The lecture series features eight knowledgeable gardeners, authors and subject matter experts sharing their expertise on a variety of gardening subjects. The presenters are chosen by their intriguing topics, educational value and entertainment. Doors open at 9:00 am. The lecture begins at 9:30am – 11:30am, it is located in the Weyerhaeuser Room at the Everett Train Station. Schedule Changes:If for some reason, a lecture must be cancelled and rescheduled, that information will be posted above the line below. This might occur due to WEATHER or if a SPEAKER has to cancel at the last minute or has a change in his/her schedule.
The 2026 Speakers:
USDA Zones & Climate Change
January 9, 2026
We’re going to delve into a controversial and often confusing topic: Climate change. At this point, climate change is divided into two camps: those who believe that it’s actually happening and human-caused and those who don’t.
The time has come to move past that debate and focus on the believers, many of whom are paralyzed with the overwhelming nature of it and what to do about it. This talk will introduce you to people who have simply rolled up their sleeves and begun the work of adapting to their changing environments. We’ll take a deep dive into a case study of a region in Asia that has successfully stopped and reversed the encroachment of a desert. By learning what types of flora and fauna are native to the region and could thrive there, then enlisting a wide variety of employees and volunteers, they have reclaimed an entire region that appeared to be doomed. We will then turn our focus to our region and discuss ways that we can replicate that here in the PNW and beyond.
Speaker Profile: Mike Everett is an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow award-winning broadcast meteorologist who has served at network affiliate stations in Florida, Colorado, California and Washington. He has been appointed Chief Meteorologist at two different stations in Southern California and here at KING 5 News in Seattle. He has forecasted, tracked and led the coverage of a wide variety of conditions including hurricanes, tornadoes, severe storms, wildfires, extreme heat and blizzards. Mike holds degrees in Communications, Radio and Television Broadcasting, Writing and Rhetoric and, of course, Meteorology from Eastern Florida State College, The University of Central Florida and Mississippi State University. He has recently retired from broadcast news to start his own production company, allowing him to focus on his passion for ski travel and voice work. He is also a published author and in-demand speaker.
Jamie McAuliffe of McAuliffe Valley Nursery will provide in-depth insights into the successful transition of balled and burlap (B&B) nursery stock from the farm to your garden. For over 20 years, the nursery has been cultivating high-quality B&B stock on-site…
Jamie and his wife, Tiffini, co-own the family-run McAuliffe Valley Nursery in Snohomish, which spans 65 acres and has been in operation since 2001.
Speaker Profile: Jamie began his horticultural career in 1988 as a landscape contractor, designing and maintaining residential landscapes throughout the Puget Sound region. That landscape business is still thriving today, now managed by the couple’s two sons.
McAuliffe’s Valley Nursery is a full service nursery located in the scenic Snohomish Valley. Our farm-to-retail nursery grows stock on over 60 acres of rich, fertile soil specializing in balled and burlapped trees. The heart of our retail nursery is a historic dairy barn that is surrounded by a rich palette of stunning plants, both familiar and rare varieties, for your various needs and fashions. Around the nursery, you can also find displays of high quality handcrafted pottery and garden art, carefully selected for its unique flare. Our authentic barn houses an assortment of garden products, organic fertilizers, our office, décor, and friendly customer service checkout counter. Our knowledgeable staff is available and happy to help you select the right trees, shrubs, and plants for your landscape needs.
Contained Brilliance: How to Container Garden Like a Pro
February 6, 2026
Ready to take your container gardening to the next level? In Contained Brilliance, professional container gardener and educator Cindy Funes shares her go-to methods, practical advice, and creative insights to help you garden with confidence and style.
This visually rich digital presentation covers the essential building blocks of successful container gardening, including: Color theory tips to elevate your arrangements. Whether you’re a homeowner looking to liven up your patio or a professional aiming to sharpen your skills, you’ll walk away with real-world how-to’s, plenty of pro tips, and loads of inspiring container combinations to spark your creativity.
Choosing the right container
Must-have tools for every container gardener (with a downloadable PDF checklist!)
