Featured events include educational seminars with regional/local experts, hands-on demonstrations, 2,000+ plant sale, all grown by Master Gardeners, gardening photo exhibit, recycling products and information, gardening books and magazines, a mini flea-market with gently used garden items, plus homemade treats in the concession area. A Kid’s Corner on Saturday offers fun children’s activities, a “one-stop shop” gardening marketplace offers numerous vendors furnishing unique plants, artisanal crafts, and garden-linked accessories. Additional garden-related vendors are always welcome. Local food trucks will offer cuisine.

Questions? Call 901-752-1207

Event Activities

Speaker Schedule

Friday, March 24
11 am	Jason Reeves Garden Heroes: Pollinator and Host Edition
1 pm	Lucas Holman Sustainable landscaping practices for pollinators
3 pm	Mary Schmidt Flight of the Monarch (the biology, migration, and how to attract/help monarchs)

Saturday, March 25
11 am	Jill Maybry Planting for Pollinators in the Mid-South
1 pm	David Glover Honey Bees, North America's Most Important Pollinator
3 pm	Felder Rushing Getting Away with Wildflowers without Honking Off the neighbors

Friday, March 24

Jason Reeves

Garden Heroes: Pollinator and Host Edition
Friday 11AM

Horticulturist, West TN AgResearch & Education Center

Summary:
Some plants really work overtime! In addition to enhancing beauty in the garden, they also provide important food and habitat to the critters that reside there. This talk focuses on dependable new and older, but underutilized, good garden performers for attracting bees, butterflies, and other pollinators to your domain. Since you can’t have butterflies without caterpillars, Jason will also highlight plants needed to support the full lifecycle of these winged beauties. The talk includes natives along with non-natives such as Vitex Delta Blues®, Cuphea Vermillionaire®, Cassia alata (Candlestick Plant), Asclepias physocarpa (Swan Butterfly Weed), ‘Antares’ fennel, parsley, and Zinnia ‘Zowie Yellow Flame’ that are sure to bring the pollinators into your garden.

Biography:
Jason grew up on a farm in west Tennessee, where he fell in love with the plant world. He received his Master’s degree in Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Design from the University of Tennessee and is research horticulturist and curator of the University of Tennessee Gardens located in Jackson, Tennessee. Jason’s colorful plant combinations and unique garden art, made by recycling everyday objects, draws several thousand people each year to the Center's annual lawn and garden show, Summer Celebration. His past experiences include work at the Opryland Conservatories, Missouri Botanical Garden, Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, and in private gardens in New Zealand. When he’s not bringing the grounds to life with his imaginative garden displays, he’s evaluating hundreds of new and unique plants for the state’s green industry; speaking at gardening symposiums or traveling the world leading gardening tours, and serving as a contributing editor to Fine Gardening magazine. He is also a landscape designer and consultant whose influence may be seen in landscapes in the form of distinct plant combinations and his signature garden art.

Lucas Holman

Sustainable Landscaping Practices for Pollinators
Friday 1PM

UT Extension Horticulture Agent, Wilson County

Biography:
Lucas Holman grew up working in his aunt and uncles wholesale greenhouse in Rockwood, TN. They mainly produce plugs and finished plants for independent garden centers. He then went to Tennessee Tech and majored in Agriculture with a concentration in Horticulture. While going to school at Tennessee Tech, he worked for Burgess Falls Nursery and learned the art of daylily hybridizing from Phil Steidl. For almost 10 years he taught high school agriculture, mainly horticulture classes in Murfreesboro, TN. Currently he is the horticulture extension agent and county director at the UT/TSU Extension office in Wilson County. His wife and he own a farm – Holman Farms, where they focus on Dorset sheep. He is an avid plant collector and a hobby daylily hybridizer trying to develop unique daylilies that would appeal to landscapers.

Mary Schmidt

Flight of the Monarch
Friday 3PM

Backyard Wildlife Center Curator Lichterman Nature Center

Summary:
The biology, migration, and how to attract/help monarchs

Biography:
Mary Schmidt has been engaging people with nature since she was a child, leading her siblings on hikes through the forests and creek surrounding their childhood home outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her passion for nature and exploration lead her to work across the country including Kansas, Hawai’i, Maryland, and Kentucky before finally settling in Tennessee. She has a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Biodiversity and has been interpreting and caring for native plants and animals for over 15 years. She has worked for city, county and state governments as well as non-profit organizations focused on connecting people with nature. She has been the Backyard Wildlife Center Curator at Lichterman Nature Center since 2013. In her free time she enjoys, birding, gardening and spending time outdoors with her husband and daughter.

