DECATUR— Horticulture has been a reoccurring theme in Maria Christian’s life. From working as a child in her father’s open air market in Pana to traveling to the Chelsey Flower Show in England, Maria has always had a love of vegetables and flowers. This year Maria celebrates her 30th anniversary as a Macon County Master Gardener. She decided to join Master Gardeners after being a member of Home Extension and a 4-H leader for 10 years. “The Master Gardener class was small. We were the second class in Macon County and there were nine of us in the class. We all had different interests, but we also had some shared interests and wanted to learn more,” Maria remembered. “The mayor was in our class and he had an apple orchard that we visited.”

The Master Gardener program was started in Illinois in 1975, under the direction of Floyd Giles, former Extension Horticultural Specialist and State Master Gardener coordinator. The first program was conducted in Will County, followed by other counties in the Chicago area. Today, the program reaches nearly all Illinois counties and includes volunteers from farms, small towns, suburbs and cities.

Throughout her 30 years, Maria has served on the Master Garden Advisory Board and has helped with many projects. “I’m a life-long learner,” Maria admitted when asked why she has remained involved with Master Gardeners. Maria especially enjoyed the outreach opportunities because “no matter where you live you can garden and have flowers,” she said.

Working with 4-H clubs was also near and dear to her heart. Her 5 children were 4-H members and once they were grown, Maria wanted to continue to be involved. She worked with 4-H members at the Macon County Fairgrounds to teach them how to grow vegetables and flowers. “They’d plant but as far as watering, feeding, and weeding, they weren’t to hip on that,” Maria laughed.

When Maria isn’t participating in Master Gardener programs, she enjoys carving flowers out of vegetables for special occasions and tending to her 17 perennial beds on her land. Her favorites-hydrangeas, hostas and coleus can be seen all around her property.
The mission of the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener program is "Helping Others Learn to Grow." Master Gardeners involve people in improving the quality of life by helping them find sound management practices for home and urban natural resources, by creating aesthetically pleasing environments, by promoting well-being through people-plant interactions and horticultural therapy, and by contributing to a safe, abundant food supply through home fruit and vegetable production.

“2019 marks the 44th anniversary of the Illinois Master Gardener Program and Maria’s 30 years as a Master Gardener volunteer are quite the achievement! Maria has done wonderful things for her community in her 30 years volunteering and we greatly appreciate the horticulture knowledge she has shared by helping others learn to grow,” stated Candice Hart, State Master Gardener Specialist.

Contact

Vasthi Schwarz
Program Coordinator, Master Gardeners
Macon Extension Office
3351 N. President Howard Brown Blvd., Decatur, IL 62521
(217) 877-6042
Vasthis@illinois.edu