Coveted perennials, colorful annuals, bountiful vegetables, deer-resistant herbs, magnificent hanging baskets, rare plants, enticing garden gifts, and plants donated by garden club member gardens — the Ballard Greenhouse Plant Sale is coming up.
The annual Mother’s Day weekend sale takes place Friday and Saturday, May 8 and 9, from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. rain or shine.
Since the depths of winter, plant sale chairs Carolyn Foster and Douglas Coombs (Caudatowa Garden Club) and Margaret Eustace and Whitney Freeman-Kemp (Ridgefield Garden Club), have been planning this year’s event, working with members of both clubs and Ballard Greenhouse director Marie Hale.
Thousands of plants have been grown from seed and nurtured in Ridgefield’s renowned Ballard Greenhouse, said Hale, who is celebrating her 20th plant sale this year. To have an historic and functioning greenhouse of this caliber is rare, said Ms. Hale. She said the Ballard Greenhouse is often a desired stop for horticultural experts visiting town.
This year’s plant sale features a particularly unusual perennial: intersectional Peony Bartzella. Part herbaceous peony, part tree peony, Bartzella has a shrubby, sturdy, stake-free habit, with masses of magnificent fragrant flowers. Its resistance to peony blight, its improved tolerance to heat, humidity, cold, and poor soil, and its extended bloom time make it an extraordinary plant.
Other notable perennials for sale include spring-blooming Epimedium Lilafee, with its delicate flowers, said perennials co-chair Sarah Slavin; along with Heuchera (Coral Bells), which, Ms. Slavin said, works wonderfully in borders or pots; Polygonatum (Solomon’s Seal), whose striking green/white bell-like blooms cascade down arched stems; Alstroemeria (Peruvian lily), favored for bouquets and arrangements; and a selection of potted Dahlias in dazzling colors — to name a few perennial standouts.
In addition, the popular Diggings and Donations section offers choice plants from garden club member gardens with proven track records of surviving and thriving in Ridgefield gardens.
As the number of home vegetable gardeners increases, so too has the plant sale’s offering of seed-grown vegetables and herbs. Vegetable gardeners can find everything from beans, chards, kale, lettuces, peppers, summer and winter squashes, herb plants (including lemon grass), notable basil varieties, and more.
An emphasis on heirloom tomatoes includes Brandywine (considered the most flavorful of tomatoes), Rutgers, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, German Johnson, and Abe Lincoln, along with favorites like Sun Gold cherry and Roma, a plum tomato favored for sauces.
For the container vegetable gardener, Beefsteak varieties include BushSteak, a large, flavorful tomato; several varieties of cucumber, including Bush Champion and Spacemaster; and Astia zucchini. The edible Alaska nasturtium, with vibrant blooms and variegated foliage, also makes for a decorative underplanting. The herb section includes specialties from Gilbertie’s Herb Garden as well as an extensive range of Ballard Greenhouse-grown plants.
The sale offers buyers a wide variety of Ballard Greenhouse-grown annual flowering plants to keep Ridgefield gardens full of color from summer through fall, said seeds/vegetables co-chair Sandra Dickinson. Most were also chosen for their ease and high success rate, she said.
There will be plenty of hanging baskets, floral gift baskets and hand-painted pots of flowers, foliage plants and herbs.
New this year is a raffle for a professionally designed floral container garden from Copia Home and Garden in South Salem, N.Y
As a cooperative venture run by the Caudatowa and Ridgefield garden clubs, proceeds from the sale fund scores of worthy causes, from helping cover maintenance and operational costs of historic Ballard Greenhouse to supporting civic and philanthropic projects undertaken by Garden Club members throughout the year. Projects include the design and maintenance of gardens at Lounsbury House (by Caudatowa Garden Club) and Ballard Park (by Ridgefield Garden Club); gardens developed and maintained at numerous town sites; tree and bulb planting programs; lectures and workshops; scholarships and activities in horticulture, conservation and ecology; and donations to town nonprofits.
The sale is held at Ballard Greenhouse, off Ballard Park, at 27-R Gilbert Street. Park in CVS lot. For more information, email ballardplantsale@yahoo.com