Mobile is preparing to welcome hundreds of gardening enthusiasts from across Alabama next spring, as the Alabama Master Gardener Association selects the Port City to host its 2020 state conference. The three-day event, themed “Gardening with 2020 Vision,” is set for March 30 through April 1 at the Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel downtown, with organizers hoping to show visiting gardeners that Coastal Alabama offers far more than beaches and Mardi Gras beads.
Members of the Mobile County Master Gardeners have spent roughly two years planning the conference, working alongside Visit Mobile and Mobile County tourism officials to build a program that highlights the region’s horticultural heritage. Registration is $155 and includes a welcome reception along with lunch and dinner during the conference. Organizers are also seeking local sponsors and businesses willing to donate garden-related merchandise for a silent auction that will help fund the event.
The conference agenda covers an unusually wide range of topics, from fungi and lichens to flowering vines, container gardening and native plants suited to the Gulf Coast’s growing seasons. Sessions will also touch on recycling in the garden and staying active in gardening later in life, reflecting the broad membership of the state’s Master Gardener program.
Jim Martin, director of the Charleston, South Carolina, Parks Conservancy, will deliver the conference’s keynote address, “Gardening Future Forward,” focused on where horticulture and public green space are headed in the years ahead. Professional storyteller Dolores Hydock will follow with “Two Gardening Tales: Becoming Mrs. Nash and Western Civilization,” blending humor with real-life experience to explore how gardens shape the people who tend them.
New this year, the conference’s final morning will feature a film festival open to attendees. “Flight of the Butterflies” will trace the life cycle and long migration of the monarch butterfly, while local environmental journalist Ben Raines will screen “The Underwater Forest,” a documentary tied to his discovery of the Clotilda, the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to the United States.
Organizers are encouraging Master Gardeners traveling from across the state to arrive early and take in the Festival of Flowers, scheduled for March 27-29, ahead of the main conference. Early arrivals will also have a chance to tour some of Mobile’s best-known gardens, including Mobile Botanical Gardens, Bellingrath Gardens and Home, and the Charles Wood Japanese Garden downtown.
The Alabama Master Gardener Volunteer Program, run through the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, trains volunteers to bring research-based horticultural knowledge to their home communities. The program counted more than 2,000 active Master Gardeners statewide last year, who together logged close to 200,000 volunteer hours helping home gardeners troubleshoot problems and improve their yards and gardens.
Ahead of the conference, Mobile County Master Gardeners are hosting a full slate of local events open to the public. A two-night “Landscape 101: How to Have a Beautiful Yard” course, taught by Extension Agent Jack LeCroy, will meet Aug. 29 and 30 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Jon Archer Agricultural Center on Schillinger Road North; the course costs $10 and requires registration by phone. The group’s regular monthly meeting is set for Sept. 5 from 10 to 11:45 a.m. at the same location, featuring a free program from Penny Smith on plant propagation and white powdery mildew.
Also on Sept. 5, from 6 to 7 p.m., the Marx Library at the University of South Alabama will host Sehoy Thrower of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians for a free talk on the traditional uses of native plants, co-sponsored by USA’s Native American Studies program, the Mobile Medical Museum and Mobile Master Gardeners. On Sept. 14, Dr. Stephen Bridge, executive director of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem, will speak at Cornerstone Gardens on Government Street from 10 a.m. to noon; the event is free, family-friendly and includes on-site parking.
Businesses and residents interested in sponsoring the state conference or donating items for the silent auction can reach organizers at AMGA2020Mobile@gmail.com. Home gardeners with questions can also call the Master Gardener Helpline at 877-252-4769 or email coastalalabamagardening@gmail.com.