The featured speaker for the Orcas Garden Club meeting on May 18 will be Linda Chalker-Scott, urban horticulturist and ISA certified arborist.

She is an associate professor in the department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at Washington State University. She is also an Extension Specialist in Urban Horticulture, meaning that she has a global classroom rather than one physically located on a college campus. She is trained as a woody plant physiologist and applies this knowledge to understanding how trees and shrubs function in urban environments. This is a fancy way of saying she enjoys diagnosing landscape failures – much like a horticultural CSI.

Dr. Chalker-Scott will help participants recognize the “rights” of spring: avoid seven deadly sins when planting trees and shrubs. She will help with the problems in gardens and orchards pertaining to plant diseases and common pests, whether they are abiotic or biotic.

The lecture will be presented on May 18 at 10 a.m. in the Madrona Room of Orcas Center. “This will be an excellent opportunity to pick up vital information to help you bring health to your trees and shrubs,” say organizers.

Contact Marlyn Myers at 376-6110 or go to www.orcasislandgardenclub.org for further information.