Every painted surface has to be touched up before the show. Nancy Irwin applies Mass Hort Green to a piece of staging.

If you're as weary of winter as most New Englanders, then March 16^th can't come soon enough. That's the day that the Boston Flower & Garden Show opens for its five-day run at the Seaport World Trade Center. And, if your membership in the Massachusetts Horticultural Society is current, you're going to the show as our guest.

It's going to be a great show. The Paragon Group, which produces the event, has put together an exhibitors' list of more than two dozen gardens from the region's most talented and innovative organizations, as well as a host of gardening-specific vendors offering everything from pots to plants. They've got great speakers and activities to keep you entertained and educated.

The show's theme, "A Burst of Color - Celebrating the Container Garden", runs through the exhibition. Every garden will feature containers and there will be multiple locations with container garden invitational displays. You'll go home with hundreds of ideas of how to make this coming year one of concentrated color.

Volunteer Barry Needalman scrapes down 'The Big Red Chair' in preparation for painting it for the show.

Mass Hort plays a major role in the show. Blooms! at the 2011 Boston Flower & Garden Show encompasses ten facets of the event. Here's what you can look for:

Mass Hort's garden — At approximately 350 square feet, is roughly twice the size of our 2010 space. It's both a garden as well as a place to meet and speak with fellow gardeners. Back by popular demand, the exhibit will incorporate the 'big chair' (but painted a very different color for 2011). Mass Hort's exhibit will also include a vegetable garden, with the theme, 'From Garden to Table'. There will be handouts on building a home garden and on Mass Hort educational programs.

By show time, these beefsteak tomato plants in our greenhouse will be a foot high. Dianne Weinberger is part of a Master Gardener team that cares for them.

Floral Design — Divisions I and II are held in the Conference Center ballroom. Division I is held under the auspices of the Garden Club Federation of Massachusetts. Division II is sponsored by Mass Hort. With two entry days, the two divisions will show a total of 112 design entries.

Ikebana — Held in the Conference Center's ballroom pre-function area and under the aegis of Ikebana International, there will be a full complement of 11 graceful examples of the art of Japanese flower arranging this year, representing the Sogetsu, Ikenobo and Ohara schools.

Amateur Horticulture — Individual entries can be found in the Conference Center's Beacon Hill Suites. We hope to have upwards of 500 entries this year. New in 2011: a hanging basket class.

Photography — You'll find the photography competition in the beautiful rotunda area of the Conference Center. This is the first year for the competition, which will feature 36 entries in six classes. Also on display on a large monitor will be glorious photos from the Garden Club Federation's 'Mass Gardens on Tour' program, which opens the state's best gardens to viewing every other year.

Look for these structures at the entrance to the flower show. They will be filled with gorgeous floral designs. Maureen Christmas, Chair of Design Division I,paints them.

Structures — Look for six special exhibits of amateur horticulture housed in special structures ranging from bay windows to rooms. The Camellia Society, Herb Society, Begonia Society, Gesneriad Society, Norwood Evening Garden Club and Massachusetts Master Gardeners all have displays this year.

Mini-gardens — One of the most popular features at the New England Spring Flower Show, there will be four perfect gardens in miniature for 2011. You'll find them adjacent to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society garden.

Bookstore — Mass Hort will operate a bookstore adjacent to the lecture hall. It will be stocked with books on gardening and horticulture, including those books written by the speakers you'll hear in the lecture hall and on the demo stage.

Sandy Kautz of the Camellia Society and an example of the blooms her group will display.

Special floral designs — One of the first things you'll see when you enter the Boston Flower & Garden Show is a small - just 32 square feet - exhibit featuring a pair of very special floral designs. These are unjudged 'challenge class' entries presented by Divisions I and II.

Speakers — We're pleased that all speaker programming for Thursday, March 17, on both the demo stage and lecture hall has been programmed by Mass Hort. A total of 15 speakers will talk on subjects ranging from garden photography to floral design. There will be two sessions - morning and afternoon - on container gardening.

by Penni Jenkins
Lifetime Master Gardener

How many times have you visited a flower show, looked at the entries, and said to yourself, "I have a better one of those at home." Entering a plant in a flower show is a lot simpler than you might think, and there are easy things you can do that will increase your chances of being successful.

