FEBRUARY 13, 2023 “ANYTHING BUT GREEN”- Michelle Mero Riedel

Many years ago, Master Gardener, Michelle Mero Riedel was bored with sections
of her garden. Her love of gardening took on a new direction when she discovered the
problem was too much green foliage. “Focusing on foliage color and not always shopping
for plants with flowers is the key to a visually stunning garden, “ Michelle advises.
Michelle is a professional photographer and regular contributor to ‘Northern
Gardener’ magazine writing articles and providing plant photography. She has a long
lists of gardening subjects she teaches for garden clubs and has appeared on KARE-11’s
Grow with KARE

March 9, 2023 “Floral Design” – Richard Milteer  (Pre-Registration for Materials Required)
Surrounded by carnations, roses, greenery, and other stems, a small group of Parkinson’s
patients near Minneapolis, Minnesota are learning the art of floral arranging from a retired
master designer eager to give back to his community. Richard Milteer, AIFD, PFCI, TMF,
traveled the world teaching floral design Now he’s using his industry connections and his own
talent to give back to his local community. He’s found the experience incredibly rewarding. He
also provides education, explaining when each flower is in season or describing how the flowers
were grown, flown and processed before they are ready to be arranged.

April 10, 2023 – “Creating and Protecting Pollinator Habitat in Lawns” – Sam Bauer

“I’m tired of mowing – Alternatives to High Maintenance Lawns”

January 9, 2023 – Jennifer Louise presents on House Plants   1:00PM

If there’s one thing I want you to know about me, it’s that working with plants and flowers makes my heart sing. I love what I do, and I love sharing my passion with others.

I am a florist and horticulturist living in Stillwater where I garden, create floral designs, consult, teach, and write about floriculture and horticulture. I also enjoy traveling and seeking out local gardens, nurseries, and florist shops to gain insight and inspiration that I bring to my designs, as well as sourcing unique flowers, plants, and garden kit to share with you in your home and garden.

As the founder and creative designer of Studio Louise, I bring over 25 years of floral design and gardening experience. I have designed at the Philadelphia Flower Show, Art In Bloom, and Minneapolis Home and Garden Show and teach for Koehler & Dramm Institute of Floristry and the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. With a passion for lifelong education, I continually work alongside and train with national and international-caliber floral designers to make sure I’m at the top of my game and can bring my best to you.

Studio Louise is inspired by the shared name of my grandmother, Louise, my mother Harriet Louise, and myself, Jennifer Louise. For at least these three generations, we have all had a love of flowers and of growing things.

November 14, 2022 – Roseanne Malevich – Vertical Gardening

April 11, 2022:  –  Jane Horn, Master Gardener – “Container Design for Sun/Shade Incorporating Houseplants”

March 14, 2022:  – Stan Tekiela, Naturalist – “Migrating Birds and Animals That Visit our Gardens”

January 10, 2022:  – Mary Shire Editor of Northern Gardener Magazine
“Gardening Trends and What goes into the Northern Gardener”

October 11, 2021:  Matt Brooks – Tangletown Gardens Designer

November 8, 2021:  Duane Otto – Designing with Containers

April 12, 2021:  Pete Widin – “Perennial, Medicinal, and Herbs for the Home Landscape”

Perennials aren’t just for showy flowers and foliage, or even pollinators! There is a wide diversity of culinary and medicinal herbs that we can grow as perennials here in Minnesota. This translates to beauty in the garden that we can eat, drink as iced or hot tea, and create healing salves and remedies with. Join local landscape designer Pete Widin for an exploration of these exciting plants and how to best use them in your own yard to create lasting health for your family!

Pete Widin, MLA is a local edible and native landscape designer at Artisan Environments LLC. He believes that a core answer to climate change and confusion in the world today is through deeper connection with nature,and where our daily food and preventative medicine come from. Pete is an ecological landscape designer  (B.S. Mich. Tech. School of Forestry, M.S. Landscape Architecture, Univ. of Mich. Ann Arbor).  http://www.artisanenvironments.com/

May 10, 2021:  Plant Sale/Silent Auction

530-600pm:  Plant drop off and silent auction starts.  “Shoppers” arrive at 6:50pm for sale to begin.

