The 15th Annual Great Gardens & Landscaping Symposium

Saturday, April 13, 2019

The Woodstock Inn & Resort in Woodstock, Vermont

This inspirational and exhilarating symposium will enlighten and energize your approach to gardening!

About the Symposium

The premier symposium takes place on Saturday, April 13, 2019, at the magnificent, world-class Woodstock Inn and Resort in Woodstock, Vermont.  The symposium features:

  • Five info-packed lectures led by nationally and regionally renowned professionals in their fields
  • A Gardeners Marketplace with plant vendors, artisans, gardening gifts and products
  • An exquisite setting - The Inn is cherished for its preservation of New England history, heritage, and elegance as well as farm-fresh food and an emphasis on conservation
  • Terrific handouts, door prizes and garden gifts for everyone!
  • Special overnight room rates for symposium attendees at The Woodstock Inn and Resort
  • An opportunity to connect with hundreds of gardeners from around the Northeast and beyond

The 2019 symposium is sure to be another sellout like past symposiums!

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Sponsored by:

Schedule of Events

Friday, April 12, 2019  Special Pre-Symposium Class
1:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Presenter: Kerry Ann Mendez

Kerry Ann is an award-winning speaker, writer and garden designer in Kennebunk, Maine.  These lively and info-packed sessions feature two of Kerry Ann's popular gardening lectures.

 

SESSION 1: Sustainable Design and Maintenance Tips for Beautiful Flower Gardens.

Discover techniques for creating head-turning, planet-friendly gardens that are the talk of the neighborhood and the pollinator world.  Topics covered include right plant-right place with an emphasis on natives, smart water practices, natural insect controls, sources for neonic-free plants, maintaining healthy soil, living mulches, winning the war against weeds naturally, and more! (photo Rebecca Lindenmyer)

Gourmet Refreshment Break

SESSION 2: Kerry’s Favorite Plant Picks and Eye-Popping Combinations.

Kerry will zoom in on some of her most beloved, low-maintenance plants (perennials, annuals and flowering shrubs) as well as dynamic combinations that shine spring through fall.

 

Friday Pre-Symposium Class Fee

Individuals: $55 per person includes a delicious refreshment break, lots of handouts and garden catalogs, door prizes and a garden gift.

Special Group Rate: 
$50 per person for 5 or more registered together.

Special Master Gardeners Rate: 
$50 per person. 

* PAYMENT FOR SPECIAL RATES BY CHECK ONLY. DOWNLOAD, PRINT AND MAIL IN CHECK WITH THIS REGISTRATION FORM (or click the button below to download the form).

Cancellation Policy:  Refunds, less a $20 processing fee, will be given until April 5, 2019. If your plans change after April 5th, we encourage you to find someone to take your place OR we will be happy to mail you the symposium packet and garden gift.

Saturday, April 13
The Symposium is SOLD OUT. There are still spaces in the Pre-Symposium program

8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.   Gardeners Marketplace open.  Click here to view Vendor list.

 

7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.    Symposium Registration

 

8:30  Welcoming Remarks. Growing Beautiful Food - A Gardener's Guide to Cultivating Extraordinary Vegetables, Fruit & Flowers.

Presenter: Matthew Benson

Growing Beautiful Food is a chronicle of growing food and living sustainably as a transformative experience, with all the joy, folly, work and wonder of it told through evocative words and photographs. With his organic farm, Stonegate Farm, as a backdrop, Matthew offers insight into the history and practice of farming as an art form, as both ornament and nourishment, as well as an examination of the broken politics of our current food system. Matthew is an author, award-winning photographer, organic farmer, and acclaimed speaker for the National Garden Club of America. He is also the co-owner of Cultivate Apothecary, an all-natural, whole plant beauty and wellness brand at Stonegate Farm. Raised and educated in Europe, with a Masters Degree from Columbia University, he is a trans-Atlantic sailor and certified alpine ski instructor. Architecture, Design, and biodynamic organic farming are ongoing interests, as is the restoration of Stonegate Farm, his 1860s Carpenter Gothic estate farm and studio in New York's Hudson Valley. Matthew has written several gardening books, his more recent Growing Beautiful Food: A Gardener's Guide to Cultivating Extraordinary Vegetables and Fruit.

 

9:45 - 10:15 a.m.  Book signing, refreshment break, Gardeners Marketplace

 

10:15 Inspiring Tips for Creating a Pollinator-Friendly Landscape.

Presenter: Annie White, PhD, ASLA and owner and principal designer of Nectar Landscape Design Studio  

A landscape rich with a diversity of flowering plants is both beautiful and helps support the thousands of species of bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and other pollinating insects we have in the U.S. However, planning your pollinator-friendly landscape does not end with your plant list. The layout of your gardens, layout of your plants, and your maintenance practices all affect pollinators. Annie White shares her strategies for choosing the best types of plants for pollinators, plus how to use and manage them effectively to create the best pollinator sanctuaries possible. She will also share some of her eye-opening research evaluating if native cultivars (nativars) were as valuable to pollinators as the straight native species.  Annie White, PhD, ASLA is the owner of Nectar Landscape Design Studio in Stowe, Vermont. She is also a Lecturer of Landscape Design at the University of Vermont and a coordinator for The New England Wild Flower Society’s Pollinate New England program. Annie holds a masters degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Wisconsin—Madison and PhD in Plant & Soil Science from The University of Vermont. As an ecological landscape designer, Annie combines the art of design with the science of plant and pollinator interactions to create unique and inspiring outdoor spaces that are as buzzing as they are beautiful.

