Master Gardeners Association of Alberta

MGAA: Growing Native Wildflowers in Your Urban Garden: A Sustainable Choice By Manna Parseyan
2025-05-29 19:00 - 20:00 (America/Edmonton) | via ZOOM
Growing Native Wildflowers in Your Urban Garden: A Sustainable Choice By Manna Parseyan, Edmonton Native Plant Society and Arnica Wildflowers
on Thursday, May 29 at7:00-8:00pm
Native wildflowers offer rich colours, textures, and seasonal blooms, creating stunning displays year-round. They are low-maintenance, hardy, and adaptable, thriving without fertilizers or pesticides. Resistant to frost, drought, and disease, they support birds, bees, butterflies, and small mammals. Each native garden becomes part of a larger effort to restore habitats. Enrich your life and ecosystem by growing native wildflowers.
Manna Parseyan has a deep love for nature and a passion for the outdoors. A passionate native plant grower and avid birder, Manna holds a B.Sc. in Geology and a Master’s degree in Paleontology. She volunteers with the Edmonton Native Plant Society, delivers talks on local flora and native plant gardening, and plays an active role in the restoration and stewardship of local prairie ecosystems. In 2018, she founded Arnica Wildflowers to help address the lack of native plant sources in the Edmonton area.
Members Free, General Public $15.00
This is a Zoom Presentation.
For Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/growing-native-wildflowers-in-your-urban-garden-a-sustainable-choice-tickets-1363619495619?aff=ebemoffollowpublishemail&ref=eemail&utm_campaign=following_published_event&utm_content=follow_notification&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eventbrite
Ticket holders will have access to the talk’s recording for 1 week.

CRAGS’ 34th Annual Plant Sale: Saturday May 31, 2025
2025-05-31 12:00 - 16:00 | Lakeview Community Association Hall, 6110 – 34th Street SW., Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Countdown to this year’s plant sale!

CRAGS’ 34th Annual Plant Sale: Saturday May 31, 2025
CRAGS’ spring plant sale is always a much-anticipated event for alpine garden enthusiasts. If you would like to be added to our emails with the latest news about our plant sale plans, please send an email to newsletter@crags.ca. If you have questions about the plant sale itself please send an email to plantsale@crags.ca
The Plant Sale will be open outdoors from 12 noon till 4 pm at the Lakeview Community Association grounds, 6110 – 34th St SW, Calgary.
This event will be held outdoors with an option to move indoors in case of inclement weather.
The public is invited to shop from 12 noon till 4 pm. No need to come early as there will be lots of plants to choose from.
Come prepared for a cash-only sale, though some vendors are able to accept other forms of payment. Each vendor will handle his or her own payments, so please bring some small denominations of cash. Please bring your own tray or box as our supply is limited.
We’ll have alpine and rock garden plants for sale, and some other larger perennials. Plants suitable for various environments will be available — rock garden, alpine bed, native plant garden, container, or perennial bed. Most plants are from member growers, and are not available at local garden centres.
In addition to our member growers, some local specialty vendors participate in the sale.

Garden Slippers
Limited Tufa Rock will be also availble for sale

High River Garden Tour
2025-06-28 09:00 | Museum of the Highwood 406 1 St SW, High River
The High River Garden Committee warmly invites you to explore six local flower gardens on Sat. June 28.
As a special treat we are pleased to offer you the option to indulge in a traditional Tea experience. Relax and unwind at a harmonious local as you sip on aromatic teas and savour delectable treats, all while basking in the company of fellow garden enthusiasts.
Tickets are $25. – $50..
For more information and tickets go to:

MGAA Garden Tour: Shirley Cullum's Dahlia and Gladiolus Garden
2025-08-17 13:00 - 16:00
Sunday, August 17th at 1 p.m.
Shirley Cullum has invited the Master Gardeners to tour her incredible garden. Shirley is the president of the Alberta Dahlia and Gladiolus Society which runs the only Dahlia and Gladiolus trial garden in Canada. Shirley has an incredible collection with many other flowers and plants.
This is a members only tour but members may bring a guest.
Please register at vmwgardener@gmail.com
for the map to the garden by Three Hill, AB.

