2015 Seminars

9:30 AM – Keynote Speaker

Four-season Gardens & Landscapes
Janet Macunovich, Author, Educator, Garden Designer, established the Michigan School of Gardening, owner of Perennial Favorites

10:30 AM

Room A
Controlling Vegetable Pests & Diseases
Janet Macunovich, Author, Educator, Garden Designer, established the Michigan School of Gardening, owner of Perennial Favorites

Room B
Hip House Plants
Julia Hofley, Garden writer, member of the Michigan Regional Lily Society, Hardy Plant Society, North American Rock Garden Society, American Conifer Society and Garden Writers Association

11:30 AM

Room A
Hot New Hostas
Mark R. Zilis, Hosta Developer, International Hosta Researcher, Author, Owner of Q & Z Nursery

12:30 PM

Room A
First Impressions: Creating an Unforgettable Entrance to Your Home
Julia Hofley, Garden Writer, Member of the Michigan Regional Lily Society, Hardy Plant Society, North American Rock Garden Society, American Conifer Society and Garden Writers Association

1:30 PM

Room A
Hosta 101
Mark R. Zilis, Hosta Developer, International Hosta Researcher, Author, Owner of Q & Z Nursery

Room B
Butterfly Conservation at Home
Dolly Foster, Landscape Horticulturist, Oak Lawn Park District; Master Gardener; Indiana Accredited Horticulturist; Certified Arborist; and adjunct faculty member, Moraine Valley Community College

2:30 PM

Room A
Seasonal, Sustainable, Suicidal and Stimulating Perennials
Wayne Gruber, Green Center Manager at Niemeyer Landscape Supply (formerly Gardens on the Prairie, Horticulturist, Educator, National Gardening Speaker

Book Signing

11:30 AM -  Janet Macunovich

12:30 PM – Mark Zilis

Located in the Dr. Judy Serwatka Memorial Demonstration Area (Booth 130)

Fairy Gardens Forever
Workshop times are 11:30am, 12:30pm, 1:30pm and 2:30pm
The magic that arises from these wee green worlds has been captivating the USA since the late 1800s. Join Barb Weimer, Rachel LaCorte and Elizabeth LaCorte, from Chesterton Feed & Garden Center, as they share all you need to know about the Fairy Garden, from how to build one and grow miniature plants to its history. Cost is $15 for soil, container, and instruction. Limit of 10 participants per session. Click on the time listed above to register.

 

11:30 AM – Hip and Happening Hoop Houses
Everyone is wooping for hoop houses! Damien Appel of Native Roots Farm will show you the latest trend in home gardening that is replacing the cold frame for extending the growing season.

 

1:30 PM – Kokedama, Mama!
Kokedama is a centuries-old Japanese traditional gardening technique that uses a rooting ball instead of a pot. Cleve Hayes of Puddingstone Farm will demonstrate how to make the rooting ball and at least three portable kokedama gardens using simple and basic materials to create miniature gardens. Cleve says this is a project for all ages.

 

2:30 PM – To Bee or Not to Bee
Lake County Master Gardener and Master Naturalist Victoria Jostes will take you into the lives of bees, where she says you will “discover abilities you never knew these little critters had! This could prove to be an electrifying experience!”

 

Basic Demonstrations in the Happening Place (Booth 120)

9:00 am & 3:00 PM - Indoor Seed Starting

9:30 am & 1:30 PM - Pruning A, B, Cs

10:00 am & 1:00 PM - How and When to Divide Perennials

10:30 am & 2:30 PM - Why and When to Fertilize the Lawn

11:00 am & 2:00 PM - Winter Seed Sowing

This Michigander knows what it means to garden in the Great Lakes region, and she shares her insight in the keynote event with Four-season Gardens & Landscapes.  Perennial gardens and the landscapes they occupy don't have to look like moonscapes during the off-season, says Janet.  To reap four seasons of interest from your garden, Janet will show us how to choose species and varieties carefully, and how to be smart about how you place and maintain plants and other garden features, along with design techniques and maintenance tips.

Join Janet again at 10:30 for Controlling Vegetable Pests & Diseases, for basic steps in identifying and evaluating some of the pest and disease problems that come to vegetable gardens, and working with nature to handle them in environmentally friendly, organic ways.

