(16 Adult) Explore the concept of data gathering that is available to and for all of us. Gardeners at every level of experience, naturalists and entomologists are recording the world around them through web based social media applications. Bird migration, butterfly numbers, invasive plant spread and insect populations are just some examples of data that is collected from a cyber-community of ecologists and citizen scientists. This is a new source of critical information to scientists in our changing world. Karen Rexrode will introduce you to some applications that will interest you as a gardener and a nature lover.

(Adults) Discover ways to expand the beauty in your garden in the 16th annual EcoSavvy Symposium: THE FOUR SEASON GARDEN-Sensational Ornamentals and Edibles All Year Long. Author and garden columnist Marianne Wilburn and Smithsonian Gardens Horticulture Collections Manager Cindy Brown share insights into selecting plants for all season color, architectural interest, and extended harvests from your edible garden.

(3-5 yrs.)Your preschooler enjoys nature-themed activities while you meet other playgroup parents one Monday a month. Through games, songs, activities and a garden walk, we explore seasonal topics.

(Adults) Do you want to branch out and try growing something different? Extension Master Gardeners will show you the wonderful world of cacti and succulents, which draw the eye through a wide range of color, texture and form. Not only are they beautiful, but cacti and succulents are easy to grow.

(Adults) Are you counting the days until spring when you can get your hands back in the soil? Why wait? You can enjoy beautiful flowering and foliage plants right now, inside your home. Extension Master Gardeners will provide you with all the know-how you will need to be successful. If you love gardening outdoors, you’re going to love it indoors, too!

(Adults) Celebrate fifty years of Green Spring and our signature shrub! A docent-led tour showcases our nationally-accredited witch hazel collection, featuring over 200 specimens with blooms that glow red, yellow, purple, and copper from fall through March. Warm up afterwards with hot drinks in the Historic House.

(Adults) Horticulturalist Brenda Skarphol highlights beautiful flowering shrubs that grow well in Virginia home gardens. Get to know seasonal standouts for winter and spring. Learn the culture and care of these beauties and how to best showcase them in your garden. Dress for outdoors.

(Adult) Washington Gardener Magazine is co-hosting the fifteenth 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 guests.

(Adults) (Rachel) Bunny Mellon was a gardener, artist and icon. She created countless gardens for famous friends and family, including the White House Rose Garden and the Potager du Roi at Versailles. But her most intimate garden is the half-acre, walled garden at her estate in Upperville, Virginia. Head gardener Judy Zatsick will share the joys and challenges of carrying on the spirit of Bunny Mellon at Oak Spring Foundation.

(Adults) Come and discover the history in your backyard as archaeologist Aimee Wells highlights a number of archaeological projects that have gone on, or are ongoing, in Fairfax County, including archaeological testing right here at Green Spring Gardens.

(Adults) As Green Spring turns fifty, discover how this special place became a unique County resource. Green Spring historian Debbie Waugh discusses the fascinating lives of the last private owners, Michael and Belinda Straight, and their gift to the Park Authority in 1970. Enjoy a photo history of our first fifty years and look ahead to our next half century!

(Adults) Celebrate women in horticulture as past and future contributors of note to the field of landscape design. Three public gardens will reveal how the contributions of Beatrix Farrand and Ellen Biddle Shipman, groundbreaking women in landscape architecture, helped further the field of landscape architecture and bring women into the field. Get a profile of public works of select contemporary female designers that illustrate the continued impact of women on the design world.

(Adults) Join Horticulturist Gregg Tepper as he shares the engaging tale of building a Piet Oudolf designed Meadow Garden. With every great project and large planting there is a story and Gregg will share the background, the details and all the behind the scenes magic that happened to make this garden a reality. Prepare to be amazed and delighted!

(Adults) Dawn Flores spent 20 years communing with a 60-acre urban forest and five years documenting its destruction. Learning lessons on ecology, collaboration and letting go, she turned personal grief into a community wide art/conservation project resulting in a large body of work. In this gallery talk, Flores will walk you through the creative process that resulted in eight volumes of photographs, one contemplative movie, over 60 turned pieces of wood and dozens of forest quilts made from forest inspired fabric. The pieces are on display at Green Spring Gardens through March 29.