The best garden information is backed up by scientific facts. Although gardening is part creative expression, successfully growing a plant and garden starts with horticultural knowledge.
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Master gardeners, affiliated with university extension programs, are gardeners who have received home horticultural training. In return, they volunteer at the local university extension offering a variety of community garden services. Master gardeners can give garden lectures and demonstrations, guide school garden programs, or man the telephone answering plant questions. Many university extension programs have websites to access free garden information.
Extension offices are always part of a state or province university system, developed in a local community. Master garden programs exist across the United States and in three Canadian provinces. Become a master gardener or use their services to obtain reliable plant and garden information.
Melinda Myers was a horticultural instructor and is a certified arborist who began the master gardener program in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Horticulturalists who have authored garden books are reliable resources of garden information. Look for authors who have demonstrated a dedication to horticulture education and sound garden practices with life long gardening achievements.
Michael Dirr and Steven Still have authored many horticultural textbooks. Michael Dirr has authored garden books and articles, such as those found in Fine Gardening magazine. Steven Still is executive director of the Perennial Plant Association.
Ken Druse is an author, organic gardener and plant and garden photographer. Roy Diblik is a plantsman who is devoted to plants and gardens in the Midwest. Books, even a few years old, by horticultural authors are good less expensive choices. The information and techniques included have lasting value.
Local gardeners organize garden clubs that become part of the community. These groups sponsor speakers and road trips to garden events. Although the horticultural knowledge will vary from club to club, they are inexpensive to join and a good source of local garden knowledge. Local garden club members will be familiar with native plants, area microclimates and reliable plant nurseries.
Plant societies are groups of gardeners who have a passion and focus on one type of plant. Examples are the regional Daylily Society of Southeast Wisconsin or the Dixie African Violet Society that is in a group of 13 southern states.
A plant society is dedicated to and offers horticultural information about a particular type of plant. Many of the regional organizations have ties to the national parent group who sponsor annual and regional meetings. These meetings feature plant educators and garden speakers making them good opportunities to network with gardeners with similar interests.
The New England Wildflower Society makes its home at Garden In The Woods in Framingham, Massachusetts. The mission of the New England Wildflower Society is as a conservation group that protects native plants in New England.
Botanical gardens have been called living museums because they care for living plant collections of a particular region. But the main purpose of a botanical garden is to cultivate plants for scientific and educational purposes. Boerner Botanical Gardens in Wisconsin has a rose collection that demonstrates varieties able to withstand harsh winters.
Arboretums are facilities where trees and shrubs are cultivated, also for educational purposes. Conservatories are greenhouses, sometimes public. These terms can be interchanged depending on the specific mission and structure of the public garden.
Many gardens started as privately owned mansions. Kingwood Center, located in Mansfield, Ohio, is one such public garden and free to the community.
Gardeners find value in visiting public gardens for accurate plant identifications and workable garden ideas. When visiting public gardens, take a notebook and camera along to record plant ideas. Look for botanical gardens that have libraries or offer classes to residents in the community, more ways to learn garden information.
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