2016 Master Gardener Hutchinson Garden Tour

You are invited to Reno County Extension Master Gardener’s eighth annual Hutchinson Garden Tour on Saturday, June 11 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Spend a relaxing day enjoying some of Hutchinson’s most beautiful and inspiring gardens and landscapes.

Enjoy the flowering gardens and lush landscapes of five private gardens plus the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden on the Hutchinson Community College Campus. You’ll be inspired by gardens that showcase a variety of trees, shrubs and flowers, creative landscapes and relaxing outdoor living spaces. Highlights of this year’s tour include an elegant shaded garden with a variety of towering trees, a dry creek bed with an arching bridge, a gnome garden, and drifts of beautiful flowers accented with family heirlooms; and a cottage garden designed for outdoor living, featuring a new butterfly garden, bubbling fountains, colorful window boxes, and a recently built pergola and sunny deck with color-splashed container gardens. You’ll visit two very different gardens in the sandhills: a tropical inspired patio and flower gardens with separate spring and fall vegetable garden areas; and a sandhills gardener’s paradise with beautiful stone-edged garden beds, ornamental grasses, hydrangeas, groundcovers, Japanese maples and shade trees within a vine-covered fenced back yard. For those who like the unusual and tropical plant world, you’ll be fascinated by the endless collection of succulents, tropical fruit trees and palms, orchids, plumaria, unusual hanging baskets and exotic horticulture oddities.

New this spring at the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden on the Community College Campus is a berm planting bordered by a dry creek bed and small boulders, planted in a natural landscape of native flowers, sedums and ground covers, small shrubs and grasses.

All of the educational talks will be presented at the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden on the HCC campus, with parking available in the 14^th street parking lot. The educational talks will be from 10:00 to 11:30. Scott Vogt, Executive Director of Dyck Arboretum will speak on Attracting Beneficial Insects; Certified Arborist Bob Hunter will talk about Pruning Trees and Shrubs, and Matthew McKernan, Sedgwick County Ornamental Horticulture Agent, will speak on Shade Gardening. Informational materials will be available at the demonstration garden.

Your ticket will include a map of the garden locations and the schedule of the educational talks at the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden. Reno County Extension Master Gardeners will be your tour guides at each of the six gardens, and available to answer gardening questions. See www.hutchgardentour.com for preview photos of the Garden Tour.

Advance tickets may be purchased prior to the day of the tour for $8.00 at the Reno County Extension Office at 2 W. 10^th, South Hutchinson; Dillon Nature Center, 3002 E. 30^th; Stutzman’s Greenhouse in Pleasantview and on Apple Lane, Bornholdt’s Plantland at 1508 West 4^th, Benton’s Greenhouse at 209 South Valley Pride Road, and at all Dillons stores in Hutchinson.

Tickets may be purchased on line with a credit card at www.reno.ksu.edu; click on Horticulture and Outdoors, then Master Gardeners for ticket ordering form. Or you may call Reno Country Extension (620-662-2371) to order tickets. Tickets will also be available at each of the gardens the day of the tour for $10.00. Children 12 and younger are free.

Garden Tour proceeds support Master Gardener community education programs and the Master Gardener Demonstration Garden at Hutchinson Community College and the garden at Reno County Extension. Funds also support youth programs, including the Youth Lawnmower Safety Clinic, Junior Master Gardeners, and 4-H.

Gardens on the tour include:

Bountiful Country Harvest, Mott Garden at 604 East 71^st

Elegance in the Shade, Gordon Garden at 102 Road Runner

Plant Collector’s Dream, Barnes Garden at 706 West 20th

Designed for Outdoor Living, McKay Garden at 1829 North Monroe

Gardener’s Paradise in the Sandhills, Hanzlicek Garden at 4200 Brigadune

Pathways to Discovery, Master Gardener Demonstration Garden on HCC Campus