MHS Leaflet, October 2022

Ican’t

believe October is here, this month is always bittersweet for all of us on the MHS team. The shorter days and cooler temperatures tell us the end of another visitor season is approaching. And even though the Garden gates may be closing soon there is still so much happening behind the scenes. Visit in a week or so and you’ll begin to see the twinkle of lights as we start to install our outdoor lights for the 14th annual Festival of Trees. This event has become a tradition for so many families and we’re so thrilled to see everyone visit year after year. Spring bulbs will start to find their new homes in garden beds and those dense spring and summer blooming perennials will be divided and transplanted, ready to put on a display next season.

Our Bressingham Garden Revitalization Project will move into the next steps. This summer our facilities and horticulture team spent many hours mapping, making

repairs, and adding minor updates to the irrigation system. Extensive weeding and a soil amendment plan have been checked off the list. Soon fall perennials will begin to arrive and plantings that have overtaken Adrian Bloom’s original design will be thinned. This revitalization project is first of many and we’re all so excited to see the transformations pop up across the Garden.

Just remember, the year doesn’t end with our visitation season, it’s simply a chapter in your membership. Soon we will see you for Festival of Trees, then onsite for a class or two, possibly a volunteering session along the way, and before you know it we’ll be reminding you that it’s time to open the entry gates once again!

Allison Dush Director of Education and Guest Experience

UPCOMING

CLASSES

Guided Fall Garden Tour

October 8, 11am-noon

12,

Houseplant Emergency Room

October 13, 10am-1pm

Garden Tails Story Time

Family Fun in the Garden

EXHIBITS,

10/5 at 9:30am

Join us for a Q&A session in Weezie’s Garden for Children. See how you can incorporate whimsical and educational features into your own space.

10/6 at 9:30am

Learn about Phase 1 of the Olmsted Asian Garden. See the progress and learn about our next steps.

Meet us in the Trial Garden to learn how we maintain and judge our 2022 trial plantings.

10/7 at 9:30am

EXCLUSIVE MEMBER

One of your MHS member benefits is member discounts on Festival of Trees

Exclusive member presale is live! You're event of the year, so grab the dates and sale to the general public in two weeks, grab your preferred

PURCHASE

ACCESS BEGINS NOW!

is getting exclusive early access and Trees tickets... and here's your chance!

You're the first to get access to our largest and times you want now. Tickets will go on weeks, so don't miss out on your chance to preferred dates and times.

TICKETS

My partner, a writer, is from the city, and when we first started dating, her academic friends struggled to comprehend what it was I did exactly for work when she told them that I had a nursery. Some thought that I was in the childcare industry, though one look at me at the time–sporting soiled Carhartts and backwoods hair and beard–would have quickly disabused them of that notion. When these city people heard that I grew peonies, they

HARVEST

CRICKETT

envisioned fields of flowers grown for market, which is slightly closer to actuality, but still not quite right. In the beginning, they all referred to me as a “flower farmer” and some still do despite my gentle, if slightly prickly, correction that I would be better described as a “horticulturist.” I bestow this rather lofty sounding title on myself, notwithstanding the fact that my only formal course work in the field consisted of one class at a local

Lobelia cardinalis

By Daniel Furman

HARVEST TIME HILL GARDEN

community college (for which I also failed to complete the final project). Most of my partner’s friends have advanced degrees so I have always thought that “horticulturalist” sounds more dignified than “plantsman.” The delineation comes to me from the renowned Massachusetts nursery owner David Burdock, who once treated me to a soliloquy on the difference between the two. He explained that a horticulturist will

culture fine specimens that “look just like to do in a book” while a plantsman will have, and here I am paraphrasing: “Way too many plants, most of them in pots, some rootbound and clearly struggling, and they will still be after the next incredibly rare specimen!” I know I fall into the latter category, even if I aspire to be the former.

