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Green Spring Gardens 4603 Green Spring Road Alexandria, Virginia 22312 703-642-5173 ADULT PROGRAMS Registration and non-refundable prepayment to FCPA required for all programs. Call 703-642-5173, TTY 703-803-3354 for more information. Virginia’s Best Series: Gardening in Virginia Discover the best plants for gardens in Virginia with plant enthusiast, Karen Rexrode. She features the best performing annuals, woody plants, and herbaceous perennials for our climate. Plant culture and garden maintenance are also covered. Register for one session or all three. Offered Saturdays: 6/13, 7/18 and 8/15. $50/three-part series or $18/session June 13, 9:30-11am The Summer Garden in Virginia Spring has passed. It’s time to learn what needs to be cut back and what to plant to take your garden into summer. Timely maintenance substantially improves the garden and the inclusion of these superb plants expands the color and dynamics far beyond May. There's no reason for your garden to be its best in spring when we have a long and glorious summer season just ahead. $18 July 18, 9:30-11am. Breaking the Rules Don't let the rules of gardening govern your planting decisions. Rich soil, mulch and tall plants in the back are not always appropriate. Thankfully gardens have changed a lot over the last hundred years and there are many styles of gardens and plants to match. Explore a few of the fun ways to ignore age-old garden rules and customize your planting beds to suit the environment. $18 August 15, 9:30-11am. Light, Movement and Some Remarkable Annuals It's an ideal time to have some of those free flowing, blow in breezes plants in your garden. These may be perennials, annuals, or voluntary annuals, the kind that return on their own. And early fall seeding provides the gardener inexpensive options for adding noteworthy plants. The best choices for high summer in Virginia are plentiful and belong in your August garden. $18 Yoga for Gardeners Vinyasa Yoga Mondays, 9:30-10:30am. Session one: 6/1, 6/8, 6/15, 6/22, 6/29 and 7/6. Session two: 7/13, 7/20, 7/27, 8/3, 8/10 and 8/17. A series of yoga classes featuring the Vinyasa method helps participants increase the strength, flexibility and endurance necessary for gardening. Classes held indoors looking at the garden. Each six-class session $66 Floral Design Series Back by popular demand, Bruce Nash, Northern Virginia Community College horticulture instructor with a flair for floral design, reveals his secrets for growing a garden for year round enjoyment. $75 for three-part series. $18/lecture, or $48/workshop June 6, Saturday Lecture: A Flower Arrangers Garden 9:30-11am. Growing your own flowers for arrangements is fun and saves you money. With some forethought, you can grow flowers for special occasions and decorate your home year round. Bruce Nash guides you in planning your garden for arrangements and choosing appropriate flowers and foliage based on the arrangement style. $18 July 11, Saturday Workshop: Arranging Cut Flowers from the Garden 9:30-11:30am. Few things are more beautiful than a bouquet of flowers. Growing and cutting them yourself add to the pleasure. Bruce Nash demonstrates the creative possibilities and offers insight into growing, harvesting and preparing cut flowers. Then create your own beautiful floral designs to take home. Floral material and containers provided. $48 August 1, Saturday Lecture: Preserving and Drying Your Garden Treasures 9:30-11am. Get a jump on winter by saving your garden treasures, before they disappear. Bruce Nash demonstrates several methods for preserving and drying your flowers and foliage, and shows you beautiful arrangement possibilities. $18 June 13 Saturday Workshop: Herb Gardening in Containers 9:30-11:30am. Growing herbs is a fun and rewarding experience. A container herb garden is a creative way of growing fresh herbs for cooking right on your doorstep. Nancy Olney, Green Spring horticulturalist, provides guidance on companion planting and maintaining your herbs year round. The workshop includes container, soil and plants to create a unique, edible garden. $50 20 Saturday Workshop: Casting Concrete Mushrooms 9:30-11:30am. Add a touch of whimsy to your garden with a concrete mushroom trio. Green Spring staffers explain the process and give guidance as you cast your own mushrooms. Embellish to suit your tastes and place them in the garden as soon as they’re dry. Sure to be a charming accent wherever they are planted. Materials provided. $50 27 Saturday Painting Fields of Flowers in Watercolor 9:30am-3:30pm. Discover how to capture a field of flowers without painting all the flowers. Artist Carolyn Grossé Gawarecki demonstrates brush and textual techniques helpful to the landscape artist. Morning demonstration by the artist is followed by an afternoon painting workshop. Carolyn assists artists as they paint and provides direction and critique. Supply list and notes sent to registrants. The class is geared to intermediate artists and beginners with some experience. Bring a bag lunch. $65 27 Saturday All About Weeds: Let’s Walk and Talk 9:30-11:30am. Spring and summer weeds are sometimes hard to differentiate from desirable plants. Discover the difference with Brenda Skarphol, Green Spring curator and horticulturalist. She identifies those weeds and explains the best and safest ways of coping with them. Dress for a walk in the garden. $15 July 15 Wednesday Concert in the Garden 7-8pm. Be our guests for a musical evening in the gardens with the Fairfax Symphony Brass Quintet. Bring a picnic dinner to enjoy on the lawn. The Friends of Green Spring (FROGS) Board serves complimentary cake and lemonade. FREE 25 Saturday Gardening for a Lifetime 9:30-11am. Find out about plants that can make your garden beautiful and easier to maintain. Learn ways to make it safer and accessible for friends. Session also includes suggestions for keeping you fit and healthy for a lifetime of gardening. $12 August 8 Saturday Building and Using Cold Frames 9:30-11am. A cold frame is a protected plant bed used to extend the growing season. It can provide shelter for tender perennials; hardening off seedling plants, over wintering cold tolerant vegetables and summer rooted woody cuttings. Mary Frogale, staff horticulturalist talks about the many uses of a cold frame and tells you how to build one. $15 29 Saturday Begonias Abound 10-11:30am. Want to discover more about this fascinating plant family, the different types and species? Begonia enthusiast Johanna Zinn and fellow Begonia society members share expansive knowledge gained from their many years of growing these unique and versatile plants; providing culture, care, and propagation information. A guided tour of the annual begonia show included. $12 29 Saturday, 9-4:30pm and 30 Sunday, 12-3:30pm. 28th Annual Begonia Show and Sale Feast your eyes at this show sponsored by the Potomac Branch of the American Begonia Society. Expand your plant palette; be tempted with splashes of color for homes and greenhouses that last long after frosts have put our outdoor gardens to bed! The sale offers a wide variety of begonias, including unusual subtropical species. FREE