Janet has gardened professionally since 1981, with clients from Michigan to San Bernardino, Hyannisport, Chicago, Reno and other cities. She enjoys and has a knack for helping others learn to grow through her nine books (such as Caring for Perennials , Storey Communications), articles on her website (www.GardenAtoZ.com), in Fine Gardening, the Michigan Gardener and other publications, as well as classes at educational facilities around the country.  She established the Michigan School of Gardening and is owner of Perennial Favorites.

We all love the beauty and grace of a butterfly in flight, but as we see the numbers of these stunning creatures decline, they need our help to thrive and multiply. An avid and passionate butterfly gardener, Dolly will show you how to create a butterfly habitat in your very own garden, from selecting the best butterfly-attracting plants to providing food, cover and host plants for caterpillars. The caterpillar/butterfly lifecycle - integral to a successful butterfly garden - will be covered, along with raising caterpillars at home.

Dolly has raised monarch and swallowtail butterflies for five years. She is the Landscape Horticulturist for the Oak Lawn Park District, a Master Gardener, an Indiana Accredited Horticulturist and Certified Arborist. Dolly has presented lectures on a variety of gardening topics and is a past adjunct faculty member of the Joliet Junior College Agriculture/ Horticulture Department. She is currently adjunct faculty at Moraine Valley Community College.

Oh, the lure of perennials; they sing us a siren’s song of the promise of everlasting beauty.  But which ones will be true to you and not just lead you down the garden path?  Wayne will give you the insight to your desires in Seasonal, Sustainable, Suicidal and Stimulating Perennials.

A local gem and national speaker known for his passion for design, Wayne has over 35 years of horticultural work experience, is an Indiana Master Accredited Horticulturist, past President and current board member of Northwest Indiana Nursery & Landscape Association, and instructor at Mittal Steel.  Wayne holds a degree from Purdue University in Landscape Management Design, and with family and friends founded Gardens on the Prairie, which has now merged with Niemeyer Landscape Supply.  The Indiana Nursery & Landscape Association presented Gardens on the Prairie with its Green Industry Excellence Award for Garden Center Design.

Just because winter comes to the Great Lakes, doesn’t mean great gardeners have to stop gardening.  To keep it green all year long, Julia will present “Hip Houseplants” at 10:30.  She’ll show us all about “Lower Light Lovelies, Hippie Revival Plants, What’s Old is New, Foliage that Packs a Punch, Clean Air Machines” and more.

Then at 12:30, it’s all about love at first sight with “First Impressions: Creating an Unforgettable Entrance to your Home.” This interactive talk will stoke your imagination to help you create an awe-inspiring front entry to your home, whether it be big or small, modern or quaint.

Julia currently writes for Michigan Gardener and Fine Gardening.  She speaks to both trade and public gardening audiences about animal browsing in the garden, new plants and presents garden travelogues. A member of the Michigan Regional Lily Society, Hardy Plant Society, North American Rock Garden Society, American Conifer Society and Garden Writers Association, Julia has traveled the U.S., Europe, Mexico and Asia as a buyer for an independent garden store, and developed and coordinated the Cabin Fever Lecture Series bringing national and international speakers to large audiences of Michigan gardeners.

Hostas are just about near perfect, right?  They give us every hue of green imaginable, they flower – some fragrant even - and they come back every year with little work on our part.  Whether you collect hostas or just want to be au courant, join Mark at 11:30 for Hot New Hostas.

Then at 1:30, this respected author of The Hostapedia, The Hosta Handbook, and The Mark Zilis’ Field Guide to Hostas will present Hosta 101, which will cover basic care, virus X, common problems, and where they are found in the wild.

In the nursery industry for 37 thirty-seven years, Mark has introduced over 400 hostas, and studied hostas in the United States, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Japan, where he examined twenty-five species and botanical varieties of hostas in their native habitats on Honshu, Hokkaido, and Shikoku Islands.   After finishing college, he supervised the first tissue culture lab in the world devoted to the mass propagation of herbaceous perennials at Walters Gardens, Inc., in Zeeland, Michigan.  He is the owner of Q & Z Nursery, a nursery specializing in tissue cultured hostas and other herbaceous perennials.