“Hot Peppers! From Seed to Salsa” will be the topic of a free Zoom webinar presented from 7–8 p.m. Tuesday, February 7 by the Washington County Master Gardener Association. Ezequiel Lopez-Reyes will talk about planting and growing peppers, and how they relate to Latinx culture. Ezequiel will focus on tips such as the pinching process, when to plant your peppers outdoors, and how to use peppers in the kitchen.

Ezequiel currently works with Latinx families and students in Washington County to help prepare them for life after high school. His love for gardening was passed down to him by his parents. His father was a farmer in Mexico, while his mother worked for 30 years in a plant nursery. Ezequiel says he has grown almost everything you can think of including peppers, limes, tomatoes, cherries, figs, and peaches.

Free webinar
Everyone knows blueberries are delicious parcels of anti-oxidants, but how many are aware blueberry plants can live for decades if proper pruning keeps up the production of young fruiting wood? We will share best practices worked out through years of research by Oregon State University scientists. This class begins with how to choose among different varieties. Then we discuss soil preparations and planting techniques, followed by cultural practices including fertilizing, watering, and pruning. Finally, we review pest and disease problems and how to manage them. 

Al’s Garden & Home will host a Dried Flower Workshop from 5–6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8 at all four locations — Woodburn, Sherwood, Wilsonville and Gresham. The cost of instruction and materials will be $40 per person.

While fresh flowers are in short supply this time of year, dried flowers can be used to create gorgeous displays. Amanda Bayha, Owner of Soul Seeds, and the staff at Al’s Garden & Home will demonstrate how to display a gorgeous assortment of dried blooms in a shadow box. This hands-on project is easy, with no woodworking skills required. Sustainably provided dried grasses and flowers from the dried flower Christmas tree this year will be provided, allowing participants to customize their project. Food and drink will be provided, along with everything you need to be successful, including shadow boxes and all other elements.

A fun activity for plant-lovers, this ancient form of Bonsai is done by encasing a plant’s roots in special soil and wrapping it in moss (no pot)! Kokedama may be displayed in a decorative saucer or bowl or suspended from the ceiling for a unique, vertical look. This hands-on class will take you through the steps to create one ball using the plant of your choice and also teach you how to care for it after you take it home.

Dennis’ 7 Dees Bridgeport Village Plant Shop
7325 SW Bridgeport Rd.
Portland, OR 97224

Virtual Talk – Paul Spriggs
The Garden Conservancy
A crevice garden replicates the environmental conditions of mountain tops, deserts, coastlines, and other exposed or rocky places on earth. These striking garden features provide perfect conditions for the plants native to these far-off places, bringing the cultivation of these precious gems within everybody’s reach. In the book, The Crevice Garden, enthusiastic experts Kenton Seth and Paul Spriggs bring us in-depth guidance on the design, construction, and planting of crevice gardens of all kinds including those suitable for containers, small gardens, and public parks and in styles that encompass both naturalistic scenes and non-traditional installations. In this talk, Paul will discuss all aspects of rock and crevice gardening, including history, design, construction, and of course, lots of photos of Paul's favorite plants.

The Environmental Learning Center at Clackamas Community College is once again offering a free series of Zoom classes on wildlife-and-water-friendly gardens.

Back by popular demand, this series will provide tips on how to garden with less water, manage too much stormwater, and generally provide a healthier habitat for birds, pollinating insects, and more. Each week, a different expert presenter will share their experience, stories, and best practices. There will be plenty of time for discussion, so questions are encouraged.

A fun activity for plant-lovers, this ancient form of Bonsai is done by encasing a plant’s roots in special soil and wrapping it in moss (no pot)! Kokedama may be displayed in a decorative saucer or bowl or suspended from the ceiling for a unique, vertical look. This hands-on class will take you through the steps to create one ball using the plant of your choice and also teach you how to care for it after you take it home.

