Junior Master Gardener Program Activities

Junior Master Gardener Club Spring 2012 registration begins December 1, 2011.  Contact Stephanie for more information:  vtgarden@vt.edu, 540-231-5970

Wednesday Garden Walks & Talks - Free!
Learn at lunchtime! All run 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. - meet at the Peggy Lee Hahn Garden Pavilion. No registration required. Parking passes available at Pavilion for Visitors only. F/S must park in designated F/S spaces.

These fun and informative walks and talks all start at the Peggy Lee Hahn Garden Pavilion. Did we mention they are FREE?

January 11 12:00-1:00 p.m. "So, You Want to be a Beekeeper..."
Join veteran beekeeper Mark Chorba for an overview of the pleasures and challenges of keeping honey bees in your back yard.
If you want to learn more, you'll have the opportunity to sign up for the Beginner's Beekeeping Course sponsored by the New River Valley Beekeepers Association (two day course - Jan 28 and March 31)

January 25 12:00-1:00 p.m. Diagnosing Plant Problems in Your Garden or Landscape with Elizabeth Bush, Plant Disease Clinic
How do you tell if your plant is suffering from cultural, disease, or insect problems? Elizabeth will share with us the procedures they go through to diagnose plant problems at the Plant Disease Clinic at Virginia Tech.

March 14 12:00-1:00 p.m. The Strange World of Parasitic Plants with Dr. Jim Westwood, Assoc. Professor Plant Pathology, Physiology, & Weed Science
Parasitic plants are unique in that they obtain part or all of their nutritional needs from other plants. As a consequence of absolute dependence on a host, some parasitic species have lost such otherwise essential structures as leaves or roots, and may take on bizarre forms. The dependence on a host has also driven parasitic species to evolve remarkable adaptations for locating and invading their hosts. In studying parasitic plants we expand our understanding of plant capabilities. This presentation will describe different types of parasitic plants and discuss their unique features and impact on human society.

April 11 12:00-1:00 p.m. Spring Weed Walk with Angela Post, Manager of the VT Weed ID Lab

 Winter and Spring 2012
Gardening Workshops and Seminars
Pre-registration is required for workshops and highly recommended for seminars. Call Stephanie at 540-231-5970 to register by phone or email vtgarden@vt.edu.

Don’t go dormant!  We have some great educational programs planned for winter and spring. Take advantage of our low admission prices and prepare to be informed, entertained, and inspired!  Become a Friend of the Garden and enjoy our member discounts! (visit "Memberships" for membership form and more details).         

Click here for a mail-in registration form

Seed Starting Workshop with Dr. Holly Scoggins
Saturday January 28, 10:00 a.m.- noon, Peggy Lee Hahn Garden Pavilion.  $20 Friends of the Garden/$25 general public.

Get a jump start on Spring with this info-packed workshop on how to get the most out of your vegetable and flower seeds. Holly will cover seed saving and storage, strategies to enhance germination, and care of seedlings.You’ll take home professional-quality tools of the trade including reusable starter trays, professional germination mix, a humidity dome, seeds, and other goodies to get you growing!  

Holly is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Horticulture. She teaches courses on plant production, greenhouse management, and more. She is the Director of the Hahn Horticulture Garden.   

Woody Plant Propagation Workshop with Dr. Roger Harris
Saturday February 11, 10:00 a.m.-noon, Peggy Lee Hahn Garden Pavilion. $20 Friends of the Garden/$25 general public. 

Make more plants!  Roger has taught the VT Plant Propagation course for over 20 years.  He’ll demonstrate a variety of methods for successful propagation of shrubs and trees. This will be a hands-on workshop and participants will have the opportunity to propagate plants from the Hahn Horticulture Garden. Roger is the Head of the Dept. of Horticulture. His research focuses on the ecology of woody landscape plants from nursery production through the established landscape.         

Seminar: Native Trees for the Landscape with Dr. Alex Niemiera
Thursday, February 16, 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Location TBD. $10 Friends of the Garden/$15 general public.
Native plants are a hot topic! Alex will present an array of U.S. native tree species including their aesthetic qualities, landscape uses, ecological characteristics, and the pros and cons of using these in our landscapes. He will also note some of their interesting ethnobotanical aspects.

Alex is an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Horticulture and teaches the woody plant courses and much more. Alex and Jennifer Niemiera's home garden is the pride of Draper Avenue and has been featured on countless garden tours. He has been known to fondle tree bark (see photo).     

Seminar:  Elissa’s Picks! with Elissa Steeves
Thursday, March 15, 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m., location TBD. $10Friends of the Garden, $15 general public.
Blacksburg’s own celebrity gardener has an unquenchable thirst for the newest, weirdest, and most outstanding plants for her garden. She’ll share her picks of thebest tropicals, annuals, perennials, and woodies, as well as design tips and wisdom garnered from her gardening adventures!

Blissfully retired for the past 5 years from teaching Horticulture, Elissa devotes herself full-time to gardening, plant collecting, and garden travel. Her garden has been featured in Southern Living and Horticulture magazines.     

The Designer’s Eye: Assessing and Organizing Your Outdoor Spaces - Workshop with C. Colston Burrell.  Saturday, April 28, 9:00 a.m - 2:00 p.m., Peggy Lee Hahn Garden Pavilion.
$30 Friends of the Garden/$40 general public. Barbecue lunch available for purchase at concurrent Plant Sale.
Our most in-depth design workshop ever! A well-designed garden is more than a collection of plants; it is a logical sequence of spaces, enhanced by plantings, structures and ornaments that define them. These bones determine how the garden looks through the seasons. Cole Burrell takes you through the process of assessing and organizing the spatial layout of your outdoor spaces as well as providing ideas for designing and furnishing the floors, walls and ceiling of the garden. We explore the placement and interrelationship of the gardens spaces by envisioning the entire property as our canvas, and create linkages that meld all the elements into a seamless whole.

Colston Burrell is an acclaimed international lecturer, garden designer, award winning author, naturalist and photographer. Cole’s latest book, Hellebores: A Comprehensive Guide, coauthored with Judith Knott Tyler, received the 2007 American Horticultural Society Book Award. He is author of several popular titles, including Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants, Rodale’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials - 10th Anniversary Edition with Ellen Phillips, Perennial Combinations, Revised 2008, (an Amazon.com best selling garden title), Perennials for Today’s Gardens and A Gardener’s Encyclopedia of Wildflowers, which won the 1997 AHS Book Award. Cole writes regularly for Horticulture, Landscape Architecture, American Gardener and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. He is a lecturer in the College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia, where he teaches about plants and their ecological connections to natural systems and cultural landscapes. Cole’s 10-acre Blue Ridge garden, Bird Hill, was featured in The New York Times and frequently appears in national and regional publications. The garden is a popular destination for national tours.

Click here for a mail-in registration form!

Area events:

New River Valley Garden Tour! Saturday, July 7, 2012.
The Annual New River Valley Garden Tour showcases innovative, specialty and simply beautiful private gardens in the New River Valley each July. The event is sponsored by the Friends of the Library with the cooperation of the New River Valley Master Gardeners' Association. Click here to go to the website.

2012 Save the date:

Hort Club Spring Plant Sale - April 26, 27, and 28 - plus barbecue by the AgEcon/NAMA club

8th Annual Garden Gala - June 9, 2012