Spring plant sale offers roses, daisies, more

Published 9:02 pm Thursday, April 14, 2011

There will be plants available for all different levels and types of gardeners at the Suffolk Master Gardeners Association annual spring plant sale April 30.

“We have plants for everybody,” association president Wanda Gerard said.

The spring sale will feature easy-to-care-for perennials, such as roses, which are plants that live for two or more years.

The sale will take place 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in front of the National Guard Armory on Godwin Boulevard. No rain date is scheduled.

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Only cash and checks with ID will be accepted at the sale.

The spring sale will feature easy-to-care-for perennials, which are plants that live for two or more years.

“These (plants) are pretty easy,” she said. “They require some work if you want them to bloom a second year.”

The sale will offer plants from nurseries as well as from the gardens of the Master Gardeners themselves.

“Some of the stuff we buy from a wholesale nursery, but the majority of it is from our own gardens,” Gerard said.

There will be rosemary bushes, black-eyed Susans, shasta daisies, coneflowers, day lilies and many more plants. Some herbs, such as mint, will be sold as well.

Because some of the plants are coming from the Master Gardeners’ own gardens, people will be able to buy things that are unusual or hard-to-find, Gerard said.

Master gardener Sandy Muller said the plants that will be for sale are ones that are known to do well in Suffolk yards.

“Most of them are going to be ones that are easy-care and will thrive in the area,” she said.

Muller said she thinks they will have knockout rose bushes at the sale. She said knockout rose bushes, which also were offered at the fall plant sale, are beautiful and don’t require a lot of work to keep in your yard.

In addition to a large selection, there will be great prices for the plants.

“Our prices are lower than the average nursery you would go to,” Muller said.

Master Gardeners will be present at the sale to offer advice on gardening and answer any questions guests might have.

Gerard said she hopes to be able to use new software she’s acquired to show guests information on the plants they purchase.

The money collected from the sale will be used to fund community projects the Master Gardeners participate in, such as the children’s garden at Sleepy Hole Park and the donation of landscaping for a Habitat for Humanity house being constructed on Hunter Street.