wotimes.com

If you're looking for plants and flowers, birdbaths, pottery, wind chimes - in other words, anything garden-related - then you'll want to visit downtown Winter Garden this weekend.

The award-winning Bloom 'N' Grow Garden Society will offer all things botanical at its seventh annual Spring Fever in the Garden. This year's event - held in conjunction with the city of Winter Garden - is set for this Saturday, March 31, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, April 1, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Vendors will be selling hundreds of flowers, plants, wrought-iron items, furniture and nature and wildlife art. Guests who want to make purchases but also continue shopping can have their plants and other items taken to a nearby holding area.

Dated festival T-shirts and posters will be available for purchase as well. Local artist Andy Crabtree, who has designed the festival poster for all seven years, will sign prints Saturday from 1-2 p.m.

Sue Crabtree, this year's festival chair, told The West Orange Times: “We are very excited about Spring Fever in the Garden this year, especially since it's a two-day festival. It has been a yearlong working process. With the support of the Bloom 'N' Grow members, the community, the organizations and the city of Winter Garden, it's going to be a great festival.”

The popular Butterfly House will be set up again. There will be a silent art auction, hourly raffles, live entertainment and an assortment of food concessions. Local restaurants will also have their doors open.

Live musical entertainment throughout the weekend will include Paul Price (light jazz), Jimmy Hunt (soft rock) and Grant Livingston (folk). At 4 p.m. Saturday, acclaimed guitarist Bob Rafkin will perform his smooth folk-rock music. Central Florida's first lady of jazz, Jacqueline Jones, will perform from 5-7 p.m. both days.

The KidZone will feature environmental programs and activities for children. Kids can learn about bugs, birds, butterflies, frogs, snakes, planting and tending gardens and water conservation. There will be a Funny Foto station, an announcement of the elementary school art contest winners, face painting, a station to make bug catchers, water experiments, a display of dolphin and whale bones and teeth, bounce houses and a train ride provided by the Central Florida Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.

The silent art auction will be set up in the lobby of the Bradford Building, 100 W. Plant St. It features 12 eucalyptus Adirondack chairs donated by Sines Girvin Blakeslee & Campbell for bid. This year's chair artists are Andy Crabtree and Dan Yates, Arlene Emery, Lucy Cogswell, Liz McKee, Tasha Shatzer, Juli Simon, Mike Malloy, Linda Fewell, Debby Schmaltz, Mary Keating, the Art Room of Windermere and Tic Bowan.

Other artists contributing their work for the auction are Elly Bisson (jewelry), Jan Cochran (fabric art), Vada Vines and Peeker Clemins (ceramic), Magali Groves, Greta Shores and Rollie Allen.

Avian Reconditioning Center's Birds of Prey will be on hand from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. both days.

Pounds Motor Co. will offer garden tool sharpening for a discounted price of $2 per item Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon outside the store, 162 W. Plant St.

The “Ask the Expert” booth will have the following:

€ Saturday, 10 a.m., bonsai demonstration by the Central Florida Bonsai Club; 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tom MacCubbin and Ed Thralls, Orange County Extension agents, Urban Horticulture, who will speak on lawn care and spring gardening; 3-4 p.m., Jim Thomas of Biosphere Consulting will discuss habitat planting.

€ Sunday, 11 a.m., a discussion on bromeliads by Color Zone Tropicals, Magali and Grant Groves; noon, Liz Wesson of Fly By Night Inc. will provide information on bats; 1 p.m., Shiann Piekarski, president of the Central Florida Rose Society, will talk about roses; and 2-4 p.m., Catherine Johnson, Orange County Watershed Action volunteer coordinator, will share information on waterwise landscaping.

Other experts expected to appear are Tim McColgan, horticulture manager, and Tristen Smith, lead horticulturist, of Gaylord Palms hotel, who will discuss spring annuals; and Jay Rogers of Batcasa, who will talk about bat houses.

Bloom 'N' Grow Garden Society is an affiliate of the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs Inc. The prestigious Kellog Award, given annually to one garden club in the United States, was presented to the club in 2001 for its creation and maintenance of the Path of Life. This landscaped refuge at Chapin Station on the West Orange Trail includes a path of personalized bricks.

In addition, the club has received the National Civic Beautification Award from Habitat For Humanity for its landscape work on Habitat houses.