Merrifield to host open house this weekend

To celebrate its new location in Gainesville, Merrifield Garden Center will host an open house Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The new garden center, nursery and landscaping company is located at 6895 Wellington Road in Gainesville, at the corner of Wellington Road and Merrifield Garden Way.

"This is an exciting time for our company, and on behalf of the Warhurst and Williams families and all the members of the Merrifield family, we welcome gardeners from throughout the area to join us for an open house at our beautiful new nursery in Gainesville," said Bob Warhurst, co-owner with his partner Buddy Williams. "We built this new store to better serve our customers with an even bigger selection of plants and accessories for the home and garden, and so far we have been thrilled with the public's response."

The 40-acre nursery features a 37,000-square foot greenhouse with a retractable glass roof, an 11,000-square foot store and two large annual and perennial houses, which are filled with plants and gardening supplies. The facility offers accents for the home and garden, including a florist, a gift shop, a selection of cheeses and more than 250 varieties of wine from vineyards around the world.

The site also features Prince William County's first dog park. Following frequent requests from customers, the store now carries premium dog food and pet products.

The open house will include food, door prizes, tours, hayrides, free gardening seminars, special offers, garden ex-perts to answer questions and various other activities for the entire family.

Some of the activities for the open house include:

n Free gardening seminars on Saturday by perennial expert, author and lecturer Stephanie Cohen. Her first talk at 10 a.m. will be on "Designing with Perennials" and the second talk at 1 p.m. will be on "Good Perennials from Spring to Fall."

Cohen will also sign copies of her books, including "The Perennial Gardner's Design Primer."

n Free landscaping seminar on Sunday at 1 p.m. by Josh Dean, one of Merrifield's award-winning landscape designers. He'll discuss "Waterfalls, Fountains and Ponds."

n Landscape designers will be on hand to help people plan their gardens. In addition, there will be plant specialists and manufacturers' representatives to answer questions and showcase various products.

Merrifield Garden Center has been serving Virginia, Maryland and Washington for more than 38 years. The original store opened at the corner of Lee Highway and Gallons Road in Merrifield in 1971 and started the second location in Fairfax in 1988.

Staff writer Bennie Scarton Jr. can be reached at 703-369-6707.