Request a Master Gardener
Talks on horticulture and environmental sustainability
We are educators
Need a speaker? WSU Master Gardeners offer presentations on gardening topics, sharing research-based knowledge. Request an expert for your club or class on vegetable growing, soil health, attracting pollinators, or custom topics meeting your group’s interests.
More Information
Requesting a Speaker: It’s easy!
Preview our list of speakers below. When you find a topic that aligns with your interest, submit a request via the form. If you don’t find a topic that interests you, you can request a custom presentation and we will try to accommodate you.
Our Speakers & List of Topics
- This list is provided as a courtesy. Organizations, please look through the list of topics that would be of interest to your group, then email Jonica at Jonica.Burkett@wsu.edu. Please allow speakers a minimum of 1/2 hour for their presentation.
- Master Gardeners may not accept payment for speaking engagements. They may accept reimbursement for mileage and materials.
- Honorariums may be donated to the Spokane County Master Gardeners and are very much appreciated.
- Our speakers make themselves available to their community for speaking engagements to earn volunteer time in our program. However, please be respectful of their time by ensuring there is an appropriate number of attendees to make our speaker’s presentations a worthwhile effort.
| Topics | Master Gardener Speaker | Presentation Length | Title | Presentation Description |
| Annuals, Perennials & Bulbs | Steve | 45-60 min | “A Walk Thru the Night Garden” | A talk about fragant plants, white flowers, lighting and moon gardening. |
| Annuals, Perennials & Bulbs | Steve | 45-60 min | Are Flowers Necessary? (Perennial Garden) | Are flowers overrated? We will force on the spectacular blooms of perennials. We will learn how to design beds and borders as well as containers considering color, shape, texture and sheen of foliage. |
| Annuals, Perennials & Bulbs | Kurt | 60-90 min | Bulbs | Overview of bulbs, seasons and planting times and methods |
| Annuals, Perennials & Bulbs | Steve | 45-60 min | Chrysanthemums | Growing these requires getting a few things right; they are fussier than other plants. Learn all aspects from planting to blooming. |
| Annuals, Perennials & Bulbs | Steve | 45-60 min | Corsage Making | Hands-on class in corsage making using garden flowers and simple materials. |
| Annuals, Perennials & Bulbs | Steve | 45-60 min | Dahlia Care | All aspects of growing dahlias, from planting in the spring to digging and storing dahlia tubers in the fall. |
| Annuals, Perennials & Bulbs | Steve | 45-60 min | Delphiniums | Learn how to grow the most stately and elegant perennial that is a standard in the English garden. |
| Annuals, Perennials & Bulbs | Steve | 45-60 min | Grow Impressive Gladious Flowers | Gladious are bulb-like corms boasting spectacular spikes of trumpet-shaped flowers in a surprisingly wide range of colors. They always provide a dramatic effect with their rich and cheerful colors and their breathtaking vertical lines. You will learn how easy they are to grow if some rules are followed. Gladiolus flowers deserve a spot in beds and borders, containers or in flower arrangements. |
| Annuals, Perennials & Bulbs | Steve | 45-60 min | Ornamental Grasses | Learn the different types of ornamental grasses, and why they are the best examples of low-maintenance plants in the landscape. |
| Annuals, Perennials & Bulbs | Steve | 45-60 min | Peonies | Learn how to grow herbaceous and tree peonies from selecting tubers, the planting site and depth, general care, dividing and transplanting. |
| Growing Fruit | Steve | 45-60 min | Growing Small Fruits | Do you want to have fresh fruits to eat, but you just cannot keep the plants pest free and pruned correctly? We will discuss planting, feeding, and pruning of small home fruits, including strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. |
| Houseplants | Steve | 45-60 min | African Violets | An easy method of propagation and ways to care for this favorite houseplant. |
| Houseplants | Cathi | 45-60 min | Nurturing Houseplants | Just like everything other living thing, plants have a rhythm. Parenting houseplants is a way to learn a new rhythm, as bloom cycles, light requirements, and growth rates will all be different from the plants you have outdoors. Or, perhaps your only gardening space is indoors and you need to know how to care for the tender plants. You can go from not having a green thumb to grower extraordinaire. You have to put a little effort into the care of your plants, but it is definitely worth it! |
| Houseplants | Steve | 45-60 min | Holiday Flowers | Caring for holiday flowers such as amaryllis, poinsettias and holiday cactus. |
| Houseplants | Cathi | 45-60 min | Houseplant Parenting | Has the one plant you bought on a whim a few years ago grown into an indoor garden with many plants? Do you enjoy taking care of them and watching them grow? Like any hobby that catches our fancy, buying more and more can be expensive. Learn how to maintain the plants you already have, and how to propagate your favorite plants so that you can have more plants without stretching your budget. |
