Flora experts offer a sensory garden of experiences at the Mid-Atlantic Home & Flower Show
Excite your senses at the Mid-Atlantic Home & Flower Show, presented by Certified Angus Beef, Feb. 15-17 at the Virginia Beach Convention Center. With the theme Sensuous Gardens, the show will feature hundreds of exhibits showcasing products and services for the home and garden, and a line-up of expert from the Virginia Horticultural Foundation presenting topics to delight all the senses on the Garden Stage in the exhibit hall.
Virginia Beach Master Gardener Billi Parus will kick-off the Garden Stage events when she
presents taste-tantalizing segments on “Making Herbal Liquors,” 1:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 15 and Saturday, Feb. 16. Herbalist extraordinaire Billi Parus returns to share her creative cooking-with-herbs skills with us by herbal and fruit liqueurs. Small samplings will be offered! Parus is a member of the British Herb Society, Life member of the Herb Society of America, as well as owner of Lavender Hill House, an Internet gift basket business. She lives in Virginia Beach where she and her husband grow over 200 varieties of herbs. Billi travels the country teaching about cooking with herbs.
Enhance the look of your garden areas and learn how to create beautiful one-of-kind "Mosaic Planters" from Joan Carey and the Portsmouth Master Gardeners at 4:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 15. You can’t buy these personalized and unique objects d’art for your garden anywhere – you have to make them! Carey and her group of Master Gardeners will show how to make these planters using ceramic chimney flues covered with a combination of colored glass or tile mosaic and then grouted. A great project to work on during the winter months to debut in your garden come spring.
Get prepared for unexpectedly dry weather or mandated water restrictions - learn how to "Conserve Water - Make a Rain Barrel" from Chesapeake Master Gardener Charles Lastinger at noon, Saturday, Feb. 16. Rain barrels collect and store runoff water from you roof until you need it. Not a new idea, but one worth reusing. Over 60 years ago, almost every home used rain barrels as a method of collecting water prior to public utilities. Lastinger will show you how to easily construct a rain barrel and one lucky person will take home a rain barrel as a door prize!
What in the world is a tussie-mussie? All the rage in Victorian times, a tussie-mussie, or word poesy, is a small circular nosegay of flowers and herbs, tightly gathered and designed to carry a special message to a friend or loved one in the language of flowers. Horticulturist Marie 
Butler will instruct audiences on "How to Make a Tussie-Mussie" at 4:30 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 16. Certain flowers and herbs signified certain feelings or virtues such as rosemary for remembrance; ivy for fidelity; lilies for purity; laurel means victory; parsley, festivity; and of course the rose stands for love. The traditional tussie-mussie is composed of fragrant herbs surrounding one central flower. The practical use of tussie-mussies were to be carried close to the nose to ward off the stench in the streets and the plague. touches on her artistic side to demonstrate how they are made. Class participants will make their very own tussie-mussie.
Brighten up the winter months and learn to make "Winter Arrangements" with Betty Ann 
Galway at noon, Sunday, Feb. 17. By using both live and dried materials, various berries, foliage, and flowers to create beautiful winter floral arrangements, Galway offers a cheerful remedy for the winter doldrums with these attractive creations made from materials easily found year-long. Galway is an instructor and the Lifelong Learning Program Manager at Norfolk Botanical Gardens.
Plants throughout history have had significant effects on our lives and culture. They’ve been used to treat medical conditions, to make perfumes, used in the culinary arts and thought to possess special powers. Herbal historian Samatha Weaver will discuss some of the history, folklore, mysteries, and fragrance properties of plants with “Lotions, Potions & Aromatic Oils – The Magic & Myth of Fragrance” at 1:30 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 17. A Master Gardener and Virginia Certified Nurseryman, Weaver has served as a garden historian and presented programs at several historical homes in the area and at the Chrysler Museum.
Show visitors can also learn seed starting secrets from an expert. Lisa Ziegler, the owner of
The Gardener's Workshop, an online garden store will share information on the materials and methods used to go from seed to flowering plant with “Starting Seeds for Beginners” at 4:30 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 17. Ziegler will have several varieties of cutting garden seeds, trays and other materials she recommends using which will also be available for purchase after her program. In 1998, Ziegler began growing field-grown cut flowers on less than one acre in the Newport News area. During the growing season, this garden yielded over 3,000 stems of flowers each week, so she definitely knows her subject. Ziegler also operated a wholesale business of growing and selling cut flowers to upscale florists, Colonial Williamsburg, and at the Williamsburg Farmer's Market. She will also share stories from her journey from a struggling home gardener to successful commercial flower farmer and entrepreneur.
Observe some serious but friendly competition at the “Floral Challenge,” 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m., Friday, Feb. 15, Saturday, Feb. 16 and Sunday, Feb. 17. Watch as three floral arrangers compete against each other and the clock as they put together an impromptu flower arrangement. Contestants will have twenty minutes to create an eye-pleasing arrangement to be judged.
Also at noon on Friday, see which exhibits are deemed the best of the best as the Home & Flower Show awards are officially announced and presented to the winners.