The truth is, I have never been comfortable calling myself a farmer;

Grafted tree peony

I don't think nursery growers quite fit the image of the noble pastoralist memorialized by Wendell Berry. I once heard a veteran organic CSA farmer

grumble about the hallowed title of “farm” being too liberally adopted by those engaged in activities other than growing food and fiber. In some ways,

I feel more kinship with the market driven commodity farmers of the Midwest. I love what I do, but I do it with the aim of making a decent living. I can make no pretense to “feeding the world” or even my local community, unless we are referring to the rather eccentric world of plant junkies in search of their next binge buying fix. The title I would probably most prefer would be “grower” or “propagator,” since these encompass the various activities and processes of growing plants– planting seeds; harvesting scion wood; grafting; staking; even weeding seedling beds–that I love most. Another reason I like these two titles is that they both indicate a less intimate relationship with the plants than either horticulturist or plantsman. While I love to see my plants thrive, and do everything I can to ensure that they do so, sometimes it’s necessary to cull diseased stock or realize that for reasons of space or economy, some plants are better off, for the overall health and wellbeing of the nursery, in the compost pile rather than in the greenhouse or growing field. My mother, who founded the nursery along with my father three decades ago, is forever rescuing seedlings from my discard bins, tucking them into the garden here and there, not in the hope that they would ever be salable, but for the principle. For her, a plant lover first and a businesswoman second, one dead plant is a tragedy; for me, a failed crop is a number on a spreadsheet. Cheekiness aside, the words of Mark Krautman, founder

and owner of Heritage Nursery in Salem, Oregon, more accurately captures the approach I aspire to. In a recent catalog, he wrote that, “Our nursery craft is not just a career. This is LIFE.” We move with plants through the seasons together, and every year we have the chance to improve, or at least do something differently than the last. After a decade, I think I can say that being a good grower requires both consistency as well as flexibility. Maintaining the nursery requires the dedicated work of devoted staff. So even if I generally prefer the company of plants to that of people, it is working with plants that has enabled much personal growth on my part. Harvest time at the nursery looks a little different than on other “farms.” Rather than heaping bins full of winter squash, or coolers full of apples, nurseries are growing plants. As a specialty retail nursery that propagates the majority of the stock we sell, at Cricket Hill Garden our “harvest” season runs from midJuly to mid-February, with the “crop” including everything from seeds, scion wood, seedlings, and finished plants ready to ship.

The season begins with the seeds of the wild species paeonia like molkosewechii, obavata and officinalis which ripen in mid to late July. These early blooming peonies offer an elegant and understated beginning to the peony season when they bloom in early May. Unlike the cultivated lactiflora varieties of herbaceous peonies, which can

Greenhouse for grafting and propagation

be easily propagated by division, the species peonies possess a wild nobility and refuse to be multiplied in such a crude manner. Instead they must be grown from seed. Planting fresh seed usually means germination the following spring, though two winters is sometimes necessary to coax the embryo out of dormancy. These little seedlings then must be grown out for at least two years before they are large enough to sell. They will then require another two or three years in the customer’s garden before flowering. These plants have always been rare in commerce, not so much because they are difficult to grow, but because most growers and gardeners lack the patience to do so.

Beginning in early August, we harvest

our rootstock and scions for tree peony grafting as well as cultivars of herbaceous and intersectional peonies for division. With our tree peonies, as with the fruit and ornamental trees we grow, we maintain a stock of mother plants which are grown solely for propagation purposes. These plants are cut back rather severely every year to produce vigorous and healthy vegetative growth ideal for propagation.

The whirlwind of peony propagation continues through mid September when we begin shipping out plants to customers all over the country. This is always a nerve wracking time: Have we oversold anything? Will any plants seemingly overnight go from

superb to unsalable? Will the nursery crew’s energy maintain its state of frenzied productivity, or devolve into manic toxicity? Like pests and diseases, these anxieties are just part of the nursery business; luckily, they haven’t come into fruition (yet). In the last week, I am happy to report, we have dug, washed, and graded the best grafting tree peonies we have ever grown, better than anything that

we have ever imported from China or Japan. These plants are a product of a decade of hard work learning the intricacies of tree peony propagation. The blood, sweat, and tears that went into their production may not be evident to everyone, but with each order we send out, I can't help but feel I am packing a small piece of myself into the box.

Daniel Furman is co-owner of Cricket Hill Garden in Thomaston, CT. This secondgeneration specialty nursery is known for its extensive selection of tree peonies, but also grows an interesting array of unusual fruit trees and other distinctive landscape trees and shrubs.

