I WISH I COULD walk every visitor around personally at Garden Conservancy Open Days—and answer every question. But that’s impossible when hundreds of guests stream through for the self-guided walkabouts I’ve been hosting for 20 years (and will this year again on June 4 and August 20).
Many visitors have asked me to take it to the next level, pretty please. Now Adam Wheeler of Broken Arrow Nursery—they always do plant sales at my big Open Days—and I are offering a sort of “Open Day-Plus” on May 7 (and again September 19): smaller, ticketed, workshop-style events and sales lasting a half-day each, with lots of individual attention. Order a ticket using the form near the bottom of the page.
Space is very limited, at each of two sessions per day.
Ticket includes $25 Broken Arrow shopping credit.
Add-on: There is also a separate wildflower walk at 1 PM on May 7 (details below) that morning attendees may wish to go to after our workshop.
reserve a spot now for may 7 in the garden
(Select morning or afternoon section below where it says, “Select a Date.”)
the may 7 program
(from 9:30-noon, and repeated from 1:30-4 PM):
- Muffins and Coffee: Fuel up, get acquainted, and tell us what you want to know more about, so we can fine-tune the program and cover it all. (At the afternoon session, we’ll have beverages and cookies.)
- Tour/Meet My Garden: Tour with me, Margaret, focusing on how I made a garden for the birds (60-plus species visit yearly); my maybe-too-crazy obsession with gold foliage; choice spring ephemerals and other underplanting essentials; and most of all, my intimate relationship with the place that goes way beyond aesthetics.
- Workshop/The Best Plants You Never Heard Of: Broken Arrow Plant Development Manager and master propagator Adam Wheeler will “teach” the story of the unique plants showing off in the garden at event time, and will also bring an irresistible show-and-tell of what he calls, “a blend of drool-worthy herbaceous and woody material with a focus on the unjustly rare.” Learn their features, use, and tips for successful culture. Adam asks: Why aren’t more people growing these incredible plants? Watch out: Soon you will be!
- Plant-Talk Hangout: We’ll spend the last chunk of our time together just talking, guided by your questions.
- Shopping: Shop for plants from 11:45-1 and 3:30-4:45. Tip: Browse the Broken Arrow website (or call 203-288-1026 for advice on landscape-size plants in stock at the in-person retail nursery) to have larger specimens or multiples of something or just specific plants delivered on event day to take home.
- Still want more? For an additional $10 ticket (get details and reserve one at this link), zip down the street and take a 1 PM wildflower walk with acclaimed naturalist Carol Gracie, author of “Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast,” in the adjacent Taconic State Park.
$90 ticket price includes tour, workshop, Q&A session, plus refreshments…and a $25 credit at Broken Arrow plant sale. Adam will even tell you the secrets to growing giant pumpkins (his other obsession).
NOTE: All registrants will be emailed directions to the garden in Copake Falls, NY.
Prefer a regular Garden Conservancy Open Day? See you June 4 or August 20. Broken Arrow sales all day then, too, right in my driveway (below).
Cancellation policy: Refunds if cancelled by April 30; otherwise credit applied to the fall “Open Day-Plus” event Sept. 19 or another program of your choosing.
This all sounds wonderful. I’ve learned so much more about bees and now about arthropods. Living with them is quite a challenge and I need all the help I can get.
Thanks.
I just learned that Andrea Wulf is speaking in Hudson, NY at 4 pm on April 9. Any chance that this will inspire you to have a workshop or open garden earlier that same day? That is my idea of the perfect day…
Would love to do this. Sigh. I live way too far away. Always enjoy your blog and your podcasts!