(Adults) Use your basic drawing or painting skills to illustrate wildflowers. Artist and instructor Caroline Hottenstein shows you how to use pen and ink, watercolor, graphite, and colored pencils to capture and highlight details. Previous drawing experience encouraged. Add to session notes: Please bring a bag lunch. Supply list will be emailed before class.

(Adults) Experience Green Spring Gardens with all of your senses. Join Ana Ka’ahanui, co-founder of local nonprofit Capital Nature for a slow, meditative walk around the gardens. Contemplative, but more active than meditation, this forest bathing walk will help reduce blood pressure, boost immunity, and enhance mood and creativity. Decompress and feel a deeper connection with the natural world. Bring something to sit on the ground, which may be damp, and a water bottle. Dress for the weather.

(Adults) Give bullying plants an inch and they’ll take over your yard. Fairfax County has an ordinance against bamboo. Come listen to Extension Master Gardeners give you alternatives to grow instead. You’ll be amazed at the choices you have.

(Adults) A shady spot in your landscape provides opportunities to incorporate special plants in your garden. The secret is in using three key colors to lighten the shade. Extension Master Gardeners teach you how to create that cool, soothing mid-summer retreat by discovering vibrant and elegant plants.

(Adults) Tour the vibrant summer gardens with a Green Spring Master Gardener docent. Finish at the Historic House lawn to enjoy delicious ices, served with toppings and garnishes.

(Adults) Groundcovers can be a great accent in the garden with many flowering and evergreen options for sun or shade. Join Green Spring Gardens staff for a short lecture on how to use groundcovers to solve design challenges, followed by a walk around the grounds to view some of our gardeners’ favorites. Dress for the weather.

(Adults) Enjoy a walk to look at the variety of colors and forms of beloved flowering native plants. Native herbaceous perennials, trees, shrubs, and vines that grow well in local gardens are also ecologically valuable. Visit the Virginia Native Plant Garden, the Wildlife Garden, and the Rain Garden/ Bioretention Area in the Entrance Garden with Brenda Skarphol, curatorial horticulturist at Green Spring Gardens. Be an eco-friendly gardener and work with nature. Dress for the weather.

(Adults) Enjoy a guided tour of Green Spring's beautiful demonstration gardens with an Extension Master Gardener docent. Hear about our 18th century origins and our mission today. Find inspiration in our horticulturists’ plant choices and garden bed designs and take their ideas home to try in your own landscape. Garden tours run rain or shine.

(Adults) For the beginner or advanced student, artist and instructor Dawn Flores will share watercolor techniques through exercises that help you understand color, composition and improve brush control. Learn about the history and types of paper used in botanical art. Basic drawing skills are helpful for drawing the plant specimen from which to paint an elegant botanical portrait. A supply list will be emailed before class. Bring a lunch.

(Adults) Make a hand-bound journal by sewing signatures together filled with watercolor paper and various types of paper. Then create a unique cover and add other special touches to some inside pages. Your journal will be a unique treasure ready to be filled with drawings, paintings or writing. It will be special, but it is made to be used often.

(Adults) This class features a gentle introduction to the Vinyasa method which helps participants increase the strength, flexibility and endurance necessary for gardening. Class held indoors.