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Spring Garden Festival

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Free and open to the public

Spend an educational and fun-filled day at Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth on Saturday, April 26^th from 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Learn new techniques that will help you hone your gardening skills and improve the look and ease of care of your own garden. We have invited a variety of speakers and exhibitors to share their knowledge and tools of the trade with you through workshops, hands-on activities, and garden talks and demonstrations.

Ten free lectures and demonstration will be conducted throughout the day on the half hour.  These workshops are designed to highlight the many plants and techniques that will create a beautiful garden from early spring through frost and into the winter.  This is an opportunity to learn about getting your beds ready for plant, garden design, spring pruning, copicing and cutting back,  making a structure with twigs, great garden plants, plant combinations, and gardening using earth-friendly practices.   Learn how to choose Siberian iris and June blooming companions. Explore a variety of herbs for fragrance, flavor and beauty and meet some favorite trees and shrubs that will extend the season in the mixed border. Bring a picnic lunch; we'll provide the drinks. For more information, call the nursery at (508) 252-4002.

Plan to spend the whole day and learn how to get your garden ready for a summer of glorious bloom. You will also see more that 10 acres of fields of Siberian Iris and Japanese Iris and daylilies. Tranquil Lake Nursery is the largest grower of these plants in the northeast, with more than 3,000 cultivars of daylilies and more than 300 varieties each of Siberian and Japanese Iris.

You will also have the opportunity to wander among the acres of gardens at Tranquil Lake Nursery, where you will see a diverse variety of perennials, grasses, shrubs and vines. The gardens include a number of perennial borders, mixed perennial and shrub gardens, an ornamental vegetable garden, a thyme bench, container herb garden, an entry garden, an ornamental grass garden, a pond-side water garden, a bog garden, a dry-scree garden, spectacular container plantings brimming with annuals and perennials, a pool with a water rill and a new purple garden designed to attract hummingbirds. All plants discussed during the day will be available for sale.

For directions, click here

The day begins with a demonstration in one of the flower borders at Tranquil Lake Nursery. Warren Leach will offer tips for garden renovation, dividing existing perennials, soil preparation and fertilization in his workshop "Getting the Garden Ready for Spring Planting: Preparing the Border and Soil."

Warren Leach will offer a workshop on "Planting and Designing the Mixed Border" focusing on Color, Texture and Scale as he demonstrates planting design to create a new border in the area prepared in the earlier workshop. He will take you step by step through the process of choosing plants, creating combinations and laying out and planting the beds as he also describes maintenance needs.

Deborah Swanson, UMass Extension Horticulturist will offer a selection of choice hardy wood and herbaceous plants that will provide a long season of beauty in her garden talk "Hardy Prize Winning Plants for Your Garden." A dedicated gardener and educator whose extensive gardens are filled with a bounty of distinctive perennials and woody plant, Deborah will discuss the ornamental qualities of her favorites. Many of these plant have also been selected as award winners for northern gardens by the Arnold Arboretum, Worcester County Horticultural Society's Cary Award Program and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's Styer Gold Medal Award Program. She will also discuss their cultural requirements and offer suggested garden combinations.st and UMass Plymouth County Extension.

Specialized pruning techniques will allow you to shape your trees and shrubs, so that they can be used in many versatile ways. When coppiced, towering trees become supple shrubs. Cutting back or pollarding also dramatically increases the size of emerging foliage. During the demonstration, landscape horticulturist Warren Leach "Cutting Back, Spring Pruning and Coppicing Your Trees and Shrubs," will demonstrate this type of pruning as well as highlight when to prune shrubs that bloom on new or old wood.

Gilbert Moore has been gardening at his home garden in Slatersville, Rhode Island for nearly half a century. He is a master at weaving pliable twigs and brush to create elegant garden fences, furniture and other wattled structures. He will take you step by step through the process during his demonstration "Wattling and Weaving Garden Fences and Structures." Learn which twigs are best to use and how to create these strong and attractive garden barriers, arbors, trellises and seats.

The fields and gardens at Tranquil Lake Nursery feature more than 300 varieties of Siberian Iris and 3,000 varieties of daylilies. These are both low maintenance perennials, the Iris begin blooming in late May and continue through the month of June and daylilies start as early as May and continue until frost. Nursery co-owner Philip Boucher will share his love and knowledge of these special flowers  in his garden talk "June Blooming Siberian Iris, Daylilies and Their Companions." Phil will showcase favorite iris varieties that range from dainty flowers on diminutive stalks to tall broad-petaled fluted forms in colors ranging from white, pink and violet to shades of blue and purple. Then meet a wide variety of early blooming daylilies in early ever color, height and form and the many beautiful and diverse late spring and early summer and garden companions that will bloom along with Siberian Iris and daylilies in the early-summer garden.

Debi Hogan, horticulturist and avid herb garden has been growing herbs in the gardens, containers and window boxes for more than twenty years. She will share her love for herbs in her presentation "Herbs for Fragrance, Tasting and Garden Ornamentation" offering tips on favorite cultivars, tips for growing, drying techniques, how to prepare for culinary use and overwintering.and herb enthusiast

Warren Leach, horticulturist and co-owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery will offer a workshop on "Creating Container Gardens Filled with Shrubs, Perennials, Herbs & More." Growing plants in containers allows the opportunity to add beauty to areas with limited horticultural attributes such as on pavement or under shallow rooted trees. It also provides the opportunity to showcase and stage plants with distinctive ornamental qualities of plants while also providing optimum cultural. Warren will discuss weatherproof containers, demonstrate soil media, planting tips, and color combinations for creating containers brimming with colorful tropicals, annuals, hardy perennials, and herbs that will embellish any garden or patio all summer long. He will also discuss use of winter hardy trees and shrubs that can live outdoors year round.

Gilbert Moore, gardener and flower arranger will share his talents and interest in Japanese Style Flower Arranging in "Arranging With Spring Flower and Foliage, Ikebana Style." For the past several years he has been studying Ikebana and he especially enjoy using plants from the gardens in his arrangements. He will review basic principles and demonstrate a couple of arrangements that can easily be made from simple flowers and branches you will find in the garden.

3:00 p.m.                  Soil Preparation Essentials and Water Conservation minded Garden Techniques

The day ends with a demonstration on "Soil Preparation Essentials and Water Conservation Minded Garden Techniques". Philip Boucher, horticulturist and co-owner of Tranquil Lake Nursery, will take you step-by-step through the techniques for composting and amending the soil. He will show how to collect and use rainwater from the roof, increase the water holding capacity of the soil and offer a variety of methods for mulching and covering the soil to prevent it from drying.

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