Soil basics for healthy, thriving plants
Smart plant selection for every season
Easy-to-understand design principles
Speaker Profile: Founder of Garden Revelry | Professional Container Gardener | Container Gardening Educator and Speaker. Cindy Funes is a certified professional horticulturist, award-winning container garden designer, online course creator, and content contributor to MarthaStewart.com. She’s also the creative force behind Garden Revelry, where she brings joy, practicality, and a touch of whimsy to container gardening. With over 17 years of hands-on experience designing, installing, and maintaining container gardens, Cindy specializes in transforming outdoor living spaces into vibrant, beautiful seasonal displays that reflect both artistry and horticultural expertise. As a passionate educator and speaker, Cindy connects with audiences by bringing a warm, encouraging style that invites others to discover the joy of container gardening. She offers practical advice and enjoys sharing the many insights she’s gathered throughout her career. Cindy celebrates individual creativity, encouraging the unique personal touches that make each planting truly special. Through Garden Revelry, Cindy’s mission is to inspire a love for container gardening, make it approachable, empower others with practical know-how, and spark creativity. She believes container gardening should be fun, fulfilling, transformative and just a little bit magical. When she’s not knee-deep in plants and potting soil, Cindy enjoys spending time in her own garden, travelling, hiking, reading, and playing cards with friends. And when it’s truly time to unwind, you’ll find her relaxing with her family and faithful companion, Tucker.
Sam’s lecture will take the audience on a virtual tour of the WSU public fruit garden; focus on how to successfully choose plant, prune, graft and care for fruiting plants; and provide Instruction on the best fruit varieties and rootstocks for our area…
including figs, persimmons, haskaps, goumis, peaches, plums, pears, apples and more. Speaker Profile: Sam Benowitz, founder of Raintree Nursery, has provided home fruit growers with the most flavorful and easy to successfully grow fruit trees and bushes for almost 50 years. Sam co-founded the https://nwfruit.org/ six acre fruit garden at the WSU Mt. Vernon station, about 35 years ago. Supported by an all-volunteer operation, the garden has more than 500 different varieties of fruit trees growing!
Many of you have heard Lorē speak on Peonies and Hosta. Join her this morning for an armchair expedition as she takes us on a journey of fascinating facts, often overlooked details, and the amazing histories of many of our favorite trees and shrubs.
You’ll hear captivating stories about emperors and warlords, narrow escapes from extinction, geographic mysteries, living works of art, evolution, medicine and continental drift. Our travels will take us from a remote Chinese monastery to a secluded riverbank in Georgia. Every story will enrich your appreciation for many of the plants we grow right here in the Pacific Northwest. Expect to be surprised! Speaker Profile: Lorē is a well-known member of the garden community in the Pacific Northwest. She and her husband Jim own and operate Rarity Gardens, a small perennial nursery specializing in hosta, daylilies and especially peonies. A plantsman’s daughter, Lorē has been growing and propagating a wide variety of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants since childhood. From an early age, her father taught her about the collection of trees and shrubs being grown at their family nursery, engendering her deep love and curiosity for plants. She went on to study botany at the University of Michigan and currently specializes in growing peonies where her collection includes nearly 900 different cultivars. A long-time member of the Pacific Northwest Peony Society, Lorē is also Past-President of the American Peony Society. She is the recipient of the prestigious Award of Horticulture from the Oregon State Federation of Garden Clubs and is a popular speaker for garden clubs, plant societies and Master Gardener groups.
Discover how to transform your garden into a beautiful, productive, and regenerative landscape featuring unique edible plants that nourish both you and the Earth. This course delves into the art and science of designing edible landscapes…
with uncommon fruit trees and perennials that support human health, restore soil, conserve water, and provide habitat for pollinators and wildlife. You’ll learn how to select and integrate these lesser-known species into visually stunning, low-maintenance systems tailored to thrive in the Pacific Northwest. Whether you have a small yard, urban lot, or larger property, this class equips you with the tools and inspiration to cultivate a diverse, resilient garden that grows food in harmony with nature.
Speaker Profile: Mary Marshall and Andrew Tuttle are the cofounders of Edge Perma and Redtail Edge Design, instructors at Edmonds College, and land stewards of Pragtree Farm, the birthplace of the Tilth movement. With backgrounds in horticulture, ecological design, and regenerative agriculture, they create immersive educational experiences that empower gardeners, growers, and landscape professionals to design resilient, biodiverse systems. Their work blends beauty and function, helping communities cultivate thriving gardens, farms, and green spaces that support both people and the planet.
Have you ever fallen in love with a plant that you had to have in your garden? That stunning blue spruce tree would be perfect for your garden, right? But within a few years it lost half of the foliage, and you’re the one singing the blues.
