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Write Ahead, Wellesley

An hour in a Wellesley garden: the dahlias are in full bloom and they’re fabulous, dahling

September 26, 2023 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

To enter Wendy Pickering Bedrosian’s North 40 garden plot, I must first negotiate the tangle of chicken wire fencing. She pulls aside the barrier, and I’m allowed to pass. “I make this a fortress agains the bunnies,” she says. The treasure Wendy is protecting: over 400 dahlia tubers that throw up thousands of gorgeous flowers every year.

Wellesley dahlias
Wendy Bedrosian plants over 400 dahlia tubers each year in her North 40 garden plot.

Part hobby, part obsession, and part charitable endeavor, Wendy has been tending her 85ft. x 30 ft. Weston Road plot for over ten years. It started out innocently enough as a vegetable garden that she intended to work with her kids. Turns out the kids didn’t like gardening so, Henny Penny-like, she sighed and planted and harvested on her own. That’s the hobby part of the story. When she added a few dahlias about six years ago, she fell in love with the wide range of colors and varieties she could find. So the next year she put in a few more dahlias, then dozens more, then hundreds. That’s the obsession part of the story. “Now here we are and there are very few vegetables,” she shrugs.

The charitable part of the story is the best part. While the dahlias are in full bloom, which is mid-summer until the first frost, Wendy sells bouquets of at least a dozen stems of various sizes and color, along with some filler, for a minimum donation of $15. It should come as no surprise that a fancy florist would charge almost $100 for such bounty. Wendy harvests almost daily, and she makes sure every bloom is in peak condition. With names like Double Jill, Last Dance, Mojo, and Tailspin, there can be no disappointment in her choices. You will get gorgeous blooms. Full stop. Contact Wendy here to arrange for your own bouquet of dahlias, and for pickup details.

Wellesley dahlias
Pollinators are big fans of Wendy’s open-center dahlia varieties.

Last year, dahlia proceeds garnered more than $1,000 for two different charities. This year, Wendy is on track to $3,000 in donations, maybe more, since most people give more that the minimum donation, “which has been so generous,” she says.

Wendy switches the charity every week or two. This year she so far she’s donated to Wellesley ABC, and the Justice Health Initiative. Her most recent  efforts are going to raise money for a young woman who suffered a spinal cord injury in a cycling accident last year. Those funds will go toward buying expensive adaptive equipment not covered by insurance.

She doesn’t have any specific fundraising goals. There’s no giant novelty thermometer outside her North 40 plot, tracking philanthropic progress. “Whatever it does, it does,” she says.

Once the frost hits, the work continues. Wendy digs up the dahlia tubers each year, and they overwinter in an unfinished part of her basement that stays cold enough for the dormancy period they require. Last year that chore took place around the third week of October. One year the party kept going until Nov. 7, but that’s unusual.

Wellesley dahlias
This beauty came home with me to keep things cheerful on the kitchen windowsill.

Wendy sources her tubers from a lot of small farms, and also has gotten involved in dahlia Facebook communities. “I’ve made dahlia friends from all over the country. We do a lot of trading, which is really a lot of fun. Some of them are really rare and hard to get. It’s like collecting anything.”

Which is to say, an obsession. Once the charitable part of the growing season has past, she’s back on the hunt, scouting around online for coveted varieties. There’s always room for one more tuber in her dahlia beds. And Wendy doesn’t play favorites. “They’re like children, you don’t have a favorite one,” she laughs.

If you love the idea of introducing a few beautiful “flower children” into your home while supporting a worthy cause, contact Wendy for details. The dahlia stems I picked up last week are still going strong and were, of course, well worth the nominal donation.

More gardening stories

An hour in a Wellesley garden—we take a ride on the brand-new Morses Pond weed harvester

An hour in a Wellesley garden—it’s all organic on this country estate

An hour in a Wellesley garden—it’s up to us to eradicate the dreaded garlic mustard

 

Filed Under: Charity/Fundraising, Environment, Gardens

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Tour the historic Hunnewell Estate with the Wellesley Historical Society

September 12, 2023 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Join the Wellesley Historical Society for a 90-minute walking tour to explore both the past and present of the Hunnewell Estate’s unique horticultural collection.

