Penn State Extension Master Gardeners Butler County are hosting a Fall Seminar from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 15. The event will be held in-person at the St. Conrad’s Church Social Hall, 125 Buttercup Road, Butler Township. Virtual attendance will be available via Zoom.

The in-person attendance cost is $38, which includes breakfast and shopping at the Master Gardener Bulb and Gift Sale; the virtual attendance cost is $20.

Registration is open at https://extension.psu.edu/endless-summer-fall-garden-seminar. Proceeds from the event will support community gardening projects throughout Butler County.

Doug Oster will open the seminar with his discussion, Fun With Trees and Shrubs: Grow Something Wonderful. Trees and shrubs are the base of any landscape design and allow gardeners to grow something extraordinary. Explore the options as he teaches the value and importance of fun, well-matched, and well-maintained shrubs and trees in your garden spaces.

Oster is a well-known and respected local author, speaker, and media personality. He is an Emmy Award winning producer and television host. You can catch him hosting The Organic Gardener Radio Show, at 7 a.m. Sundays on Pittsburgh’s KDKA Radio, and read his feature articles in the Pittsburgh Earth Day’s Green Voice e-newsletter.

Cacti and Succulents in the Garden will be the topic of the second session, presented by Bill Hendricks. Many cacti and succulents are hardy and can be used in the garden year-round. Others can be placed outside in containers or planted in the garden for the summer.

Join Hendricks to find out how to use hardy and non-hardy succulents in the garden. He is president of Ohio's Klyn Nurseries. A full-service wholesale nursery, Klyn Nurseries was founded in 1921 and grew to become a leading grower of roses and ornamentals. He is a member of various professional organizations, including the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association and the American Nursery and Landscape Association.

He has been honored for his contributions to horticulture by numerous organizations including the Ohio Landscape Association, International Plant Propagators and Nursery Management Magazine. He enjoys photography and cultivating his cactus and succulent collection, which he started at age 9, and numbers over 4,000 species.

The final seminar topic of Enchanting Annuals well be presented by Dr. Laura Deeter. Annuals include more varieties than our favorites of petunias and impatiens. Learn about new introductions, and innovative ways to use our familiar annuals.

Annuals add color, pizzazz and pop to any garden, and can be the glue that binds the shorter flowered perennials through the seasons. Annuals are enchanting all season long!

Deeter received her Ph.D. in horticulture from Ohio State University. She is a professor of horticulture at Ohio State Agricultural Technical Institute (ATI) in Wooster, Ohio, teaching a multitude of horticulture classes such as: Woody and Herbaceous Plant Identification, Landscape Design, and Sustainable Landscaping. Among her awards are the ATI Distinguished Teaching Award (twice), the OSU Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ohio Landscape Association.

She travels extensively speaking on a variety of topics ranging from taxonomy and nomenclature to shade gardens, design, color, and specialty gardens and plants. At home she gardens on her 10th of an acre with her husband, three dogs and 100 pink flamingos, and counts her over 300 species of perennials as dear friends.

The workshop concludes with information about additional resources and an evaluation. This Fall Seminar’s timely topics are of interest to novice and experienced gardeners alike. Join us for a morning of lively discussion and learning opportunities!

Diane Dallos is a Penn State Extension Master Gardener of Butler County.

Diane Dallos