From Bulbs to Blooms
Seminars on gardening are often available in the Spring, but in 1997 few addressed gardening during the Fall. The Smith County Master Gardeners wanted to fill this void by getting outstanding speakers, to make presentations relevant to season which would encourage gardeners to take advantage of this opportunity for planting. Furthermore, they wanted to present this program at no cost to the participants. The Bulbs to Blooms event continues to be presented each fall with several hundred regularly in attendance.
Many people in the community believed that growing Spring blooming bulbs meant refrigerating the bulbs, planting them and treating them as annuals. There are a group of bulbs that have grown in this area for years without all the fuss of treating them as annuals. The MGs researched the availability of these bulbs, mainly daffodils and jonquils in the beginning, and found that they were not readily available in the retail market and often were available only in limited quantities.
In October 1999, the first Fall Bulb Sale was held and was an instant success, selling out in less than one hour. The success of the Fall Bulb Sale continued in ensuing years and beginning in 2001 the Fall Seminar and the Fall Bulb sale were combined into a single event. The seminar subjects focused on bulbs and following the presentations, attendees can buy the bulbs and more that are offered for sale.
Calendar Garden Journal and Planning Guide
This project began in 1997, organizing to create a gardening calendar for 1998 as a means of raising money to support the activities of the Smith County Master Gardeners and to provide educational gardening information to the purchaser. From the beginning this was a successful venture and beginning with the 1999 calendar, a colored painting was reproduced for the cover. The painting, a watercolor, was done by a Master Gardener and for the next few years a new painting was produced for the covers.
As the Guide was developed, more and more gardening information was included and each year that information is revised and updated, for the benefit of the gardening community. The colored covers have been changed to a photo taken in the community and chosen by the committee.
Home Garden Tour
Who doesn’t want to peek in other’s backyards to see what they’ve done that you might want to copy?? We all do and the annual Home Garden Tour project lets us do exactly that as we go around asking local homeowners if they want to show off their gardens during our HGT.
The purpose of this project is solely education in demonstrating and teaching the public what they might want to try in their own home gardens. Also, add in that we have Master Gardeners stationed at an information table in each garden with the benefit of answering gardening questions, demos, and handing out printed materials. A sub-committee chooses 4, 5 or maybe 6 gardens for their aesthetics but also for their good gardening practices. This sub-committee schedules these pre-viewings in May in order to see what they will look like at tour time.
This one day project has typically taken place about the third Saturday in May so as not to conflict with Tyler’s Spring Azalea Trail or Fall Rose Festival or Mother’s Day. The 2024 Home Garden Tour will be held May 18th from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. Click here for more details.
Nature Detective Camp
SCMGA has worked with Glass Recreation since 2022 to put on a Nature Detective Camp. The camp is a four day event taught in the summer by Master Gardener volunteers two hours each morning for kids from ages 8 to 11. The goal is to introduce young students to habitats and the plants and critters in their own backyards and beyond. We teach how taking care of the natural environment is beneficial to pollinators, birds and reptiles while instilling a love of gardening and environmental stewardship.
This year’s 2024 summer camp will be held June 3rd through 6th, and scholarships are available on request through the generous donations of Master Gardeners. For more information, contact Glass Recreation at (903) 595-7271.