Join us for a fun-filled October Rocks! day beginning at 9:00 a.m.! The day will feature our 2027 Board Nominations, Members’ Sharing Segments, a drawing for free prizes, RMC Awards, and two inspiring presentations by Marcia Tatroe and Sven Bronckaers.
The event will be held in Gates Hall, which has a maximum capacity of 90 attendees. To ensure you have a seat, please reserve your ticket in the Booking section below.
Coffee, tea, water, and light refreshments will be available throughout the day. Please bring a sack lunch or plan to enjoy a meal at a nearby restaurant.
Marcia Tatroe 
Rock Gardens Rock! Have you fallen in love with those cute little treasures in the rock garden section but aren’t quite sure what to do with them? A rock garden is the answer. You can fit a large number of plants into a small spot making rock gardens ideal where space is limited. And because rock garden plants are tough and weather resilient, no garden is better suited to Colorado’s capricious climate. This class covers the basics of building a rock garden including construction, soil and rock options, rock placement and plant selection.
Marcia Tatroe has been gardening in Centennial CO for over 37 years. She wrote a garden column for the Denver Post for over 20 years. Her photography and gardens have been featured in numerous books, magazines and nationally televised gardening shows. She lectures throughout the West focusing on garden design, rock gardening, xeriscape, and native plants, advocating using drought-tolerant and native plants and indigenous materials to create a gardening aesthetic unique to this region. Her garden was awarded Gold Habitat Hero status by the Audubon Rockies in 2017 as an outstanding urban wildscape.
Sven Bronckaers
My Take on a Great Tuff Wall. Growing woodland and epiphytic plants on heavy clay soil can be challenging. To overcome this, Sven built a large tuff wall that has become the most densely planted part of his garden. It now supports hundreds of ferns, gesneriads, primulas, and other woodland plants. This presentation follows the project from construction and planting to its development into a thriving vertical garden.
Sven Bronckaers has been passionate about plants and nature from a young age. His fascination began at the age of 12 when he joined the orchid association, igniting a lifelong interest in rare and extraordinary flora. Based in Belgium, a region with relatively limited plant diversity, he finds joy in traveling to explore remarkable regions and their distinct vegetation. His private garden, resembling a small arboretum, features a diverse collection of unique trees, shrubs, woodland plants, ferns, and winter-hardy orchids. Known for his broad botanical knowledge, Sven excels at identifying plant species in their natural environments. Since 2016, he has worked at the Bokrijk Arboretum, one of Belgium’s largest plant collections. This role provides him with daily opportunities to engage with exceptional plants, making it a dream come true for such a passionate plant enthusiast. 
Members’ Sharing Segments
One of the highlights of October Rocks! Day will be our Members’ Sharing Segments—short, informal opportunities for members to share something they’re excited about in their gardens.
Do you have an interesting plant, a long-blooming perennial, a gardening tip, a recent success (or failure!), or a rock garden question you’d like to share? We’d love to hear from you!
Send your idea or question to vicepresident@rmc-nargs.org. You can share it yourself, or, if you prefer, we can present it for you.
Free Drawings
Enter your name for a chance to win one of our free drawing prizes! We’ll have 50th Anniversary T-shirts, a copy of Marcia Tatroe’s Cutting Edge Gardening in the Intermountain West, and more fun prizes.
Tickets
The venue is Gates Hall, which has a maximum capacity of 90 attendees. To ensure you have a seat and to help us plan for refreshments, print the appropriate number of handouts, and arrange enough seating, please reserve your ticket in advance.
Please send an email to Katy at vicepresident@rmc-nargs.org if you need help with the booking.