We toured Wellesley’s most iconic property several years back and can tell you it is a not-to-be-missed opportunity. Horatio Hollis Hunnewell, who made his millions in railroads, mining, real estate, and other business ventures, built the house in the early 1850s as the country estate for his wife, Isabella Pratt Welles, for whom the town is named, and their nine children. (The interior of the house is not part of the tour.) Mr. Hunnewell was an extraordinary horticulturist, credited with — among other things — popularizing rhododendrons in the United States.

Hunnewell mansion, Wellesley
Hunnewell estate, spring 2023

Highlights of that past tour of the 32-acre property for us were the pinery, the topiary garden, and the variety of rare trees.

DATE: Saturday, September 23, 2023

TIMES:
Morning tour: 9:15am-11:45am
Afternoon tour: 12:15am-2:25pm

COST: This is a ticketed event. $75 per person. Space is limited to 24 participants per tour. Tickets here.

MEETING LOCATION: Putnam Building, Elm Bank Reservation–900 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA. Transportation will be provided from Elm Bank to the Estate. All tour participants must utilize the provided transportation.

GOOD TO KNOW: 
The tour route includes uneven terrain.
There is no restroom access on the Estate. There will be restrooms available before and after the tour at the Elm Bank meeting location.

QUESTIONS: email Wellesley Historical Society’s Executive Director, Taylor Kalloch at director@wellesleyhistoricalsociety.org.

Proceeds from the Tour support the Society’s general operating fund.

Filed Under: Entertainment, Environment, Gardens

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An hour in a Wellesley water garden—we take a ride on the brand-new Morses Pond weed harvester

August 24, 2023 by Deborah Brown 2 Comments

By far the most fun we had in town over the summer was riding shotgun on the Town of Wellesley’s brand-new $350k weed harvester as it made its way around Morses Pond. The massive diesel-run watercraft, purchased with  Community Preservation Act funds, has replaced the antique workhorse the town has coaxed along for years.

The new, bright-orange pond-worthy equipment is doing what the old harvester could no longer manage—8-10 hours work days, 6 days per week, May through September, harvesting milfoil, fanwort, duckweed, and more from the dammed pond. “If we didn’t weed it, the shallow parts would become eutrophic. The pond would eventually turn back to what it was, which was essentially a wetlands,” Cricket Vlass, superintendent of the Park and Tree Division said as we tooled around the 104-acre body of water.

The harvester isn’t exactly whisper-quiet, so you’d think that perhaps the residents of the homes on and near the pond might register noise complaints. Instead, they basically said, “Bring it.” A couple of years ago the neighbors and other pond-lovers raised their voices in a petition to all but beg for a new, bigger harvester to preserve what they called “a jewel at the heart of Wellesley’s natural resources.”

Ben Smith from the Park and Tree Division was at the wheel, as he has been all summer. I didn’t have to call him Captain Smith, though. Remarkably, no special licensing is needed to drive a weed harvester. He does, however, hold a commercial license and a Class A license to operate the truck he drives to the RDF for dumping the weeds.

Morses Pond, weed harvester, Wellesley
Cricket Vlass (left) and Ben Smith on the bridge of the new weed harvester.

There are two harvester operators who ply the mighty waters of Morses Pond. Smith on the day I was there got to drive the shiny, new, stainless steel one. Mike Chapman was at the helm of a smaller, older harvester. A third harvester, the Blue Monster, is on its way to retirement. Days follow a familiar loop during weed season. Smith and Chapman each work on one of the pond’s seven zones, rotating zones every couple of weeks. As they move the vehicles around the pond, plants are cut at their base. “They don’t get pulled up by the roots,” Vlass said. “It’s like mowing a lawn underwater.” The weeds make their way up a conveyer belt and land in a holding area. Some small fish get scooped up, too, along with the occasional turtle. The turtles get rescued and thrown back. The fish…don’t.

Once the holding area is full, the weed harvesters are beached on the the commuter rail side of the pond, near the playground area (but at a safe distance). From there, the harvester spits its load into a dumpster, which is then transported via truck to the RDF. There, the RDF takes over and the weeds are eventually composted.