Paeonia mlokosewitschi

Gardening

by Arete Swartz

by

K. Overstreet

In the early eighties, I worked in Boston and would spend my lunch breaks searching for used garden and garden history books at various stores including Commonwealth Books and The Brattle Book Shop. At the time my upper limit was the hefty sum of $10.00 (which is what I paid for a seventh edition of William Robinson’s classic book, The English Flower Garden) unless something special caught my eye, then I’d spring for $15.00.

While I have amassed what I believe to be a respectable collection, my efforts are dwarfed by that of the Garden Club of America (GCA). Described in the foreword of Gardening by the Book as modest in size, broad in chronological scope, and containing unique material, the collection spans the history of plant exploration, botanical illustration, the development of modern print technology, the world of landscape design, and the activities of the GCA over 100 years. Within two years of its founding in 1923, the GCA’s library contained 450 volumes, mostly donated by members.

To commemorate the GCA’s centennial in 2013, New York City’s Grolier Club, America’s oldest and largest society for bibliophiles and enthusiasts in the graphic arts, mounted the exhibition Gardening by the Book: Celebrating 100 Years of The Garden Club of America with the book of the same name published as its catalogue. Recently reissued, it features one hundred and fifty illustrated bibliographical entries of the items exhibited. Three introductory essays precede the catalog entries. These place the exhibition in context and provide an overview of the history of the GCA, the creation of the organization’s library and the impact of women in advancing gardening, horticulture, and conservation at the turn of the century.

In the first essay “Flowering Pages” by Leslie K. Overstreet, Curator of NaturalHistory Rare Books Smithsonian Institution Libraries, the history of Western botanical and horticultural heritage and the evolution of manuscripts and documents is presented. Beginning with the Ancient Greeks and Romans, we are reminded that the first scientific text from the classical era to be put into print was by Pliny (1469), the first comprehensive English language herbal written by John Gerarde (1597) and the oldest continually published botanical journal in the world, Curtis’s Botanical Magazine by William Curtis (1787). Two out of three are featured in Gardening by the Book.

The role women writers and designers played in the great age of garden making is the focus of an essay by landscape historian, Denise Otis. This is followed by one about the men and women whose passion for gardening, writing, and collecting books parallels the history of the GCA and was seminal to the creation of its library. Written by Gardening by the Book’s author, Arete Swartz

Warren, “Gardeners Collect: Forming a Library to Stimulate the Knowledge and Love of Gardening” acknowledges the extraordinary generosity of the individuals whose gifts made the library possible and sets a framework for the bibliographic entries that comprise the bulk of the book.

Lavishly illustrated in full color, each entry includes a cover image and history relating the story of the book’s author, placing it within the context in which it was published and acknowledging the individual who gifted it to the GCA. Represented are more than 350 years of publications beginning with Emanuel Sweert’s 1612 Florilegium, possibly the first comprehensive bulb and flower catalogue printed and a likely catalyst for Tulipomania, through a collection of books written by and about Rachel Carson. The final entry is the album Flower Stamps from Around the World, compiled and illustrated by Aileen H. Farrell with calligraphy by Florence Brooks. A unique endeavor undertaken as a modern florilegium, it was gifted to the GCA by the Lenox Garden Club in 1973.

Among the many stories included in Gardening by the Book is that of Elizabeth Blackwell whose A Curious Herbal containing Five Hundred Cuts of the most useful Plants, which are now used in the Practice of Physick was published in 1739. The first herbal compendium written by a woman; it was suggested to Blackwell by Sir Hans Soane of the Chelsea Physic Garden as a medicinal guide to plants newly introduced to England from America. Desperate to raise funds to release her husband from debtor’s prison following the collapse of his printing company, Blackwell drew five hundred plants, engraved the copper plates and hand colored the illustrations in less than five years. She secured her husband’s release. Unfortunately, while the book was a success, her husband’s freedom was less so, and he was later beheaded after running afoul of the law. Blackwell died alone and is buried in Chelsea, London.

Among other firsts is Flora’s Dictionary by Mrs. E. W. Wirt of Virginia, recognized as the first floral color-plate book produced in America. Originally printed in 1829, this popular dictionary of flowers was reprinted multiple times, with an elaborate 1855 edition illustrated with color plates and line engravings of plants incorporated into the text. Written as a divertissement for Wirt’s gardening acquaintances, Flora’s Dictionary was not conceived for a commercial audience. The professionalization of American gardening would occur just over thirty years later during what Otis describes as the golden age of American gardening from 1888 through 1941.

