Just thought I would let you all here in the Brandon/Portage la Prairie/Winnipeg area know that the Westman Gardeners is having a spring hort day with some very interesting speakers on April 14, 2007.

Our speakers will be...

Lil van den Ham...Planting containers. Lil plants up all the planters that you see in the Greenspot Nursery. Lil has been planting all their planters for years. She also teaches planter workshops at the Greenspot.

Cathy Dyck ...Landscaping How-to's...Cathy is from Kenton. Apparently, she is just an excellent speaker.

Hugh Skinner...Roblin...talking about vines and groundcovers. He took over Skinner's Nursery when his dad passed away. His dad, Frank Skinner, is very well known in the horticultural circles and spent years and years developing new trees/shrubs/perennials for the prairies. There is an excellent article on his dad at:

http://www.localgardener.net/manitoba/archives/features/skinner.htm

Phillip Ronald...of Jeffries Nursery in Portage will be speaking about using small trees and shrubs in the landscape. Phillip's dad, Wilbert has developed a lot of new plants for the prairies also over the years. Their web site is...

http://www.jeffriesnurseries.com

Cost will be $20. Registration begins at 8:45. We will be starting at 9:15 with speakers, break for snacks and lunch and going until about 3 pm that day.

This all takes place at the Central Community Club, 529-4th Street here in Brandon.

If you are interested in coming please email me separately so I can pre-register you and your friends for this really fun and informative day. (We want to make sure that we have enough lunch for everyone.) Come and visit with other gardeners! We already have people coming from Winnipeg, Selkirk, Hamiota, Wawanesa and of course, Brandon.

Brenda