We hold free lectures on the 2nd Monday of each month (except July and August) at the Milwaukie Center (5540 SE Kellogg Creek Drive in Milwaukie).
Lectures are open to the public and start at 7 p.m. Each lecture features an expert presentation about an interesting gardening topic. * Scroll to the bottom of the page for info on past lectures.
June 10, 2013
Pioneer Roses of Old Clackamas County, Laura King and Kathleen McMullen
The Oregon pioneers brought many useful items with them. including beautiful roses. Northwest rose historians Laura King and Kathleen McMullen will tell tales of Mary Drain Albro’s and Erica Calkins’ efforts to collect old pioneer roses. Northwest Rose Historians located those roses and will relay the stories of the families who brought them to Oregon as well as their work with the Master Gardener project at the End of the Oregon Trail Pioneer Rose Garden.
Two years ago, Laura King and Kathleen McMullen founded Northwest Rose Historians which reintroduces heritage roses into community centers’ public spaces in which these roses were first planted. This “living history” reinforces community identity and provides a sense of place while entrusting old garden roses and their stories to future generations.
Please contact Northwest Rose Historians and share stories about your family rose; they are always on the lookout for pioneer roses.
Sept 9, 2013
Vertical Gardens, Phil Yates
Vertical gardens have been a big part of the Singer Hill Café experience for several years now. Phil Yates of the Singer Hill Café traveled to Spain in the winter of 2007 and fell in love with the work of Patrick Blanc, inventor of the vertical garden. Blanc’s largest work at the Caixa Forum in Madrid, Spain, completely took his breath away. Yates began experimenting with building outdoor vertical garden panels in the spring of 2009. It’s been trial, error, and continuous self-education for Yates ever since, and he became a Master Gardener in the process.
Phil Yates is founder of the Vertical Garden Institute, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Singer Hill Café. The Institute experiments with various vertical gardening techniques and explains those techniques to the world through its Website and seminars.
October 14, 2013
Fruit Trees 101, 10 Things To Know
When You Grow, Monica Maggio
homeorchardsociety.org/arboretum
Want to join the quickly blossoming movement of growing your own fruit? Perhaps you have already! Learn some great tips and techniques to help you get started (or continue to!) successfully grow fruit trees at home with Monica Maggio, former Arboretum Manager for the Home Orchard Society. Among many things, Monica will discuss site requirements & preparation, pollination needs, general maintenance requirements of different fruits, and how to select a good fruit tree. Please join us for this informative and tasty talk!
For the past 12 years, Monica’s studies and career have centered around two main themes: teaching and growing healthy plants (especially edible ones).
As a landscape maintenance business owner, former Arboretum Manager for the Home Orchard Society, Master Gardener graduate and instructor, Monica has seen firsthand how growing fruit at home is an amazing avenue for people to connect to the living plant world around them.
Observing that people often pay better attention to a plant once they learn they can eat it, she believes teaching people how to grow their own fruit equals better care of our local communities and our planet. She is honored and very excited to further spread the love of a home grown harvest through her newest project of developing and teaching fruit growing curriculum for Oregon State University.
Because of Veteran's Day falling on our normal 2nd Monday our meeting and program are changed to November 18th
November 18, 2013
Edible Flowers, Vern Nelson
oregonlive.com/hg/index.ssf/vern_nelson_columns/
Vern Nelson will talk about his favorite edible flowers and how he uses them in the kitchen. For example, he makes rose brandy from flowers of the rugosa rose. He also makes St. Germain from the flowers of the elderberry and an exquisite jelly from the flowers of Queen Anne's lace. There are many other examples, but what is important is that these resources that most gardens already have can be very valuable in the kitchen.
Vern Nelson is the owner of A New Leaf Kitchen Garden Design company and garden columnist for the Oregonian. He does scientific botanical watercolor illustrations and is a horticultural photographer. Vern is working on a book that will be a guide to kitchen gardening in the Northwest
December 9, 2013
Rainforests - Nature’s
Most Exuberant Gardens, Chris Wille
www.rainforest-alliance.org
Tropical rainforests -- nature’s most exuberant gardens -- host fully half of all the plant and animal species on earth. Rainforests are the source of many houseplants, medicines, food crops and lustrous woods. Rainforests, home to indigenous tribes, sustain millions. Gardeners, like birdwatchers and naturalists, understand the importance of rainforest conservation. Chris will provide an update from the front lines of the battle to save these natural wonders and explain how everyone can pitch in. The Rainforest Alliance certifies farms that meet rigorous standards for environmental protection, worker rights and benefits, pollution and waste management, implementation of advanced IPM techniques and eco-friendly ways to increase yields. You’ll see that many of the same techniques promoted by the Master Gardener movement are used to get coffee, banana, cocoa, tea and other tropical farms on the path toward sustainability.
