Hello spring! A variety of vendors offer potted plants, trees, and shrubs, as well as practical tools and garden supplies. The ever-popular Collectibles and Member Plant booths have something for everyone! New this year are additional vendors adjacent to the Hatheway garden and in the Summer House! The Market is held rain or shine. A special garden-themed tour of the Phelps-Hatheway House will be available hourly from 10 am–2 pm with regular admission. Stop into the visitor’s center for the Pastel Paintings exhibition opening for artist, Gina Trusiewicz. With a longtime interest in art, Trusiewicz developed her craft in an online class during the pandemic. Her interest in nature, animals, and plants, combined with her certification as a Master Gardener, has inspired her work–capturing everyday moments, and the feelings they evoke, in West Hartford or right from her own backyard.

Interested in learning more about the history and importance of preserved plant species known as herbaria? Stop in the visitor center to pick up a signed copy of In the Herbarium and meet its author, Maura C. Flannery. Flannery is professor emerita of biology at St. John’s University and research affiliate in the A. C. Moore Herbarium at the University of South Carolina.