URBANA, Ill. — With a bit of creativity and planning, winter activities can still include nature. Stay indoors and out of the cold with new webinars from University of Illinois Extension’s Four Seasons Gardening series.
The series returns in 2026, beginning Feb. 10, with two new sessions offering ways to use creativity with nature-inspired art made from fresh willow branches and helpful tips for spring pruning of young shade trees.
Extension horticulture experts will present tips, how-to’s, and answer questions about each monthly topic. The series focuses on home gardening, environmental stewardship, and backyard food production. Sessions are free and presented live online beginning at 1:30 p.m. on select Tuesdays. Registration is required.
Winter Webinar Session Schedule
Creating Simply Lovely Nature Art | Feb. 10
Willow be my valentine? Create a nature-inspired living heart craft with freshly cut willow branches. Learn how to add a touch of rustic romance to bouquets that showcase flowers in the sweetest way possible.
Pruning Young Shade Trees | March 3
Young shade trees face a variety of challenges in the landscape, resulting in surprisingly low survival rates for many of these plants. While planting practices and follow-up care are major factors in the mortality of younger trees, canopy failure from poor branch structure is a bigger risk for trees that make it beyond establishment. Proper pruning early in a tree’s life can drastically reduce the risk of canopy failure or hazard development from structurally unsound limbs later in life. Learn more about the issues young trees face and how early pruning can set them up for a lifetime of healthy canopy structure.
Extension educators Chris Lueking and Ryan Pankau will lead the winter series sessions. To find more information and to sign up for each session, visit go.illinois.edu/FourSeasons. Can’t make a session? Every program is recorded and available on the Illinois Extension Horticulture YouTube channel. Videos are available about two weeks after the live program.
If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate, please contact the series coordinators, Gemini Bhalsod at gbhalsod@illinois.edu, Andrew Holsinger at aholsing@illinois.edu, and Nancy Kreith at kreith@illinois.edu. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time for meeting access needs.
SOURCES: Gemini Bhalsod, Nancy Kreith, and Andrew Holsinger, horticulture educators, Illinois Extension
WRITER: Jenna Braasch, media communications coordinator, Illinois Extension
University of Illinois Extension develops educational programs, extends knowledge, and builds partnerships to support people, communities, and their environments as part of the state's land-grant institution. Extension serves as the leading public outreach effort for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences in all 102 Illinois counties through a network of 27 multi-county units and over 700 staff statewide. Extension’s mission is responsive to eight strategic priorities — community, economy, environment, food and agriculture, health, partnerships, technology and discovery, and workforce excellence — that are served through five program areas — 4-H youth development, agriculture and agribusiness, community and economic development, health and community wellness, and natural resources, environment, and energy.