Sometimes we plant lovers forget that not every plant is happy in every garden. This talk will focus on sustainable plant selection, with consideration of cultural requirements (water, soil, light), pest and disease resistance, specific site requirements, and of course aesthetics. Selecting the appropriate plants for your garden will increase your chance for success, creating a garden you will enjoy for a long time. Speaker Profile: Bess Bronstein is an educator, horticultural consultant, and ISA Certified Arborist® currently living (and gardening, of course) on the Kitsap Peninsula in Kingston, Washington. She has over 35 years of experience in arboriculture, landscape management and garden design. Bess was an instructor for the Edmonds College horticulture program for 28 years, with a focus on courses in pruning and tree care, plant identification, plant pests/diseases and diagnosis, and soils. She supports ongoing education in sustainable landscape management practices and frequently teaches public and professional arboriculture and horticulture courses throughout the Pacific Northwest, lectures for garden clubs and horticultural organizations, and especially enjoys working with WSU Extension Master Gardener programs in the Puget Sound region.
For nearly 40 years, Heronswood has been at the forefront of horticulture in the Pacific Northwest. Building on the legacy of renowned plantsman Dan Hinkley, and with the support of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, Heronswood is developing a new garden…
that focuses on three destinations: the mountains of Vietnam, the temperate rainforest of Chile, and the serpentine-rich Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion on the Oregon/California border. Join Garden Director Dr. Ross Bayton for a tour of the Traveler’s Garden and journey around the world without leaving your chair. Passports not required!
Speaker Profile: London-born botanist and gardener Dr. Ross Bayton gained his PhD at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, studying the classification of tropical palms. He’s the author of several books on horticulture including New Trees: Introductions to Cultivation (with John Grimshaw), Plant Families: A Guide for Gardeners and Botanists (with Simon Maugham), and most recently The Gardener’s Botanical: An Encyclopedia of Latin Plant Names, as featured in the New York Times. Formerly the Gardening Editor of the UK’s best-selling gardening periodical, BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, he is now the Director of the world-renowned Heronswood Garden in Kingston, Wa., and is developing a 5-acre garden at home in nearby Bremerton.
Season Pass (includes all 8 lectures): $110.00 per person – Purchase on-line at the link below, available August – January Single Tickets (for one lecture): $30.00 per person – Purchase on-line: Starting January 1st, must be received before 6pm the Wednesday before the desired lecture. – May be purchased at the door.
Will I get a payment confirmation?
– Payment confirmations for Check and Credit/Debit Card advance season ticket purchases are sent by e-mail using the email address you provide. – If confirmation of check or credit card payment has not been received within 2 weeks, please contact us using the CONTACT US below.
Is there a break during the lecture?
There will be a break in the lecture around 10:30. Complementary light snacks, coffee and tea are available. Restrooms are on the same floor.
How do I purchase tickets?
Season passes may be purchased in advance online, using a debit/credit card or PayPal by using the link above. This page also includes instructions for purchasing with a check. Single tickets can be purchased on-line starting January 1st. They can also be purchased at the door. Debit/credit and check are allowed.
Can I watch the Winter Speaker Series on Zoom?
This is an in-person only event. The Series is not recorded.
What is the accessibility at the venue?
Elevator to 4th floor The venue has 160 seats Wheelchair accessible
Are there special accommodations available?
WSU Extension programs and employment are available to all without discrimination. Evidence of noncompliance may be reported through your local Extension office. Reasonable accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities and special needs who contact the WSU – Snohomish County Extension Registrar at 425-338-2400, 6705 Puget Park Drive, Snohomish, WA 98296, at least four weeks prior to the event.
🆕 Are you unable to use your ticket?
If you can’t use your ticket for the Winter Speaker Series, consider donating it to new interns. Contact Jackie Trimble jackie_trimble@hotmail.com for information.
WSU Extension programs and policies are consistent with federal and state laws and regulations on nondiscrimination regarding race, sex, religion, age, color, creed, national or ethnic origin; physical, mental or sensory disability; marital status, sexual orientation, or status as a Vietnam-era or disabled veteran. Evidence of noncompliance may be reported through your local Extension office. Reasonable accommodations will be made for persons with disabilities and special needs who contact Snohomish County Master Gardener Program Coordinator Mary Watts at WSU-Snohomish County Extension, 6705 Puget Park Dr, Snohomish, WA 98296, phone 425-338-2400, e-mail mary.watts@wsu.edu, at least four weeks prior to the event.
