By Betsy Szymczak
The Cambridge Science festival, a 10-day event designed to inspire kids and adults to celebrate science and encourage curiosity and exploration, is an annual event sponsored by Boston area universities, museums and companies. This year organizers reached out to partners outside of Cambridge and Boston. Tower Hill Botanical Garden in Boylston MA, site of the Buxton annual fall show, invited us to participate in a day-long program “Bringing Horticulture into Your Home”.
On April 22 we teamed up with The Gesneriad Society, New England Chapter and joined other plant and garden related groups to display plants and provide lectures. Our theme was “Where in the World Do You Find Begonias and Gesneriads?” Members provided about two dozen species begonias for the display. A large world map was labeled with country of origin for each species. A propagation demonstration and Rick Fadden’s vermicomposter completed the display. This was a great opportunity to share science, history and our love of begonias. We may also have attracted some new members. In addition to Rick we had help from Phyllis Savage, Wanda and Dick Macnair, Himanshu Oberoi, Linda Kammerer and Mary Beth Hayes.
(All photos below by Betsy Szymczak)
The Cambridge Science festival, a 10-day event designed to inspire kids and adults to celebrate science and encourage curiosity and exploration, is an annual event sponsored by Boston area universities, museums and companies. This year organizers reached out to partners outside of Cambridge and Boston. Tower Hill Botanical Garden in Boylston MA, site of the Buxton annual fall show, invited us to participate in a day-long program “Bringing Horticulture into Your Home”.
On April 22 we teamed up with The Gesneriad Society, New England Chapter and joined other plant and garden related groups to display plants and provide lectures. Our theme was “Where in the World Do You Find Begonias and Gesneriads?” Members provided about two dozen species begonias for the display. A large world map was labeled with country of origin for each species. A propagation demonstration and Rick Fadden’s vermicomposter completed the display. This was a great opportunity to share science, history and our love of begonias. We may also have attracted some new members. In addition to Rick we had help from Phyllis Savage, Wanda and Dick Macnair, Himanshu Oberoi, Linda Kammerer and Mary Beth Hayes.
(All photos below by Betsy Szymczak)
Map showing where Begonias and Gesneriads come from
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Buxton Branch of ABS display
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Begonia species
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Begonia propagation examples
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Buxton Branch of ABS members, left to right: Mary Beth Hayes, Richard Macnair, Wanda Macnair, Rick Fadden, Betsy Szymczak and Phyllis Savage.