Dennis’ 7 Dees Vancouver Garden Center
10006 SE Mill Plain Blvd.
Vancouver, WA 98664

A fun activity for plant-lovers, this ancient form of Bonsai is done by encasing a plant’s roots in special soil and wrapping it in moss (no pot)! Kokedama may be displayed in a decorative saucer or bowl or suspended from the ceiling for a unique, vertical look. This hands-on class will take you through the steps to create one ball using the plant of your choice and also teach you how to care for it after you take it home. Pre-registration is required; $45 class fee covers materials used during the workshop. Extra Kokedama can be purchased and made for $35 each.

Dennis’ 7 Dees Lake Oswego Garden Center
1090 McVey Ave.
Lake Oswego, OR 97034

Kokedama is the Japanese art form of growing plants in a moss-covered ball of soil wrapped with string. Hung by a window, or artfully displayed on a table top, these beatiful creations will transform an otherwise ordinarly housplant into a work of art!

All the tools and supplies needed to create a beautiful Kokedamas as well as instructions on how to keep our creations happy and healthy for years to come.

Blooming Junction
35105 NW Zion Church Rd.
Cornelius, OR 97113

Capture the essence of Springtime in our Spring Bulb Dish Garden Workshop. Combine bulbs in various stages of bloom with textural ferns and moss to create your ideal snapshot of spring. These miniature woodland landscapes can be kept indoors or out. Watch them grow and change, enlivening your tabletops with an early glimpse of spring. Pre-registration is required; $49 class fee covers materials used during the workshop.

Dennis’ 7 Dees Bridgeport Village Plant Shop
7325 SW Bridgeport Rd.
Portland, OR 97224

Capture the essence of Springtime in our Spring Bulb Dish Garden Workshop. Combine bulbs in various stages of bloom with textural ferns and moss to create your ideal snapshot of spring. These miniature woodland landscapes can be kept indoors or out. Watch them grow and change, enlivening your tabletops with an early glimpse of spring. Pre-registration is required; $49 class fee covers materials used during the workshop.

Dennis’ 7 Dees Seaside Garden Center
84794 US-101
Seaside, OR 97138

Capture the essence of Springtime in our Spring Bulb Dish Garden Workshop. Combine bulbs in various stages of bloom with textural ferns and moss to create your ideal snapshot of spring. These miniature woodland landscapes can be kept indoors or out. Watch them grow and change, enlivening your tabletops with an early glimpse of spring. Pre-registration is required; $49 class fee covers materials used during the workshop.

Dennis’ 7 Dees Lake Oswego Garden Center
1090 McVey Ave.
Lake Oswego, OR 97034

Register today for one of these Desert Dish Garden Workshops! Combine colorful succulents and cacti to create one-of-a-kind, long-lasting container gardens to brighten up your home this season.

Dennis’ 7 Dees Bridgeport Village Plant Shop
7325 SW Bridgeport Rd.
Portland, OR 97224

Free webinar
Fresh berries from Oregon’s Willamette Valley are delicious and easy to grow. Among our famous cane berries are: Marionberry, Boysenberry, Loganberry, and raspberry. This class will share best practices worked out through years of research by Oregon State University scientists. Beginning with how to choose among different types suitable for garden cultivation, we introduce terminologies to familiarize you with the world of berries! 

The Environmental Learning Center at Clackamas Community College is once again offering a free series of Zoom classes on wildlife-and-water-friendly gardens.

Back by popular demand, this series will provide tips on how to garden with less water, manage too much stormwater, and generally provide a healthier habitat for birds, pollinating insects, and more. Each week, a different expert presenter will share their experience, stories, and best practices. There will be plenty of time for discussion, so questions are encouraged.

Register today for one of these Desert Dish Garden Workshops! Combine colorful succulents and cacti to create one-of-a-kind, long-lasting container gardens to brighten up your home this season.

Dennis’ 7 Dees Cedar Hills Garden Center
10455 SW Butner Rd.
Portland, OR 97225

Have you been dissatisfied with the Roses you've grown in the past, or have never considered growing Roses?  If so, this class is for you! Ron will be sharing his knowledge on pre-Spring pruning, planting bare-root Roses, deadheading, and tips on how to keep your roses disease and pest free!

