Wisconsin Spring Garden Gala

NARGS Study Weekend

May 19-20, 2017

You’ll hear two expert speakers and enjoy plant-buying visits to a pair of nurseries stocked with choice varieties. Couple that with tours of two unique private gardens (one with rocks you’ll have to see to believe) and a pair of great public gardens, including the University of Wisconsin's  famed Arboretum.

contact information: Barbara Cochrane, Registrar                                           email to <>

More details below or download a pdf with registration form.

FRIDAY, MAY 19th

•We kick off with a meet, greet, shop, and eat at The Flower Factory, an enormous perennial nursery with the Midwest’s largest selection of perennials. They have display gardens and more than a dozen large hoop houses, including a one devoted just to alpines. You’ll have time to load up on plants! <www.theflowerfactorynursery.com>.

•A Midwestern Pig Roast (with vegetarian options). The meal will have all the fixin's, including local craft beers.

•An overview of the conference, as well as a talk by Nancy Nedveck, owner of The Flower Factory, on choice plants. 

•Book signing by our Saturday night speaker, Joseph Tychonievich. His latest book, Rock Gardening: Reimagining a Classic Style, will be discounted 40% from list price.

SATURDAY, May 20th

•Klehm’s Song Sparrow Farm is a legendary destination for Midwestern gardeners. It features a truly enormous collection of rare and specialty perennials, especially peonies, iris, and hosta along with choice ornamental trees, shrubs and vines. This nursery is normally mail-order only, but we’ve arranged this special opportunity for you to select your own plants and take them with no shipping charges. <songsparrow.com>

•Sandgren garden, Madison. You’ve never seen a garden like this one. With rare woodies and choice perennials embedded in a wonderland maze of four hundred tons of enormous boulders. 

•Kinlen garden, Madison. You’ll be entering the dream garden of a true, longtime plant fanatic, with examples of how to grow choice plants spectacularly well on a tucked-away city lot.

• University of Wisconsin Madison Allen Centennial Garden, with a great scenic rock garden right in the heart of one of the nation’s most beautiful college campuses.

•University of Wisconsin Arboretum, a jewel of the city, with vast plantings in the 35-acre Longenecker Horticultural Garden, including dwarf conifers and several world-class woody plant collections. You can expect to see many of the lilacs, crab apples, magnolias, and redbuds in bloom. 

•Evening program and meal will be at the Arboretum Visitor Center. 

•After dinner speakers: Steve Lesch will present a talk – The Design & Construction of an Urban Open Forested Rocky Glen – on the Sandgren garden. Steve has been designing and installing residential landscapes in the greater Dane County area since 1973.

The second speaker will be Joseph Tychonievich who earned his BS in Horticulture from Ohio State University, went on to work for Shibamichi Honten Nursery in Saitama, Japan, wrote a book, Plant Breeding for the Home Gardener (Timber Press, 2013), and spent two years at Arrowhead Alpines. His latest book is Rock Gardening: Reimagining a Classic Style, just out from Timber Press. Copies can be purchased at a 40% discount on Registration (see Registration Form).

LOGISTICS

•The hotel of choice is the Radisson Hotel, with a double room rate of $109 plus tax. It’s located at 517 Grand Canyon Drive, (608) 833-0100. Special rate applies for Thursday thru Saturday. Registration Link.

•Conference fee is $190 (until April 19), which includes all meals, transportation, and admissions.

Other interesting places in the area:

International Crane Foundation www.savingcranes.org; Rotary Botanical Garden www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org; Prairie Nursery www.prairienursery.com; Madison’s Olbrich Botanical Gardens <olbrich.org>; The Prairie Enthusiasts sites www.theprairieenthusiasts.org; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesen; www.taliesinpreservation.org; Epic Systems – a large healthcare software company with remarkable landscaping; Selected private gardens.