Bring Your Best Bud

Do you have a best friend, a best buddy, a best bud? Someone who is loyal and dependable, as well as fun and joyful?  Gardeners often think of the daffodil as our best bud (pun intended). Each year daffodils demonstrate their loyalty and dependability by popping up with little or no effort by the gardener, bringing fun and joy to our post winter surroundings. This year’s North Central Louisiana Master Gardener Spring Seminar will celebrate this special flower in an event entitled Daffodils: Bring Your Best Buds.

The seminar will be held on Saturday, March 4 at Lomax Hall on the Louisiana Tech Campus. Registration is from 8:00-8:30 and  the seminar ends at noon. The entrance fee is $15. The event consists of three components- guest speakers, an informal daffodil show, and a photo contest.

Speakers:

Celia Jones, a tireless promoter of daffodils, carries on the tradition of growing heirloom daffodils on her grandmother Annie Lou Holstun Jones’s farm in Bienville Parish. The farm has been featured on HGTV, in Southern Living, Fine Gardening, and other magazines and newspapers. Celia will share her love of daffodils with us.

Greg Grant is a county agent in Smith County (Tyler), Texas and an award-winning horticulturist, author, and garden speaker. He lives in his grandparent’s dogtrot farmhouse and gardens on his ancestral land in Arcadia, Texas. Greg will teach us about the best daffodils for southern gardens.

Kathie Rowell wrote gardening articles for The Shreveport Times when she was features editor there. Many of the plants in her Shreveport garden come from her grandparents’ garden in Ashland. Every day she writes about gardening on her website, Louisiana Blooms. Kathie will inform us about other bulbs and companion plants to use with our daffodils.

Daffodil Show:

Bring daffodils from your garden for an informal flower show. You don’t have to know the name of your daffodil variety, just bring your beautiful buds. Bring them in a small vase, recycled jar from your kitchen, or just a wet paper towel! The flowers will be arranged into groups that can be enjoyed during the intermission. What a great opportunity to learn more about the wide variety of daffodils from fellow gardeners! Members of the American Daffodil Society will be on hand in case you want to become a member.

Photo Contest:

Bring a picture of your daffodils (or other spring bulbs) and enter them in the photo contest. Photos should be 5x7 or 8x10 in size and matted with a simple white mat. Your name and phone number should be printed on the back of the mat. Prizes will be awarded!

Along with speakers, a flower show, and a photo contest, the morning will also include coffee, refreshments, door prizes, and a raffle! Whew….by noon everyone should be convinced that the daffodil is truly a gardener’s best bud!! But wait! There’s more!! The Master Gardeners planned their seminar to coincide with the Jonquil Jubilee held right next door in Gibsland, Louisiana, so that after a morning of daffodil inspiration, you can drive over and see fields of these beautiful flowers in their natural habitats.

Bring your best bud to the NCLaMG Spring Seminar; your other buds will meet you there!