I left home Tuesday afternoon, racing the storm, because I was planning on having lots of educational fun in Cambridge while I was staying there visiting with my son. I had scheduled a visit on Wednesday to see the Glass Flowers at Harvard’s Museum of Natural History and then a meeting with other garden writers on Thursday. The storm stopped, but so did a lot of traffic in town. The Museum was closed!
The Museum was closed but not the Cambridge Main Library. I set off, but the going was nasty. The fine mist froze on my eyeglasses. I decided to spend a happy hour in the local bookstore instead. Flowers, Chic and Cheap: Arrangements with Flowers from the Market or Backyard by Carlos Mota is a beautiful book with some arrangements that are very a la Constance Spry.
Thursday things were a bit better but I was glad that my son drove me to the conference center where NE Grows! was in full swing. Our wonderful local company OESCO was there showing off all their wonderful tools and getting a lot of attention.
Botanical Interests Seeds is a fairly new, but excellent seed company.
Hart’s Seeds is another good company, but they have been around for over 100 years. All those seeds make me feel that spring will come.
But no more time for NE Grows! The garden writers awaited. I met Colleen Plimpton and bought her new book. It looks wonderful. Our group shared lots of garden talk. Lots of writing talk. Our speaker, Betty Mackey of B.B. Mackey Publishing, gave us linformation about Print on Demand publishing. That’s POD. I am enjoying Who Does Your Garden Grow that Betty published. Now I feel au courant.
The meeting broke up a little earlier than I expected. If I hurried I could make it to the Museum of Natural History and see those Glass Flowers, made with lampwork techniques, by Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka, father and son, beginning in 1887 and ending in 1936. Their purpose was to enable Professor George Lincoln Goodale to teach botany with absolutely correct models. You will hear a lot more about the Blaschka flowers soon. It was a full day! And today I will be home.
I am glad you had a good time despite the weather. I would love to see those glass flowers. There is supposed to be a good book out with pictures of them with some history. It wouldn’t be as nice as seeing them of course but a good second best.
Lisa – I saw the book you mention and I think it is only $19.95 which is a good price for a book filled with beautiful photographs. It is hard to believe that these flower, seed heads and roots are really glass.
Seeing 847 flowering plants in full bloom when it’s so snowy and gray outside is one of my favorite winter ‘things to do’, and luckily the Harvard Museum of Natural History is almost always open 9-5 daily.
Blue – You don’t even need to be a gardener to appreciate and enjoy the Glass Flowers.
Pat – sorry I missed you at the GWA lunch – I got there late and had to leave right when it finished, but I too brought home some great info and an expanded birthday book wishlist! That NHM exhibit on glass flowers is worth visiting especially on days like we had last week! Looking forward to hearing more about it in blogs ahead!
I was at New England Grows too. It was well worth the 3 days of exhibits and classes that they offer. hope you and others will return next year.
jon – I plan to, you can be sure!