaches, lectures and writes about living with herbs and flowers. A gardener and herb grower since 1972, Betsy trained as a florist in Boston and England. She combines her floral and gardening skills with an extensive knowledge of history, plant lore and seasonal celebrations.
1:30 PM Lecture: Simplifying Our Gardens to Fit Our Lifestyles, Kerry Ann Mendez, Proprietor, Perennially Yours
This inspiring lecture provides easy-to-follow downsizing strategies, recommended no-fuss plant material, and design tips for stunning year-round gardens that will be as close to ‘autopilot’ as you can get. (Presented by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society)
2:00 PM Demo: Designing Pavé Arrangements, John Sexton, Village Arts & Flowers
Walpole florist John Sexton will demonstrate the mechanics and beauty of this exciting, dense and colorful floral design technique.
2:30 PM Lecture: Intro to Sustainable Landscaping, Tom Benjamin, Sustainable Designer & Landscape Architect, Presented by the Ecological Landscaping Association
Environmental Landscaping Association member and award-winning designer Tom Benjamin will provide a general overview of sustainable landscape design and how it relates to energy, water, food systems and biodiversity. Presented by the Ecological Landscaping Association.
3:00 PM Demo: Art In Bloom: Floral Arranging from the MFA’s Signature Celebration of Spring, Museum Associates
Preview the artistry involved in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston’s festival of floral creativity as two of that events top designers create a floral design evocative of one of the institution’s beloved masterpieces.
3:30 PM Lecture: A Rogue’s Gallery of Invasive Plants: How To Recognize Them & Send Them Packing, Carol Stocker, Garden Writer, Boston Globe and Design New England
4:30 PM Lecture: Gardening by Cuisine, Patti Moreno, host, The Garden Girl TV
Friday, March 15
11:00 AM Demo: Growing Plants from Seed, Paul Split, Garden Lecturer
Garden lecturer Paul Split will take us through the steps of starting plants from seed, from creating the perfect environment to transplanting for best success.
11:30 AM Lecture: The Green Garden, Ellen Sousa, Garden Writer
Ellen and Robert Sousa are owners of Turkey Hill Brook Farm, a small farm in the Worcester Hills. Join Ellen as she discusses the topic of her new book, The Green Garden: The New England Guide to Planning, Planting and Maintaining the Eco-Friendly Habitat Garden.
12:00 PM Cooking Demo: Cooking From Your Garden, Paul Split, Garden Lecturer
Garden lecturer Paul Split puts on his other hat and becomes Chef Paul with some delicious ideas for utilizing the spring harvest.
12:30 PM Lecture: A Garden Ahead of Its Time, Mark Richardson, Director of Horticulture, New England Wild Flower Society
How can a naturalistic botanical garden best reflect the conservation ethos of its parent organization? How can the organization respect its founder’s plant-collecting legacy while reshaping what it means to be a native plant garden? Let’s explore some of these questions.
1:00 PM Lecture: Beekeeping 101, Nancy Mangion, Beekeeper’s Warehouse
Nancy Mangion has been called an “apiary evangelist”. Through lectures and her store, Beekeeper’s Warehouse in Woburn, Nancy provides all the tools and guidance needed for hundreds of area’s bee enthusiasts to take on a hobby which is taking off like wildfire in the New England (there’s even one on the roof of the Seaport Hotel!).
1:30 PM Lecture: Why Grow That When You Can Grow This?, Andrew Keys, Garden Writer
Andrew Keys is a writer, designer, and lifelong gardener, host and producer of a podcast and column called Garden Confidential at Fine Gardening. At his “Clark Kent” job, he works as the web producer for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
2:00 PM Lecture: Living Walls, Trevor Smith, MCH, Land Escapes, Presented by the Ecological Landscaping Association
Trevor Smith, is the Vice President of the Ecological Landscape Association and will be discussing how to plant and care for living walls, a specialty of his firm, Land Escapes. Presented by the Ecological Landscaping Association.
2:30 PM Lecture: Discover Sustainable Roses, Mike and Angelina Chute, authors and co-owners of RoseSolutions
Mike and Angelina Chute, co-owners of RoseSolutions, will show us new varieties of roses that are easier to grow and bloom longer, using their home garden (recently featured in The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine) as their model.
