VAN WERT BLOOMS with P. Allen Smith & Friends

SATURDAY . APRIL 16, 8 AM - 4 PM

DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND, Orchestra and Mezzanine seating is sold out. BUT YOU CAN STILL GET THE SCOOP WITHOUT THE OTHER STUFF.

Balcony Only Tickets are available at $30

The Balcony tickets include all Speaking Presentations, Book Signings and Presenter Meet & Greet. (Balcony Tickets exclude breakfast, lunch, swag bag and door prizes).

CEU's can be earned by all ticket holders regardless of seating.

A Restaurant Guide is provided for all Balcony Ticketed Patrons who will be going off-site during the 1 hour lunch break. These restaurants are prepared to provide a expedited quality experience. 

Click Here To Find Your Restaurant Of Choice - Reservations Ensure A Peace Filled Day

Come prepared for the Blooms Marketplace where attendees can purchase choice Plants, Books, Garden Totes and purchase a raffle ticket for some baskets nicely tailored to a gardening enthusiast. 

Please come prepared with a checkbook or cash. Credit Cards will not be accepted at the VW Blooms Marketplace.

Celebrity Garden Designer, P. Allen Smith, will be a keynote speaker during the Van Wert Blooms Gardening Symposium. Garden enthusiasts and friends from surrounding states will be gathering at the Niswonger for a full day of informative speakers, Q&A’s and book signings.  Smith will be the featured speaker of the conference. In his presentation, Smith will share stories and scenes gathered from his wide-ranging travels to world-class gardens while taping programs for his nationally syndicated television shows. He will offer tales about many of the fascinating gardeners he has met along the way - some zany, others serious, but all  passionate about their plants. Smith will offer plenty of bottom-line gardening advice, with a dash of down-home humor and lots of real-life anecdotes. His career as a best selling author, award winning television host and frequent guest on the Today Show have brought him national acclaim, including the prestigious 2006 National Medal of Honor from the Garden Club of America. He will be available after his lecture to sign copies of his Garden Home series of books. Along with P. Allen Smith are noted industry experts who will also share the stage and be available for inquisitive minds. Master Gardeners can earn 6 CEU’s from attending. 

GET TO KNOW THE SPEAKERS:

FEATURED SPEAKER

P. ALLEN SMITH

Paul Allen Smith is a television host, designer, gardening and lifestyle expert. He is the host of two public television programs, P. Allen Smith's Garden Home, and P. Allen Smith's Garden to Table and the syndicated 30-minute show Garden Style. His television show P. Allen Smith's Garden Home has been aired on PBS member stations and insyndication on other networks. Smith is one of America's most recognized garden and design experts, providing ideas and inspiration through multiple media venues.  He is the author of the best-selling Garden Home series of books published by Clarkson Potter/Random House, including Bringing the Garden Indoors: Container, Crafts and Bouquets for Every Room and threcently published cookbook, Seasonal Recipes from the Garden, inspired by the abundance of food from his farm and a family of cooks. In 2014, Smith's television shows took the Taste Awards by storm with Smith returning to Little Rock with four Taste Awards.

Pam Bennett

Pam is the State Master Gardener Volunteer Coordinator for Ohio and Horticulture Educator and Director for Ohio State University Extension in Clark County.  She has a BS in Landscape Horticulture and an MS in Human and Community Resource Development from Ohio State University.  Her responsibilities include providing leadership for the OSUE Master Gardener Volunteer program consisting of more than 4,000 volunteers and conducting consumer and commercial horticulture programs.

Pam specializes in herbaceous ornamental plant trials and evaluates more than 200 varieties of annuals and two genera of ornamental grasses; she presents programs on annuals and perennials as well as other landscape topics locally, statewide, and nationally.  Pam has also lectured in South Korea and China.  She is Chairman of the 

National Extension Master Gardener Committee, a Clark County Park District Commissioner, and is the Past-President of the Friends of the Ohio Governor’s Residence and Heritage Garden.  She also provides leadership to the OSUE MGV International Outreach program.

Pam is the co-author of the newly-published book Garden-pedia, An A-to- Z Guide to Gardening Terms, writes a weekly gardening column for the Springfield News and Sun and the Dayton Daily News, authors the bi-monthly Ask the Expert Column for Ohio Gardening magazine and is a frequent writer for popular gardening magazines as well as trade publications.

Irvin Etienne

Irvin is the Horticultural Display Coordinator at the Indianapolis Museum of Art where he has worked over 20 years. He helps the Horticulturists with plant selection and garden design as well as designing and maintaining his own areas. While working in the 152 acres of the IMA gardens and grounds requires knowledge and skill with all manner of woody and herbaceous plants, Irvin lusts for and loves the tropical species most of all. He is the recipient of both the Gold and Silver awards in Electronic Media Writing from the Garden Writers Association for his blogging at the IMA. He is a graduate of Purdue University with a degree in Public Horticulture. There is an attempt to infuse humor in all aspects of public interactions whether live, electronic, or in print. In his own garden everything from cannas to eggplants to Magnolias coexist in a lush jungle fed by manure from his own rabbits and chickens. Obviously a product of the midwest, Irvin could be considered, well, a simple farm boy that likes shiny sparkly things. And is easily distracted.

Amanda Thomsen

Big, loud and fun - Amanda landscapes by day and blogs at night. She has blogged for almost 10 years. She also was a blogger for Fine Gardening magazine. She writes content for Green Profit and is also featured in a monthly column. In 2010, amanda co-authored Grocery Gardening. She was part of the podcasting team, Good Enough Gardening and now lives in Chicago with her family in a pup tent in the parking lot of the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Barbara Wise

Barbara Wise works for Landscape Service, Inc. (LSI) in Nashville, Tenn., as Director of Floriculture. She oversees the design, installation and maintenance of 350 clients’ annual beds and more than 400 containers for the company, a recognized leader in sustainable landscape management, design, construction and water management practices in the southeast. She also provides educational classes, teaches master gardening courses and works as a gardening consultant. She shares her appreciation for all things gardening on her blog, BWiseGardening. Barbara is also a writer for Tennessee Gardener and has a monthly gardening column, Garden Compositions, in Nashville House, Home, and Garden magazine. With the desire to cultivate a culture of gardening, Barbara’s passion for helping new gardeners succeed led her to publish her first book, Container Gardening for All Seasons, in 2012.

Maria Zampini

Maria’s first memory of working in the family business is putting fertilizer pills in pots at age seven. Maria worked her way up the green corporate ladder and now represents LCN Selections and other new plant varieties, researching and developing the plants and introducing them to the market. Under her guidance UpShoot has expanded its breadth of work to include marketing of garden related products. Additionally, Maria is also a respected author, speaker and consultant.

In 2012 Maria was named Director of Plant Development for the Agricola Management Group, the exclusive licensee of the HGTV HOME Plant collection. Her work includes sourcing genetics for the various plant collections, working with grower and retail partners as well as networking with garden writers.

Maria writes a monthly column in Garden Center Magazine and a regular column for Nursery Management. Her work has appeared in numerous other publications, including American Nurseryman, Nursery News, Country Folks Grower, Fine Gardening and the northern issues of State-by-State Gardening Magazine. She is also a sought-after speaker, lecturing on new plant introductions, sustainability, native plants, plant patents and trademarks and other plant-related topics.

FINANCIAL UNDERWRITERS