Morses Pond, weed harvester, Wellesley
The Morses Pond weed harvesting work site is on the east side of the pond, where the commuter rail runs. The playground area (not pictured) is at a safe distance to the left.

“When we bring this into the RDF, we weigh the container,” Smith said. “It’s not uncommon for us to bring in 6-7 thousand pounds of weeds per load.” He and Chapman typically bring in a load or two per day. Then it’s back to the pond for more weed-pulling. Sisyphus comes to mind. Unlike the hapless mortal tasked with pushing a rock uphill, only to see it roll down again, Smith keeps himself entertained and educated while he’s on the job. Audiobooks, music, and podcasts help pass the time.

About the Blue Monster, I was gently told, “She’ll be going somewhere very soon” to “maybe somebody with some interesting skills. It’s going to have to be somebody who has a lot of steel available to them, a lot of welding experience.” It felt a little like when your family says that wholly unsuitable stray dog you brought home would be going to live a great life on a farm in the country.

Morses Pond, old weed harvester
Morses Pond, the Blue Monster

More garden writing

An hour in a Wellesley garden—Boulder Brook Reservation meadows

An hour in a Wellesley garden—Fuller Brook Park

An hour in a Wellesley garden—a country estate


Please send tips, photos, ideas to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com

Filed Under: Environment, Gardens, Morses Pond

Captain Marden's, Wellesley

Wellesley-Newton DCR bridge—remembering the dark days when neighbors were separated

August 22, 2023 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

We recently took a short walk across the Wellesley-Newton DCR bridge linking Washington Street in Wellesley with Concord Street in Newton, and noticed that the flower boxes had been freshened up by volunteers of the Waterstone senior independent living residences. The results of the eight boxes packed with geraniums and petunias give the DCR  pedestrians-only bridge a tended look, enjoyed by all who make the short jaunt between the two towns.

The bridge looks good now, but about a decade ago, the crossing over the former railway was treacherous. If Romeo from Newton wanted to see Juliet from Wellesley, it was either swim the Charles or take his chances on the punky wood of the old tracks.

Here’s what the bridge looked like in 2011, before a renovation project. As my co-editor Bob Brown posted at that time, “Not since the Chunnel connected England and France in 1994 has a project emerged that has the capacity to link two previously disconnected peoples.”

DCR bridge August 2010, Wellesley-Newton

 

Waterstone path, Wellesley
Access the Wellesley-Newton DCR bridge via Washington Street, to the right of CVS front entrance.

 

Waterstone, Wellesley
The path continues on past Waterstone

 

Waterstone path, Wellesley
The massive generator (left) means when the power goes out, Waterstone residents are covered. As you continue along the path, look for the vegetable garden on the left, with its summer bounty of tomatoes, squash, and cucumbers.

 

Charles River bridge, near Waterstone, Wellesley
The surface of the ADA compliant Charles River Bridge, formerly train tracks, is crushed stone at the start and finish, and wood in the middle.

 

Charles River bridge, Wellesley, flower boxes
There are eight of these boxes—four on either side of the Charles River bridge. The Wellesley Trails Committee installed the boxes in 2021.

 

flower boxes lower falls bridge wellesley trails
Flower boxes installation, a work in progress. 2021

Once we crossed the bridge, it seemed like a good idea to cross Concord Street and see how Newton was getting along. Newton was doing quite well, thank you, so we popped over to Weston and paid a call on the Leo J. Martin Golf Course. The entire walk, round trip, was about 1.5 miles

Leo J. Martin Golf Course, Newton
This is where the sidewalk ends. You can keep going if you don’t mind traffic nudging you onto the Mass Pike in about another half mile.

More bridge fun

Hike the Echo Bridge area

Hike the Waban Arches and Sudbury Aqueduct

Hike over the gorges in the beautiful Cornell University area

 

Filed Under: Environment, Gardens, Hikes

Newton-Wellesley Orthopedic

MassHort has grown its program offerings for fall 2023

August 21, 2023 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The Massachusetts Horticultural Society is now registering for its many plants-related programs. You can try out classes in arts & crafts (a 6-week Ikebana course starts Sept. 12); botanical art (Color Mixing for Artists starts Sept. 5); health and wellness (Forest Bathing programs), landscape design (a Nov. 4 workshop on creating a pollinator garden). These are just a few of the listings, so make sure to check out the entire rundown. Most activities take place at the Society’s 35-acre property at 900 Washington St., Wellesley.