Art Scarpa grooms a plant for Blooms

You need read the schedule's rules carefully. Most flower shows have rules concerning the length of time you have owned the plant, which containers are not allowed, and other requirements concerning staking and nomenclature. Some have rules about repotting. To enter a plant in Blooms!, for example, you must have owned a plant you want to enter for at least three months.

"Grooming" - getting an entry ready for the show - for exhibition can begin as soon as the schedule is published. Why start so early? Because, sometimes, last-minute grooming will leave scars that the judges notice.

Here's how to groom a plant: First, carefully remove dead or discolored foliage. Your plant should have good color. Remove spent flowers. Trim stalks at soil or crown level leaving no stubs. Brown leaf tips can be trimmed with floral (sharp) scissors, following the shape of the leaf. Clear dead material from the inside of the plant using tweezers or a similar tool. Remove detritus from the soil.

Prune foliage and flowers to achieve symmetry and balance. Your plant is being judged on its appearance. Flowering plants should have a nice combination of blossoms and buds. A shiny-leaved plant can be given a light shower to remove fertilizer spots and dust. A damp sponge or cotton ball can also be used. Dust and dirt can be removed gently from hairy leaves with a soft brush such as an artist's paintbrush.

Make sure the plant's container is clean and free of 'salt' buildup. Pots can be scrubbed with a wire soap pad or plastic pot scrubber. The pot must be in proportion to the plant and follow the schedule. White or brightly colored pots are discouraged or forbidden, and will draw the eye away from the plant. Top dressing adds to a finished appearance.

This is Pelargonium 'Tutti Fruiti' before grooming.	This is the same Pelargonium 'Tutti Fruiti' after grooming - now it's ready for the show.

Never use a 'leaf shine' product. Artificial enhancements are forbidden. If staking is required, it should be unobtrusive and appropriate to the plant. Follow the rules in the schedule. Research the proper botanical and common names for your plant. This will be noted on your entry form. Since one of the purposes of a flower show is to educate the public, use of the proper nomenclature is essential.

But, if you don't know your plant's full Latin name or what class it belongs in, don't let it dissuade you from bringing it in. There will be experts on hand at Blooms! who, if they don't automatically say, 'Hey, that's a great specimen of Lantana montevidensis," can look it up quickly while you wait.

Determine the best viewing angle for your plant, and mark which is the back. This will enable the staging crew at the flower show to place your plant with its best face forward. Finally, examine your plant for disease or bugs. If either is present, don't enter it.

Individual plants are evaluated on a point scale where 'cultural perfection' counts for about a third of the score. The plant's form and size count for 20% of its score and the quality of its foliage and how well it was groomed are a quarter of its score. Color, rarity and proper labeling are another 20%.

Getting a plant to the show is also easy. Before you leave home, pack your plant (or plants) carefully in a box. Wedge them with crumpled newspaper so they won't fall over or be bruised during transport. Be sure to keep everything warm - it's March, after all. A 'tent', 3-4 sheets of newspaper thick, can be used to enclose the box and prevent exposure to cold air. Your plant has been pampered living in the house and may be damaged by exposure to cold.

For Blooms!, you need to show up with your plant between noon and 8 p.m. on Monday, March 14. The show is at the Seaport World Trade Center, a mile east of Boston's Financial District. If you're driving, the South Boston exit from I-90 comes up just two blocks from the site. There's a loop road around the Center. Enter the loop road from Northern Avenue from the east and follow signs into the covered loading bay. Volunteers will have you in and out in just a few minutes.

Above all, have fun. After all, you just might take home a blue ribbon to go with your plant.

How do you teach children to love gardening and nature? You can begin with a stop at the free programs being offered by the Massachusetts Master Gardeners at this year's Boston Flower & Garden Show.

Each day, the Master Gardeners' will hold a morning story hour with members reading from children's books that tell the stories of how seeds grow, tales of good bugs and bad bugs and the secret lives of plants. On weekdays, the story hour will begin at 10 a.m. and, on Saturday and Sunday, at noon.

Hands-on activities design to teach children how to plant seeds and small plants and tend them as they grow will split the days with a chance to 'build' your own bug. Every day, those attending will take their work home with them. The classes will be held at 5 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, 4p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Master Gardener Gina Poole, who leads 'Story Hour' at Elm Bank, will be at the Boston Flower & Garden Show

It's only a few weeks away...the Boston Flower & Garden Show. And, if you’re a Mass Hort member, you're set. If you're not a member - or if your membership lapses between now and March - now is the time to renew.