It is during this period that women built upon their social capital and expertise to parlay their skills into leadership roles in the worlds of gardening, horticulture, and landscape design. Associations, including the GCA, devoted to

gardening, the natural world and the conservation of native plants, birds, and scenery formed. Periodicals, including Garden and Forest: A Weekly Journal of Horticulture, Landscape, Art, and Forestry founded in 1888 by Charles Sprague Sergeant of Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum, featured women writers such as art critic Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer who wrote the lead article in the first edition.

In 1893, Van Rensselaer published, Art Out of Doors, considered seminal in defining the profession of landscape architecture as a fine art. A veritable torrent of books, many by women associated with the GCA followed. These featured gardens close to home such as An Island Garden by Celia Thaxter (1894) and Alice Morse Earle’s Old Time Gardens (1902) and those featuring gardens from further afield, including Edith Wharton’s Italian Villas and Their Gardens (1904) and Rose Standish Nichols’ series of books English Pleasure Gardens (1902), Spanish and Portuguese Gardens (1924) and Italian Pleasure Gardens (1928).

Flora’s Dictionary by Mrs. E. W. Wirt

by Alice Morse Earle

Italian Villas and Their Gardens by Edith Wharton

Not surprisingly in my lunchtime forays within Boston’s used bookstores, it is mainly books from the golden age of American gardening that I acquired. And not surprisingly, given the breadth of the collection held within the library of the GCA and featured in Gardening by the Book, despite my wish otherwise, I own only 13 of the 150 books profiled. Perhaps I should have sprung for more.

Reissued in 2022, Gardening by the Book: Celebrating 100 Years of the Garden Club of America is distributed for The Grolier Club by The University of Chicago Press.

Patrice Todisco writes about parks and gardens at the award-winning blog, Landscape Notes.

FALL

IS AT HAND

By John Lee

John shares stories of Bert and Brenda and their gardening wisdom. These chronicles feature recipes, tried-and-true gardening practices, and seasonal struggles and successes. If you would like to read more about Bert and Brenda, they were first introduced in the March 2022 issue of Leaflet.

Getting towards the end of September (early October, really). It was becoming painfully clear that another growing season was coming to an end. Bert could feel it in his bones. Rising at six every morning seemed a little less necessary. The harvest season was setting in and Brenda had put up what looked like enough food for the winter already. He felt thankful that with the shortening days, there was a little less work to do. Or so it seemed. Preparations at this time of year were different. With ‘fair season’ on their doorstep, it was chance to compare notes, so to speak, with other expert growers in the area. Who did a great

job growing what, who put up the best raspberry/elderberry conserve, who made the best chicken pie? At this late date, as often as not, both Bert and Brenda were invited to be judges; they had earned first prize too many times and some folks were loath to enter anything for fear of coming in second for the fourth year in a row. This was an unfortunate, if curious, circumstance as Brenda always submitted recipes with everything she entered and all entries were anonymous so everyone could know exactly what she did if they wanted to try it at home (or next year).

Over the years, entries in many

categories had dwindled. Fewer folk were gardening, much less offering up prize-worthy specimens so the competition was less fierce and winning was less pride-worthy. Some folk now offered up several entries or even several variations on the same recipe. This simply made life harder for judges with tastebuds trained only on Toll House chocolate chip cookies. Luckily, Bert could not remember the last time he ate a Toll House cookie. He had so many favorites that Brenda was never bored when she had a hankering for a cookie although she tried to stay away from them for obvious reasons. Cakes were another story. She could hardly let a week go by without baking a cake; maybe one for herself and one for a neighbor. It was just as easy to make two as it was to bake one! This time of year, her go-to cake was a chocolate ‘zucchini’ affair. It was moist and rich; best of all, it used up any kind of summer squash that might be going begging. These days, she preferred the one from King Arthur Flour because they recommended natural unsweetened cocoa and a little powdered expresso and, although they recommended zucchini, any summer squash filled the bill because at this time of year, Bert’s zucchini were too big to be good and were suitable only for the neighbor’s chickens (who loved them!).