| Growing Fruit Houseplants | Steve | 45-60 min | Houseplants | Seasonal care for many different houseplants, when and how to repot them. |
| Plant Propagation | Steve | 45-60 min | Annuals | Propagating and landscaping with annuals for a summer garden. |
| Plant Propagation | Kurt | 60-90 min | Propagation | Methods of propagating plant materials |
| Plant Propagation | Steve | 45-60 min | How to Divide Perennials | Sooner or later, your perennial plants will need to be divided. You’ll see them dying out in the center. Learn how & when to divide. |
| Plant Propagation | Steve | 45-60 min | Propagation from Hardwood Cuttings | One of the easiest propagation techniques is propagating using hard wood cuttings. |
| Plant Propagation | Steve | 45-60 min | Propagation From Seeds & Cuttings | Easy ways to propagate seeds with or without a greenhouse. Also propagating plants using cuttings. |
| Plant Propagation | Steve | 45-60 min | Saving Seeds | Bringing together the time honored gardening traditions of seed savings with hands-on practice. This workshop offers a unique learning experience in how to identify, harvest, and store seeds. |
| Roses | Steve | 45-60 min | Growing roses in the Inland Northwest | We will cover the types of roses, planting, location, timing, fertilizing, watering and pruning. |
| Roses | Steve | 45-60 min | Roses: How to Winterize | Learn techniques for proper care of roses for our unpredictable northwest winters. |
| Roses | Kurt | 60-90 min | Talking Roses | Roses, planting, pruning, health and types |
| Seasonal Garden Topics | Kurt | 60-90 min | Fall Garden | Fall Garden: Starting from a brief Summer discussion , monthly up to putting the garden to bed |
| Seasonal Garden Topics | Steve | 45-60 min | Getting a Jump on Spring | Are you and your garden ready for winter? Fall gardening tips and tricks will be shared so you can enjoy a more beautiful winter and a relaxing, rewarding spring. We will address common questions related to fall gardening strategies, and tools to help gardeners of any skill level tackle and enjoy getting gardens ready for the next season. |
| Seasonal Garden Topics | Kurt | 60-90 min | Spring Garden | Spring Garden: Starting from a brief winter discussion , monthly through early summer |
| Seasonal Garden Topics | Steve | 45-60 min | Storage and Care of Summer Bulbs | Different methods of preparing dahlia tubers, gladiola corms, and begonia tubers for winter storage. |
| Seasonal Garden Topics | Kurt | 60-90 min | Summer Garden | Summer Garden: Starting from a brief Spring discussion , monthly through early Fall |
| Seasonal Garden Topics | Steve | 45-60 min | The Garden Has Been Put to Bed- Now What? | Learn how you can fill the long days of winter with tips and advice from an expert. Steve will show you his tried and true tips and recommendations to have beautiful blooming plants as soon as possible come spring. |
| Seasonal Garden Topics | Steve | 45-60 min | Winter Bulbs | Purchasing spring bulbs and tips for planting them. Container planting of spring bulbs for winter enjoyment. |
| Seasonal Garden Topics | Steve | 45-60 min | Winter Landscapes | Choosing plants that provide winter interest in the landscape. |
| Specialty Gardening | Steve | 45-60 min | Attracting Wildlife to the Landscape | Attracting many different birds, as well as other wildlife, to your garden using plants, feeders, and nest boxes. |
| Specialty Gardening | Steve | 45-60 min | Container Gardening | Learn the art of gardening in containers. Learn which annuals, perennials and vegetables do best in containers. |
| Specialty Gardening | Kurt | 60-90 min | Garden Furnishings | Fustic Garden Furnishings -rough and funky garden furniture, arbors, and archways |
| Specialty Gardening | Steve | 45-60 min | Gardening for Pollinators | Butterflies, bees, and countless other pollinators provide critical ecosystem servies as they pollinate both food crops and wildflowers alike. Unfortunately, these creatures are under threat from a variety of human impacts. Learn what you can do to make your yard a haven for bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and the many other “little things that run the world”. |
| Specialty Gardening | Cathi | 45-60 min | Gardening with a Flexible Plan | Adaptive Gardening/Gardening for Life: Gardening wiser, not harder will allow us to keep enjoying our favorite activity. Learn how to adapt your skills and use adaptive tools in order to continue to do what you love – being in the garden. |
| Specialty Gardening | Cathi | 45-60 min | Gardener/Garden Connection Balances Strength and Resilience | The human-nature connection is one of the strongest forces of strength and inspiration. The resilience provided by our interactions with nature give us the strength we need as we deal with aging, change, loss, joy, achievement and challenges. Nature also is environmentally resilient. Being conscious of what we do for ourselves and for our gardens to facilitate a connection with the natural world is as urgent for today as for the future. |