Elm Bank Reservation, Wellesley
MassHort Trial Gardens

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Filed Under: Environment, Gardens, Outdoors

Dedham Country Day School

Volunteers needed to create habitat at Simons Park in Wellesley

August 16, 2023 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The Wellesley Natural Resources Commission needs help to prepare the Simons Park lawn conversion project for new plants to support at-risk pollinator species. Sign up here.

Simons Park, Wellesley
Simons Park, Wellesley. Who’s in for pulling up the ugly black plastic on Sept. 7 and 8?

If you’ve driven by the open space adjacent to the Wellesley Free Library, you’ve no doubt noticed the 10,000 square feet of black tarp, secured with sandbags. The tarp has for months been smothering the grass in order to make way for a meadow. Now in its second year, the long-term goal of the Simons Park project is to convert the resource-dependent conventional lawn into a thriving, ecologically functional landscape.

The tarp has done about all the damage it can do to the lawn, so the NRC will be removing the black tarp and sandbags on September 7 and 8. New trees, shrubs, grasses and plugs will be planted on September 21-23. But the NRC can’t do all this alone.

Volunteers needed

Please sign up here and be a part of this transformative project. Food, fun and fulfillment will be in high supply. In addition, supplies will be available for participants and anyone else interested in joining the effort to convert a portion of their property from grass to habitat.

Filed Under: Construction, Embracing diversity, Environment, Gardens

Wellesley Swim

An hour in a Wellesley garden: Boulder Brook Reservation meadows

August 13, 2023 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

We try never to let a summer pass by without a walk through Boulder Brook Reservation, Wellesley’s least known and most low-maintenance garden. By mid August the open field sections of the 31-acre parcel are full of pollinators moving from joe pye weed to goldenrod to asters, and more. Paths through the meadow are occasionally mowed by the DPW in spring, summer, and most of fall. In late autumn the meadows are mowed down to the ground to prevent reforestation of the area.

Parking is available at the Katharine Lee Bates Elementary School (except during school hours), located at 116 Elmwood Rd.

Boulder Brook Reservation, Wellesley
The access path to Boulder Brook Reservation is located near the Bates Elementary School playground.

 

Boulder Brook Reservation, Wellesley
A pollinator corridor of joe pye weed, interspersed with other late-summer flowering wildflowers. Boulder Brook Reservation, August 2023.

 

Boulder Brook Reservation, Wellesley
A patch of goldenrod at the edge of a meadow. The area was once part of Boulder Brook Farm, a working dairy farm in the 1900s. The property was purchased by the Town in 1966. Boulder Brook Reservation, August 2023.

 

Boulder Brook Reservation, Wellesley
Joe pye weed grows to about 8-ft., is native to New England, and loves plenty of sun, and damp conditions, if it can get that. But joe pye weed isn’t fussy, tolerating all by shady or arid conditions. Boulder Brook Reservation, August 2023.

 

Boulder Brook Reservation, Wellesley
Boulder Brook Reservation, July 2018

 

Boulder Brook Reservation, Wellesley
A mowed Boulder Brook Reservation meadow, February 2022

 

Bates Elementary School playground
After a wander around the meadow, take the kids to the playground at the Katharine Lee Bates Elementary School.

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Filed Under: Environment, Gardens, Outdoors

An hour in a Wellesley garden—a tour of Fuller Brook Park

August 2, 2023 by Deborah Brown 1 Comment

The Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) organized a walking tour of Wellesley’s 23-acre Fuller Brook Park as part of an awareness effort to show the public, and municipal employees from nearby towns, the benefits of stream restoration. On a hot and sunny mid-summer day, over 25 people gathered at Phillips Park in Wellesley Hills to set off on a one-mile tour to State Street Pond.

The walk was led by Wellesley Natural Resources Commission (NRC) director Brandon Schmitt, who discussed interventions made to naturalize the stream channel, restore native plant communities, and reduce stormwater pollution. The NRC oversees the use, preservation and protection of Fuller Brook Park, and other areas in Wellesley.

