spring expo 2012 dill

3-day learning pass: $35 members/
$45 non-members, or $20/$25 per day. Includes admission and parking.
Oswald Visitor Center

FRIDAY, MARCH 9

1:30-2:30 p.m. - Seeding the Future: Preserving Biodiversity One Garden at a Time. Presented by Shannon Carmody, Seed Savers Exchange program manager.

Everyone seems to be enjoying the rising interest in heirloom varieties. Enhance your enjoyment and understanding of these seeds with amazing histories and find out why it is important to engage in seed saving. 

2:30-3:30 p.m. - Seed Saving Primer. Presented by Shannon Carmody, Seed Savers Exchange program manager.

Each spring, you dream about what to plant, select your bedding plants and seeds, and then brace yourself for the total at the check-out counter. How about reducing that investment while having the fun of creating a "perpetual garden" - one where the seeds you collect from this season become the miracle of next year's spring? Come learn the essentials to begin your own seed-saving journey.

Shannon Carmody will also teach a perpetual garden class in February.

4:00-6:00 p.m. - Chat and Chew - Maple Syrup Season

Pick up your boxed dinner* and savor the signs of spring at the Arboretum.
• Hike into the sugarbush to tap a maple tree and taste its sap.** 
• Visit the Sugar House where sap is cooked into syrup, and learn about the maple sugaring traditions of First Nations and early settlers.
• Informal conversation with Seed Savers Exchange staff, Shannon Carmody and David Cavagnaro.
• Book signing at the Arboretum Book and Gift Store.

* MUST be ordered in advance. $15/box

** Free with price of admission. Space is limited, so pre-registration is required for maple syrup tours and demos.

7:00-9:00 p.m. - Beyond the Heirloom Tomato: The Legacy of the Food You Eat. Presented by David Cavagnaro, Seed Savers Exchange preservation gardens manager.

Do you relish the increasingly available numbers of amazing heirloom varieties of vegetables, from tomato to chard, with their brilliant colors and fabulous flavors? Whether you are celebrating the rising interest in heirlooms as a foodie, a gardener, or both, you will be dazzled and inspired by one of the original Seed Savers during this evening of fascinating stories and tantalizing images.


Spring Expo 2012 Educational Programs
are presented in collaboration with
Seed Savers Exchange, Decorah, Iowa

seed savers exchange logo

hands planting seeds spring expo 2012

SATURDAY, MARCH 10

Timber Press authors will sign their books throughout the day.

Vendors from area garden businesses and plant societies will be in the "hall of learning" in the Great Hall on Saturday and Sunday.

10:00-11:00 a.m. - Decoding Gardening Advice: The Science Behind the 100 Most Common Recommendations. Presented by Jeff Gillman, with Meleah Maynard

Decoding Gardening Advice is the first and only evidence-based book that every gardener needs for definitive advice on everything from bulbs, annuals, and perennials to edibles, trees, and soil care.

11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. - What’s Wrong with My Vegetable Garden? Presented by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth

1:30-2:30 p.m. - Irises for the Cold Climate. Presented by Chuck Chapman, internationally known iris expert (Canada's "Mr. Iris"). Sponsored by the Iris Society of Minnesota

2:45-3:45 p.m. - Annuals and Perennials for Shade. Presented by Meleah Maynard


Throughout the Spring Expo 2012 weekend, area garden stores, landscapers, and plant societies will be on hand to help make this your best growing season ever! The Arboretum Book and Gift Store has stocked hundreds of gardening titles, including new books by Timber Press authors.

Saturday's programs are presented in collaboration with the Seed Savers Exchange and Timber Press.


Photos courtesy David Cavagnaro and the Seed Savers Exchange

colorful veggies spring expo 2012

SUNDAY, MARCH 11

Vendors from area garden businesses and plant societies will be in the "hall of learning" in the Great Hall on Saturday and Sunday.

10:00-11:00 a.m. - What's So Great about Native Plants? Presented by Lynn Steiner, Timber Press author and Minnesota expert on prairie-style gardens

11:15 a.m. -12:15 p.m. - Bringing the Best of the Grasses and Sedges into Your Landscaping Plans. Presented by Dr. Mary Meyer, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS), University of Minnesota 

1:15-2:15 p.m. - What Do I DO? Prevention, Detection, and Management of Your Garden and Yard Pests from powdery mildew, Japanese beetles, deer, buckthorn...and more. Presented by Dan Miller, plant health specialist at the Arboretum

2:30-3:30 p.m. - So You Think You Want an Apple Orchard? Maybe It Should Be Blueberries! Presented by Luke Haggerty, graduate student in horticulture at CFANS, University of Minnesota.

How to make the best decisions for your space when choosing fruit-bearing shrubs and trees.

Register here leaf

To register, click on the leaf.

Questions?
Call 952-443-1422
or email: ArbEdu@umn.edu