Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens will offer two multi-day horticulture workshops. Both will be in the Bosarge Family Education Center and outdoors at the Gardens and nearby locales.

Invasive plants

On Friday and Saturday, Oct. 12 and 13, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, Ted Elliman, vegetation management coordinator for the New England Wild Flower Society, will present Invasive Plants: Issues, Identification and Ecology. The class is co-sponsored by New England Wild Flower Society.

In this comprehensive workshop, Elliman, who with a dedicated corps of volunteers has for the past 5 years located, documented and controlled invasive species, will explain why invasive plants are on the hit lists of botanists, ecologists, horticulturists and conservationists.

He’ll discuss the basic ecological problems surrounding these aggressive and tenacious plants and will delve into the complicated (and sometimes political) issues surrounding them. Finally, he’ll introduce the class to some of New England’s most common invasive species through images, specimens and short local field visits.

Participants should bring lunch, a hand lens, water, warm clothes and sturdy footwear. The fee for the two days is $100 for members and $120 nonmembers. Preregistration is required.

Native woody plants

For three days, from Thursday through Saturday, Oct. 18-20, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day, Justin Nichols will present Selecting Native Plants for the Maine Garden: Woody Plants.

Nichols, a horticulturist with 20 years’ experience as a garden professional, including five at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, will introduce participants to native trees and shrubs to use in different horticultural settings based on their habitat preferences in nature. He’ll recommend particularly good species, cultivars and sources of materials.

To see authentic examples of woody plants in natural and landscaped settings, he’ll take the class on short forays into the Gardens and locally.

The fees for this class are $120 for members and $150 for nonmembers. Preregistration is required.

To register for one or both classes, or for more information about Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, call 633-4333, ext. 101; visit www.MaineGardens.org; or stop by the Gardens, located off Barters Island Road in Boothbay.