MGAA: Preserving Your Harvest to Boost Your Family's Food Security with Jennifer Burns-Robinson
2025-09-17 19:00 - 20:30 | via ZOOM
Joins us for an engaging talk on safe, reliable ways to preserve your bounty – whether your garden is big or small.
We’ll also dive into the topic of food security and share practical tips to help your family stay resilient in the face of climate change. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn, connect and ge inspired.
Jennifer Burns-Robinson is an experienced educator in Landscape and Organic Gardening, having taught at NAIT and with Gaia College. She previously served as an instructor and administrator in the Stony Plain Organic Master Gardener program. Now retired from administration, Jennifer is planning to write a book and is actively developing her 3.5 acre property into a productive, sustainable food paradise.
To resister and or for tickets, please email: treasurer@mgaab.org
This is an on-line Zoom event.
Talks are recorded and ticket holder have access for 7 days prior to the talk.

MGAA: Willow Weaving with Candice Cullum
2025-10-15 19:00 - 20:30 | via ZOOM
Candice Cullum is a fungi focused wild crafter and wild harvester based in Edgewood BC, and Kneehill County, AB.
“I spend part of the warmer months volunteering as the Red Deer regional coordinator for the Alberta Mycological Society. Having spent the last 10+ years with them leading public forays, I’ve been able to grow my skills immensely through the generous support of this loving wild community. Now with a second home base in Edgewood BC, I’m able to share throughout both the western provinces and have enjoyed traveling to remote fungus festivals and communities throughout BC and Alberta.
With a deep passion for wild fungi I carry a lot of baskets. Which easily lead into my next passion, wild weaving. When the cold weather sets in and I can no longer harvest fungi, I fill my time teaching wild willow weaving from decorative to practical, it’s an art form that allows me to harvest and connect to nature year round.
My mission is to inspire folks no matter their location, age or status in life to go outside and play with nature!”
Free for Master Gardeners members, $15. for General Public.
Sign Up at / or purchase Tickets at: treasurer@mgaab.org
This is a Zoom presentation. The talk is recorded and available to ticket holders for 7 days to review.

MGAA: Structural Pruning - Fruit Tree Pruning and Young Tree Training with Alex McCormick
2026-01-21 19:00 | via ZOOM

Heritage Agricultural Society - Organic Master Gardener Program
2026-01-31 00:00 - 17:00
Heritage Agricultural Society – Organic Master Gardener Program
The Organic Master Gardener program in Stony Plain is Alberta’s first and most extensive organic master gardener program. Under the umbrella of Red Brick Common (formerly the Multicultural Heritage Centre) the program is geared to adult learners of all levels of gardening experience. From those absolutely brand new to the soil, to those who have years of experience in their own yards, or for those who want an addition to a résumé, the OMG program in Stony Plain is an excellent means to enjoyable learning. And this is a certificate program.
The program runs for 9 months, from January to October. Half of the 26 (3 hour) courses are from the Gaia College curriculum (www.gaiacollege.ca) and the other half are locally developed courses created for our north central Alberta soils and growing season. Students receive no tests or exams but are asked to compile a portfolio of work throughout the year.
For a detailed syllabus, go to www.RedBrickCommon.ca/OMG, or send an email to OMG@RedBrickCommon.ca.

CHS: Think Spring!
2026-02-07 10:00 - 17:00 | via ZOOM
Think Spring!
Saturday, February 7, 2026

10:00 am Keynote Speaker Laura Peters, Size Doesn’t Matter: Creative Gardening Ideas for Every Little Nook. Laura is an Albertan who has written over 30 gardening books.
The three afternoon sessions take the topic a bit further:
12:30 pm: Wendy Zak addresses, Food Gardening in Containers—Big Fun in a Small Space;
1:15 pm: Patti Bretin and Phil Pickering are presenting, Waterwise containers – Get the most out of your container plantings with sub-irrigation containers, and
2:30 pm Kath Smyth wraps up the day with Small Gardens, Big Attitude.

