Of the several important issues for the home gardener to understand and practice, pruning is quite possibly the most critical and the least well understood. On May 16 at 7 pm at The Gardens at Elm Bank, 900 Washington Street in Wellesley, Mal Condon will share some details of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society’s ‘Seasonal Step Approach to Pruning’ – focusing on specific new understandings we continue to explore and develop over time. Additionally, several cultural issues deserve extra attention at this most important time in our growing season – fertilizing, bloom color control, irrigation strategies. ‘Container Growing Techniques’ for our much loved Hydrangea macrophyllas deserves serious consideration as a method for insuring winter survival. Full details will be presented ‘on screen’ and ‘live’.

A lifelong gardener, Mal Condon has been collecting, propagating, and growing hydrangeas for more than 40 years. His initial home gardening pursuits developed over the years into a dedicated commercial operation. An engineer by education and profession, he is strongly committed to the continuing development of the genus – always searching for new and better plants, evaluating their landscape performance, and finding superior ways to produce and grow them.

His Hydrangea Farm Nursery on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts was a well-known specialty nursery featuring one of the largest hydrangea collections in the Northeast. In 2014, he relocated to Cape Cod, where he continues his passion establishing a significant new garden. Mal frequently shares his many hydrangea learnings with garden clubs, horticultural associations, and plant societies – in the USA and other hydrangea-centric locations world-wide.

He is currently the Curator of Hydrangeas at Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich, MA and totally involved with the continuing expansion of the Garden’s significant collections, including the North American Hydrangea Test Garden and The Cape Cod Hydrangea Society’s Display Garden.

$20/ Mass Hort member; $30/general admission. Register at https://masshort.org/education-events/success-with-hydrangeas/

Southboro Gardeners have scheduled their Spring Plant Sale on Saturday, May 11, from 8 – 11 at the Community House at the intersection of Routes 30 & 85 in Southborough. On the same day, at Hopkinton Town Common, 6 Hayden Rowe Street, the Hopkinton Garden Club will sell garden perennials, hardy perennials, and annuals, from 8:30 – noon (heavy rain date May 12). Groton Garden Club, the Garden Club of Concord, Framingham Garden Club, Fairbanks Garden Club, and Bedford Garden Club will also hold sales on May 11. For hours, details, and locations visit https://www.gcfm.org/events.

The following Saturday, May 18, the Garden Club of Amherst, the Village Garden Club of Dennis, the Mansfield Garden Club, the Reading Garden Club, The Arlington Garden Club, the Garden Club of Norfolk, the Cohasset Community Garden Club, and the Hamilton-Wenham Garden Club present their versions of Spring Plant Sales, with details available at the link above.

North Andover Garden Club will hold a Spring Plant Sale on Sunday, May 19 on the grounds of the North Andover Middle School.

As the month of May continues, look for sales on Saturday, May 25 hosted by The Evening Garden Club of Plymouth, followed the next two days, May 26 and 27, by the Seaside Gardeners of Marshfield. You will find a large selection of plants at each of these sales, while supporting the charitable work of each Garden Club.

Join Carol Govan on May 16 at 10 am at the Wellesley College Club to discover John Lindley, the most prominent British botanist, and Asa Gray, the most prominent American botanist of the 19th century. In addition to their work in botany, they both were botanical illustrators at a time when botanical art was essential to depict the new plants being discovered all over the world. This lecture is free to members of The Friends of Wellesley College Botanic Garden, and $10 to the general public. Register by emailing wcbgfriends@wellesley.edu or call 781- 283-3094