GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Has your green thumb reached the master level? The University of Florida’s 34th Florida Master Gardener Conference for continued training is scheduled for Oct. 18-21 at Kissimmee’s Embassy Suites at Lake Buena Vista South. Organizers are encouraging all active Florida Master Gardeners to sign up for early registration.

Mallory Lykes Dimmitt, Florida Wildlife Corridor executive director is currently scheduled to give the keynote address, while the closing presenter will be noted and respected nature photographer John Moran.

“Whether the 2015 conference will be your first, fifth, or fifteenth conference, I can assure you it will be a great learning event with something for all of Florida’s Master Gardeners,” said Wendy Wilber, the State Master Gardener Coordinator with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. “There will be 24 concurrent sessions to choose from in multiple educational tracks, including horticulture and garden, soils and diagnostics, invasives and wildlife, and Florida-Friendly landscaping, to name a few.”

Conference lectures include everything from “What’s in Your Yard?: Managing Invasive Wildlife in Your Florida-Friendly Landscape” to “Favorite Funky Flowers.”

And while you might not think of lakes as part of Florida’s gardens, they are an integral part of the state’s ecosystem, with a talk scheduled from Florida LAKEWATCH, too.

Early arrivals can take a tour on Sunday, Oct. 17, of horticulture sites in the Central Florida area: Leu Gardens and Orange County Extension Office Gardens or Disney’s Topiaries and Hanging Baskets and Gaylord Palms Interiorscape.

Conference organizers are also looking for sponsors. For more information and to register, go to: http://conference.ifas.ufl.edu/gardener/index.html

By Kimberly Moore Wilmoth, 352-294-3302, k.moore.wilmoth@ufl.edu

Source: Wendy Wilber, 352-273-4521, wilbewl@ufl.edu

Photo Caption: Master Gardeners teaching and working with youth in a garden. UF/IFAS Photo by Tyler Jones.

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