Tickets: Society member $7.50, non-member $15.00 (+GST)
Learn more and get ticket on the Society’s website calhort.org/What’s Happening. www.calhort.org

MGAA: Spring Symposium (On-Line)
2026-02-28 08:00 - 17:00 | via ZOOM
2026 MGAA Spring Symposium
Feb. 28th 9-3:30
Speakers:
Wilbert Ronald of Jeffries nurseries: Columnar Trees
Columnar trees are extremely popular accent and screening trees in the flat Canadian prairies. In recent years the Columnar Swedish aspen cultivar was among the most popular of columnar trees but it has lost its position due to disease and introduction of other new trees. A number of newer columnar trees including columnar flowering crabapples, columnar Parkland Pillar birch and other trees are coming to the forefront.
John Acorn, Naturalist: Butterflies in the Garden and Beyond
There are more than 170 species of butterflies in Alberta, and many of these are familiar garden insects. Gardening for butterflies involves the use of both nectar-source flowers to attract the adults, and caterpillar food plants to sustain the larvae. Naturally, most types of pesticides should be avoided. Monarchs are of course the most popular of the Alberta species, but in truth they are almost entirely limited to the southern centres such as Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. And if the garden butterflies are an inspiration to you, you might also enjoy pursuing butterflies farther afield, in environments that are difficult to replicate in a managed garden.
Tony Spencer: Wildscaping
In the post-wild countryside of Mono, Ontario, Tony Spencer is conducting a series of open experiments to combine naturalistic planting design with Blue-Green Infrastructure into a fluid ecological art form.
Working on the local level ,he cultivates his universal concept of Wildscaping. This is about using plant-driven landscape design to create and sustain dynamic garden spaces, filled with beauty and wildlife, to rekindle our relationship to the natural world.
The focus of this talk is how to link home to landscape in a symbiotic loop to build new nature and adapt to the inevitable extremes of the new climate.

General Public $45. — MGAA Members $35. — MGAA Students $25.
For Tickets: eTransfer to: treasurer@mgaab.org
Please include your email address to receive the zoom link. Thank you
This is a zoom presentation.

More Information on our Speakers:
Tony Spencer
Tony Spencer is the Canadian writer, photographer, and planting designer behind The New Perennialist. He is recognized and published internationally in the world of naturalistic garden design. In 2024, Tony won his second top Landscape Design Award of Excellence from the US-based Perennial Plant Association (PPA).
He was also was named PPA Garden Media Promoter of the year along with a 2024 Silver Medal for Social Media from Garden Comm. Day today, Tony is a puckish ringleader for the naturalistic movement with over 100kfollowers on his various social media channels. He travels extensively to gardens and symposiums in his primary role as a communicator, documenter and sharer of ideas for this movement. Tony is currently at work on an upcoming book for Timber Press with a publishing date of summer 2027.
John Acorn
John Acorn teaches in the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta. John has been a lifelong naturalist, and he is best known for his television series Acorn, The Nature Nut, in which he blended a broad knowledge of animals with a flair for music and humour. He is also the author of some twenty books on natural history subjects and dozens of research articles and papers.
From cutting edge science to old-fashioned nature study,
John enjoys and promotes a broad appreciation of the natural world around us. He is the recipient of the University of Alberta’s Distinguished Alumni Award, The Entomological Foundation’s Medal of Honor, National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion, and the Royal Society of Canada’s McNeil Medal for the Public Awareness of Science.
Wilbert Ronald
Jeffries Nurseries Ltd was… “founded by Wilbert and Sharon Ronald in 1982, this family owned wholesale operation has since grown from a small retail garden centre to become one of Manitoba’s largest nurseries. Under our Northern Garden Collection brand, we strive to provide quality plants across Western Canada, Ontario and the northern states of the USA.
As a company we strive to be a leader in plant improvement through research and innovation for Canada and the Northen States area. As a result, over 40 new plants have been introduced to the market. Research has been directed towards overcoming disease problems such as Dutch Elm Disease, Bronze Leaf Disease of aspens, and Black Knot Disease of purple leafed sherries. … We strongly support our own Research and Development programs and those in adjacent provinces and States. We also support the landscape and gardening sector by sponsorship of Communities in Bloom, The Prairie Garden and lending support to numerous allied groups.”