Bert was more taken up with horticultural concerns. Aside from needing to put the gardens to bed, there was still much work to be done. Fair season tended to put a little zip in his

step. Sadly, his prize-worthy gladiolas were going by. After he had finished cutting for the house, he always left half a dozen of the beautiful swordshaped leaves (hence the name: gladus which means sword in Latin (hence gladiator)). This enhanced corm development toward the end of the season which, in turn, meant larger, healthier plants the following year. He treated his corms with a fungicide after pulling and before planting the next spring to control thrips. The oldfashioned way of soaking the corms in a creosote solution, while effective, was no longer considered a good idea. Wintering over his garden-favorite dahlia, however, was a perennial mystery. Poor Bert could never get it right no matter how he tried, no matter whose advice he took. Saving dahlia tubers was the cross he bore every spring it seemed. No matter what medium he bedded them in, no matter how carefully he watched for rot, every spring it seemed he had at least partially failed. Luckily, some of ladies in the Gardening Society were somehow expert at saving the tubers for another year and they were happy to trade tubers for favors over the course of the summer.

Bert and Brenda were also partial to the county 4-H fairs rather than the bigger, often more carnivalesque county or regional fairs. They weren’t much interested in highstepping horse shows or who grew the biggest pumpkin. They were both much more interested in who was coming along behind them. Although

they themselves had no off-spring, it brought them enormous pleasure to witness the horticultural ambitions of the area youngsters rather than the huckstering of the midway roustabouts. Every year the 4-H fairs gave them hope that someone might follow in their footsteps perhaps on a smaller scale but in the same tradition. It was important to know that even as times were changing that certain values and traditions were still important. It was important to see that at least some of the succeeding generations at least knew how to fend for themselves, took pride in so doing and that there were enough leaders in what would have been their children’s generation to instill the wisdom and values of self-care through good horticulture. They enjoyed seeing the joy of the summer’s labors come to fruition and receive recognition for a job well done even if the ribbons were not to be theirs.

Although they no longer kept a hen house, the local chicken pie suppers were the high-light of the waning days of summer. Local home-makers of every age made their favorite chicken pie and brought it down to the community center. This was not a competition although some menfolk were pretty clear about whose pie they preferred (and they were often fooled). Literally everybody in the neighborhood (and not a few tourists) bought tickets for these suppers to benefit the volunteer firemen or a similar community asset. They had been over-sold for years. Nowadays, there were pies to go despite multiple seatings. Some people preferred a deep-dish pie, others preferred a two-crust chicken pie and there were endless variations on each (celery or no celery?). Bert was partial to Brenda’s pies with a biscuit crust; Brenda thought biscuits were easier to make. She would make the fillings for half a dozen pies and

DROP BISCUIT RECIPE

2 cups bread flour

teaspoons baking powder

tablespoons butter

1 cup+ milk

½ teaspoon salt

Drop biscuits were easy to make because no rolling or cutting was necessary. Simply combine the ingredients. The wet dough was then dropped by the spoonful onto the hot filling and baked until golden brown. The nice thing about drop biscuits was their nearly universal usefulness. With a little less milk, they could be dropped on a baking sheet for a breakfast treat with butter and jam.

freeze them individually. Come some snowy day and a hearty meal was in order, Brenda could unearth a ‘pie’ from the freezer and only need to make the drop-biscuits for a simple, if filling, supper.

Out in the garden with a hard frost ever on the doorstep, Bert gathered up winter squashes and pumpkins. The kabocha, baby Hubbard, butternut and buttercup that he wanted to save for more than a couple of months he dipped in a mild chlorine bath to retard any fungal or bacterial infection that might be lurking in all but imperceptible scratches from harvesting. He used a cap-full of liquid bleach (Bert used Clorox) in a gallon of water then left them to dry in the sun. When dry, he had a dry cellar, cool and dark, where he stored his cucurbits away from any apples or

pears he might be cellaring because they encouraged further undesirable ripening.

One of the last things to come out of the garden were the French Horticulture beans sometimes known as Dragon’s Tongue, ‘shelled’ or (when shelled) cranberry beans. Although they had been enjoying them fresh all summer, the last picking was set out to dry before shelling (usually at about the time the World Series was on). If everything worked out right, the last beans were timed to be ready at the same time the last rows of corn were ready and then Brenda would make succotash. No longer very popular, succotash was a fall staple at their table. There are many flossy recipes for these beans, but succotash was easy and needed no fancy ingredients.

