No matter how long or relentlessly cold the winter, spring always comes, and so does the Bangor Garden Show, one of the Queen City’s most treasured institutions. Just when you think you can’t stand another chilly, gray, muddy day, a vast space magically fills up with warmth, color, fragrance – an explosion of greenery and flowers.

Sponsored by Keep Bangor Beautiful, the show will be held April 11-13 at the Bangor Auditorium and Civic Center. Hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets cost $8 per adult, $3 per student, with no charge for children under 5. The Preview Night Gala will be held tonight, with food, music, and a celebration of the Bangor Raceway.

In addition to more than 60 vendors and many educational displays, a full slate of lectures is offered for the three days. Among the numerous choices: On Friday, you can find out about irises, roses and greenhouses; on Saturday, butterflies and owls will be featured; and on Sunday, bonsai, trees and herbs.

Although spring comes every year, each spring is a little different, and so it is with the Bangor Garden Show.

“Every year we try to do different things,” says show chairwoman Cindy Stockford. Landscapers come up with different themes, and there is a certain turnover among the vendors. A new feature this year will be the last presentation, from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, by Margot Dale of Emily’s Herbs in Exeter, who will speak on “Herbal Remedies: Using Medicinal Herbs to Make Oils and Salves.” After her talk there will be a workshop in which participants, with hot plates and ingredients, will make herbal remedies.

Keynote speaker Roger Swain of Maine Public Broadcasting’s “The Victory Garden” will give three talks: at noon Friday (“Backyard Fruit”), 4:30 p.m. Friday (“The Gardener’s Psychic Hotline”) and at noon Saturday (“The Generous Gardener”).

Swain wants to emphasize fruit, such as strawberries, blackberries and raspberries, that we can grow in our back yards because he is convinced that the foundation of American horticulture – from Jefferson’s garden at Monticello on – was the cultivation of fine fruit. He also has a vision of gardening “as a tool to bridge the gulf between people in these fractious times – gardening invites a level of generosity that’s fairly impressive.” For example, he points out that with a single zucchini plant, “you’re a philanthropist by the first of August.”

Swain loves the Bangor Garden Show and has come back year after year.

“What delights me about the Bangor Garden Show is that people come from Caribou and Houlton and all over northern Maine,” Swain says. “You’re lucky to have that show.”

Swain vividly recalled his first visit. A severe snowstorm stranded him at Logan Airport in Boston. When he phoned to explain his plight to show organizers, the man at the next pay phone overheard the conversation, said he was driving to Houlton in his truck, and offered Swain a ride. In blizzardlike conditions, they crept along the Maine Turnpike at 25 mph, not daring to use the brakes. Swain arrived at the show at 11 p.m. The ladies in charge were still there, he said. They had taken off their shoes and stockings and were standing barefoot on the grass.

Another key speaker is Barbara Damrosch of Four Seasons Farm in Brooksville, who will discuss “Growing and Cooking Fresh From the Garden Year-Round” at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Damrosch and her husband, Eliot Coleman, have a number of greenhouses in which they cultivate salad and root crops all year. The greenhouses are powered by solar heat. “We choose crops that like to grow in cool weather,” Damrosch said. She will show recipes in her slide show, which is aimed at the home gardener, and talk about cold frames and “all kinds of ways to put up small and inexpensive” greenhouses.

Another highlight will be a roundtable on trees at 1 p.m. Sunday. Three arborists – Mike DeBonis of the Maine Forest Service, Mark Lamberton of Bangor Hydro, and Pat Audet of the Maine Arborist Association – will give their perspectives, leaving time for discussion and questions.

Stockford is especially proud of the Children’s Room, which she said was identified as the best children’s room in New England by People, Places and Plants magazine. This year the Children’s Room will have as its theme “The Three Sisters: Native American Gardening,” directed by Gretchen Faulkner of the Hudson Museum in Orono. Known for its kid-friendly, hands-on displays, the Children’s Room will offer experiences with basket making, carving and drumming. Southwestern pottery seed jars, Navajo textiles with plant motifs, and American Indian additions will be displayed. Children will have a chance to pot pansies and marigolds, Stockford said.

Bangor Garden Show events

Thursday, April 10

. 6-9 p.m. Preview Night Gala sponsored by Bangor Raceway and University of Maine’s College of Natural Sciences. April 9 was the deadline for purchasing tickets.

Friday, April 11

. 11 a.m. “Hybridizing Irises,” Sharon Hayes Whitney, master gardener at University of Maine Extension Service.

. Noon. “The Man in the Red Suspenders,” “Victory Garden” host Roger Swain, speaking about backyard fruit.

. 1:30 p.m. Gleason Gray, Penobscot County Cooperative Extension, “Master Gardeners Program.”

. 2:30 p.m. Bob Bangs, Windswept Gardens, “Reliable Roses for Northern Maine.”

. 3:30 p.m. Denis Roessiger, Eastern Maine Orchid Society, “So You Think You Want to Have a Greenhouse!”

. 4:30 p.m. Roger Swain, “The Gardener’s Psychic Hotline.”

. 6:30 p.m. “Hands-on Flower Arranging, ” Bangor Floral’s Phil Fredrick, ($5 fee materials fee per participant).

Saturday, April 12

. 9 a.m. “Selecting and Growing Daylilies for the Home Garden,” Dick Keen, Keen’s Perennial Pleasure Daylilies of Sullivan.

. 10 a.m. “British Delphiniums,” Steve Palmer, Plainview Farm.

. 11 a.m. “Maine Butterflies & Plants That Attract Them,” Pat Snyder, Fields Pond Nature Center, and Gail Everett.

. Noon. “The Generous Gardener,” Roger Swain.

. 1:30 p.m. “Native Plants,” Kerry Hardy, Merryspring Gardens.

. 2:30 p.m. “Growing & Cooking Fresh From the Garden Year-Round,” Barbara Damrosch, Four Seasons Farm.

. 3:30 p.m. “Four Seasons Arrangements for the Home,” Bert Johnson, Johnson Florist.

. 5 p.m. “Live Owls,” Stan Richmond, BirdsAcre Sanctuary.

. 6:30 p.m. “Hands-on Flower Arranging,” Phil Frederick, Bangor Floral, ($5 materials fee per participant).

Sunday, April 13

. 10 a.m. “Preserving Historic Gardens,” Lee Dassler, McLaughlin’s Gardens.

. 11 a.m. “How to Grow a Happy Bonsai,” Ernie Glabau, Entwood Farm & Nursery.

. Noon. “My Favorite Maine Gardens,” Paul Tukey, People, Places and Plants magazine.

. 1 p.m. Tree Roundtable, presented by Mike DeBonis, Maine Forest Service; Mark Lamberton, Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. arborist; and Pat Audet, Maine Arborist Association. Presentations by each speaker with time for questions and discussion.

. 2-4 p.m. “Herbal Remedies: Using Medicinal Herbs to Make Oils & Salves,” Margot Dale, Emily’s Herbs. After presentation, there will be a small hands-on workshop where participants will make herbal products. Materials fee of $5 per participant.

. 4-5 p.m. Awards & Closing Ceremony and Reception, sponsored by Bangor International Airport and Pan Am.

For more information about the Bangor Garden Show, call Keep Bangor Beautiful at 990-1201 or visit www.bangorgardenshow.com. For tickets, call 990-4444.