By Taylor Boyd
Mountain mint and fall blooming Chrysanthemum, various hues of monarda, and other plants designed to attract pollinators and butterflies while upping the ante on curb appeal, will be among the offerings at the Patrick County Master Gardeners’ (PCMG) annual plant sale.
The sale gets underway on Saturday, April 24, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Rotary Field Building on Woodland Drive in Stuart.
Plant donations may be dropped off at the Rotary Field Building on Friday, April 23, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. or 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and labeled with name and color.
While the sale is scheduled to be held indoors, Debbie Brown, a member of the organization, said many of the plants will be moved outside, if weather permits, to help make social distancing easier for customers.
The sale has been held annually for 15 years, but like many events, it was canceled last year due to the pandemic, Brown said.
“We weren’t able to gather our group together during that time,” she recalled.
This year, Brown believes the offerings will be as plentiful and varied as during past sales.
Plants available for purchase will “include a variety of perennials, shrubs, trees, herbs, vegetables, and house plants. The bulk of the plants will be those grown and donated by members of the PCMG, who will be assisting customers at the sale,” she said.
In addition, other gardeners – like the Patrick County High School Horticulture Department – also donate plants, Brown said.
Profits made from the event are put back into the community and used to pay for the group’s projects, she said.
“We put the profits from it back into our Patrick County Master Gardener account and then use that on various projects we work on throughout the year,” Brown said. “Our proceeds all go back into the community for projects that we work on and things like that. We do many things, and one of them is we give a scholarship each year to the school for a person going into an agricultural-type field, environmental type field, or gardening related field.”
This year, the club also plans to use a portion of the profits to fund its current plans for the Uptown Stuart Garden. Members also are preparing to begin work on a community garden for the Soup Kitchen in Patrick Springs, and Brown added that some of the funds are invested in training new members.