Fuller Brook Park, Wellesley
Fuller Brook Park, Wellesley.

Because Fuller Brook is a tributary of the 80-mile long Charles River, and the CRWA’s mission is to “protect, restore, and enhance the Charles River and its watershed using science, advocacy, and the law…” representatives from the organization pay visits to any trickle of water that eventually makes its way to Boston. Wellesley is one of 35 towns in the Charles River watershed the non-profit keeps tabs on. Although not a state agency, the environmental advocacy group partners with governmental entities on multiple projects at any given time.

CRWA River Science & Restoration program manager Lisa Kumpf said because the agency has efforts going on in a few communities on the watershed to do similar projects, it seemed like a good time to tour Fuller Brook Park and “see such a great result of a stream restoration project.”

And so it begins

In 2014 after nearly a decade of planning, the town broke ground on a $6 million restoration of the 100-plus-year-old Fuller Brook Park. One of 11 Wellesley areas listed on the National Register of Historic Places,  the park was established in 1899 and designed by John Charles Olmsted (nephew of Frederick Law Olmsted and a noted landscape designer in his own right). The Fuller Brook Park path runs roughly 2.5 miles parallel to Washington Street along Fuller Brook and Caroline Brook, and ends at Dover Road.

After 100 years of growth, the park’s original natural look had started to look neglected and foreboding in parts. Invasives such as  bittersweet were doing their best to pull down mature shade trees. Knotweed had infested stream banks, contributing to erosion. Norway maples with their rapid-growth habit had sprung up and shaded out slower-growing saplings such as native oaks, pines and sugar maples.

In the end, it took over a decade of planning and years of construction by Wellesley DPW crews and outside contractors to bring back the area to a tended-but-natural look. The cost: $6 million—Town Meeting appropriated nearly $5mil to complete the project, and the rest came from grants. The natural look doesn’t come cheap. And now that the work is done, Fuller Brook Park isn’t exactly a turn-key operation. The Town is responsible for ongoing maintenance of the area such as occasionally cleaning out drainage areas that have been blocked with silt, sediment, and vegetation.

As for those invasive species, it was conceded as unwise to remove all of them. “If we cut down every Norway maple in the park, there would be no shade left,” Schmitt said.

The Natural Resources Commission has been granted about $20k per year by Town Meeting to hire an outside contractor to come in regularly and remove invasives. “We’ve seen success in that,” Schmitt said. “The woody species are now at a manageable level. We’re hoping we can shift from just extracting plants to adding more native plants.”

In late 2017, work was completed on the previously eroding 2.5-mile route. Work included installation of two bio-retention basins filled with native plantings; changes to the water flow; new boardwalk sections, and a regraded and resurfaced the now-ADA compliant path to crushed stone for a more natural look. A tour member recalled that during stakeholder meetings, park users—including many of the 120 direct abutting households–insisted on that natural look. An original plan for a “12-foot wide asphalt swath” was shot down fast, he said with satisfaction.

Fuller Brook Park, bioretention basin
Fuller Brook Park, one of two bioretention basins. “This area was designed to collect water and slow it down and filter it out. So all of this is very engineered,” Brandon said. The bioretention areas used to be flat, mown, grassy areas that collected standing water after heavy rains.

 

Fuller Brook Park, Wellesley
In the end, it took over a decade of planning and years of construction by Wellesley DPW crews and outside contractors to renovate Fuller Brook Park. The cost: $6 million—Town Meeting appropriated nearly $5mil to complete the project, and the rest came from grants. The natural look doesn’t come cheap.

Refurbishing the area wasn’t all about looks. The main goals of the project were to “improve stormwater capacity for the park and stormwater conveyance and improved water quality. It was to make it safer and more accessible for the public, with better pathways for accessibility,” Schmitt said.

The project included plenty of now unseen parts such as roadway drainage work to protect the park from pollutants and remove contaminants from stormwater before it enters Fuller Brook and eventually flows to Boston and into the Charles River basin.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been six years since the Fuller Brook Park restoration project was completed. Abutters and other park users feel very protective of the area. Last year when a proposal was put forward to raze a house on the path to make way for something drastically larger, the project was abandoned after strenuous objections. Neighbors and park users didn’t want to see the character of the historic area changed with a huge house they said would loom over the area.