3:00 PM Demo: Seed Starting, Anita Dafonte, Coast of Maine
Garden lecturer Anita Dafonte will take you through the steps, and her best tricks, for getting the best yield from your seed starting efforts.
3:30 PM Lecture: Seattle Gardens – Landscapes that WOW!, Paul Miskovsky, Miskovsky Landscaping
Enjoy some of the spectacular green spaces viewed recently by one of the Boston Flower & Garden Show’s top designers while learning how the plants and design concepts can be translated to the New England landscape. (Presented by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society)
4:30 PM Lecture: Tough Plants for Difficult Sites, Crystal Brinson, Horticulturist
Crystal Brinson is a MA Certified Horticulturist and a garden designer who, with her partner Kenny Jardin, specializes in creating garden rooms that capture the essence of your open air environment. She has more than sixteen years of experience throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Saturday, March 16
10:30 AM Lecture: The Art of the Heirloom, Ken Greene, Hudson Valley Seed Library
If every seed is a story, then every garden is a work of art bringing seed stories to life. This presentation showcases how heirloom seeds and their stories have changed over time through elegant, humorous, and telling images from the Seed Library’s collection of antique seed catalogs and contemporary art.
11:00 AM Demo: Vertical Succulent Gardens, Jim Donahue, Newport Flower Show
Our go-to topiary expert, Jim Donahue, will once again be creating a garden in the show, featuring the vertical succulent gardening technique in his display, so we’ve invited him to demonstrate this hot trend on our demo stage.
11:30 AM Lecture: Best New Varieties for 2013, Barbara Pierson, Nursery Manager, White Flower Farm
This lecture highlights the most exciting new introductions for 2013, including annuals, perennials, veggies and shrubs. Using White Flower Farm’s top-quality photographs, Barb’s talk will give the audience advice on what to buy and what to avoid. (Presented by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society)
12:30 PM Lecture: The Art of Growing Food, Ellen Ecker Ogden, Garden Writer
Ellen Ecker Ogden is the author of four books, including The Complete Kitchen Garden, featuring 15 theme gardens and 100 recipes for the vegetable gardener who seeks creative ideas and organic techniques. As the co-founder of The Cook’s Garden seed catalog, Ellen Ecker Ogden is dedicated to growing ornamental edibles.
12:00 PM Cooking Demo: Recipes from the Garden, Culinary Staff, Wilson Farms
1:00 PM Demo: Ikebana, Tomoko Tamaka, Ikebana International
Of all Japan’s traditional arts, perhaps the most famed and actively practiced today is Ikebana, the art of flower arrangement. Tomoko Tanaka, a member of Ikebana International, joins us to demonstrate this fascinating art form.
1:30 PM Lecture: The Unexpected Houseplant, Tovah Martin, Garden Writer
In her new book garden writer Tovah Martin illustrates why it’s time for plant lovers to discover just how exciting, trendy, and crucial plants can be in the home. Martin is a freelance writer, lecturer, horticulturist, and TV media personality. She is the author of over a dozen gardening books, including bestsellers The New Terrarium and Tasha Tudor’s Garden.
2:00 PM Cooking Demo: Recipes from the Garden, Culinary Staff, Wilson Farms
2:30 PM Lecture: Hello, My Garden, Colleen Plimpton, Garden Lecturer
Author, lecturer and garden coach Colleen Plimton will lead this thorough show and tell program and discussion all about how to start things up in the spring. Topics to be covered include pruning, mulching, fertilizing, planning for succession of bloom, annuals and more.
3:00 PM Cooking Demo: The Pickled Pantry, Andrea Chesman, Garden Writer
Andrea Chesman will share a taste of her new book which offers expert guidance to discover dozens of fresh, contemporary recipes for pickling everything from apples to zucchini.
3:30 PM Lecture: You Can Grow Your Own Way, Amanda Thomsen, Garden Writer
Landscaper by day, irreverent Fine Gardening and Proven Winners garden blogger and podcaster by night, Amanda Thomsen’s new book Kiss My Aster: An Interactive Guide to Creating an Outdoor Space Totally Tailored to You is scheduled for release in December of 2012.
