For Immediate Release: June 18, 2015
August 5 Garden Tour Planned
Have you been busy all spring and summer planning, planting and WEEDING your gardens? Do you enjoy beautiful gardens and need a get-a-way from your daily summer routine? Our "Awesome August Adventure" one-day garden tour can be that perfect escape to sit back and enjoy the ride and sites as we travel north to beautiful gardens and a nursery.
The University of Illinois Extension McLean County Master Gardeners invite you and your family and friends to join us Wednesday, August 5 as we travel just over the Illinois state border into Wisconsin to visit the Rotary Botanical Gardens in Janesville, Wisconsin. Mark Dwyer, Horticulture Director will give us a guided tour of the beautiful 20-acre ornamental botanic gardens, featuring 24 distinctive gardens with an international theme featuring Japanese, Scottish, French, Italian and English Cottage gardens. Other areas are dedicated to ferns and mosses, shade plants, prairie grasses and woodlands. The garden also features extensive collections of perennials, trees, shrubs and changing seasonal displays. A deluxe box lunch and free time will be enjoyed at the gardens. (www.rotarybotanicalgardens.org)
After lunch, we will travel south to Rockford, Illinois to the Anderson Japanese Gardens. We will journey through the 13th century "pond strolling" garden with several waterfalls and ponds, streams, rock formations, winding paths, and a suklya style tea house and guest house. The "Garden of Reflection" is a contemporary Japanese inspired garden, with bronze angel sculptures by Carl Miles. Plantings include Japanese Maples, cloud pines, azaleas, magnolias, and rhododendrons. (www.andersongardens.org)
Having seen so many new and beautiful plants and ideas, our next stop will be a visit to Pepper Creek Florist and Garden Center. Here you will have access to the finest garden center and nursery with a vast array of exotic plants. (www.facebook.com/peppercreekgreenhouse)
Before our arrival back to the Bloomington/Normal area, we will stop at Mona's Italian Restaurant in Toluca, Illinois for a family style chicken dinner.
Join us on our "Awesome August Adventure" garden tour August 5, 2015! The cost is $110 per person which includes transportation, continental breakfast, admissions and tour fees, box lunch, dinner and all gratuities. To learn more about the tour and/or to register please go to: web.extension.Illinois.edu/lmw/register/ or call the University of Illinois Extension-McLean County office at (309) 663-8306.
Contact: Kelly Allsup, Extension unit educator, Horticulture-Livingston, McLean and Woodford Unit
(309) 663-8306, kallsup@illinois.edu