3/26/01
Get a jump on this year’s planting season when the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History presents the Vandalia Heritage Series: Garden Festival on Saturday, April 7, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Cultural Center, State Capitol Complex in Charleston. This year marks the Division’s fifth day-long celebration of the growing season with workshops, exhibitors and free hands-on activities for the whole family.
The Cultural Center’s plaza deck and Great Hall will provide the venue for gardeners, agricultural experts, herbalists, organic gardeners, landscape designers, lawn and garden suppliers and others to answer your questions, and display and sell their wares. In addition, lunches provided by Two Guys Catering of Summersville will be available for purchase.
Concurrent workshop topics include “Today’s Organic Gardening,” “Lawn Care and Maintenance,” “Down the Garden Path,” “Culinary Herbs: Propagation, Cultivation and Uses,” “Floral Design for Home Use,” “Back to Basics,” “Aromatherapy as a Lifestyle,” and “Operation Wildflower.”
In addition, a special session entitled “Commentary and Basics: A Perennial Primer” will be held from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Lawrence D. Griffith, research associate with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, will lead the workshop. He has designed many of Colonial Williamsburg’s perennial beds such as those at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, the Williamsburg Inn and the president’s house. Griffith will cover basic draftsmanship and computer-aided design, the selection of perennials for three-season color and discuss color, texture and feel in the perennial border. He also will address his experience with perennials in New England stony soils, Virginia’s notorious myriad soils and his instinct as a plantsman.
The Garden Festival was initiated four years ago and has expanded to include special activities for children. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., kids can make wooden flower pins, design colorful, translucent butterflies to use as suncatchers, create tissue paper flowers and paint flower pots and plant flowers in them. These special activities will take place on the stage of the West Virginia State Theater.
Preservation of our mountain culture is a primary goal of the Department of Arts, Culture and History. The Vandalia Heritage Series is a celebration of the spirit of the Vandalia Gathering, providing an intimate, hands-on approach to passing on West Virginia traditions. Since its inception, the series has focused on dance, oral history, music, fishing, quilting, the Irish influence and gardening. The Division worked cooperatively with the West Virginia Department of Agriculture and the WVU Extension Service on this year’s Garden Festival. A complete schedule of events is attached. For more information about the Vandalia Heritage Series: Garden Festival, call (304) 558-0220.
The West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, an agency of the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, brings together the state’s past, present and future through programs and services in the areas of archives and history, the arts, historic preservation and museums. The Cultural Center is West Virginia’s official showcase for the arts. Visit the Division’s website at www.wvculture.org for more information about programs of the Division. The Department of Arts, Culture and History is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.
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