Creating holiday decor with our seniors!
Holiday Decor at the Police Station
Creating holiday decor with our seniors!
What's Happening!
Scholarships!
Several horticultural organizations offer scholarships to those pursuing related fields in addition to our club. Don't miss out! Be sure to check out all the opportunities below.
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Hopkinton Garden Club Scholarship – deadline is April 22, 2023. Our club is excited to offer scholarships to those applicants who have maintained legal residence in Hopkinton, Massachusetts for at least one year, and are a high school or college student pursuing a career in the fields of Horticulture, Floriculture, Landscape Design, Forestry, Conservation, Environmental Sciences and related fields. The $1,000 scholarship is open to applicants maintaining legal residence in Hopkinton, MA for at least one year. Preference is given to graduating high school seniors pursuing the fields of Horticulture, Floriculture, Landscape Design, Forestry, Conservation, Environmental Sciences, and related fields. Applications may be obtained through the Hopkinton High School Guidance Department, the Joseph Keefe Technical School Guidance Office, or downloaded here.
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National Garden Club Scholarship deadline February 1, 2023 - The National Garden Club (NGC) gives 45 college scholarships to juniors, seniors and graduate students of$4500. If you know a deserving student, the details are available on the NGC website. Too often deserving students are unaware of these opportunities.
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Garden Club Federation Scholarship (GCFM) deadline is March 1, 2023. GCFM offers 13 Scholarships to college students. All information and applications are available on the GCFM website. These are for students who have completed their freshman semester year.
Scholarship Offers!
“A Citizen Scientist’s Guide to Native Pollination System Conservation (and why it matters)”
with Dr. Robert Gegear
Tuesday, February 21, 2023, 7:30 p.m.
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC VIA ZOOM ONLY!
NON-MEMBERS ONLY - REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED FOR ZOOM ATTENDANCE. SEE INFORMATION BELOW.
Over the past two decades, human activity has significantly degraded the integrity of plant-pollinator or ‘pollination’ systems across New England, with many of our historically abundant native flowing plant and pollinator species now locally extinct and others soon to follow if do not take immediate conservation action. The loss of species from plant-pollinator systems poses a significant threat to natural ecosystem function and service due to the fundamental role that ‘pollination products’ play in supporting wildlife diversity across trophic levels. Yet, the factors driving pollination system degradation remain unclear, impeding the development of effective conservation strategies.
Image courtesy of The Beecology Project
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Hopkinton Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
In this talk, I will discuss how ecological data collected through my Beecology Citizen Science Project is being used to gain insight into the causes of species loss from long-tongued bee and butterfly pollination systems native to New England. I will also highlight the ‘eco-technology’ that has been developed to aid Beecologists in the collection of species interaction data, including the launch of a new version of the webapp with automated butterfly and plant ID functions powered by iNaturalist in Spring 2022. My talk will conclude with an overview of how citizen scientists have been using Beecology data to significantly advance biodiversity restoration efforts in Massachusetts over the past 3 years.
Robert J. Gegear, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Umass Dartmouth. His research focuses on the ecology, evolution, and conservation of plant pollinator systems, with particular emphasis on the role of pollinator sensory and cognitive systems in system diversification. He conducts highly integrative field, laboratory and theoretical studies on plant-pollinator systems using approaches and methodologies from a wide range of disciplines, including animal behavior, human psychology, molecular biology, community ecology, and computational biology. To advance his research and generate public outreach opportunities, he developed the Beecology Citizen Science Project, which aims to crowdsource the collection and dissemination of data on plant-pollinator interactions to accelerate the protection and restoration of habitat supporting species at risk of local extinction. His research is published in Nature, Science, Conservation Biology, Scientific Reports, and Proceedings B, among others.
Non-members who wish to attend, please respond to register@hopkintongardenclub.org and state your interest in attending our February 21st online event. Instructions will be provided in a reply email just before the event.
Our Speaker Series includes two more evening learning opportunities, please hold these dates:
3/21/23 - Your beautiful earth-friendly, sustainable garden with Rebecca Warner
4/18/23 - Avian ecology with Frederick (Erik) C. Sechler, Jr.
January Table Arrangements for Our Veterans!
Centerpieces for today’s monthly Veteran’s Breakfast at the Hopkinton Senior Center, by Hopkinton Garden Club members, Jodi Yocher, Sue Hadley and Ann Clark!
Each month, September through June, club members provide floral arrangements to decorate the tables at the Senior Center for their Veteran's breakfast.
Thank you 2022 "Help Hopkinton Bloom" Sponsors!