Blooming Junction
35105 NW Zion Church Rd.
Cornelius, OR 97113

This class is the first of three sessions on tomatoes. The first session focuses on variety selection and seed starting. Session 2 (3/29) will cover buying a good tomato start and what to do with it before the soil warms up. Session 3 (5/3) will cover planting out into the garden or container, supporting plants of various sizes, cultural practices (watering, fertilizing, pruning, etc.), and disease management.

East Multnomah Soil & Water Conservation District will host a free Landscaping for Wildlife workshop at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, 2023. It will take place over Zoom. When it comes to attracting beneficial wildlife to an outdoor space, it’s all about food, water, and shelter. This workshop will provide a broad and brief overview of Naturescaping concepts, and then dive into simple and creative ideas for transforming any space into somewhere birds, butterflies, bugs and more will want to come flocking. From plant shapes, colors, and bloom times to water features and tiny homes for bugs, there will be many inventive ideas for attracting local wildlife. Advance registration is required.

Virtual Talk -Darrel Morrison
The Garden Conservancy
For more than six decades, Darrel Morrison has drawn inspiration from the varied landscapes of his life—from the Iowa prairie, to Texas prickly pear scrub, to the maple-beech-hemlock forests of Door County, Wisconsin, to the banks of the Oconee River in Piedmont, Georgia. He has been guided as well by the teachings of Jens Jensen, who believed that we can not successfully copy nature but can get a theme from it and use key species to evoke that essential feeling. In native plant gardens at the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, New York Botanical Garden, and Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Morrison has blended communities of native plants in distillations of prairie, woodland, and coastal meadow. At Storm King Art Center, his landscapes capture the essence of prairie grasslands and native meadows. These ever-evolving compositions were designed to reintroduce diversity, natural processes, and naturally occurring patterns—the “beauty of the wild”—into the landscape.

The Environmental Learning Center at Clackamas Community College is once again offering a free series of Zoom classes on wildlife-and-water-friendly gardens.

Back by popular demand, this series will provide tips on how to garden with less water, manage too much stormwater, and generally provide a healthier habitat for birds, pollinating insects, and more. Each week, a different expert presenter will share their experience, stories, and best practices. There will be plenty of time for discussion, so questions are encouraged.

There's nothing like growing your own fruit! Learn the skills you need to make your fruiting trees productive for years to come. Topics include pruning, pollination, pest and disease prevention and fertilization.

Blooming Junction
35105 NW Zion Church Rd.
Cornelius, OR 97113

Get ready for spring with Vancouver Rose Society. Rose experts will be answering questions and demonstrating proper rose pruning techniques.

Get ready for spring with Portland Rose Society. Rose experts will be answering questions and demonstrating proper rose pruning techniques. Bring your hand pruners to be sharpened while you shop and a 1-cup sealed bag of garden soil (label with email + phone number) for free pH testing!

Join us for a drop-in style class to make your own candle.

The Environmental Learning Center at Clackamas Community College is once again offering a free series of Zoom classes on wildlife-and-water-friendly gardens.

Back by popular demand, this series will provide tips on how to garden with less water, manage too much stormwater, and generally provide a healthier habitat for birds, pollinating insects, and more. Each week, a different expert presenter will share their experience, stories, and best practices. There will be plenty of time for discussion, so questions are encouraged.

It’s time to start planning your summer garden! We’ll cover starting seeds indoors, planning your garden layout, when to direct sow and transplant vegetables, herbs and more!

Blooming Junction
35105 NW Zion Church Rd.
Cornelius, OR 97113

Get ready for spring with Portland Rose Society! Rose experts will be answering questions and demonstrating proper rose pruning techniques. Bring your hand pruners to be sharpened while you shop and a 1-cup sealed bag of garden soil (label with email + phone number) for free pH testing!

The annual tradition, where specialty growers give fun presentations on interesting and unusual plants, will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 5 at Lake Oswego High School Auditorium, 2501 Country Club Road, Lake Oswego, Oregon. Doors will open at 1 p.m. and those interested should line up ahead of time to be assured of a seat. The auditorium seats 640. That’s a little more than the prior venue, which seated 500 and was always full. Admission is free. Participants get a goody bag that includes a FREE Retail Nurseries and Garden Centers Map, courtesy of Plant Something Oregon and the Oregon Association of Nurseries.