DATE: 1/22/07

CONTACT: Paul Thompson, (803) 684-9919; pthmpson@clemson.edu

WRITER: Diane Palmer, (864) 656-4741; spalmer@clemson.edu

Master Gardeners offer gardening symposium with help from Clemson

ROCK HILL – Want to learn how to grow herbs or how to garden the low maintenance way?

These tips and more will be offered at “The Joy of Gardening Symposium” on March 3 at Winthrop University in Rock Hill. The event will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Tillman Hall. Cost is $40, which includes lunch. Registration deadline is Feb. 16.

The workshop’s theme is Making Gardening Easier as We Get Older.

Margot Rochester, author of Earthly Delights: Gardening by the Seasons the Easy Way and garden writer for two newspapers, will be keynote speaker.

Rochester formerly wrote for The Island Breeze on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and is currently writing articles for Carolina Gardener. She’s also working on a second book, Down to Earth: Practical Thoughts for Passionate Gardeners.

Scheduled presenters are: Margot Rochester on Flowering Shrubs, the True Perennials; Henry Nunnery, retired Clemson Extension agent, on Easier Vegetable Gardening: Grow More, Work Less; Tom Goforth, owner of Crow Dog Native Ferns and Gardens, on Carolina Native Ferns: Ecological History in the Garden; Barbara Pleasant, garden writer, on Real Life Herbs and When Plants Meets Stone; and Kevin Calwell, botanist with Equinox Environmental, Asheville, N.C., on Exotic and Invasive Plants.

Also, Douglas Ruhren, professional gardener, on Easy Care Plants that Create a Tropical Look; Andy Cabe, curator of horticulture at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, on Great Plants – Easy Plants, Maximize Your Time and Minimize Your Efforts; and Paul Thompson, Clemson Extension horticulture agent, on Great Mounds of Fire.

Make checks payable to Master Gardeners of York County and send to Marilyn Hakim, 355 Pepper Mill Drive, Rock Hill, SC 29732. For more information, call 803- 981-5303 or e-mail yorkjoyofgardening@yahoo.com .

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