If you have held off buying plants until now, you will be justly rewarded at the Garden Club of Harvard’s annual plant sale, Saturday, May 17, from 9 a.m. to noon, behind the Westward Orchards farm store, 178 Mass Ave.
There’s plenty of parking. The sale is timed so that whatever you buy—shrubs, perennials, annuals, herbs, or veggies—can go right into the ground with almost no danger of a hard frost. Prices are lower than what you’d find at most nurseries, especially for perennials. But most importantly, you’ll have plenty of knowledgeable club members eager to answer questions, give valuable ideas and tips, and help you plan what to plant where.
‘The people are what makes it’
Members Jane Vasta and Maureen Remeika stepped forward to chair this year’s sale. In a conversation at a recent damp and chilly potting workshop, Remeika said, “It’s a lot of work in a short duration.” She said she’s learned a lot about plants,“but the people are what makes it.”
Starting in early April, faithful, diligent workers have shown up in the cold, the wet, and the hot sun to pot donations from members’ gardens. People have brought coffee, music—there was dancing—and cake. After three weeks of potting, the club should reach its goal of 1,000 perennials and shrubs for the May 17 sale.
At the sale, signs will guide you to locations of different categories of plants. The sale is well organized, and it’s easy to navigate. Perennials are alphabetized, and each pot will have two sticks in it. A white stick will identify the plant with a clear label giving name and growing conditions. The colored stick is a price stick and corresponds to a color-coded price list posted in three or four locations around the sale area. Annuals, herbs, and veggies have their separate locations, and their prices are more uniform.
Workhorse perennials, colorful annuals
At the location for sun-loving perennials, you’ll find different varieties of daylily, primrose, iris, phlox, Shasta daisy, catmint, spurge, grasses, penstemon, and many, many more. A member made a donation of several peony festiva maxima, a light-pink color, and rhubarb is waiting to be made into pie.
For shade, there are plants like astilbe, bleeding heart, and snakeroot, a woodland plant that grows to about 5 feet and, despite its name, gives off a fragrance. Merrybells is a tall, arching plant with yellow flowers.
An assortment of shrubs includes kerria, andromeda, Annabelle hydrangea, roses, and Japanese maple. The club is committed to encouraging the use of native plants that attract pollinators, like bees and butterflies, and at a separate table, you’ll find natives like bee balm, sedums, asters, and pink and white bleeding heart. A specialties table holds trillium and a woodland peony, among others.
If you’re impatient for color right now, you can buy your fill of annuals to go right into the garden. The wide selection of blooming plants comes from Lancaster Gardens. Geraniums and petunias are always popular, but there will also be some more unusual offerings. Thinking past the summer to houseplants, a selection is available, most of them grown by a knowledgeable member of the club who will be on hand all morning to guide buyers on how to care for each plant.
Herbs and veggies
Vegetable plants, grown from seed, are from Herbs & Harvest in Groton. They include a wide variety of tomatoes, chosen for taste and disease resistance, early greens like arugula, several choices of peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, and varieties of squash. Nasturtiums, which are classified as both an herb and a vegetable, are cheerful flowers in shades of yellow and orange. They make an attractive and spicy addition to salads, and the hummingbirds love them.
For cooking, remedies, and fragrance, choose from a variety of herbs, also grown for the club by Herbs & Harvest, including parsley, sage, cilantro, dill, thyme, and lavender. Of all the herbs at the sale, it is basil that always sells out. Member MaryAnn Piasecki has ordered Thai basil for the first time, which she said has a stronger, spicier flavor than sweet basil. Members often donate peppermint and spearmint, which Piasecki says is “the mother of all mints.” Mojito, from Herbs & Harvest, is also called Hemingway mint and is used in cocktails. It is fairly tall, blooms bright purple, and attracts insects.
When you can’t carry any more plants, you’ll head for the tallying table, located just before the cashiers at the exit of the sale. A club member will add the prices of your plants and give you a slip with the total amount you owe. Pay that to the cashier—cash, credit card, or check made out to GCH—take your purchases to your car, and return for more plants.
Before heading out for good, you might want to pamper your purchases by picking up a bag of “magic beans” produced from the happy alpacas at Harvard Alpaca Ranch. The manure is free of weeds and requires no aging. In addition to providing nutrients for plants, it improves soil texture and helps with water retention. Also pick up a tick remover and information from the Board of Health table.
The Garden Club is a nonprofit service organization, and proceeds from the sale go to landscaping projects and seasonal plantings around town, a garden therapy program, book donations and weekly flower arrangements for the library, educational programs to which the public is welcome, flowers for Bromfield’s graduation, an education grant, and donations to local organizations dedicated to horticulture or conservation.
The sale happens regardless of the weather. While not optimal for shoppers, the plants will be happy even if it rains.