Schmitt knows without such public such buy-in, the town will fall short of achieving the goals set for the Fuller Brook Park project. “It’s Wellesley’s second-largest watershed. It’s a critical stormwater infrastructure system for the town,” he said. “I think people probably take this for granted now as they walk along it. And if it fails, people will think of it as a loss.”

 

Fuller Brook Park, Wellesley, knotweed supression
Fuller Brook Park, Wellesley, knotweed suppression system. If it looks like the black plastic has been there forever, well, it kind of has. As long as DPW workers keep hearing from their colleagues in other towns that black plastic removal means knotweed germination party time, there it shall remain.

 

Fuller Brook Park, Wellesley, athletic fields area
Fuller Brook Park gained National Historic Register status in 2013, except for this short jog through the athletic fields. That area was judged “too altered” for inclusion in the Register.

 

Fuller Brook Park, Wellesley, State Street Pond
From left: Eilish Corey, senior civil engineer; George Saraceno, assistant town engineer; Brandon Schmitt, Wellesley NRC director; Julie Wood, climate resilience director CRWA; Lisa Kumpf, river science and restoration program manager; walk participant; Robert Kearns, climate resilience specialist;  Julia Hopkins, communications and outreach manager; in front of State Street Pond. In 2015 the pond was dredged to remove more than 4k tons of sediment. Nearly 150 truck trips were made from the State Street parking lot to a landfill in Chelmsford, MA.

Fuller Brook Park project punch-list

Here are many of the components performed by the town and outside contractor R. Bates & Sons, Inc.

  • installed raised walkways and new boardwalk sections
  •  installed bioretention basins to filter stormwater and improve water quality in Caroline and Fuller Brooks
  •  improved roadway drainage to protect from spills and other pollutants from stormwater before it enters Fuller Brook
  • installed granite curbing, stone markers, benches, and interpretive signs
  • reduced standing water
  • stabilized banks
  • removed invasive vegetation such as knotweed
  • planted over 25 different species of grasses and herbaceous flowering plants to create a diverse habitat attractive to insects, birds, and small mammals
  • installed boulder clusters to enhance stream habitat
  • created a path to link the Park, Wellesley High School, and the WHS athletic fields
  • upgraded drain pipes and culverts
  • installed road end drainage and curbing at the dead end streets abutting the park at Tappan St., Benton St., Winthrop Rd., Vane St., and Appleby Rd.
  • constructed new paths connecting those streets with the main Brook Path
  • installed manholes between catch basins and the Brook outfall
  • installed deep sumps in catch basins, and stone at the ends of outfall pipes
  • reconstructed four pedestrian bridges
  • repaired five masonry structures—either bridges that carry roads over the Brook, or culverts that channel Brook water under the roads. Work was done at Forest St., State St., Wellesley Ave., Brook St., and Cameron St.

The CWRA’s work flows ever onward

The CWRA’s most pressing projects are restoration of the Muddy River, which runs through Boston’s Emerald Necklace and is the most polluted tributary to the Charles River; Canturbury Brook in Mattapan, which runs through the Boston Nature Center; and Cheesecake Brook in Newton, which has a very similar “before” look to it as Wellesley’s Fuller Brook Park, pre-construction.


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Filed Under: Construction, Environment, Gardens

Global Flora Conservatory at Wellesley College highlights botanical diversity

July 24, 2023 by Hannah Langenfeld 3 Comments

The Baobab (Adansonia digitata) is also known as “the tree of life” and grows in Madagascar and southern Africa. Its lifespan can be up to 1,500 years, with its name originating from the Arabic word for fruit, according to a label in the Global Flora Conservatory, which sits on the nearly 22 acres of Wellesley College’s botanical gardens. This healing plant is only one of many prickly cacti, trees and various plants currently living in the greenhouse.

