What Do Master Gardeners Do?

Master Gardeners have an abundance of volunteer opportunities through events, fundraisers, and more. Listed below are different ways to connect with Master Gardener volunteers while they work in the community:

Services

Gardening Helpline

Do you have a garden or pest question? A team of trained Master Gardeners are available to help answer gardening and pest questions, and solve problems using current research-based information. You can reach the gardening helpline by calling: 585-753-2555, or emailing monroemg@cornell.edu. 

Home Site Assessments

Interested in your landscape and wondering what to do next? Moved into a new home and want to know what's growing in the yard? Schedule a Master Gardener site assessment! Site Assessments provide a one hour consultation with two Master Gardeners. Fee of $75 applies. 

Speakers Bureau

Master Gardeners are able to present horticultural lectures for your club or organization. Presentations are 45 minutes in length and conclude with an additional 15 minute question and answer period. All presentations have a speaker's fee of $50, payable to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County.  

Pollinator Friendly Garden Certification

Providing habitat for pollinators means that a garden will provide a diversity of plants that feed and host pollinators.

Monroe County Master Gardeners are here to help Monroe County residents plant the way for pollinators!

Certifying your property as “Pollinator Friendly” will help support a healthy ecosystem for our community and our future.

Programs

Blocks in Bloom

The Blocks in Bloom program aims to bring communities together in the City of Rochester by providing free “tough as nails” perennials to resident participants. Cornell Cooperative Extension of Monroe County's Master Gardeners volunteers educate residents in preparing, planting, and maintaining their front yard flower gardens.

Seed to Supper

Seed to Supper is a comprehensive beginning vegetable gardening curriculum designed for adults gardening on a budget. Master Gardener Volunteers train volunteer Garden Educators who will then teach the Seed To Supper curriculum to interested community members. The courses highlight practical, low-cost techniques for building, planning, planting, maintaining, and celebrating the harvest of a successful vegetable garden.

Events

Tabling Events

Visit us at the Master Gardener Table Events! Including:

• CCE Annual Meeting
• 4-H Expo
• Community Farmers' Markets
• Flower City Days at the Public Market
• Gardenscape
• Greece Public Library - How-To Fest
• Maplewood Rose Festival
• Market in the Park
• Master Gardener Summer Sale
• Plant Sale at the Lilac Festival
• Rochester Fall Home & Design Show
• Rochester Spring Home & Garden Show
• Tinker Nature Park 
• Urban Ag Conference

Check our events page for updates. 

Annual Events 

Gathering of Gardeners

Held on the 4th Saturday of April annually - the Gathering of Gardeners Symposium is a day-long event meant to inform, excite and inspire both experienced and new gardeners on various horticultural topics.

Durand Eastman Arboretum Tours

The Monroe County Cooperative Extension, in conjunction with the Monroe County Parks, leads semi annual public tours of the historic Durand Eastman Arboretum.

Market in the Park

Held on the Saturday before Memorial Day annually - Market in the Park is a day of garden tours, talks, and a gathering of local vendors who offer the community a variety of unique plants and garden art.

Plant Sale at the Rochester Lilac Festival

Held during the Rochester Lilac Festival annually - Master Gardeners offer guidance to local gardeners, as well as plants from our gardens and from area nurseries. The sale includes a variety of annuals, herbs, vegetables, perennials, clematis, shrubs, including lilacs and hydrangeas, and garden decor. A selection of house plants is also available.

Summer Sale

Held on the second Sunday in July annually - The Master Gardener Summer Sale offers recycled garden treasures and plants to the community.

Last updated October 29, 2021