Something so simple was a platform for further fancifying. But something so simple and clean was refreshing when served with a heavier meal (and it froze well too).

Any beans that did not end up in the succotash were hung for drying. On a sunny afternoon, Bert pulled the whole plants after the dew was off them and hung them upside down on a clothes line on the covered porch until the pods were brittle. Once thoroughly dried, the beans could be stored in tightly closed Mason jars in a cool, dark place. Any beans that did not eventually end up on the dinner

While the World Series pretty much marked the end of the growing season, there was always much work left to be done before the ground froze. If the Red Sox were in contention, pretty much anything could be put off. Otherwise, both Brenda and Bert could drown their tears in a glass of hard cider over a warm lunch and begin to think about the year ahead, God willing.

table could be replanted come spring.

John Lee is the recently retired manager of MHS Gold Medal winner Allandale Farm, Cognoscenti contributor and president of MA Society for Promoting Agriculture. He sits on the Governor's Food Policy Council and UMASS Board of Public Overseers and is a long-time op-ed contributor to Edible Boston and other publications.

French Horticulture Beans

Botanists paid the piper and called the tune.

Featured Collection ― Botanical Prints Collection

The Society shares 756 of its botanical prints, digitized online for all to enjoy. It also has many intact books with botanical prints and other nondigitized works of art. The intact books are treasures because other botanical print books were broken apart to sell the prints individually for profit. None of the Society’s individual prints are from books disassembled by the Society, rather, they were purchased by the Society or donated by generous donors. We maintain these treasures in a climate-controlled offsite storage facility to preserve them for future display.

Obtaining botanical prints was a primary objective of the Society since its inception in 1829. Its membership was unique from other elite societies in the 19th century, as it included not only upper-class gentlemen but also nurserymen and gardeners. Their common objective was to promote the science and practice of horticulture. In doing so, they created a forum and Library to share the latest scientific findings, including the most important books, newsletters and images from the United States and abroad. They were eager to have images to supplement their texts, as an image added important dimension to their understanding.

Recently, while working with the Society’s Botanical Print Collection, we discovered how unique and important it is. Did you know each print is an original work of art? Except in the case of a monotype, all printmaking processes have the capacity to produce identical multiples of the same artwork, which is called a print. Each print is considered an "original" work of art and is correctly referred to as an "impression," not a "copy."

Printmaking involves transferring images from a matrix, or template, onto another surface, usually paper or fabric. Many artisans are involved in printmaking. An artist creates the original image. Then, another artisan, reproduces the image onto a matrix, created out of wood, metal, glass or other material using tools or chemicals. The printer then inks the template and transfers it onto another surface. A color print is then hand colored by an artist. This brochure describes common methods used in botanical print making.

Botanical art became popular with the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. Prior to the printing press, access to botanical art was limited to the privileged few, because it was time consuming to reproduce. The reproductions were often of poor quality. The printing press enabled multiple duplicates to be made of a work.

Printed botanical art was first used for scientific purposes and is known as botanical illustration. Botanical illustration emphasizes scientific accuracy to enable identification of a plant. It depicts the form, color and details of a plant species. Its popularity was spurred by science and global exploration that revealed a vast diversity in new plant species. Explorers’ ships often had scientists and an artist on board to capture the wealth of new botanical life they discovered and wrote about.

By the end of 16th century, plants began to be cultivated for beauty and botanical art was created for artistic rather than scientific purposes. Emphasis was placed on the aesthetic value of the plant or flower, while accuracy in color and size was less important.

Narcissus, woodblock print originally published in Livre de Fluers (Paris, Joan Le Clerc, 1620) by Francois Langlois (1588-1647). This is the oldest print owned by MHS.

Today botanical illustration, emphasizing scientific accuracy as well as beauty, continues as an important artistic endeavor that is practiced and valued worldwide.

Book Club Contributed by Eileen Kramer

The MHS Book Club met on September 20th for a lively discussion of Around the World in 80 Plants, by Jonathan Drori. We shared some of our favorite plant stories from the book; for example, the licorice plant has properties that can be harmful and even deadly when black licorice is eaten in excess, and wormwood (the plant from which absinthe is derived) is used to treat malaria. We all agreed that the book is packed with information, beautifully illustrated and that the author has a delightful sense of humor.

