WHEN:  Saturday, September 17, noon to 6 and Sunday,  September 18, 9 to 5 in Beltsville

WHAT: Gesneriad Society Show and Plant Sale

COST:  FREE

The National Capital Area Chapter of the Gesneriad Society’s judged show “Gesneriads on Broadway” and plant sale will be held at Behnkes this weekend. Hundreds of plants will be displayed and for sale, including African violets, gloxinias, streptocarpus, gesneriads and many more exotic and easy-to-grow houseplants.  For more information, visit the Gesneriad Society.

Special Free Lectures:
Saturday 1:30:  “Basic Potting Mixes”
Saturday at 3:30: “Streptocarpus”
Sunday at 1:30: “What is a Gesneriad”
Sunday at 2:30: “Propagating Gesneriads”
Sunday at 3:30: “Dish Gardens”

Special Puppy Demonstrations and Hero-Dog Information!
Saturday from 9:30 to 3, Puppies and information provided by Hero Dogs, providing service dogs for America’s veterans.

Photo credits, from left:  African violet, gloxinia, and streptocarpus.

Take a gander at all the garden clubs and plant societies that gathered at our Beltsville store yesterday for our first Garden Social!  Besides all the networking and chatting up new members by the clubs, one highlight was that quintessential garden-club event – the Plant Swap!   Plus, over 60 donated items were raffled off to benefit the Friends of Brookside Gardens, and we’re happy to announce that over $1,200 was raised!  And David Culp’s talk about “promising perennials” was the crowd-pleaser that ended the event (he’s from Sunny Border Nurseries).  The weather was glorious and it was a great day for DC-area plant-lovers of all types.

A big thank-you to Carole Galati for coordinator the event!  She’s active in many clubs herself and was the perfect person to bring everyone together.  On the left is Millard Smith representing the Hyattsville Horticulture Society. Read the rest of this entry

Clockwise from upper left: Takoma Horticulture Club, Beltsville Garden Club, Silver Spring Garden Club, Prince George's County Master Gardeners

WHEN:  Saturday, June 4, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

WHERE:  Behnke Nurseries in Beltsville

WHAT:  Your chance to find out what garden clubs in the Metro DC region have to offer, meet plant enthusiasts, ask questions, and maybe even join a club.  Representatives from many different organizations are  participating, including the Takoma Horticultural Club, the Azalea Society of America, the Beltsville Garden Club, Master Gardeners from Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties, the Gesneriad Society (African Violets and their relatives), the Potomac Hosta Club, Four Seasons Garden Club,  and the Silver Spring Garden Club, just to name a few.

We know how much garden club and society members LOVE swapping plants, so there will be a Plant Swap at 11:30. To participate, just bring a garden plant from home.

David Culp

Internationally renowned perennial expert David Culp of Sunny Border Nurseries will be giving a free lecture on perennials at 3:00. David’s Pennsylvania garden was recently profiled in the “Best of” edition of Martha Stewart Living. He is currently writing a book about his garden for Timber Press.

And there will be a Raffle, with 100% of the proceeds going to Friends of Brookside Gardens, the group that does so much to support the magnificent public garden in Wheaton that we all love. Prizes include: tickets to the Nationals (courtesy of radio station WTOP), along with gift baskets, gift cards and some awesome plants donated by Behnke’s vendors and the groups that are attending the Social.

Jim Dronenburg at the Harp

And we have two Special Raffle Prizes, thanks to the generosity of  two Friends of Brookside Gardens – Jim Dronenberg and Dan Weil.  Both are active in the local gardening community and the Four Seasons Garden Club. Jim writes book reviews for Washington Gardener Magazine and articles for Behnke’s.  Jim will be harping and singing during the Garden Club Social.

• Jim Dronenburg’s Raffle Prize to harp for an event of your choosing. This offer is meant to extend for the duration of your event– it is not “one hour” or “two hours” but “what is needed”. Date to be arranged with Jim in advance to avoid schedule conflict.

• Dan Weil’s Raffle Prize is to photograph your private party in the DC metro region or out towards Harpers Ferry, or do a portrait shoot in or on the grounds of his studio in Knoxville, Maryland (15 miles west of Frederick).  Come prepared for a fun photo session with changes of clothes, if you want. At the studio, enjoy a bit of lunch or baked goods by Jim Dronenburg, and a tour of their gardens and aviary, wherein reside pheasants, peacocks and chickens.

We expect this to become an annual event, so why not attend the first one?  Like Woodstock… you can tell your grandchildren: “I was there!”   There is plenty of parking at Behnkes, and food will be available to purchase from Monte’s Barbeque.   Special thanks to garden-club-member-about-town Carole Galati for her great help planning this event.

Photo of Jim Dronenburg by Dan Weil.

Poor Brookside Gardens, with no power several days after the latest snowstorm!   No way could they host the big Seed Exchange, as planned.  And Poor Kathy Jentz, who had no power or Internet herself, and had to scramble to find an alternative location – stat!

But when Behnkes’ Stephanie Fleming got a desperate call from Kathy late Friday night before the event, she was in the happy position of being able to say sure, bring ‘em all here!   So first thing Saturday morning, with the Exchange scheduled to check in registrants at noon, the whole staff scrambled to make the space event-worthy, working with Kathy and her posse of assistants.

Somehow it all worked out, despite having another whole event in part of the same space from 11:00 to noon.   (Sonja’s talk and demo about African violets.)  Okay, we confess – it was a close call all around.  But everyone at Behnkes was happy to be able to help an event, a magazine and a magazine editor/organizer extraordinaire that we support wholeheartedly!

Top photo: Kathy Jentz, editor/publisher of Washington Gardener Magazine.   All photos by Drena Galarza.

Coming up next in our Winter Workshop series?  The ever-gorgeous, ever-popular Sonja Behnke Festerling talking about Raising and Cultivating African violets -  don’t miss it!  Having grown up at Behnke’s and worked with African violets most of her life, she knows these plants, including how to care for and even propagate them at home.   Attendees will all go home with their very own new African Violet.

That’s Sonja at 17 in the Washington Star with her beloved African violets, and today.

WHEN AND WHERE:
Saturday, Jan. 29, 11 a.m. to noon in Beltsville.  The $10 includes Sonja’s wisdom and encouragement, and a plant, too!