(Adults) Beauty, Integrity and Resilience- Can A Garden Have Everything? Explore ways to achieve beautiful gardens without negatively impacting the environment. You can make a difference by changing the way you approach design, plant choice, planting techniques and maintenance. Learn how to meet your aesthetic goals while providing the structure and resources necessary to create a healthy habitat for the insects and birds you love.

(5-Adult) Thinking about your spring garden? Come explore the sensational world of seeds. We examine our seed collection, dissect seeds to see what’s inside, and learn how they grow into the plants that fill our gardens. Then plant some seeds to grow at home. Transplant them outside in your garden in spring. Children must be accompanied by an adult registered in the program.

(5-Adult) Let nature be your classroom! Combine natural elements and various art media to make a beautiful decoration for your home. Children must be accompanied by a registered adult.

(3-5 yrs.)Your preschooler enjoys nature-themed toys and puzzles while you meet other playgroup parents one Monday a month. Through games, songs, activities and a garden walk we explore these topics: January - Evergreens; February - Seeds.

(Adults) Whether in flower pots, hanging baskets or window boxes, container gardens are beautiful, easy and rewarding.  Learn how to create a dazzling display with eye catching perennials and annuals. Join Extension master gardeners to gain information and inspiration for your container gardens. 

(Adults) Bring out the best in food by adding the fragrance and flavor of homegrown herbs. Extension master gardeners teach you how to plan, plant, and harvest herbs in your garden or in a container.

(Adult) Selecting a specific, structured theme for a garden can inspire creativity by narrowing plant and material choices, hardscaping options and decorative elements. Is your garden a place for meditation and retreat? Are you inspired by a trip to Morocco? Need a showcase for your collection of farmhouse antiques? Focus on a theme that works with your interests and architecture, and the rest becomes easy. Landscape designer Lynley Ogilvie shows you how to identify a strong theme and allow it to guide your decisions in the garden.

(Adult) Washington Gardener Magazine is co-hosting the fourteenth annual Seed Exchange at Green Spring Gardens with lectures, face-to-face seed swap, and more. Bring your extra seeds to swap and leave with a bag full of seeds, new garden friends and expert planting advice. $15 for verified Friends of Green Spring members and WG subscribers; $20 for others. Formerly sessions FB6.F726 and FB6 C33F

(Adult) Winter is the perfect time to plan improvements to our gardens. Garden designer and international traveler Carolyn Mullet shares design images from her European garden travels that we can adapt and use for our own garden designs. Carolyn will show us how we can modify these “foreign” inspirations, both fun and functional, and how to find inspiration of our own.

(Adult) Botanist and plant breeder John Boggan grows and writes about hardy palms, bananas, begonias, gesneriads, and just about anything else that's tropical or exotic to the DC area. John shares his experience and trials of growing these beautiful tropicals and how you can have success pushing the growing zones.

(Adults) Learn the fundamentals for selecting and growing fabulous roses. Lewis Ginter Botanic Garden horticulturalist Laurie McMinn will introduce you to old family heirloom roses as well as many new roses that may become your favorites! Laurie shares the essentials of rose care and beyond, including pruning for spring plant health, nurturing great blooms, and identifying pests and diseases. Your roses will thank you.

(Adult) Trees are the keystone plants of a garden. With careful selection and proper planting, they can thrive with minimal care, rewarding us with beauty, shade, energy savings, and wildlife habitat. National Arboretum Head of Horticulture Scott Aker turns us into smarter consumers and gardeners as he illustrates how trees are marketed to homeowners. He offers, tips on proper planting techniques, and demonstrates a quick and easy way to determine a tree's health. Learn about trees that are well-adapted to our area and that Scott recommends to homeowners.

(Adult) Join the Friends of Green Spring in viewing the documentary, Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf. This documentary immerses viewers in Oudolf’s work and takes us inside his creative process, from his beautifully abstract sketches, to theories on beauty, to the ecological implications of his ideas. Discussion to follow.

(Adults) Make the most of your gardening efforts by growing plants that are beautiful outside and inside as cut flowers and fillers. Horticulturalist Karen Rexrode shares some favorite plants that are both beautiful ornamental garden plants and unusual cut flowers. These lovely arrangements exercise your creativity, give you confidence in plant combinations and allow you to appreciate individual plants details.

(Adults) Learn how to grow an organic garden where good bugs eat bad bugs, pollinators are abundant and the beautiful bouquet on the table came from your garden! Flower Farmer Lisa Ziegler tells all as she shares why flowers are the missing piece in many vegetable gardens as they attract pollinators, beneficial insects and other good creatures to complete the circle of life. Learn how to garden without using any pesticides that can harm and kill the very beneficial creatures we want to live in the garden.

(Adults) What was that insect I saw in the garden last summer? Why didn’t I see many butterflies last summer? How can I have more fireflies in my backyard? Bring your bug questions and stories to this mid-winter information exchange about insects. Join entomologist Nate Erwin for a colorful slide show of insects and their associated plants and then join a lively discussion about those spineless creatures that do so much for and in our gardens.