Saturday, March 24

Jill Maybry

Planting for Pollinators in the Mid-South
Saturday 11AM

Curator of the Pollinator and Delta Gardens at the Memphis Botanic Garden

Summary:
This talk gives an overview of how to garden at home for the benefit of pollinators. We'll talk about who the major pollinators are (there are a lot more than just bees and butterflies!), why they are important to us humans, and what plants you can grow in your own yard to help keep them thriving. We'll cover specific plant suggestions to ensure you can have something in your garden blooming and producing pollen and nectar all throughout the year. We'll also go over some of the major plant families that pollinators enjoy, to help you identify the best pollinator-friendly plants when you're out plant-shopping.

Bio:
Jill was born and raised in midtown Memphis, TN. She fondly remembers many childhood hours spent outdoors among the garden plants and the native wildlife in her backyard, and while camping throughout the Mid-South. She earned a B.S. in Biology from Samford University in Birmingham, AL, then worked in Raleigh, NC in the nursery industry, before returning to Memphis to work as a horticulturist at the Memphis Zoo. She is now the Curator of the Pollinator and Delta Gardens at the Memphis Botanic Garden. Jill has spent the past 20+ years designing and maintaining public gardens for the enjoyment of Memphis locals and visitors. She loves creating beautiful spaces for others to enjoy, and delights in sharing her love of plants and creatures with others. She has been a regular speaker for area garden clubs, a teacher for the National Garden Club's Gardening Schools and Landscape Design Schools, and a frequent writer of articles for MBG publications.

David Glover

Honey Bees, North America's Most Important Pollinator
Saturday 1PM

The Bartlett Bee Whisperer

Biography:
David L. Glover, MBA, and University of Tennessee Master Beekeeper, grew up farming in rural Tennessee with 2-6 brothers and maybe a sister (depending on who’s counting). He is a decorated Desert Storm veteran and has worked as a Biomedical Field Service Engineer, specializing in anesthesia, neonatal critical care, and patient monitoring. He is a member of the Memphis Area Beekeepers Association (past officer and Board Member). He is on the Board of Directors for Bee901 and ARKFarms. He is a Director and Life Member of the Tennessee Beekeepers Association, a member of Mensa, and is a state certified hive inspector. He is bilingual (Spanish) and has a smattering of other languages locked in a steel trap from his days in the military. He is a published author with articles in the American Bee Journal, Taiwan Times, and Yahoo Lifestyle (Australia). Articles written by him have been translated into Spanish, Mandarin, and Arabic. Since becoming a beekeeper in 2009, he has removed and relocated over 2,000 honeybee colonies and the occasional bumble bee nest. He and his wife have two children and have recently added the term Grandparents to their titles. They live with two rescued dogs, Honey and Bear, in Bartlett, Tennessee. He can be found and messaged on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube as the Bartlett Bee Whisperer.

Felder Rushing

Topic TBD
Saturday 3PM

Biography:
Felder Rushing is an 11th- generation Southern gardener who travels worldwide in his quest for practical and inspirational home-gardening ideas to share. Widely promoting his belief that too many garden-variety gardeners are put off by strict horticultural rules (“We are daunted, not dumb” he says), Felder’s encouraging approach to teaching gardening earned him a celebration by Southern Living Magazine’s as one of “25 people most likely to change the South.” (Didn’t say how)

The retired colors-outside-the-lines Extension Horticulturist, who started the Master Gardener program in his state, continues to write his state-wide syndicated newspaper columns of 43 years and counting, and for 21 years remains the host the weekly live Gestalt Gardener program, one National Public Radio‘s most popular gardening programs, broadcast from his travels around the country and world.

He has written or contributed substantially to 33 gardening books, including national award winners such as Passalong Plants, Slow Gardening, Better Homes and Garden’s children’s gardening book, and Maverick Gardeners. He was HGTV’s original online Q&A person, and has been featured in three full-length articles about his exploits and philosophy in the New York Times.

The contributing editor at Fine Gardening, Horticulture, and Garden Design magazines has had his articles and photographs published in dozens of other publications including Organic Gardening, Landscape Architecture, Better Homes and Gardens, and the National Geographic; his garden has been featured in many.

Felder served as a distinctly non-stuffy board member of the American Horticulture Society, member of the Royal Horticulture Society, British Cottage Garden Society, national director of the Garden Writers’ Association, and president of several garden organizations including the Mississippi Native Plant Society and the Jackson Men’s Garden Club. He is a proud honorary member of the Garden Clubs of Mississippi.

For the past 14 years he has spent six months a year traveling, lecturing, and reporting from both his celebrated Mississippi cottage garden and a Victorian terrace herb and succulent garden in Lancashire, England.

