The workshops are planned at strategic times throughout the year, to prepare the participants for the tasks of the season ahead and give them the tools necessary to achieve success at home.

The 2010 GARDEN WORKSHOP series will give you the knowledge and confidence to create your own gardens, keep them healthy, harvest their seeds and start your own heirloom flowers. Learn how to create elegant flower designs from your own garden and environs. You'll find ingredients from the yard, fields and woods you would have never thought of using in a flower arrangement. The possibilities are endless…and we promise, you'll enjoy yourself as you learn.

   Jenn Pineau/Sugar Magnolias

Jenn Pineau is a masterful gardener and floral designer who believes in a sustainable environment. Her approach to floral arranging begins with the seeds she starts in her garden and ends with beautifully crafted, home grown compositions.

Jenn began her career in floral design working with the inspirational Yukie Yamamoto of Wilmington, Delaware. After deciding that cultivating the components of her artistry was equally important, she moved to Charlottesville and served as House Florist/Green House Manager for the Kluge Estate. The locally flavored designs that graced the manor were composed of flowers from the gardens and greenhouses on the property.

In Berkeley, California, Jenn apprenticed with mentor and friend Max Gill, Floral Designer for Alice Waters' Chez Panisse. As Assistant Designer for the restaurant, Jenn spent as much time growing blooms in Max's backyard cutting garden, as she did in the studio helping develop Max's celebrated designs.

Jenn’s love of the Virginia countryside brought her back to the Charlottesville area where she created Sugar Magnolias, a seasonal boutique, specializing in sustainable floral design through the use of local, home grown blooms. Her designs are inspirational and are simply put, nature composed.

Workshops are open to weekend guests of Inn at Westwood Farm as well as "day hops". Registration fees include workshops, materials, Friday evening appetizers and wine and Saturday lunch. Weekend guests at the Inn will have a special package price.