November 27, 2001: Illinois/Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference, Holiday Inn, Bettendorf, Iowa. Fee: $40/person; 3 or more, $36/person (includes lunch). Topics include the 2001 pumpkin year in review; avoiding disaster in early tomato production; strategies to maintain fruit and vegetable quality; marketing the farm; bramble and strawberry disease update; natural and biological control of apple insects; cover crops for nonchemical weed control in vegetable production. For more information, call Martha Smith, Macomb Extension Center, (309)836-3366.

November 27--29, 2001: North Central Turfgrass Exposition, Pheasant Run Resort, St. Charles. Sessions cover turf and landscape maintenance issues along with a trade show. For more information, call the Illinois Turfgrass Foundation at (847)706-6750.

January 4, 2002: Southern Illinois Bedding Plant School for bedding plant growers, garden center operators, and master gardeners at Southwestern Illinois College, Belleville. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fee: $10 at door. Call Ron Cornwell at (618)692-9434.

February 5 and 6, 2002: Pro Hort Symposium, Holiday Inn City Centre, Peoria, for those in the landscape, nursery, lawn care, grounds maintenance, golf, or garden center industries. Twelve sessions cover perennials, roses, trees, native plants, ornamental grasses, fertilization, compaction, diseases, insects, biotechnology, nomenclature, and marketing. Fee: $100. For more information, visit www.prohort.org or call (888)525-3900.

February 19 and 20, 2002: Southern Illinois Grounds Maintenance School, Gateway Convention Center, Collinsville. Programs for nurserymen, garden center operators, arborists, parks and recreation employees, golf course employees, and all others working in grounds maintenance. Many sessions also in Spanish; school features a large trade show. Fee: $50, advance registration required. Call Ron Cornwell at (618)692-9434. A copy of the program and the registration form can be downloaded from the Web site: web.extension. uiuc.edu/edwardsvillecenter 2002SIGMSinformation.htm.

April 1, 2002: Spanish Grounds Maintenance for Hispanic Workers in the Grounds and Landscape Industry, Cantigny Gardens, Wheaton. Begins at 7:30 a.m.; registration $45. For more information, call Jim Schuster at (708)352-0109 or e-mail schusterj@ mail.aces.uiuc.edu.