With nearly 4,000 different kinds of plants represented in the Arboretum’s living collections, every day presents rich opportunities to see something new. If you enjoy learning about plants and their unique characteristics, you can contribute to science as a participant in our Tree Spotters program. This citizen science project opens a window into the Arboretum’s phenology: the timing of natural events, such as the leafing out and flowering of trees in the spring and changing foliage colors in the fall. Your observations will assist Arboretum scientists in their studies of the effects of a...

From the mulberries to euonymus, contorted plants are ever fascinating. With an emphasis on tree architecture, docent Rhoda Kubrick will lead you into the little explored, but wide, variety in plant shape and size. Examine witch hazel, holly, pieris, seven son flower, and more. Learn that there are traditional shapes for plants, but often the traditional is altered under the influence of sunlight, space, and other aspects of a plant’s environment.

For cancellations due to weather, please call 617 384-5209

Free, registration is requested at ...

Few things on Earth are as miraculous and vital as seeds. Worshipped and treasured since the dawn of humankind. In the last century, 94% of our seed varieties have disappeared. SEED: The Untold Story follows passionate seed keepers protecting our 12,000 year-old food legacy. As biotech chemical companies control the majority of our seeds, farmers, scientists, lawyers, and indigenous seed keepers fight a David and Goliath battle to defend the future of our food. In a harrowing and heartening story, these heroes rekindle a lost connection to our most treasured resource and revive a culture...

Growing a plant from seed to seedling to maturity is a bit magical, very satisfying, and always educational. With a talk and hands-on activities, Sean Halloran will explain seed biology, conditions needed to trigger germination, and techniques for starting various types of plants— annuals (including vegetables), trees, and shrubs— from seeds. This workshop is for beginners and those who have been frustrated in past attempts to transform seed to seedling. Students will leave class with a selection of seeds raring to grow. Aftercare will be necessary. 
Fee $35 member, $45...

The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is a community resource for education. Arboretum for Educators Monthly Explorations are a professional development opportunity for elementary and middle school teachers to introduce the Arboretum landscape as an outdoor classroom. Participants learn from Children’s Education staff and volunteers about specific hands-on life science topics that may be used or adapted by teachers for their own classrooms and outdoor spaces. Meet and network with other like-minded educators, and engage in life science learning.

Fee: Free

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Material culture in Japan is distinguished by its heavy reliance on wood in art-making. For over a millennium, the rich biomass heritage of the country has provided a foundation for the work of master carpenters and the emergence of a wide array of remarkable techniques for the wood-related arts. Yukio Lippit will examine how wood selection and the materiality of wood conditioned the development of these arts in a Japanese context. His lecture focuses on timber-frame architecture and how Japan’s culture of building provides a lens into the man-nature relationship; Japanese sculpture and...

With nearly 4,000 different kinds of plants represented in the Arboretum’s living collections, every day presents rich opportunities to see something new. If you enjoy learning about plants and their unique characteristics, you can contribute to science as a participant in our Tree Spotters program. This citizen science project opens a window into the Arboretum’s phenology: the timing of natural events, such as the leafing out and flowering of trees in the spring and changing foliage colors in the fall. Your observations will assist Arboretum scientists in their studies of the effects of a...

Become a backyard orchardist and grow your own fruit! Even with a small yard, you can enjoy fruit from your own trees with minimal effort and cost. This step-by-step workshop will teach you all you need to know to plan and create a compact orchard for years of enjoyment. Participants will spend part of the workshop outside in the orchard for a pruning demonstration, so dress accordingly. Space is limited; pre-registration required.
Fee $20 member, $30 nonmember
Offered with the Mary M. B. Wakefield Charitable Trust

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Chronicling his lifelong obsession with discovering, assembling, and re-creating the lives of writers and scientists, Richard Holmes casts a new eye not only on the Romantic poets and lost women of Romantic science he has long studied, but on their biographers as well. He examines the evolution of the myths that have overshadowed certain lives and reveals how the manner in which each generation tells the stories of the lives that came before it shapes and is shaped be a contemporary understanding of human nature. Weaving in his own experience as a biographer, Holmes provides a spellbinding...

Naomi Oreskes’ research focuses on the earth and environmental sciences, with a particular interest in understanding scientific consensus and dissent. Her 2004 essay “The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change” (Science 306: 1686) has been widely cited, both in the United States and abroad, including in the Royal Society’s publication, “A Guide to Facts and Fictions about Climate Change," in the Academy-award winning film, An Inconvenient Truth, and in Ian McEwan’s novel, Solar. Her 2010 book, Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco to...

With nearly 4,000 different kinds of plants represented in the Arboretum’s living collections, every day presents rich opportunities to see something new. If you enjoy learning about plants and their unique characteristics, you can contribute to science as a participant in our Tree Spotters program. This citizen science project opens a window into the Arboretum’s phenology: the timing of natural events, such as the leafing out and flowering of trees in the spring and changing foliage colors in the fall. Your observations will assist Arboretum scientists in their studies of the effects of a...

The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is a community resource for education. Arboretum for Educators Monthly Explorations are a professional development opportunity for elementary and middle school teachers to introduce the Arboretum landscape as an outdoor classroom. Participants learn from Children’s Education staff and volunteers about specific hands-on life science topics that may be used or adapted by teachers for their own classrooms and outdoor spaces. Meet and network with other like-minded educators, and engage in life science learning.

Fee: Free

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Learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits to get the most you can out of the program. Click here to register. 

Learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits to get the most you can out of the program. Click here to register. 

You can set up a one-on-one meeting on campus with a representatives from Fidelity Investments, TIAA-CREF or Vanguard to discuss your retirement savings and investment choices – whether you are just starting out, wondering if your asset allocation is still right for your age, or thinking about retiring in the next few years.

This meeting day is with Vanguard. To schedule an appointment, go to www.meetvanguard.com or call 1-800-662-0106, x14500.