4:00 PM Demo: Pruning 101, Joe Biagioni, Arbor Alliance
Our favorite arborist, Joe Biagioni, will once again share his 25 years of experience and easy-to-follow steps for pruning trees and shrubs. Feel free to bring your questions – there will be plenty of time for Q&A.
Sunday, March 17
10:30 AM Lecture: Water Features in the Home Landscape, Jay Bearfield, Liquid Landscape Designs
Flower Show Exhibitor, landscape designer and sculptor Jay Bearfield will discuss the benefits of water gardens and how to incorporate them in to the home landscape design.
11:00 AM Demo: Roses 101, Manuel Mendes Jr., New England Rose Society
Flower Show favorite Manny Mendes, president of the New England Rose Society, returns to the show to offer tips and wisdom on one of the region’s most popular plant obsessions. Whether you’re just getting started or need to breathe new life into old plants, Manny’s your man!
11:30 AM Lecture: Outdoor Living & Cooking with Dean & Derek, Dean Marsico & Derek Stearns, Hosts of DIY Network’s “Inside Out” and “Rock Solid”
“Outdoor Living” is a supposedly new concept that has been around for a long time but no one gave it a fancy title until recently. Everyone wants a place in their yard that represents their tastes and lifestyles. Cooking outdoors is a huge part of enjoying these spaces. DYI Network’s Dean & Derek will take us back to the roots of outdoor living and share what they’ve learned about building these unique spaces.
12:00 PM Demo: Growing Your Own Vegetables When You Don’t Have a Garden Plot, Trish Wesley Umbrell, Natick Community Organic Farm
A thrifty gal’s guide to successful food production in containers.
12:30 PM Lecture: Unwelcome Seedlings, Wayne Mezitt, Owner, Weston Nurseries
Using the show’s “Seeds of Change” theme as inspiration, and relevant to anyone with a yard or garden, horticulture expert Wayne Mezitt will discuss how those pesky weeds arrive in your yard and what you can do about them. (Presented by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society)
1:00 PM Demo: Recipes from the White House Kitchen Garden, Clara Silverstein, co-author of A White House Garden Cookbook
A White House Garden Cookbook co-author Clara Silverstein will join us on the cooking stage to tell us about her experiences chronicling the first year of Ms. Obama’s garden and present recipes from her book. Clara is also the co-author of a local favorite The New England Soup Factory Cookbook.
1:30 PM Lecture: Designing For Outdoors, Dean Marsico & Derek Stearns, Hosts of DIY Network’s “Inside Out” and “Rock Solid”
How do you build that great space? From designing to installing, DYI Network’s Dean & Derek will take you through the steps of creating a space that fits your personal outdoor lifestyle. Their ideas about the mix of hardscape and landscape, as well as some tips to follow along the way, will get you one step closer to realizing the outdoor project of your dreams.
2:00 PM Demo: Abbondanza! The New Romantic Table Design, Kirsten van Dijk, Proprietor, My PassionFlower
Kirsten van Dijk mixes her enthusiasm for bold floral design and love of eclectic décor in both her exciting Sudbury shop and her Flower Show demonstrations!
2:30 PM Lecture: Flashy Foliage Carries the Show!, Kerry Ann Mendez, Owner, Perennially Yours
Kerry Ann Mendez, owner of Perennially Yours in Ballston Spa, New York, is dedicated to teaching people of all ages the art of low-maintenance perennial gardening and landscaping. Mendez’s first book, The Ultimate Flower Gardener’s Top Ten Lists, was released in 2010.
3:00 PM Demo: Sow’s Ear to Silk Purse: Save Your Summer Pots to Rejuvenate for Next Spring, Melanie Neuman, Fiori Secchi Gardens
3:30 PM Lecture: Design-less Gardening, Dan Jaffe, Propagator and Stock Bed Grower, New England Wild Flower Society
Learn to evaluate sunlight, moisture, soil and other factors to create a successful garden that does not require many inputs in the way of watering, fertilizing, or extra coddling on your part. Create a low maintenance garden that actively supports the environment and provides beauty for all– people and pollinators alike.
4:00 PM Demo: Wedding Florals, Cindy Mattson, Given-Erwin Florist
North Show Florist Cindy Mattsen offers new ideas in wedding and special event florals.
