by Carlene Phillips ·
Friday, May 8, 2026
Garden Club members work together to prepare for the annual plant sale, re-potting a variety of plants. From left: Mary Maxwell, Maureen Remeika, Maura Visconsi, Kathleen Turnbull, and Betsy Morton. (Photo by Hannah Taylor)
Whether you’re just starting a garden or looking to complement what you already have, you’ll find what you need at the Garden Club of Harvard’s annual plant sale Saturday, May 16, from 9 a.m. to noon, behind Westward Orchards farm store, 178 Mass Ave. There’s plenty of parking, and volunteers from the Lions Club will be on hand to direct traffic.
Many residents will remember the “old days” when, starting in 1958, the Garden Club plant sale was held on the Common—where parking is not so easy. The four weeks of potting were done at Westward Orchard’s farm on Oak Hill Road, and all the plants had to be transported the morning of the sale. Starting a bit after dawn, club members, and recruited kids and spouses, loaded plants into trucks and SUVs that made a procession down the hill and then circled back to reload. Members on the Common unloaded the vehicles and ferried plants to appropriate tables. In 2018, Westward’s Karen Green, a Garden Club member, offered the club the use of land behind the store for both potting and the sale itself. Everything became much easier. But regardless of location, most things have remained unchanged.
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. And, most importantly, you’ll have plenty of knowledgeable club members eager to answer questions and give valuable ideas and tips.
Jane Vasta and Maureen Remeika are chairs of the sale for a second time, joined this year by Beth Conlon-Smith. Notebooks of plant sale instructions are passed from old to new chairs, and even while it’s still winter, planning begins. Vasta said there are so many details to attend to, but this year she and Remeika had a better grasp on the timing and things ran smoothly. Starting in early April, members show up in the cold, the wet, and the hot sun three times a week to pot up donations from members’ gardens. Conlon-Smith said of the workshops, “There is a sense of community, neighborliness, and interest in helping that makes the whole thing magical.”
At the sale, signs will guide you to locations of different categories of plants. Perennials are alphabetized, and each plant will have two sticks in it. A white stick will identify the plant with a clear label giving name (both Latin and common) 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.
At the location for sun-loving perennials, you’ll find varieties of daylily, primrose, iris, phlox, Shasta daisy, peony, Solomon’s seal, geranium, catmint, and many more. For shade, there are plants like astilbe, bleeding heart, and snakeroot. Because all perennials have been dug from Harvard gardens, shoppers can be sure they’ll also thrive in theirs. Most of them will not yet be in bloom, but there are pictures, and club members will be on hand to describe what they’ll look like and how to care for them.
Vasta said there is a larger than usual number of shrubs this year, including Montauk daisy, forsythia, various hydrangea, roses, and Rose of Sharon. The club encourages the use of native plants, and at a separate table, you’ll find bee balm, sedums, asters, and pink and white bleeding heart. A specialties table holds varieties of trillium and 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 with advice.
Vegetables, grown from seed, are from Cavicchio Greenhouses for the first time this year. They include a variety of tomatoes, greens, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, and varieties of squash. Dug from a member’s garden, rhubarb is great for pie, and walking onion is another perennial.
For cooking, remedies, and fragrance, choose from a variety of herbs, grown for the club by Herbs & Harvest in Groton, including parsley, sage, cilantro, dill, thyme, Thai and sweet basil, and lavender. A popular herb is marjoram, which is like a mild oregano. Mojito is also called Hemingway mint and is used in cocktails. It is fairly tall, blooms bright purple, and attracts insects. There are also perennial herbs from members’ gardens—spearmint, applemint, and, new this year, limemint. Remeika is donating some bearded, pale blue iris, the root of which has medicinal uses.
When you’re ready for checkout, 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.
Before heading out for good, you might want to pamper your purchases by picking up a bag of “magic beans” produced from the alpacas at Harvard Alpaca Ranch. The manure is free of weeds and requires no aging. It provides nutrients for plants, 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 if it rains. “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”