GET GROWING
What: New Westminster Horticultural Society annual garden sale
Where: New Westminster Armoury, 530 Queens Ave.
When: Sunday, May 6, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The New Westminster Horticultural Society is hoping for a sellout at the last of its giant plant sales.
The society's annual plant sale is taking place on Sunday, May 6 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Armoury at 530 Queens Ave. Since its early days in Royal Square mall, the sale has blossomed and has been forced to relocate to larger venues.
"This is the last hurrah for us at this one," said Anna Camporese, who is the group's day-of-sale coordinator. "We are not taking any plants home. We really want to have a sellout."
For many years, New Westminster resident Audrey Barnes has been coordinating the plant sale, a time-consuming and exhausting process that involves working long days from February until April. Originally the sale was a smaller event held in the mall.
"It's grown into this," Barnes said of the event that's now held at the Armoury. "I think my first one was 15 years ago when we were down at the mall."
Last year, Barnes informed the club that 2012 would be her final year of organizing the giant plant sale.
"Last year was hard for me to do it," she explained. "I am 65 now. I felt it was time. I said I can do one more. I can remember when it was balmy in the spring, doing this in shorts and T-shirts."
In recent years, cooler and wetter spring weather has delayed the growth of plants for the sale, which means even more work must be crammed in closer to the sale day. For several weeks leading up to the sale, Barnes is often working from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
"That's what it's like until the sale," she said. "People drop off plants. We make sure we have IDs. We receive plants. We divide plants into trays. At the end of the day I do an inventory of the ones we planted that day."
Plants are moved from one area of Barnes' home to another - to make way for the next onslaught of donations of plants from club members. By the day of the sale, there's barely room to move in Barnes' yard.
"We actually groom every plant and cull plants," she added. "These are the best ones."
In addition to accepting donations, separating plants and making master tags, Barnes also grows plants from seed that she contributes to the sale.
Back when the spring weather was balmier, the sale was held at the much smaller venue at Royal Square.
One of those sales at Royal Square has made a Top 10 Memories list that Barnes is com-piling about the New Westminster Horticultural Society's plant sale. Local media coverage of the event helped attract a record number of people to the sale, many armed with G grocery carts for tminster hauling their purchases.
"It was like a freight train coming toward us," Barnes laughed about the sound of shoppers and carts rushing to the plant sale. "We just scattered to our areas."
When renovations were taking place at Royal Square, the plant sale moved to Glenbrook Middle School. It outgrew that space and moved to the Armoury three years ago.
Through the years, the New Westminster Horticultural Society has sold 1,100 to 1,200 different varieties of plants at its annual sale. Thousands of plants have found their way to new homes through the sale.
This year's sale includes a good selection of shrubs, roses, lilacs, hydrangeas, perennials, grasses, ground covers, vegetables grown from seed, and edibles including rhubarb, herbs, garlic and straw-berries. Some six-inch tall monkey trees, which have yet to grow branches, will be for sale.
Barnes favourite plant is a mouse plant, one that she grows in her own garden.
"It looks like a little mouse," she said. "It's a woodland plant. It's very popular with kids. We have them every year."
Although this year is the last of the club's giant sales, the New Westminster Horticultural Society is offering a couple of new additions to the event.
"For the first time ever we are having a free table," Camporese said. "That is something we have never had before."
The free table will features some smaller plants that don't fit into the sale's regular price points, or plants that have been culled but will still grow.
While adults shop for plants, children can keep busy colouring some horticultural drawings. It's another new addition to this year's sale.
"We are going to have colouring for kids," Camporese said. "In our club there is a sketch group. We have asked the sketch group to do some original drawings the kids could colour."
Barnes has "loads" of memories of the New Westminster Horticultural Society's giant plant sales but knows it's time to scale back her workload.
"For the club it is going to be missed," she said. "All the club members are involved in the sale. It's an identity thing for the club. I think they are going to miss that. It's a big project that they are involved in."
Barnes is quite confident that the New Westminster Horticultural Society will offer plant sales in the future, but they'll probably be on a smaller scale. She thinks "theme sales" that focus on items like winter vegetables, shrubs or tomatoes may have potential - and will take a lot less time to plan and organize.
For more information about the New Westminster Horticultural Society, visit www.newwesthortsociety.org.
