New at the Spring Plant Sale: Container Planting Demonstration
Debbe Peck offers some planting tips
by Jonah Holland, PR & Marketing Coordinator, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
Lewis Ginter’s Spring Plant Sale is almost here! I just talked to the Garden’s Volunteer Coordinator, Darlene VanLaan, and she reminded me — this is a hugely popular event! Plant enthusiasts line up long before the sale starts to be the first to get a peek at this year’s plant offerings and to have first selection. So this year we’d added something new while folks are waiting for the plant sale to open.
Lewis Ginter’s own Debbe Peck will discuss which small trees and shrubs make the best container plants and she’ll conduct a demo while plant enthusiasts are waiting for the sale to open. Debbe, is a buyer in the Garden Shop. She loves plants and she used to own a nursery herself.
The planting demonstration is both Thursday and Friday at 12:30 p.m., the plant sale opens at 1 p.m. on Thursday and at 9 a.m. both Friday and Saturday.
Lots of work goes into preparing for this sale. The volunteers are simply amazing (did I mention that this week is National Volunteer Appreciation Week!) Lewis Ginter had 512 active volunteers in 2009 and 40 of them will be working during the 3-day plant sale. Many volunteers have nurtured and propagated the plants sold at Garden’s Spring and Fall Plant Sales. We have a very dedicated group that grows and cares for these plants in the months leading up to the sale, they plant from seed, replant perennials when the Garden’s staff divides them, and salvage amaryllis and other bulbs and lilies from the displays in the Conservatory when possible.
Garden members often say they love this event, because it is an opportunity to find some great plants that they can’t buy at their local hardware store. Plus we’ll have Master Gardeners offering technical advice and answering questions, so if they want to try something new, there are experts on hand to advise them.
In addition to the Garden’s main tented selling area, we will also host 37 vendors, selling their plants as well.
A few featured selections:
Proven Winner® Color Choice® donations
- Invincibelle (TM) Spirit Hydrangea: repeat blooms
- Ghost (TM) Weigela: lemony foliage turns iridescent in summer
- My Monet (TM) Weigela: dwarf mounded with bright pink flowers
- Dwarf Blue Buddleia: only blue-flowering on the market
Volunteers’ special annuals, perennials & tropical plantsDirector’s SelectionTrees
- Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia): red flowers on a heat-tolerant small tree
- Seven Son Flower (Hepticodium miconioides): small unique tree with 3 seasons of ornamental interest
- Silver Linden (Tilia tormentosa): fast growing shade tree with very fragrant blossoms
- Magnolias for Central Virginia: 3 named species and 3 very different species