Arlene Perkins' Primrose Gardens
2026-05-10 10:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Perkins Road, 580 Perkins Road, Montpelier, VT, United States
A special way to celebrate Mother’s Day (including Mother Earth) and the unfolding of another Spring is to take a stroll around this delightful garden, created by longtime HPC member, Arlene Perkins. Fondly known as the ‘Primrose Lady’, she is happy to answer questions about her extensive Primrose collection and many other interesting spring bulbs, ephemerals, early perennials and shrubs. In past years, numerous species of the Primula genus have bloomed included P. veris, P. vulgaris, P. elatior, P. juliae, P. juliana, P. acaulis, P. japonica, P. kisoana, and P. sieboldii.

Spring Flora Foray with MaryBeth Deller
2026-05-16 09:30 - 12:30 | Green Mountain National Forest, Leicester, VT, United States
Group size: 15 maximum.
Trip difficulty: Mostly easy. The trail is slightly uphill part of the way in, but otherwise with gentle ups and downs along the side of the valley providing a great eye level view of the blooms and foliage!
MaryBeth Deller will lead us on a hike in Leicester to see some impressive and diverse spring flora. The site is enriched northern hardwoods with many limey soil indicators. Special treats include showy orchis (see photo in newsletter), which should be in bloom, and some boulders draped with walking fern. A few rare plant species are known from the area and with luck we’ll see them.
Signup link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdrQljIpPFhtChhi8_RITtTlGqyImKu4fXkyhea2s9q4waZjQ/viewform
Contact: Connie Youngstrom, cjyoungstrom55@gmail.com

Visit Lincoln Hill Botanical Gardens!
2026-05-16 09:30 - 16:00
Visit Lincoln Hill Gardens!
Paul Wieczoreck and Mary Crane cordially invite HPC members to their gardens which will be open each Saturday starting May 9th till June 20th, from 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM. As a very brief description, their roughly 2 acre garden is an extensive collection of ornamental plants displayed in a variety of settings including an alpine rock garden, woodland garden and a mini arboretum. Well represented plant groups include Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Mountain Laurel and Conifers. Please visit the garden website for more information and directions.
When: Each Saturday, May 9th – June 20th, from 9:30-4:00pm

The von Trapp Greenhouse - Showy Lady Slippers
2026-06-13 10:00 - 12:00 | The von Trapp Gardens, 208 Common Road, Waitsfield, VT, United States
Sally von Trapp has invited Hardy Plant Club members to visit The von Trapp Gardens to see their seven spectacular clumps of Cypripedium reginae, or Showy Lady Slippers. Their Itoh peonies should be blooming also!!

June Fern Foray with Peter Hope
2026-06-20 09:00 - 12:00 | South Burlington, Vermont
Group size: 15 maximum.
Trip difficulty: The walking will be flat and easy and we’ll be going at a botanist’s pace, so it won’t be aerobic.
Peter Hope, a popular foray leader known for his plant teaching skills, will lead us around a site known for its spring wildflowers showing us the rich diversity of ferns lurking in the bedrock nooks and pavements. We’ll be admiring maidenhair spleenwort (Asplenium tri-chomanes ssp. quadrivalens), ebony spleenwort (A.platyneuron), rusty woodsia (Woodsia ilvensis), lowland fragile fern (Cystopteris tenuis), as well as the spike moss (Selaginella rupestris) and other interesting plants.
Signup link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScSHL70OnfOFah4QXhtQl1lqmL8fTr6X-SNIw6d-NIr72VmJA/viewform
Contact: Kate Kruesi, kkruesi@gmail.com

Lamoille County Garden Tour
2026-07-25 11:00 - 15:00
Where: Three locations
Generous hosts of 3 unique gardens have offered to open theirs for us: Lyndall Heyer’s charming garden tucked into the side of Mt. Mansfield, in Stowe; Thea Alvin’s Sculpture Park (stone archways) in Morristown; and the Johnson-Walz gardens in Hyde Park, with extensive plantings on a hillside property and a fantastic collection of conifers. This is a day not to miss! More details in the Spring Newsletter.

Dwarf Shrub Bog Foray with State Lands Ecologist
2026-07-31 14:00 - 17:00 | Roxbury State Forest
Group size: 12
Trip difficulty: Easy-a short flat 500 ft walk to the pond/bog with some roots, rocks and soft spots along the way.
Here are some details from Danielle: Most of the cool plants are visible either on or from the shore. We found a new population of Northern Yellow-eyed-grass (Xyris montana) here last year, along with Olive Spikerush (Eleocharis flavescens var. olivacea), Arrowleaf (Peltandra virginica), and Dwarf Mistletoe (Arceuthobium pusillum). It’s possible we could find additional rare plants on our trip! I’ll invite folks to put on their nature detective hats and knit together a story about the history of the floating bog and pond–how it came to be and what the future might hold.
Event Organizer: Deb Parrella debscado@gmavt.net
Google Form signup link: https://forms.gle/tDHTecMdp5cuiNLy5

Annual HPC Potluck, Plant and Book Sale
2026-08-23
Pot up your plants!
With Spring in full bloom, as our gardens awaken becoming lush with plenty of rain and sun, think ahead to the HPC plant sale at the von Trapp Greenhouse and Gardens on August 23rd. Divide and pot up those rare and unusual Garden Treasures that you wish to offer at our largest fundraiser of the year.
With early season transplanting and dividing, all those desirable Beauties will be in top form for August if potted up now. Older, hard to find hand me down varieties, hardy rare exotics, regionally rarely offered pollinator pleasing natives, and tough structural tree, shrubs and grasses, or just your plain favorites make enticing additions to the plant sale.
Labeling your plants with common and botanical names makes for better sales along with your name for ease in answering questions. Let’s see if we can top last year’s offerings and success!
To minimize the spread of jumping/ snake worms please review the “Plant Sale Guidelines to Minimize the Chance of Jumping Word Spread”, by the UVM Department of Plant and Soil Science. https://www.uvm.edu/d10-files/documents/2024-08/Guidelines_for_Plant_Sales_to_Avoid_Jumping_Worms.pdf

Plant Sale Coordinator: Rich Dube
Contact: 802-434-4834 or by Email: richdubegeo@cs.com
More details in Summer Newsletter.

Aster and Goldenrod ID with Everett Marshal
2026-08-29 10:00 - 12:30 | Chittenden County
Everett Marshall will guide a morning of Aster and Goldenrod identification in Chittenden County. This outing was inspired by similar “genus ID” field trips hosted by the Native Plant Trust and was debuted in 2024 with great success. Details to come in the Summer Newsletter.
Event organizer: Deb Parrella debscado@gmavt.net

The Farm Upstream Nursery Tour with Spencer Hardy
2026-09-12 | Jericho, VT, United States
Learn about Vermont bees from, Spencer Hardy, Bee Biologist at Vermont Center for Ecostudies and co-owner of The Farm Upstream. A farm tour with bee close-ups (bring your hand lens) and learn about his new nursery growing local ecotype native plants that support some of our rarer native bees. More details in the Summer Newsletter.
Event organizer: Juliet Barash