Tables will be set up outside FLW church.

Compost available at sale, and also available for $25 per loader bucket.

December 14, 2020
Bachman’s Home Winter Wonderland & Holiday Plants – Karen Bachman Thull (Virtual – Members Only)

Get in the holiday spirits and enjoy a feature video tour of Bachman’s Holiday Ideas & Inspiration for the Home Winter Wonderland, which is being held in the Lyndale Avenue store this year.  Karen will also talk about Bachman’s-grown poinsettias and holiday plants.  This online event will be an opportunity for our members to ask Karen any questions about Bachman’s wonderful annual offering.

March 8, 2021:  Tami Gallagher – “Garden Redesign”

Tami is a certified Landscape professional, MNLA-CP, Master Gardener, Business Leader, Gardener Extraordinaire, Owner/Operator of Home Sown Gardens since 2007.  Her business, services a 20-mile radius around Eagan, MN. She grew up on a hobby farm and remembers ‘picking’ her dinner on summer nights.  Friends and family influenced her initial interest both in vegetable and flower gardening, and that lead into a formal Horticulture education.

Tami loves all aspects of gardening and has a wide variety of annuals, perennials, shrubs, grasses, herbs, and vegetables growing in and out of her home. She loves to experiment and often refers to her gardens as labs. She is willing to try anything. While she tries not to get too attached to any one plant, she does tend to fall head-over-heels over certain ones.

Her recent love? Ornamental evergreens! She loves to mix herbs, veggies, annuals, and perennials in containers. She loves to move things all around during the season. She loves to push the hardiness zone. She likes to teach and share her love of gardens; to her 4 kids, her nieces & nephews, her employees, her clients…anyone who will listen. She loves taking photos of gardens. She loves bugs and rocks and critters. She loves “picking” her dinner. She loves sharing the bounty. She loves the sounds, the textures, the smells, the spirituality, the healing power, the magical-ness of gardens! She believes there is nothing better than being dirty and sweaty at the end of the day!

January 11, 2021
Native Garden Basics – Andy Scott (Virtual – Members Only)

Andy Scott – proprietor of ReWild Native Gardens, a native garden and landscaping consulting business and a member of Wild Ones.

Andy started his small native garden landscape and design business in 2017. Located in Bloomington, he has helped residents and commercial properties convert lawn and wasted space to wildlife-friendly gardens that support beneficial insects, birds and other wildlife. Education driven, Andy likes to not only involve his clients in the design and planning phases, but encourages them to help with planting as well so they can demystify the plant/pollinator relationships that they will be fostering. Andy will cover native garden basics and also highlight how more unique and rare native species can be utilized in the residential garden setting.

February 8, 2021
Kathy Widin – ‘Gardening with Natives’

Kathy Widin will discuss techniques and benefits of adding local native plants to your garden and landscape. Native plants are essential host plants and nectar sources for pollinators. Even a modest increase in native plants in your yard can increase the number of species of birds in your neighborhood. Their deep roots absorb rainfall, preventing runoff.
Kathy Widin holds MS and Ph.D. degrees in Plant Pathology from the University of Minnesota. Kathy started her business, Plant Health Associates, in 1983, and worked as a consulting Plant Pathologist and Municipal Forester until her retirement in 2015. She is an ISA (International Society of Arboriculture) Certified Arborist and received the Distinguished Service Award from the Minnesota Society of Arboriculture in 2003. Kathy wrote the “Plant Health” column in Northern Gardener magazine of the MN State Horticultural Society for over 30 years

October 12, 2020

Erin Buchholz, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum – “Integrated Pest Management for Plants and Animals”  (Virtual – Members only)

November 9, 2020

Alan Branhagen, Minnesota Landscape Arboretum – “The Winter Garden” (Virtual – Members Only)

March 9, 2020
Stan Tekiela– ‘Gardening for Backyard Birding’
Stan Tekiela is a naturalist, author and wildlife photographer with a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural History from the University of Minnesota. He has been an active professional naturalist for more than 25 years and is a member of the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union, North American Nature Photography Association and Canon Professional Services. Stan studies and photographs wildlife throughout the United States and has received various national and regional awards for his books and photographs. A columnist and radio personality, his syndicated column appears in more than 25 newspapers and he can be heard on a number of Midwest radio stations.He has made various books from birds, mammals, trees, wildflowers, amphibians and reptiles of some many different states from Minnesota to Texas to Florida.

