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Garden & Landscape Symposium of Western Pennsylvania and the Garden Marketplace!

The 19th annual Garden & Landscape Symposium of Western Pennsylvania, presented by Penn State Extension and Shady Side Academy, will be held Saturday, April 12, 8:00am to 4:00pm at the Hillman Center for the Performing Arts in Fox Chapel.  Internationally acclaimed educators and authors will treat attendees to an entire day of presentations.  This year's keynote speaker is the renowned Michael Dirr, legendary plantsman and author of the manual of Woody Landscape Plants, a must-have reference for every serious gardener.  Horticultural experts will share their knowledge on a wide variety of topics, including Sinclair Adam, Penn State Extension educator speaking on New Perennials for 2014: Plants of Promise for American Growers and Gardens: Michael Dirr, retired professor of horticulture, University of Georgia will speak - In Praise of Noble Trees and also New flowering and Evergreen Shrubs; Maryann Frazier, Penn State Entomology Expert will address declining pollinator populations and how gardeners and landscapers can improve habitats and reduce risk with - Will There Still Be Honey for Your Tea?; and Jeff Gillman, Horticulture Instructor at Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte, North Carolina will present - The Truth About Organic Gardening: Benefits, Drawbacks, and the Bottom Line. 

The Symposium includes breakfast and lunch and plenty of time to shop at the Garden Marketplace.  The Garden Marketolace is free and open to the public as well as well as for those registered for the Symposium for 8:00am to 3:00pm.  The Marketplace features unusual, hard-to-find perennials, annuals, shrubs, natives, lettuce bowls, terrariums, garden accessories and botanical artwork.  The Garden Marketplace is entirely indoors, located in the Ice Rink Arena on the Shadyside Senior School campus.  A new attraction this year is the annual Daffodil Show, hosted by the Daffodil and Hosta Society of Western Pennsylvania.  Parking is convenient, ample and free.  Register for the Symposium by visiting http://extension.psu.edu/garden-landscape-symposium  the fee is $105 before March 1 and $120 after March 1.  Or call 412-473-2540 questions. 

About our Speakers: Sinclair Adam is a Penn State Extension floriculture educator in Lebanon County, and he manages the flower trials at the Landisville Agricultural Research and Extension Center.  Previously, Sinclair was an adjunct professor in the Plant and Soil Science Department at the University of Vermont.  From 1989 until 2010 Sinclair and his wife, Kirsten, operated Dunvegan Nursery until they joined forces with Vermont Organics Reclamation.  Sinclair has 15 plant patents, and his passion for breeding native plants is known throughout  the industry by such innovative introductions as Tiarella 'Erika Leigh', 'Laird of Skye', Brandywine', and 'Oakleaf'.

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Michael A. Dirr is a legend in the horticultural world and has tremendous energy for teaching about plants,  writing about plants, and especially for growing plants.  Michael worked at a nursery and garden center to pay his way through school while earning his bachelor and master of science degrees at Ohio State.  He went on to earn a doctorate in plant physiology at the University of Massachusetts and began his teaching career in 1972 as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois. Michael has published more than 300 scientific and popular papers and articles.  His teaching, lectures, seminars, garden study tours and plant introduction programs have contributed enormously to greater horticultural awareness, and his book Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs is one of Timber Press's bestselling titles.  He has received numerous awards and honors during his career, most recently the Liberty Hyde Bailey Medal from the American Horticulture Society.  Today, he travels widely to lecture, teach, and form new opinions of plants.

Maryann Frazier received a B.S. in Agriculture Education at Penn State University.  In 1983 she completed a Masters of Agriculture in Entomology, specializing in apiculture.  She has worked as the assistant state apiary inspector in Maryland and for tow years as a beekeeping specialist in Sudan and later in Central America.  For the past 22 years she has held the position of Senior Extension Associates in the Department of Entomology at Penn State and is responsible for honeybee extension throughout the state and cooperatively across the Mid-Atlantic region.

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Jeff Gillman is the author of five books on gardening and the environment.  He is a former Associate Professor in the Department of Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota, and in currently an Instructor in the Department of Horticulture Technology at Central Piedmont Community Co9llege in Charlotte, North Carolina.

412-473-2602 or pjb37@psu.edu

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