The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is southeastern Virginia's largest grant and scholarship provider. Since its founding in 1950, the regional community foundation has provided more thatn $152 million in grants and scholarships to improve life in Southeastern Virginia.

We have gathered a variety of speakers who will provide expertise in different gardening-related fields. The series is geared for beginners and specialists. While the program is free for members of the Friends of Fred Heutte Foundation, the cost for non-members is $ 5.00 per person. Some lectures require the pre-payment of materials fees. All lectures will be held at the center.

You don’t need dozens of vases for flower arrangements! Bill Smoot shows you how to take one clear glass cylinder container and create 8 different arrangements. These arrangements are unique and v-e-r-y simple to make. Most of the plant material can come from your garden, local florist, or a grocery market. Now there’s no excuse for not creating a unique floral arrangement in less than five minutes for those unexpected guests, or as a last minute gift! Participants will take home a floral arrangement with them!

COST: This session is free for members; $5 for non-members. Pre-registration is required! Call 441-2513 or send an email to: fhcgarden@cox.net.

Billi Parus
Master Gardener

Thursday, August 11th, 7:00 PM

Casually stroll through the gardens of the Fred Heutte Center on a warm night while sampling several homemade ice creams and sorbets! Later, you’ll earn how to make these fabuluous deserts using fresh in-season fruits & berries! Billi will have 5 flavors for you to sample.

Billi Parus returns to share her creative cooking skills with us. Billi is a Virginia Beach Master Gardener, life member of the Herb Society of America, a member of the British Herb Society. She operates Lavender Hill House, an Internet gift basket business. She lives in Virginia Beach where she and her husband grow over 200 varieties of herbs, including 8 registered National Collections. Billi travels the country, teaching about cooking with herbs.

This session is free for members; $5 for non-members. Pre-registration is requested! Call 441-2513 or send an email to fhcgarden@cox.net to register.

Does your garden put on a spectacular display of fall color? If not, you are missing out. It’s very easy to achieve this dramatic effect utilizing suggestions and plant combination by our speaker, Master Gardener Betty Villers. Don’t just think that mums are the only plant from which you can produce fall color. Now is the time to make your garden plans and start planting for this fall. Consider using plants which either bloom in the fall, or provide a display of color with their leaves. Betty knows plants. She assists with the design, selection, planting, and care of the display garden at the Virginia Beach Agricultural Research Station. Both beginner and advanced gardener will benefit from her program. Her beautiful pictures will have you looking forward to fall. You’ll be the envy of your neighbors this fall and extend your gardening season!

This session is free for members; $5 for non-members. Pre-registration is requested! Call 441-2513 or send an email to fhcgarden@cox.net to register.

Fall is an excellent time to start working on next year’s weed problem as many will be setting seeds for next year’s crop. Do you have a pesky weed that has taken refuge in you garden and drives you crazy? If so, bring your weed sample and let horticulturist Sherrie Kern identify it for you! Only after properly identifying that weed can you take action to get rid of it. Sherrie’s program is both humorous and educational. As a horticultural instructor at Tidewater Community College Sherrie has come into contact with a lot of weeds. She actually grows, studies and teaches about weeds! Sherrie will bring her weed crop for you to see – and NO we won’t be passing out free seeds at this program!

This session is free for members; $5 for non-members. Pre-registration is requested! Call 441-2513 or send an email to fhcgarden@cox.net to register.

After birth, Michael played in the woods. Before 10 he had a hillside his mother said he could plant. So besides bringing turtles home he also brought Tiger Lilies, Yucca and other native plants. By high school, music and performing occupied most of Michaels time. He’d go out of his way for black orchid corsages for special dates that also took up most of his time. In the 1970s Michael fell into the “grow your own” movement. He built a yurt and set up a garden in his brother’s back yard. Michael grew everything edible he could find. He wrote songs about it, he went to school about it, and as fate would have it, he started a mail order nursery about it: Edible Landscaping, http://www.ediblelandscaping.com

This session is free for members; $5 for non-members. Pre-registration is requested! Call 441-2513 or send an email to fhcgarden@cox.net to register.

This program will explore the fundamental principles which are used to design successful healing and restorative garden spaces. Shelly Arthur is a certified landscape designer and a past-president of the Virginia Society of Landscape Designers. She was an instructor for the University of Richmond's Landscape Design program for many years, an instructor for George Washington University's Landscape Design program, an instructor for the Virginia Federation of Garden Clubs Landscape Design School, as well as an instructor for Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in their adult education program. Shelly is a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association, Southern Garden History Society, and Virginia Society of Landscape Designers. She is a an advisory board member for the Massey Cancer Center and a member of the Gillette Forum Advisory Board of Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. In addition, she is an ongoing volunteer for Massey Cancer Center and Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, as well as several other green industry related and community organizations.

This session is free for members; $5 for non-members. Pre-registration is requested! Call 441-2513 or send an email to fhcgarden@cox.net to register.