February 10, 2020
Theresa Rooney– ‘Humane Critter Control’+ book sales
Keep critters and pests out of your yard and garden with heart! Author; U of M Extension Master Gardener and frequent guest on WCCO
Radio “Smart Gardens”, Theresa Rooney, will share how to keep unwanted guests away safely and organically.
It takes a lot of work and a fair amount of money to grow a garden. Theresa will share clever ways to be proactive and stop pests from
feasting on the bounty you’ve been working on all season.
Theresa will share ideas for protective barriers without ruining your sightlines, how to outsmart the invaders using insect behavior, how
to use scent to your advantage, and more. With methods and products that are not only kind to wildlife and insects but also healthier for
children and pets, this is the blueprint for creating a safe backyard for play, beauty, and healthy fresh-grown foods.
Her book, “The Guide to Humane Critter Control”, will also be for sale for $15 (cash or check), retail price of $19.99.

January 13, 2020
Andrew Gawboy – ‘History of Lyndale Park Rose Garden’ + ‘Growing Roses Doesn’t Have to be Complicated!’

November 11, 2019
Mary Meyer – ‘Top 10 Plants that Changed Minnesota’
Mary Meyer, U of M Horticultural Professor and Extension Educator, presenter.
Learn the significance of the top 10 Plants that changed and transformed the way we live today in Minnesota; and how essential they are to our everyday life, environment and every day well-being as humans! Yes, 10 plants had, both in positive and negative and forever shaped Minnesota economically, culturally and historically.

October 14, 2019
Martin Stern – Gardening Small Spaces: Martin is the owner of Squire House in Afton, MN. He has nurtured a life-long interest in nature and gardening, including living in Southern England in 1987 where he studied with world-renowned garden designer and writer John Brookes.
Since then Martin has designed gardens large and small throughout the upper Midwest and northeast. He seeks simplicity of intention, architectural interest and diverse multi-seasonal planting schemes in his work. Each garden has a separate and distinct personality. The gardens at Squire illustrate his design philosophy.
Martin enjoys garden writing and creating presentations on a variety of topics of horticulture, as well as gardens he has enjoyed in his travels. He conducts winter presentations for the public at Squire House Gardens. He is a speaker and available for group presentations. martin@squirehousegardens.com

May 13, 2019
Members’ Plant Sale
This is our only major fundraiser. It is a fun, inexpensive and reliable plant source for our gardens! Think about what plants you have to divide and share for the sale. Something new, to our sale is a Silent Auction which will replace our live auction and takes place between plant drop off and our meeting. We are looking for approximately 10 quality garden items for the auction. Please let us know if you have an item to donate. The item should warrant a $10 starting bid and could be a large or unusual plant, planter, garden decor, garden tools, retailer gift card or a service you can provide.

April 8, 2019
Laverne Dunsmore from Countryside Gardens – ‘All About Peonies’

http://growpeonies.com/

March 11, 2019
Debbie Lonnee – What’s New For 2019
Debbie is a frequent columnist for the Northern Gardener magazine and is the Planning and Administration Manager for Bailey Nurseries. She gardens in South St. Paul, MN and has co-authored the books ‘Growing Perennials in Cold Climates’ and ‘Growing Shrubs and Trees in Cold Climates’.

February 2019

Barbara Ego talks about her experiences with “Weedless Gardening,” based on the book by Lee Reich.

January 2019

Jennifer Hedberg teaches the group how to make Ice Luminaries.

November 2018

Arla Carmichiel – “Mastering the Mix”

October 2018

Peter Olin gave a fascinating presentation and slide show on his visits to gardens around the world.