I'm more anxious than ever to start gardening.

I spent Thursday and Friday last week at New England Grows, a trade show for growers, retailers, landscapers, arborists and anyone else I can think of in the horticultural landscape industry.

I attended six lectures, five of which will end up being a major part in columns over the next few months.

There was some conflicting information, which was interesting. Allan Armitage, a gardening superstar out of the University of Georgia, said there are too many plants. The average young gardener (he uses his daughter Heather as an example) goes to the garden center and sees 20 varieties of heuchera, can't make up her mind, and goes home without buying anything. He said retailers should make the selection for her, offering only five heucheras, of different colors, that work best in this area. Then the shopper picks the color she likes best.

Jim Ault of the Chicago Botanic Garden talked about how easy it is to hybridize, even in your backyard, thus creating even more plants.

Patrick Chasse of Mount Desert Island talked about native plants, Roger Cook of This Old House talked about walls, walks and patios and Ed Snodgrass -- a business guy I had never heard of -- talked about green roofs.

The trade-show floor was wonderful, looking at blooming roses, hydrangeas, pansies and just about everything else.

That was just enough green to keep me sane until we make a quick trip to Florida in a few weeks.

Sunday's column involves another garden star, Bill Cullina of Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, and his talk about native plants that he gave a couple weeks ago at the Maine Landscape and Nursery Association.

If we can't actually garden in winter, we can at least learn more to make us better gardeners when the ground unfreezes.

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