As we gardeners tiptoe into a new year, let's take a little time to look back at highlights offered during 2012 at our big three horticultural venues: Memphis Botanic Garden, Dixon Gallery and Gardens and Lichterman Nature Center.
And because we can't seem to stop from doing it, we'll also peek into the future at those venues.
Memphis Botanic Garden
Native plants, water features and other attractions brought birds, bees and camera-carrying creatures to the new Nature Photography Garden that opened last September at the Memphis Botanic Garden.
In 2013, visitors will be able to enroll in several classes in photography to learn how best to capture the sights in the new garden or any place in nature they choose.
The Delta Heritage Garden near the Stokes Butterfly Garden opened last summer, giving city slickers and others a close-up look at cotton, peanuts, soybeans, sorghum and other crops typically found on farms in this area.
"It provides an educational experience for those who didn't grow up around agriculture," said Jim Duncan, executive director of the Botanic Garden.
The wonders of the new herb garden, opened in 2011, were celebrated with an herb symposium featuring experts in growing and using culinary and medicinal herbs.
"We're going to continue with even more educational programs involving our world-class herb garden," Duncan said. "We'll also keep offering programming for schoolchildren."
Last year, 44,000 children from 192 schools visited the garden for special events.
As part of its mission as a Center of Excellence for Urban Forestry, the Botanic Garden will offer more programming on trees and also continue its work with Memphis Park Services to gain recognition as a "Tree City USA."
Digital signs installed a few weeks ago at Southern and Cherry and Park and Cherry will alert motorists to events and attractions at the garden.
Duncan and his staff are also involved in a capital campaign to eventually raise $5.8 million to build a permanent stage and complementary facilities for the popular "Live at the Garden" concert series.
Dixon Gallery and Gardens
Last year, Dixon Gallery and Gardens established itself as a place for horticultural exhibits by hosting special shows and competitions featuring roses, daffodils and bonsai.
As it has for the last 36 years, the Memphis Garden Club held its biennial Memphis Flower Show, a floral design and horticultural extravaganza, last April at the Dixon.
For the first time, members of garden clubs affiliated with the Tennessee Federation of Garden Clubs held a districtwide flower show at the Dixon last fall. "Horticulture exhibits and flower shows are a way to educate and bring people into the garden for unique experiences," said Dale Skaggs, director of horticulture at the Dixon. "It's logical for us to do them because we are a museum and we're set up to put on exhibits."
A show sanctioned by the American Daffodil Society will be held in March, and a regional conference focusing on conifers convenes in October.
"We want people to know about some of the overlooked conifers that do very well in our climate, such as the oriental spruce and Alaskan weeping cedar," Skaggs said.
The Dixon continues to build its collection of daffodils, so look for an impressive display throughout March and into April.
The edible ornamental border planted in the cutting garden last spring surprised Skaggs and the staff with its abundant production of produce and long-lasting visual pleasure.
"We still have greens and lettuces that look fantastic right now," he said.
The edibles will be replaced with lilies of many types, sizes and colors.
"There are some fantastic lilies out there, including some that are shade lovers," Skaggs said. "We will be researching to see which ones do well here."
Lilies are useful because they reach their peak just as the spring fanfare wanes and before summer plants have started to bloom.
The dramatic flowers are also great in the flower arrangements used inside the Dixon gallery.
"Everyone can relate to the beauty of lilies," Skaggs said. "And we love them because they cut so well."
Lichterman Nature Center
Lichterman Nature Center's first seed exchange last January was a great success, bringing together gardeners who freely shared the possibilities of new and wonderful plants in tiny packets of seeds.
"It was exciting to have a lot of people come to Lichterman for the first time," said Suzy Askew, plant activities coordinator at the Nature Center. "There was a lot of good swapping, and many people left their excess seeds with us."
The free swap takes place this year from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 26. Volunteers will be on hand to share tips for propagating seeds.
"This year, we're going to be selling some houseplants we've grown here too, and also sell seeds for rare and unusual heirloom plants," she said. "If you don't have any seeds to swap, come anyway, and we'll give you some."
Greenhouse volunteers have been growing plants for the April 12-13 annual native plant sale.
"We'll have a lot more shrubs and shade plants," Askew said. Among them are several kinds of chokeberries, deciduous hollies, oakleaf hydrangeas, sourwood and fringetree.
Thanks to gifts from the now-defunct Dove Creek Nursery, the sale will include lots of native grasses including four different kinds of muhlenbergias, also known as muhly grass.
And salvias will be in abundance as usual.
Fall is colorful at the nature center. Not only do the leaves of the trees turn yellow, orange and red, but manmade scarecrows also line the main walkway.
Individuals as well as groups from schools, Scout troops, garden clubs and others surprise visitors with their creative 'crows.
The exhibit opens right after Labor Day and runs until November.
Gardens by Design
Whether you are building an entirely new garden or renovating an existing one, mastering the use of basic design principles can ease many of the decisions you will have to meet. Here are two opportunities to learn about them:
Garden designer Tom Pellett will delve into "small garden design" in a four-session course from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursdays beginning next week at the Memphis Botanic Garden.
Students will receive instructions on design principles and plant selection from Pellett, who is highly regarded for creating residential gardens with four-season interest.
An optional field trip led by Pellett will be offered in the spring. Cost: $100; $75 for Botanic Garden members. Prepayment is due by Monday. Call 901-636-4128 to register.
Dale Skaggs, director of horticulture at Dixon Gallery and Gardens, will also help gardeners transform their landscapes in a two-session course from 10 a.m. to noon Jan. 19 and 26 at the Dixon.
Cost: $50; $40 for Dixon members. Registration is required. Call 901-761-5250.