Global Flora Wellesley College

The greenhouse project won international recogntion for sustainability at the  LafargeHolcim Design Awards while under construction in 2018. In an overview of Global Flora, introductory comments about the vision for Global Flora to be sustainable and scientifically interdisciplinary were written by Botanic Garden Director Kristina Jones.

Jones wrote that the project would not seek to curate plants with livable conditions that are ‘energy demanding’ to recreate and that the botanic garden staff would “think of energy and water as systems that interact with each other and with the organisms, and make these systems as accessible as possible for monitoring and study.”

Global Flora Wellesley College

Global Flora was completed and opened in 2019 and also accompanied a student-led class project to examine “the roles that plants and the natural sciences have played in colonial histories across six continents and several islands.” For this class, students learned from native guest speakers, read texts written by Indigenous anthropologists and scientists and were able to study the college’s botanic garden. Global Flora shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 but re-opened to the public on Tuesdays for a portion of this summer.

When visitors first walk into the conservatory, the first level of the greenhouse has a paved walkway leading to a second level which loops back to the entrance. From plants on the wall in addition to fully in-ground plants, the dry and wet biomes of Global Flora seem to be successfully keeping alive a range of diverse plants in an artificial natural habitat. 

Global Flora Wellesley College

Signs with QR codes that visitors may scan to learn more information about the different plant life in Global Flora help people connect and learn about horticulture and botanics, while interactive activities for children such as coloring and writing down suggestions on what they would like to see added to Global Flora, make the trip appropriate for all ages.

The Global Flora Conservatory exhibit will be open to the public in the Wellesley College Botanic Garden until July 28, then re-open in the fall. Admission is free.

Global Flora Wellesley College


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Filed Under: Gardens, Wellesley College

“Christmas in July” at Massachusetts Horticultural Society in Wellesley

July 24, 2023 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

See what the citizens of Snow Village, the winter-themed model train display, are up to at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society‘s third-annual “Christmas in July” running through July 29. Mass Hort only opens the trains to the public twice a year, so this is your chance to see the beloved train and model village and escape to this chilly winter scene during the heat of summer.

Open during garden hours, and included with garden admission.

Mass Hort, Festival of Trees, Fenway Park
If you can’t make it to Fenway Park this summer, the next best thing is visiting the replica that’s part of Mass Hort’s Snow Village.

Garden hours

Monday-Thursday: 10am-7pm, last entry at 5:30pm
Friday-Sunday: 10am-5pm, last entry at 4:15pm

Admission

$10 Adults | Free for MHS members | Free for youth 12 and younger

Filed Under: Gardens

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  • Developers share details on 34-unit Wellesley condo plan
  • Happy 101st birthday to Wellesley's Anne Powers
  • Psychologist & author Dr. Damour making the rounds in Wellesley, Natick
  • MWRTA Route 1 bus schedule in Wellesley being revised again
  • Newton-Wellesley Hospital remembers lives lost to opioids

Click on Entering Natick sign to read our Natick Report

Entering Natick road sign

Upcoming Events

Sep 26
3:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Wellesley HS boys varsity golf at Framingham

Sep 26
4:00 pm - 6:00 pm

WHS girls varsity field hockey vs. Weymouth, home

Sep 27
9:00 am - 10:30 am

MassHort guided garden tour

Sep 27
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Wellesley League of Women Voters presents, “Who is protecting your right to read?”

Sep 28
9:00 am - 10:30 am

Select Board office hours

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Recent Comments

  • Kim Mahoney on Wellesley Town Hall interior renovation coming along
  • Bob Brown on Happy 101st birthday to Wellesley’s Anne Powers
  • Mary Ann Cluggish on Happy 101st birthday to Wellesley’s Anne Powers
  • Jen on Wellesley to hear pitch for 34 condos at Rte. 9/Cedar Street
  • Donna Fessler on Happy 101st birthday to Wellesley’s Anne Powers

Links we like

  • Danny's Place
  • Great Runs
  • Jack Sanford: Wellesley's Major League Baseball Star
  • Tech-Tamer
  • The Wellesley Wine Press
  • Universal Hub
  • Wellesley Sports Discussion Facebook Group
Call and Haul, Wellesley
Refined Renovations, Wellesley
Deland, Gibson, Wellesley
Rick Cram, leader

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