Speaker Schedule

Friday, March 24
11 am	Jason Reeves Garden Heroes: Pollinator and Host Edition
1 pm	Lucas Holman Sustainable landscaping practices for pollinators
3 pm	Mary Schmidt Flight of the Monarch (the biology, migration, and how to attract/help monarchs)

Saturday, March 25
11 am	Jill Maybry Planting for Pollinators in the Mid-South
1 pm	David Glover Honey Bees, North America's Most Important Pollinator
3 pm	Felder Rushing Getting Away with Wildflowers without Honking Off the neighbors

2023 Spring Fling T-Shirt

Available in:
$20 | Small, Medium, Large and XL
$22 | 2XL and 3XL

Adult unisex, short sleeve, round neck Spring Fling t-shirt in light blue.

Choose ground shipping or local pick-up.

Live Auction

TBD

In-person auction of plants, gifts and more.

Online Plant Sale

March 12–17, 2023

Shop online for beautiful plants.

In-person Garden Show & Plant Sale

March 24-25, 2023

Educational seminars, hands-on demos, 2,000+ plant sale, gardening photo exhibit, recycling products & info, gardening items, plus homemade treats in the concession area and a Kid’s Corner.

Event Location

Farmers Market Red Barn at the Agricenter

7777 Walnut Grove Road
Memphis, TN 38120

About Spring Fling

Each year the Memphis Area Master Gardeners host a Spring Fling plant sale and garden show in late March or early April.

Join the Memphis Area Master Gardeners as we kick off the 2023 gardening season.

We have approximately 3,000 plants to sell along with new and gently used garden items and gift certificates from several local businesses.

Shop for a Cause

Proceeds from Spring Fling are used to fund scholarships and educational community programs throughout the Mid-South.

Many Great Items for Sale

We will have perennials, shrubs, roses, annuals, houseplants, succulents, tropicals, hanging baskets, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs plus new and used garden related items.

Live In-person Auction

Sunday, March 27
David Lusk Art Gallery
97 Tillman St, Memphis

You may view items starting at 1pm. The auction will begin at 2pm

The auction will be an artful mix of plants from local nurseries and from the Master Gardener’s very own greenhouse, as well as other items of interest! More details will be available on the Master Gardener website in in early March

Greenhouse Photo Gallery

Amazing 2021 Auction Items

Here were some of the items that were from last year’s sale. Including: perennials, shrubs, roses, annuals, houseplants, succulents, tropicals, hanging baskets, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs plus new and used garden related items.

Plectranthus "Velvet Elvis"
1 Gallon
donated by The Dixon Gallery and Gardens

Peony "Burma Joy"
3 Gallon
donated by The Dixon Gallery and Gardens

Lonicera "Major Wheeler"
1 Gallon
donated by The Dixon Gallery and Gardens

Salsa Verde Coleus with Red Geranium and Variegated Vinca

Tropical Flamingo Flower in a bright blue ceramic planter.

Pink Begonia in a charming planter shaped like a small chair

A metal planter in the shape of a goose or swan with Lemon Ball Sedum, Caucasian stonecrop sedum and Little Missy sedum

Hypertufa planter with October Daphne Sedum

Bread Bowl planter with Little Missy Sedum, Hens and Chicks, Blue Spruce Sedum and Lemon Ball Sedum with a friendly little squirrel.

House Plant Starter Kit. It includes a Rubber Tree, Spider Plant, Devil's Backbone and Pilea. All in an attractive basket and ceramic pot.

A beautiful planter filled with garden goodies. Included are gloves, soft wire tie, kneeling foam cushion, Dramm Hand shears, seed packets and a $100 credit for their Garden Services Division.
donated by Urban Earth

Bread Bowl planter with Blue Spruce Sedum, Frosty Morning Sedum, Hens and Chicks as well as Lemon Ball Sedum with garden Gnome.

HOTLINE 901.752.1207

Spring Fling

Gardening Event and Plant Sale

Thank You for a Successful Event

View the 2023 People's Choice Photo Exhibit Winners

View the 2023 Event Photos

2023 Garden Show and Plant Sale

Event Activities

Schedule of Speakers

Speaker Bios

Jason Reeves

Lucas Holman

Mary Schmidt

Jill Maybry

David Glover

Felder Rushing

Junior Master Gardener Tent

Schedule of Demos

“Ask a Master Gardener”

Recycle Right

Speaker Schedule

2023 Spring Fling T-Shirt

Live Auction

TBD

Online Plant Sale

March 12–17, 2023

In-person Garden Show & Plant Sale

March 24-25, 2023

Event Location

About Spring Fling

Shop for a Cause

Many Great Items for Sale

Live In-person Auction

Greenhouse Photo Gallery

Amazing 2021 Auction Items

Additional Resources

A Spring Presentation Open to the Public

Master Gardeners Present

Visit gardens created by Master Gardeners

Through Our Garden Gates

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