 

11:15 a.m. Gardens that Dazzle from Late Summer and Onward! Plants that Endure Scorching Heat, Humidity & Drought  

Presenter: Warren Leach, award-winneing garden designer, speaker and co-owner of  Tranquil Lake Nursery 

The energy and exuberance of spring is both much anticipated and unstoppable. Buds expand and burst into colorful flowers and unfurling leaves. This spring garden spectacle of flowers and luxuriant foliage need not be fleeting. Though by August, the heat and humidity may take its toll on the gardener, a garden designed with a plant palette to withstand the dog-days and drought of summer also offers a stunning exuberance of flowers, maturing seedheads and colorful foliage. Warren will explore planting design in gardens that continue to dazzle from late summer, fall and onward. Warren is a passionate plant collector and landscape horticulturist with a depth of knowledge of all garden plants - both perennial and woody plants and tropical and temperate. He is also an award winning landscape designer, twice receiving the National Landscape Association Regional Certificate of Merit for Residential Landscape Design. Warren is co-owner of, Tranquil Lake Nursery, a specialty nursery that is a prominent grower of daylilies, iris and distinctive perennials and woody plants. In 2010 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society honored Warren with a Gold Medal for his horticultural expertise and landscape design achievements. He has taught horticulture and landscape design at The University of Rhode Island, the Brown University Learning Community, Rhode Island School of Design Continuing Education and the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

 

12:15 p.m.  Lunch, book signings and Gardeners Marketplace

 

1:15 p.m. The Photo-Graphic Garden – A Professional's Tips for Taking Spectacular Garden Pictures

Presenter: Matthew Benson

Based on his bestselling book, The PhotoGraphic Garden, Matthew's lecture is a visual learning experience for garden and landscape photographers. Geared toward all skill levels, the presentation is designed to teach you how to create powerful, dynamic images in the garden. Matthew will encourage you to develop your own visual sensibility through hundreds of his own thought-provoking images of landscapes, plants, and gardens. (photo by Matthew Benson of his farm, Stonegate)

 

2:15 p.m.  Afternoon Refreshment Break, book signings, Gardeners Marketplace

 

2:45 p.m.  Exciting Perennials, Flowering Shrubs and Annuals for 2019.

Presenter: Kerry Ann Mendez, owner of Perennially Yours, LLC

Like many gardeners, Kerry loves peering down the 'plant pike' to check out new and exciting plant selections coming to the marketplaceShe has the enviable opportunity of personally trialing many  'newbies' before they hit garden stands.  This colorful presentation will unveil headturning plants that are creating a buzz in the industry. Kerry Ann is the owner of Perennially Yours, a garden education, design and consulting business located in Kennebunk, Maine. She focuses on time-saving gardening techniques, workhorse plant material and organic practices. Kerry Ann has been featured on HGTV and in many national magazines including Horticulture, Fine Gardening and Garden Gate. In 2014 she was awarded the Gold Medal from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. In 2016 she started producing national gardening Webinars attended by thousands. Kerry Ann is the author of four gardening books, her most recent, The Budget-Wise Gardener, released in February 2018. You can learn more about Kerry Ann and her work here.

 

4:00 p.m. Symposium concludes

Symposium Registration

The Symposium is SOLD OUT. There are still spaces in the Pre-Symposium Program.
The registration fee includes:

  • five dynamic garden lectures
  • Saturday morning coffee
  • mid-morning and afternoon refreshments
  • lunch
  • handouts
  • garden gift
  • and door prizes

Registration Rates

SOLD OUT!  There are still spaces in the Pre-Symposium Program.
Individuals: 
$98 per person

Special Group Rate:  $93 per person when 5 or more people register on the same form before April 5, 2019.

Special Master Gardener's Rate:  $93 per person before April 5, 2019.

* PAYMENT FOR SPECIAL RATES BY CHECK ONLY. DOWNLOAD, PRINT AND MAIL CHECK WITH THIS REGISTRATION FORM.

 

Cancellation Policy: Refunds, less a $20 processing fee, will be given until April 5, 2019. If your plans change after April 5th, we encourage you to find someone to take your place OR we will be happy to mail you the symposium packet and garden gift.  

Woodstock resort dining area

Payment Options

To pay by CHECK

To register and pay for the Symposium AND/OR the 3-Hour Garden Class by check, download the registration form below, complete it and mail it with your check to the address indicated on the form.

Cancellation Policy: Refunds, less a $20 processing fee, will be given until April 5, 2019. If your plans change after April 9th, we encourage you to find someone to take your place OR we will be happy to mail you the symposium packet and garden gift.

Payment by check is REQUIRED for Groups and Master Gardeners. The Symposium is sold out! There is still room in the Pre-Symposium Program.

To pay by CREDIT CARD

Click the appropriate button below to pay and register for the Symposium AND/OR the Pre-Symposium 3-Hour Garden Class. If you wish to attend both the Symposium AND the pre-symposium class, you must register separately for each event.

Cancellation Policy: Refunds, less a $20 processing fee, will be given until April 5, 2019. If your plans change after April 5th, we encourage you to find someone to take your place OR we will be happy to mail you the symposium packet and garden gift.

Friday, April 12 Pre-Symposium Registration.  $55 per person

SOLD OUT! Saturday, April 13 Symposium Registration.  $98 per person

Accommodations

Special Overnight Room Rates for Registered symposium attendees at The Woodstock Inn and Resort

$169 per night, single or double (usually $300+). Price includes resort fee that includes admission to Billings Farm & Museum, afternoon tea and cookies, use of the Racquet & Fitness Club, use of the Mt Peg Hiking Trail Preservation, touring bikes and more!

Reservations

To make reservations, please call (866) 592-9611 and request the special great gardens symposium rate.

www.woodstockinn.com.

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