We welcomed a new member to the group and would like to remind Leaflet readers that all MHS members are welcome to attend our book discussion meetings. Discussions begin at 1:30 and we are probably going to be inside the Education Building unless we get some very warm weather.

Here is the line-up for the next four months:

Tuesday, October 25: Old Herbaceous by Reginald Arkell Tuesday, November 15: The Gardener’s Bedtime Book by Richardson Wright Tuesday, December 13: Hands On The Land, by Jan Albers Tuesday, January 17: My Garden Book by Jamaica Kincaid

In the Windows – Books on Botanical Art

Our Collections are Growing

We thank Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Garden, Maureen Horn and Kenneth Ryan for their generous in-kind contributions to the Library this month.

Donate a Book!

Support our mission by donating a book to the Library from the Society’s Amazon Smile Wishlist. These are just a click away! Make sure you leave your name and we will thank you in the next Leaflet. You can search by title or book name. Or just browse to see what the Library and other departments are wishing for.

In addition to viewing botanical illustration, there is often an intriguing story behind the art. Here are some ideas for donating to the Library that will allow our members to learn about the art and artists…

◀ Fearless World Traveler: Adventures of Marianne North, Botanical Artist by Laurie Lawler (2021). This inspirational book for ages 6-12, relates the story of a Victorian biologist and artist who had a remarkable life and impact on science. She traveled around the world documenting plants in their natural settings. Her legacy continues in a building that houses over 800 of her paintings at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.

▶The Art of Botanical Illustration by Wilfrid Blunt, with the assistance of William T. Stearn (1994). We had two copies of this wonderful book that is an update of Blunt’s iconic 1951 edition, but they went out the door and never returned! We would love to fill this sad vacancy on our shelves.

◀ Botanical Art Techniques: A Comprehensive Guide to Watercolor, Graphite, Colored Pencil, Vellum, Pen And Ink, Egg Tempera, Oils, Printmaking, and More by The American Society of Botanical Artists, edited by Carol Woodin and Robin A. Jess (2020). A beautifully illustrated how-to book, illustrated with over 900 images. These experts offer stepby-step projects that move from introductory to advanced— so any level of artist can build on their skills.

▶The Life and Times of Mary Vaux Walcott by Marjories G. Jones (2015). Walcott (1860–1940), known as the "Audubon of Botany," was a gifted American artist whose stunning watercolors comprise a catalog of North American wildflowers. She was an active mountain climber, outdoorswoman and photographer who explored the Canadian Rockies for important species to plant.

◀ The Curious Mister Catesby: A "Truly Ingenious" Naturalist Explores New Worlds by E. Charles Nelson (2015). Beginning in 1712, Catesby, an English naturalist, spent 20 years in the United States in 1712 painting of the animals and plants he studied. This beautifully illustrated volume is the first in which international contributors provide Catesby’s biography alongside the historical and scientific significance of his work. The Library’s copy of this book is damaged and we would like to replace it.

1 pm, by appointment and when the lights are on.

for an appointment if you want to schedule a visit.

Thank you to our 2022 Platinum Garden Opening Sponsors

Are you a Massachusetts Horticultural Society

enthusiast age 70½ or older with an IRA?

The Required Minimum Distribution is back this year. You can support MHS in a tax-wise way by making a charitable gift directly from your IRA. Reduce your tax burden, while supporting our mission.

What you need to know:

- You must be 70½ or over.

- The gift (up to $100,000) must be transferred directly from the IRA account by the IRA custodian to MHS.

- The IRA custodian will have an easyto-complete form to facilitate the distribution.

- For gifts to be counted toward the 2022 required minimum distribution (RMD), transfers must be made by December 31, 2022.

The advantages:

- You can count your gift towards your annual required minimum distribution.

- Under current tax laws, keeping your IRA distribution out of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) may save you federal and state taxes.

- Your Medicare Part B and D premiums are affected by your AGI. The QCD will reduce your AGI, which could lower your Medicare premiums.

- The transfer process is quick and requires minimal paperwork.

If you need additional information, please contact Elaine Lawrence, Director of Development at elawrence@masshort.org or call 617-933-4945

Help the Garden grow by donating today!

TODAY