News Release
For Immediate Release — April 18, 2011
UT Gardens’ Blooms Days Beats the Heat with Earlier Dates Just in Time for Mother’s Day
Dr. Sue Hamilton conducts tours of the UT Gardens. May 7th and 8th will kick off the gardening season, and Blooms Days at the UT Gardens is the perfect place for all your gardening needs this year.
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The Kalanchoe Thyrsiflora 'Flapjack' is this year's Blooms Days featured plant (below).
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Fabulous shopping, great workshops, and the Beall Family Rose Garden at the peak of bloom are just a few of the things at Blooms Days 2011 that will make Mother’s Day weekend even more special. May 7th and 8th will kick off the gardening season, and Blooms Days at the UT Gardens is the perfect place for all your gardening needs this year. Bring your Mom, your kids and friends for this fun event. Traditionally held the last weekend of June, Blooms Days has been moved to avoid the oppressive heat East Tennessee has experienced the last few years.
Unique garden goods, live musical performances, garden workshops, children’s activities and more make the UT Gardens’ Blooms Days a great destination for more than just gardeners. Blooms Days has become a summer tradition, drawing families, students, and Knoxville natives to experience the splendor of the gardens. The event will run Saturday, May 7th from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Sunday, May 8th from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.
More than 20 workshops will be offered for everyone, from novice to advanced gardeners, covering a variety of gardening topics. Workshops with such titles as Bonsai for Beginners, Preserving the Harvest, and You Can Promise a Rose Garden will be led by regional gardening experts and included in the cost of admission. Consulting rosarians will lead guided tours and answer rose gardening questions.
Live musical performances will be held on both days. Saturday Red-Haired Mary will perform from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and Wild Blue Yonder will take stage from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Sunday Four Leaf Peat will play from 11 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. and Robinella will close Blooms Days 2011 with the final performance from 2:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m.
Kids of all ages can visit the Kids Corner to create make-and-take projects and get creeped-out at the Insect Zoo.
The festival will also include a garden marketplace where visitors can shop for handmade herbal soaps, silver and beaded jewelry, topiaries, nature-inspired artwork, trellises and wind chimes, straw baskets, birdhouses and weathervanes, garden fountains and much more. Blooms Days this year will also combine the UT Gardens annual spring plant sale. The UT Gardens Friends booth will have unique plants grown especially for the event, including the featured plant Kalanchoe ‘Flapjack.’ Other plant vendors will offer a wide variety of annuals, herbs, vegetables, perennials, roses, trees and shrubs, making Blooms Days a one-stop shopping experience for spring planting.
Besides the cooler temperatures of May to make the day at Blooms Days more pleasant, food from Buddy’s Bar-b-q and Mediterranean Delight, ice cream from Cruze Dairy, and Kettle Korn from Smoky Mountain Kettle Korn will be available for purchase.
Tickets will be $6.00 at the gate. Children under 12 will be admitted free. Tickets are good for one day only, and the event will be held rain or shine. All proceeds will benefit the UT Gardens. For more information and a complete schedule of the weekend’s activities, please visit: http://utgardens.tennessee.edu.
Blooms Days, in its 9th year, is made possible through the generosity of Pilot, UT Federal Credit Union, Knoxville News-Sentinel, WBIR-TV and WUOT 91.9 FM.
The UT Gardens is located just off Neyland Drive behind the UT College of Veterinary Medicine in Knoxville. Parking is available in lot 66. From I-40 take Exit 386B onto Hwy 129 (Alcoa Hwy toward the Airport). From Hwy 129 take exit for Hwy 158 (Neyland Drive). Turn left at the end of exit ramp. Turn left onto Joe Johnson Drive and right at next light onto Chapman Drive. Parking lot 66 is directly across from the entrance to the UT Gardens.
The University of Tennessee Gardens located in Knoxville and Jackson are part of the UT Institute of Agriculture. Their mission is to foster appreciation, education and stewardship of plants through garden displays, collections, educational programs and research trials. Some 4,000 annuals, perennials, herbs, tropicals, trees, shrubs, vegetables and ornamental grasses are evaluated each year. Both gardens are Tennessee Certified Arboreta and American Conifer Society Reference Gardens. The gardens are open during all seasons and free to the public. For more information, visit http://utgardens.tennessee.http://utgardens.tennessee.edu and http://west.tennessee.edu/ornamentals/
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Contacts:
James Newburn, UT Gardens assistant director and curator, 865-974-7256, jnewburn@utk.edu
Sue Hamilton, UT Gardens director, 865-974-7324, sueham@utk.edu
Lorna Norwood, UTIA Marketing and Communications, 865-974-7141, lorna@tennessee.edu