Our Business Sponsors share our goal of beautifying Hopkinton for the enjoyment of our community. We are extremely grateful to each organization who continues to support our work through their generous contributions.
We also want to express our deep appreciation to our Department of Public Works for providing a weekly watering for our planters and sites. This help is invaluable to keeping our plants looking their best!
Please show everyone your support and recognize their contribution to our town!
Donors:
Site Sponsors:
Planter Sponsors:
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Unibank, Hopkinton Branch
Click here to view pictures of our town plantings!
What We Do!
Garden Talk
Erigeron annuus, known as Annual fleabane or Daisy fleabane, is extremely common— and can quickly seed into open areas, particularly after they have been disturbed. It is a valuable source of nectar and pollen to small native bees, flies, and other insects; a larval host plant for 20 species of caterpillars; and prolific enough to compete with non-native weeds that don’t have much to offer ecologically-speaking. (Courtesy of Grow Native Massachusetts)
Native Plants!
Native plants in home gardens are essential for providing pollinators safe habitat in which they can thrive. Climate change, overbuilding, invasive species and other factors have destroyed large areas previously home to our insect and bird populations. With so much land being "chopped up", putting native plants in your garden will add to those from your neighbors’ gardens creating larger spaces for pollinators to call home.
Pollinators, who work hard to maintain the ecological systems we depend on (like food growth!), need your help!
Here are links to articles, webinars and websites with information on native plants and why they're so important to pollinators, and to us.
Articles:
Webinars:
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Adventures with Oddities: Strange and Noteworthy Natives (courtesy of the Ecological Landscaping Alliance) with Dan Jaffe (formerly of the Native Plant Trust)
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Landscaping with a Purpose, What's Diversity Got to Do with It? with Randi Eckel
Websites:
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Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (Native plants by state)
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Native Plants Lookup (Audubon)
Co-founded by Doug Tallamey, Homegrown National Park® is a grassroots call-to-action to regenerate biodiversity and ecosystem function by planting native plants and creating new ecological networks.
“Our National Parks, no matter how grand in scale are too small and separated from one another to preserve species to the levels needed. Thus, the concept for Homegrown National Park, a bottom-up call-to-action to restore habitat where we live and work, and to a lesser extent where we farm and graze, extending national parks to our yards and communities.” The goal is to get to 20 million acres of native planting in the U.S
Listen to a short talk by Doug Tallamy highlighting why your help is needed.
Want to know more? Here's a brochure describing the initiative and the key actions you can take in your yard!
Invasives! Be on the Lookout For....
Invasive plants - What are they? Non-native species that have spread into native or minimally managed plant systems in Massachusetts. These plants cause economic or environmental harm by developing self-sustaining populations and becoming dominant and/or disruptive to those systems. As defined here, “species” includes all synonyms, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars of that species unless proven otherwise by a process of scientific evaluation. (Massachusetts Invasive Plants Advisory Group)
General Resources:
Plants!
Invasive Plants in Hopkinton
Numerous stands of invasive plants have been identified in Hopkinton by our "Open Space Preservation Committee". Japanese knotweed, bittersweet, glossy buckthorn and barberry have been found in profusion in various locations. Ed Harrow, chair of the Open Space Preservation Committee, has led efforts to identify, and remove invasive plants in some areas. Read what he had to say when interviewed by the Hopkinton Independent in 2022 then look below to see invasive plants taking hold in our town! If you want to help, join the Committee!
All images are courtesy of Ed Harrow.
https://hopkintonindependent.com/invasive-knotweed-plants-roots-in-hopkinton/
 Bittersweet behind the Woodville Fire Station |  Bittersweet, Hughes Property - Hayden Rowe 2015 |  Japanese Knotweed, Wood St. and Elm Street |
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 Japanese Knotweed, behind Respite Center |  Japanese Knotweed, Spring St. |  2022, Bittersweet, west on Wood St. before Rocky Woodseet past |
 Bittersweet - Whitehall Conservation Area 2022 |  Bittersweet - Whitehall Conservation Area 2022 |  Japanese Knotweed, Wood and Winter Streets |
Black and Pale Swallow-worts:
Toxic to Monarch Butterflies
Black Swallow-wort & Pale Swallow-wort
Insects!
Invasive Insects in Massachusetts!
The Spotted Lanternfly Arrives in Massachusetts!!
The MA Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) announced on 9/28/21 that a small, established, and breeding population of the invasive spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) was detected in Worcester County, in the city of Fitchburg. This finding was confirmed by state officials.
