Our annual Fall Symposium, Naturally Creative, went very well today with an attendance of about 80 folks on a cool but nice day. Above are Jeff Epping (left) from Olbrich Botanical Gardens (Madison, WI) and Joel Karsten from MN (author of Straw Bale Gardening – 2013). Joel started with a wonderful talk regarding the value in creating an outdoor room and went in to significant detail regarding how to establish these garden spaces. Jeff talked about meadow gardens and gravel gardens – both of which have been successfully established at Olbrich. Our last speaker, floral designer and founder of the American School of Flower Design, Mike Gaffney (second photo down) finished off the day in spectacular fashion by making some beautiful arrangements (see below) and explaining some of the techniques involved with creating beautiful, impactful and long-lived arrangements. Below are Janice (left) and Kris Koch with one of the arrangements. Janice helped Mike (as “Vanna White”) and Kris ram another great program which is her last symposium with her finishing up next week. Great day!
