On a cool Tuesday morning, Jessie Panek, Barbara Heim, and Connie Grabowy set up behind the Westward Orchards farm stand to pot plants for the upcoming Garden Club plant sale. (Photos by Lisa Aciukewicz)
Every year in May, the Garden Club Plant Sale comes up on the Common like a long-lived and reliable perennial. It will bloom this year on Saturday, May 17, from 9 a.m. to noon, rain or shine. Gardeners eager to put the winter behind them will find a wide selection of annuals, vegetables, herbs, and—of course—perennials for both sun and shade.
From asters to zucchini
The selection of perennials changes each year, depending on what Garden Club members dig and divide from their own gardens. Old-fashioned garden favorites such as bleeding heart, peonies, iris, asters, and daylilies are almost always available. Customers can also find some rare and unusual specimens. In past years, these have included exotic forms of jack-in-the-pulpit, hellebores, and epimediums.
Karen Green pots bachelor buttons.
Besides these Harvard-hardy perennials, the sale also features colorful annuals for containers, hanging baskets, or garden beds. For the vegetable garden, choices include several member-tested varieties of tomatoes as well as many other flavorful favorites. And herbs are always in such high demand that they often sell out early in the sale.
Behind the scenes
All this bounty rests on weeks of work by Garden Club members. As early as February, they gather at a planning session to organize the committees in charge of each aspect of the sale.
In mid-April, potting teams (often scarved and gloved against the chilly weather) begin to divide and pot up the perennials that members and friends have donated. Plant donations from nonmembers are welcome. The Garden Club will send a digging team to help anyone who wants to donate some plants that need division or just need a new home. (Call Pam Marston, 978-456-3657.)
By the day of the sale, time and sunshine and care have worked their magic. Divisions that started out small and scraggly have added roots and top growth, so that they are ready to adapt to new locations.
Proceeds go to civic projects
The Plant Sale is the Garden Club’s main fundraiser. Proceeds go to a range of projects around town: window boxes on public buildings; plantings around the war memorials; the entry garden at the library; educational programs that are open to the public; book donations to the library; and holiday greens arrangements for people who are housebound.
Marty Green and Carlene Phillips are members of the Harvard Garden Club.
