The Bullington Board

Meet our March Volunteer Hero

Mary Quirk began volunteering last year at our Annual Spring Plant Sale. She jumped in with both feet and quickly became an invaluable member of Bullington’s volunteer team. She is warm, kind, knowledgeable, and talented. She brings a wealth of skills to the garden to include incredible floral arrangements, expert crafts and artwork, along with her love of gardening.

School is back in session, and we are in full swing with our horticultural therapy programs! Tenth grade students in our BOOST (Bullington Onsite Occupational Skills Training) program have been hard at work installing new garden beds and mulching the nature trail.

Join us for our annual Holiday Sale featuring Buzzington Honey, nature-themed, handcrafted items including ornaments, textiles, botanical beauty products and holiday décor. Bullington’s popular evergreen gnomes add a whimsical touch to the holidays along with our uniquely decorated Fraser Fir wreaths. Limited evergreen gnome quantities available. pre-order your Fraser Fir Tree, Wreath & Garland by November 22.

Join us at Bullington Gardens to discover the fascinating world of pollinators. The Pollinator Open House, hosted by Green River Bee owners John and Jessica Gleman, promises to be an enlightening and inspiring experience for all who attend. The installation of the pollinator habitat, educational signs, and a trailhead sign will be held at Bullington on Saturday from 9am to 1 pm. This free open house event will demonstrate which homes attract which pollinators.

Jane Davis was honored with the 2022 Sauer Charitable Leadership Award.

Generous gifts & grants make spring improvements a reality!

The Fairy Door Auction is a unique fundraising initiative that allows visitors to bid on ten specially designed fairy doors. The Interactive Sponsorship Doors have been embellished by volunteers, staff, and fairy ambassadors and feature a variety of whimsical and creative designs, including drawbridges, country cabins, nature themes, and unicorns.

Visitors will have the opportunity to bid on their favorite fairy door or buy it outright if they fall in love with one and have to have it. The auction provides an exclusive and exciting way for visitors to take home a piece of the Fairy Trail and support the project financially.

Kick off your 2023 gardening season with Bullington’s selection of annuals, vegetables, herbs, perennials, shrubs and trees. Bullington Gardens, a horticultural education center and public botanical garden, holds its annual spring plant sale from April 27 through April 29, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A Note from Annie

Autumn is truly the season that teaches us that change can be beautiful. Many of the changes happening at Bullington are just that. Since July, our new Education Director, Tracy Calla has been jumping in with both feet. Into the Boost classes, into the Horticultural Therapy programs and getting a firsthand look at the aspects that make Bullington shine in so many eyes.

Bullington Gardens’ gnome takes a ride. Available only at Bullington Gardens.

Summer Fun

With the end of school classes nearing, we’re turning our attention towards summer fun.

For starters, the fairies make their annual migration to the gardens on June 1 and will stay until the end of August. Additions to the trail this year will be a dentist office for the tooth fairy, a unicorn stable, and a photo op featuring fairy wings.

Planting the Seeds

Spring is in the air, and with it blooms all of the ideas and projects that we’ve been cultivating over the dark of winter.

Art in the Garden: Last fall, we were gifted art sculptures from local resident and philanthropist Jeanie Linders. These art pieces range from rustic to modern, small to large, and are being installed throughout the garden by volunteers Stan Juczak and Ron Rich. They’ll be included on our new map, coming out soon.

Since August, the gardens have somewhat returned to normalcy, with students returning to in-person classes and our Fall Plant sale being held in person. Even though our holiday sale is a hybrid of in-person and virtual, 2021 had many momentous events.

As our year comes to a close, we look back at some of the things we’re losing and forward to things to be gained in 2022.

Last year, we received a grant from Dogwood Health to have a master plan created. The landscape architecture team from Siteworks Studios got to work in drawing up a conceptual plan, and while there are several phases before this plan is complete, the work revealed the importance of owning the property if we were to make significant investments in it. With this understanding, we set our sights on land ownership.