DURHAM, N.H. - Had enough of the snow? Get ready to welcome spring with a visit to the University of New Hampshire Macfarlane Research Greenhouses during the annual spring open house Friday and Saturday, March 27 and 28, 2015. This year's event will provide displays and plenty of information to help chase away winter blues and welcome spring. The greenhouses will be open from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. both days.

A facility of the NH Agricultural Experiment Station, the UNH Macfarlane Research Greenhouses provide a venue for UNH faculty, staff and students to present colorful displays and educational lectures of interest to home gardeners and landscapers. Visitors can attend lectures to explore new gardening ideas, including growing ornamental strawberries.

The popular seminar on cooking with herbs returns again this year. Garden show-quality displays will showcase a Smurf Village. Poster displays will detail the latest in UNH research on cutting-edge genetics, vegetable and fruit breeding, and more. The UNH Plant Diagnostic Lab and Cooperative Extension Plant Health Program will have a display on common diseases and problems of garden and landscape plants. Attendees are encouraged to come with questions about plant health problems. UNH experts and Master Gardeners will be on hand to help get gardens off to a great start. Publications by UNH authors also will be available for sale.

Other open house activities include a plant sale hosted by the Thompson School horticulture program and tours of both the Macfarlane Research Greenhouses and the UNH high tunnels, two greenhouse-style structures associated with the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems program where students produce greens for on-campus consumption. The popular scavenger hunt and coloring activity for children also return again this year. The Greenhouse Café will serve coffee, lunch, and delicious home-made treats. The café, hosted by the Thompson School Horticultural Club, helps fund the club's spring trip to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania.

The UNH Greenhouse Open House is free and open to the general public. On Saturday, March 28, the open house coincides with the Seacoast Home and Garden Show.

The UNH Macfarlane Research Greenhouses are located off Main Street on the west end of Durham. Seminars will take place in Putnam Hall across the parking lot from the greenhouses. On Friday, metered parking is available at the UNH Visitor Center across from the greenhouses; parking on Saturday is free. Handicap parking spaces and short-term parking for plant pickup will be available near the main greenhouse entrance. The greenhouses are also served by Wildcat Transit's free shuttle service: www.wildcattransit.com.

For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/nhaes and https://www.facebook.com/UNHMacfarlaneGreenhouses.

The UNH Greenhouse Open House is sponsored by the NH Agricultural Experiment Station, the Thompson School of Applied Science, the biological and sustainable agriculture programs of the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture, and UNH Cooperative Extension.

Founded in 1887, the NH Agricultural Experiment Station at the UNH College of Life Sciences and Agriculture is UNH's original research center and an elemental component of New Hampshire's land-grant university heritage and mission. We steward federal and state funding to provide unbiased and objective research concerning diverse aspects of sustainable agriculture and foods, aquaculture, forest management, and related wildlife, natural resources and rural community topics. We maintain the Woodman and Kingman agronomy and horticultural farms, the Macfarlane Research Greenhouses, the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center, and the Organic Dairy Research Farm. Additional properties also provide forage, forests and woodlands in direct support to research, teaching, and outreach.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,300 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.

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The annual open house at the University of New Hampshire's Macfarlane Research Greenhouses, a popular rite of spring, is March 27 and 28, 2015.