t Poulsbo, Hansville garden clubs put on plant sale paradise.
NORTH KITSAP — It’s finally starting to feel like spring. This weekend annual area garden club plant sales offer deals and expertise to brighten up those flower beds, neglected and derelict from prolonged winter weather.
Whether closer to Poulsbo or Hansville today, check out the locally grown plants and seedlings and even pick up a flower arrangement for a last-minute Mother’s Day gift.
Poulsbo Garden
Club plant sale
Unfazed by recent cold blasts, the Poulsbo Garden Club is hosting its biggest event of the year today. A wide variety of plants grown in the private gardens of its more than 50 members will be on sale starting at 9 a.m.
Joined by a few blooms donated from the Dragonfly and Foxglove nurseries, these plants promise great deals, despite the growing slowdown that’s occurred this spring.
“We’re not going to have a lot of blooming plants to show that normally might be ready to go this time of year,” said event chair Marilyn Stuart Pendleton, adding the April snow hit some gardens hard.
Still, plants that may not yet have bloomed will be presented with photos of their full-grown potential, and growers will be able tell buyers what kind of bloom they can expect.
Hobbyists and master gardeners will also take on inquiries about sun, shade and what other care plants need. Stuart Pendleton said the sale isn’t a marigolds and geraniums kind of event, but instead high-quality, hard-to-find flora will be available — and at a rate that’s “phenomenal.”
“The real thing of the sale is how well-priced the plants are,” she said. “There’ll be a good variety of plants and knowledgeable gardeners on hand.”
European market baskets, designed especially to be perfect Mother’s Day gifts, will be added to the sale this year. This is the Poulsbo Garden Club’s 10th year in existence.
Hansville’s Flotsam Jetsam Garden Club plant sale
The Greater Area Hansville Community Center is also hosting its jungle of purchasable plants from locals and master gardeners.
With more than 200 members donating 10 plants each from their gardens, the Floatsam and Jetsam plant sale is huge, said member Gail Mitchell.
“We had 4,000 items last year and everything sold out by noon,” she said. “You have to come early — in the first hour — because the plants are snatched up.”
Co-chair Shirley Swisher compared the sale to shopping during Macy’s Day at Christmas for the first hour.
“Oh my goodness, we have several thousand people who show up between 9 and noon,” Swisher said. “We are very busy.”
Everything from indoor and outdoor plants, vegetables and herbs, annuals and perennials, and cut flower arrangements will be available for purchase. All are marked with care tags.
Mitchell said the local plant sales are the best places to get unusual plants.
“You get plants that you don’t normally get at nurseries or you would pay a lot for them,” Mitchell said. “Because we grow them in our own gardens the prices are a lot lower.”
She said the top price people can expect for a plant is $20.
Mitchell said for novices, master gardeners will bring their expertise and answers to growing questions. She has simple advice for beginners.
“If you want instant color, get annuals. If you want something to stay for a while, plant perennials.”
If shoppers get hungry and need an energy boost, a bake sale will also be taking place inside the community center.
Some of the proceeds from the plant sale go to scholarships and grants.
Scholarships are open to high school seniors and college students pursuing a degree in the horticultural field, Mitchell said.
Grants are allocated for horticultural projects in North Kitsap.
A raffle and silent auction offers unusual things club members have donated as well as garden equipment and gardening books.
“This is our big function of the year and all members participate,” Swisher said. We all look forward to it. We prepare for this specific event all year.”