| Specialty Gardening | Kurt | 60-90 min | Hardscaping | Hardscaping and Paving Notes -stonework, pathways and paving |
| Specialty Gardening | Kurt | 60-90 min | History and Design: English Gardens | English Gardens- history of English gardening and styles |
| Specialty Gardening | Kurt | 60-90 min | History and Design: Garden Design | Garden Design – a discussion of garden design over the centuries |
| Specialty Gardening | Kurt | 60-90 min | History and Design: Garden History | Garden History – a historical discussion of gardening |
| Specialty Gardening | Kurt | 60-90 min | History and Design: Lewisian and Clarkia | Lewisia and Clarkia – plants and discoveries from the Lewis and Clarke expedition |
| Specialty Gardening | Kurt | 60-90 min | Landscape Challenges | Landscape Challenges – solving landscape problems and eyesores |
| Specialty Gardening | Steve | 45-60 min | Lawn Care | Learn the proper lawn care for healthy turf, including watering, mowing, weed control, and aeration. |
| Specialty Gardening | Steve | 45-60 min | Lawn Gone | We will discuss simple designs that can reduce energy-consumptive,ecologically incompetent lawns. Come see how the plants in your garden can help support insects, pollinators, and countless songbirds. |
| Specialty Gardening | Cathi | 45-60 min | Let Nature be Nature | Humans have a relationship with all the landscapes that are around them. Residential landscapes can be ecologically beneficial for nature and human health. We need to appreciate the complexity of our interwoven environment and act as the lynchpin between native landscape and the urban setting. |
| Specialty Gardening | Kurt | 60-90 min | Low Maintenance | Creative Low Maintenance – low maintenance design |
| Specialty Gardening | Kurt | 60-90 min | Raised Bed Gardening | Raised Beds – building raised beds and alternatives |
| Specialty Gardening | Steve | 45-60 min | Raised Bed Gardening | You will learn the reasons for raised bed gardening. The best materials to use, size, shape, soil and location for a successful raised bed experience. |
| Specialty Gardening | Steve | 45-60 min | Soil Management in Landscapes | Sound soil management helps reduce runoff, erosion, weed problems and helps conserve water. We will be looking at organic matter, efficient irrigation, nutrients and fertilizer s as ways to improve soil quality. |
| Specialty Gardening | Timothy D | 60-90 min | Supporting a Pollinator Friendly Garden | Learn about pollination ecology and the critical role bees play in pollination, as well as the threats to pollinators and what we can do to protect bees and other native pollinators. |
| Specialty Gardening | Kris | 50-60 min | Vertebrate Management | Overview of vertebrate pests in Spokane, how to live with them, how to discourage them |
| Specialty Gardening | Mason or Kris | 50-60 min | Waterwise Landscaping | Water use information, hints for reducing water needs, installation hints, plant suggestions |
| Specialty Gardening | Steve | 45-60 min | Weed Control | Identification of noxious weeds and various methods of control; general control of weeds in the garden. |
| Specialty Gardening | Steve Kris or Steve | 45-60 min | Xeriscaping | How to use xeriscaping techniques to conserve water in your yard and garden. |
| Trees and Shrubs | Steve | 45-60 min | Planting Trees & Shrubs | Trees and shrubs in your backyard can be home to many types of wildlife. Trees can also reduce heating and cooling costs, clean the air, add beauty and color, and add value to your home. Learn proper planting techniques and care. hrubs. |
| Trees and Shrubs | Kurt | 60-90 min | Pruning Basics | Pruning – tools, methods, approaches and timing |
| Trees and Shrubs | Steve | 45-60 min | Pruning Basics | Importance of and reasons for pruning, correct timing, and proper pruning techniques. |
| Trees and Shrubs | Kurt | 60-90 min | Pruning Topiary | Topiary – pruning basics and special ornamental approaches |
| Trees and Shrubs | Kris | 50-60 min | Trees & Woody Plants | Care and maintenance of trees & woody landscape plants |
| Trees and Shrubs | Kurt | 60-90 min | Urban Pruning | Urban Pruning – pruning the urban landscape, along with city rules and regulations |
| Vegetable Gardening | Marcia or Steve | 45-60 min | Growing Garlic | You will learn how easy it is to grow garlic. The time of year to plant, types of garlic, and the best storage practices. |
| Vegetable Gardening | Steve | 45-60 min | Herbs | Discover some of the best herbs to plant in the Inland Empire. Learn how to grow them and the best time and harvesting practices. |
| Vegetable Gardening | Steve | 45-60 min | Vegetable Gardening 101 | Maybe this is the year you grow your own food! Basic info on design, soil prep, planting, watering, weeding, fertilizing and when to harvest. Also how to store your home-grown vegetables. |