MGAA: 5 Weeks of Peonies in Alberta with Adam Yakabuskie, Parkland Peonies
2026-03-13 18:30 - 19:00 | via ZOOM
5 Weeks of Peonies in Alberta
In this presentation, I’ll take you through the world of peonies as I’ve come to know them — both as a grower and as a gardener who never stops learning. We’ll begin with what a peony is, explore flower forms and classifications, and then look at how it’s possible to achieve a five-week bloom season here in Alberta.
I’ll also touch on foliage value, cut-flower potential, and some of the common pests and diseases we encounter. Along the way, I’ll share what I enjoy most about working with peonies, along with observations from growing them in the field. We’ll finish with time for questions and discussion. Adam Yakabuskie
General Public $15. MGAA Members FREE. Register at treasurer@mgaab.org
Payment to treasurer@mgaab.org treasurer@mgaab.org
Please include your email address for the zoom link.
This is a Zoom presentation
Talk will be available for 7 days after the talk to ticket holders.

MGAA Book Club: Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World, William Alexander
2026-03-15 14:00 - 17:00 | via ZOOM
Join us on Sunday, March 15th, 2-4 p.m. For a Chat on
Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World
Last year we went deep into garden science with Robert Pavlis, Plant Science for Gardeners, this year we delve into the lighter side of gardening with Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World by Williams Alexander.
William takes a humours approach as he weaves garden foibles and plant information into an informative narrative while supplying chuckles along the way., i.e. His misadventures growing tomatoes in The $64 Tomato, a national best seller. Now in his latest book he takes us on a crazy garden adventure following in his tomato obsession to discover all about the #1 fruit in the world.
His latest book is available at Amazon, Thriftbooks and is in Libraries.
About Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World…
“Pity the tomato! Gets no respect. Never has. Lost in the dustbin of history for centuries, accused of being vile and poisonous, subjected to being picked hard-green and gassed, even used as a projectile, the poor tomato has become the avatar for our disaffection with industrial foods — while becoming the most popular vegetable in America (and, in fact, the world). Each summer, tomato festivals crop up across the country; the Heinz ketchup bottle, instantly recognizable, has earned a spot in the Smithsonian; and now the tomato is redefining the very nature of farming, moving from fields into climate-controlled mega-greenhouses the size of New England villages.

Supported by meticulous research and told in a lively, accessible voice, Ten Tomatoes That Changed the World seamlessly weaves travel, history, humor, and a little adventure (and misadventure) to follow the tomato’s trail through history. A fascinating story complete with heroes, con artists, conquistadors, and — no surprise — the Mafia, this book is a mouth-watering, informative, and entertaining guide to the food that has captured our hearts for generations.’
To join/register please email Verne at: vmwgardener@gmail.com
This is a Members Only Event

MGAA: Gardening with Alberta Native Plants with Mathis Natvik
2026-05-06 19:00 | via ZOOM
Gardening with Alberta Native Plants
In this talk Mathis will discuss the design, installation, and long-term management of native plant gardens in Calgary. Southern Alberta ecosystems are full of interesting plants that can be used to create beautiful gardens that support pollinators, birds and other wildlife in your own yard. Topics that Mathis will cover will include: Planning your garden layout and how to create different habitat zones (assessing light conditions, soil preparation, etc.). Plant Selection: Grassland Plants, Badlands Plants, Woodland Plants, Wetland Plants. Planting Design (nice plant combinations that look great).
Attracting Wildlife (creating features for wildlife), Sourcing and establishing plants (local nurseries, plant rescues, propagating your own plants!), Long-term Management (weeding needs, watering approaches, when to cut down old stalks, etc.).

Mathis Natvik is a restoration ecologist with just over 30 years of experience restoring grassland, wetland, and woodland ecosystems. His experience also includes innovative use of native plants in the urban environment including roadside wildflower meadows, green roofs, and rain gardens. Mathis has operated a private consulting firm (Natvik Design Inc) since 2000 and provided services to a variety of clients including municipalities, provincial government, NGOs, and private landowners (see www.roofgarden.ca for examples of his work). He also teaches ecological restoration at the University of Calgary in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape.
General Public: $15.00 — MGAA Members FREE
Register at: Treasurer@mgaab.org
This is a zoom Presentation. Talk will be recorded for ticket holders to access 1 week post-talk.