Oregon native and OSU graduate Chris Wille and his wife Diane Jukofsky helped launch the Rainforest Alliance 25 years ago. Now, this nonprofit, conservation organization is active in 100 countries and dedicated to conserving biodiversity and ensuring sustainable livelihoods by transforming land-use practices, business practices and consumer behavior. Rainforest Alliance staff and partner organizations train loggers, farmers and tourism operators to decrease their environmental impacts while increasing their profits. Forest managers everywhere and farmers in the tropics can earn the Rainforest Alliance Certified or Forest Stewardship Council seals of approval, now seen on paper, wood, coffee, tea, chocolate and many other products. Diane directs the Communications, Marketing and Education division; Chris leads the sustainable agriculture efforts.
January 14, 2013
Winter Interest Plants, William McClenahan, Viscaya Nursery
http://www.viscayagardens.com/visit.htm
Although winter may force us to spend most of our time indoors, there are many plants whose beauty is at their best in this time of year. Join William as he talks about some of his favorites and challenges us all to realize the beauty often missed in your garden during winter.
William McClenahan - Host of "Garden Time"
William has worked in nurseries in Dallas and Florida and also owned a nursery. After moving to Portland and attending Portland State University to pursue an opera degree, William worked at Portland Nursery, eventually becoming the store director of Portland Nursery’s amazing Division Street location. When he was approached to work on Garden Time, he accepted without reservation. William says, “Although I never thought I would make my career in horticulture (my first college degree was in Theology) I have fallen in love with it.”
February 11, 2013
The Rose, Queen of the Garden, in the 21st Century, Chris Pellett
Gardeners have long admired the beauty of the rose and its versatility in the garden. The extreme hybridization of the rose and the invention of fungicides in the 20th century led to the creation of roses that were beautiful but not always easy to maintain and enjoy in home gardens. Twenty five years ago the German company Kordes stopped spraying fungicides in the trial fields and started breeding roses for disease resistance as much as beauty. The result is roses that are as easy to grow and enjoy as they are beautiful.
Chris and Gary Pellett are the owners of Newflora, a company specializing in the introduction and marketing of new plants. Newflora is the exclusive agent of W. Kordes Rosen, and they have worked for nearly ten years on the introduction of Kordes roses in North America. They reside in Southern Oregon where they evaluate many new Kordes rose varieties as future introductions.
** March 11, 2013
Pollinators in the Garden, Gail Langellotto, Oregon State University, Ph.D Professor of Horticulture and statewide coordinator of the OSU Extension Master Gardener Program
Gail will introduce you to the pollinators found in sustainable gardens and the gardening practices that encourage diverse pollinator communities. A review of key flowering plants that pollinators favor will provide ideas on which to add to our own gardens. She will also offer ideas on how to manage pests in a way that best protects pollinators. Specific pollinators that will be covered include: yellow-faced bees, mining bees, sweat bees, honeybees, bumblebees, syrphid flies as well as butterflies and hummingbirds.
Gail Langellotto earned her Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Maryland. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Horticulture at OSU, where she also serves as the statewide coordinator of the OSU Extension Master Gardener Program. She's published several research papers that document bee diversity and the gardening methods that inhibit or enhance pollinators in urban and suburban gardens
Resources from Gail's lecture, click to follow the links:
OSU Extension Yamhill County Native Plant Gardening
List of recommended native plants for home gardens in Western Oregon.
April 8, 2013
VINES - Creepers and Crawlers, Twiners and Viners, David Palmer
David Palmer invites us for a look at the world of vines: perennial and annual, evergreen and flowering vines for all situations, how they climb and methods of pruning to keep them in bounds.
David Palmer is an English born professional horticulturist, having spent much of his career in public horticulture. He started training in public parks before earning an Honors Diploma from The Royal Horticultural Society’s School of Horticulture at Wisley (a 200 plus-acre garden south of London). David and his American wife, Jan, moved to the U.S. in 1980. He spent a year as Director of Sonnenberg Gardens in Canandaigua, Upstate New York, before coming to Oregon as Director of the Berry Botanic Garden. David is currently Garden Manager for a large, private estate in Portland’s West Hills.
One of the founding members of the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon, he has been an active member of this organization as well as of the local chapter of the American Rock Garden Society.
He has visited several countries throughout Europe and around the Mediterranean, as well as China, exploring plants in their native habitats. With Jan, a propagator at Bovees Nursery, David spends his spare time tending to their ½ acre plot in West Linn growing as many plants as they can fit in.
May 13, 2013
Sowing Seeds, Sarah Patterson, Lettuce Grow Garden Foundation
www.lettucegrow.org
The Lettuce Grow Foundation is a non-profit established to develop and transform vegetable gardens inside Oregon correctional facilities. Using the OSU Extension Master Gardening program and the Oregon Food Bank’s Seed to Supper classes, over 50 inmates graduated in 2012. In 2011 the prison gardens produced over 150,000 pounds of food for their own kitchen and an additional 60,000 pounds went to local food banks.
Sarah Patterson is an attorney, an Oregon Master Gardener and the director of the nonprofit Lettuce Grow Garden Foundation. She has done a dozen years of volunteer work In prisons and jails. Her federal law practice focused on Social Security Disability law, and she maintains a marketing service for other lawyers in that area of practice. She has lived and gardened in many climates, none better than Oregon!
Details and websites from our 2011, 2012 lectures.
last updated on May 14, 2013