Individual members receive one free ticket to the Boston Flower & Garden Show, to be held March 16 to 20 at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston. Family memberships will receive two free tickets, with an option to purchase up to two additional tickets for family members at the discounted price of $15, versus the $20 value of the ticket.

The Boston Flower & Garden Show incorporates MassHort's Blooms! 2011, which encompasses amateur horticulture, two major floral design competitions, photography, Ikebana displays, and coordination of plant society displays. MassHort will also sponsor a full day of talks on both the demonstration stage and in the lecture hall at the show.

There are plenty of reasons to renew your membership now – garden center and educational program discounts, magazine subscriptions, and free admission throughout the year to the beautiful gardens at Elm Bank. But the best reason to renew now is that you’re supporting the core educational mission of one of the country’s most venerable institutions. Horticulture is an essential part of our future and of our environment.

Oh, and order your membership today and you will also receive a $25 Gift Certificate to White Flower Farm and a very special gift to pick up at the Flower Show!

If you prefer to mail in your membership order form click here.

You may also order any of these memberships by phone: 617-933-4963

Before you head out this spring to cut off those broken branches or prune your shrubs back into shape, you need the right tools - saws and clippers with sharp edges free of sap and resin. Dull cutting surfaces can do serious damage to the plants you've nurtured through years of patient care.

Arborist Joe Biagioni leads an outdoor class on pruning.

There's no reason why you can't sharpen your own tools and, at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 26, members of the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association will show you how.

"Start Sharp", the first educational program of the new year at Elm Bank, is presented jointly by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society and MMGA. And, it's free. It's Mass Hort's way of kicking off 'Saturday Mornings at Elm Bank' and introducing the 2011 educational series to old and new gardeners alike.

Bring a reasonable number of clean (dirt-free) tools you'd like to have sharpened to the Education Building at Elm Bank. If you have a sharpening tool, bring that, too. Master Gardeners will show you how to clean and sharpen blades. By the end of the morning, you'll know what tools you'll need to maintain your gardening implements at home and to use them properly. You'll also learn the difference between bypass and anvil pruners and what type of job each tool is best for, and when you need to use a saw rather than clippers.

During April, there will be additional Saturday morning sessions. At "How to Prune Like a Pro", a licensed arborist will take you around Elm Bank and demonstrates spring pruning techniques. Master Gardeners will supervise you as you replicate the arborist's techniques. Also in April, we'll show you the fine points of "Planting Trees and Shrubs". You'll come away more confident that what you buy at a nursery will grow and thrive.

In May and June, Mass Hort shifts to 'Wednesday Evenings at Elm Bank' with an exciting mix of topics for the home gardener. "Ready, Set, Plant"! shows you how to design and plant a vegetable garden, including ground preparation and plant selection. Then, it's on to "Spring Annuals and Perennials" for a behind-the-scene look at what grows best in our area. We'll have a session on "Container Gardening" and another on "Summer Color".

Ready to enjoy the bounty of your garden? This year we introduce the 'Garden to Table Talks'. These are built around not just planting and maintaining your vegetable garden, but getting great nutrition and flavor from it. We're lining up a series of contributors who will provide cooking demonstrations, talks on food preservation, and organics. Stay tuned for a complete listing.

For a complete schedule check back on our website or read more in upcoming Leaflets.

by Maureen Horn, Librarian
Massachusetts Horticultural Society

Anna Povard's "Bulb" is filled with stunning illustrations and useful information.

Next to fall during planting season, the best time to pick up a book on bulbs is in early spring, when the parade of their flowers is about to begin. I use the expression "pick up" with some reservation because this work has both physical and philosophical heft. It is not an encyclopedic approach to every bulb available in this world; rather it's a compendium of author Anna Pavord's favorite plants, those she has grown in her own garden and which have helped her see the world as a place of beauty.

