GEORGIA -- A GALLERY OF GARDENS: WINTER GARDEN MEETING ANNOUNCES PROGRAM, SPEAKERS

Statewide Master Gardeners’ Conference January 22-23 Features Top-Name Experts; Early Bird Registration Offers Discount until December 15

            GAINESVILLE, GA – If you’re interested in gardening, you’re invited to the Georgia Master Gardeners’ Statewide Winter Conference, featuring garden guru Walter Reeves on January 22-23, 2010. Hosted by the Hall County Master Gardeners and the University of Georgia Extension/Hall County, the meeting will be held at the First Baptist Church Conference Center on Green Street in Gainesville.

            The conference opens on Friday, January 22, with a public reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., featuring artists from across North Georgia in a juried art show and sale. Saturday’s session begins at 8 a.m. and continues until 4:30 p.m.

            Admission the Friday night reception only is $10 per person; it is included in the conference registration fee of $75 per person. The early bird registration cost for Master gardeners is $65 before December 15.

            Saturday offers a full day of speakers from across the Southeast. Speakers for the conference are:

o   Carol Reese, Express Yourself: Gardens as Art Form – An Ornamental Horticulture Specialist with the University of Tennessee, Reese is a published writer for a number of gardening publications. She is known throughout the Southeast for her presentations and will focus on landscape design and plant materials. Her speaking engagements take her all over the nation, camera in hand.

o   Pamela Crawford, Easy Gardening in the South – Both in containers and in the Ground – Author of eight gardening books, Crawford has lived and gardened in the Southeast for most of her life. In addition to designing gardens for over 1500 residences, her work has been featured on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens publications as well as in Southern Living, HGTV Magazine, Fine Gardening, Country Gardens, Country Almanac, Small Gardens and more than 50 newspapers.

o   George Sanko, Ferns for the Shade and Sun Garden -- While teaching at Georgia Perimeter College, Sanko started the College Herbarium which eventually housed more than 5000 species of native plants collected throughout the United States. In 1990 he started the GPC Botanical Garden which has more than 2000 native plants, making it one of the largest native plant collections in the Southeast. In 2003 he developed the Ferns of the World Garden,  one of the top zone 7 collections in the world.

o   Walter Reeves, The Georgia Gardener – A native Georgian, Walter Reeves is known across the Southeast as the Garden Guru. He is the host of WSB-AM’s The Lawn and Garden Show with Walter Reeves, he also reaches gardeners through his weekly columns in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also has a weekly program on Georgia Public Broadcasting. Walter is the coauthor of the Georgia Gardener’s Guide, Month by Month Gardening in Georgia, The Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Book and Georgia Gardeners’ Q & A: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

            For more information or to register online, visit www.georgiamastergardeners.org or call 770-535-8293.