The turning of each page brings delight because there are stunning illustrations of each of Pavord's 600 favorite bulbs. Some of the photographs, by Andrew Lawson and Torie Chugg, evoke a contemplative response because the setting of the blossoms is clearly suggested. Especially in the two-page spreads, the photos help the reader know what it feels like to walk through a vast field of color. If you have ever hoped to "wander lonely as a cloud", Pavord shows just the spot for she tells you to look for Wordsworth's daffodils, the Narcissus pseudonarcissus near the English woodlands. They are sharp yellow throughout, and the cups are slightly too large for the surrounding petals, but that shouldn't ruin your pleasure.

Ms. Pavord, whom the Massachusetts Horticultural Society was fortunate to feature as a speaker at its 2008 New England Spring Flower Show, has written two notable scholarly books, The Tulip and The Naming of Names, but Bulb is the most personal demonstration of her love of flowers. In its introduction, she notes that species, rather than cultivar, predominate and explains that sometimes it is because the original species remain more beautiful than any man-made "concoctions". She's obvious about her favorites, devoting thirty pages to the Crocus, thirty-five to Narcissus, and more than fifty to Tulipa. The author's research into plant history is not neglected, though, and it comes out in her interesting accounts of bulb migrations to Europe from Asia, North America, and South Africa.

Ms. Pavord's practical knowledge of gardening is evident, and she is generous with useful technical advice on planting and cultivation. At the same time, she is adamant that a reader's own experience is the only sure guide to what will grow well in local soil. She also takes a light-hearted approach to her subjects, highlighted by the example of Cornell students finding out how to stunt the growth of paperwhite stems, so that they don't need to be staked. The students accidentally spilled some hard liquor on them. Notice the emphasis on "hard"; beer or wine won't do. Her indirect advice to the reader can be inferred: don't stay home and toil just in your own plot. There is joy in the surprise of daffodils along the coast of California in January and the scent of paperwhites in Florence at Christmas.

My own best advice of all is to take Bulb wherever you go.

by Betty Sanders
Lifetime Master Gardener

The snow banks are melting down. If you can get out to your trees and shrubs now, do so and check for damage from this winter's storms. Cut back dead and broken branches to protect the tree from further damage. A properly made clean cut will heal naturally, protecting the tree from disease and insects.

Bad weather days are a great time to tune up your tools for spring chores. Clean, oil and sharpen your clippers and shears. Don't forget to put a fresh edge on shovels, spades and hoes after removing any rust. Mass Hort will offer a FREE tool tune-up day on Saturday, March 26 in cooperation with the Massachusetts Master Gardeners. See the nearby article for details. And, if you sometimes feel your tools have a knack for disappearing, you might consider painting the handles bright red, orange or purple to make them easier to find in the garden.

Prune back pine trees before they begin new growth, or wait until they have finished candling (the soft new growth from the ends of pine branches are called candles). Trimming them can make your tree or shrub fuller, but avoid doing it in March or April when the fresh cuts allow pine borers an easy access to infect the new wood.

While many evergreens should not be cut back to bare wood because they have no way to regenerate, that advice does not apply to yews, boxwood, rhododendrons or azaleas. They can be cut back to bare branches to reduce their size or reshape them. Do this 'hard' pruning before any growth starts in the spring. You will lose any flower buds on the branches you trim, but you will have new leaves this year. Make certain the plant receives adequate water after a hard pruning, but you do not increase the amount of fertilizer you give the plant.

Now - before the spring rush - is also a great time to send lawn mowers, tillers and other summer power tools for tune-ups. If you are in the market for a new lawn mower this year, consider a battery powered one. They are quieter, effective and better for the environment. The new generation of electric mowers has enough battery life to do even a large lawn on a single charge.

Finally it's flower show time. Don't go to any flower show or exhibit without carrying a small notebook and pen with you. Make note of the plants that charm or entrance you. You will have an easier time finding the particular variety you fell for if you write down their full Latin name. Don't hesitate to ask questions of the people manning the exhibits. They can tell you if that wonderful plant is hardy in New England, or only a summer visitor. And don't forget to stop at the Massachusetts Master Gardener booth where trained Master Gardeners are eager to offer you help with your gardening questions. They love to talk about gardening and plant, and their services are free - what more can you ask?

A mobbed Master Gardener booth at the 2010 Boston Flower & Garden Show.

You can explore more of Betty Sanders’ gardening thoughts at www.BettyonGardening.com.

by Neal Sanders
Leaflet Contributor