epic plant sale results!
we survived the weather & the plant sale mania!
We planned and planted and grew and potted up all winter and spring. We took delivery of hundreds of stunning native and pollinator perennials from my wholesale nurseries (thank you, Van Berkum Nursery, Stonepost Nursery and Lake Street Garden Center for your generous donations!!!). We dug up and accepted hundreds of donations from private gardens (much gratitude to Kathie Breen, Carol Houde and Kap Siddall!!). We received dozens of contributions and support from local garden clubs (Amherst GC, Nashua GC, Colonial/Hollis GC). Our volunteers collected even MORE plants from Hosta A’mour, Mason Hollow, Frizzhome Gardens, Countrybrook Farms, Amherst Garden Center, Depot Farm Stand, Mahoney’s Garden Center, and House by the Side of the Road. Additional support and contributions were accepted from Nashua Farmers’ Exchange, Costco, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Ocean State Job Lot, True Value Country Stores and Market Basket - whew!
We offered our first ever online auction featuring two handmade quilts from our own CHH volunteers, Hope Gagne and Sue Wheatley and superb bluebird houses built by our own Jon Siddall (everything sold!). Galina Szakacs donated her beautiful glass and polymer clay creations and Deb Wiseman braved the weather to offer her stunning photography of birds and CHH garden pics. Our volunteers made moss and fern ‘bonsai’ pots. Marie Williams donated two stunning mid-century modern plant stands and a variety of gorgeous decorative planters that were all quite popular.
We had a good omen earlier in the day when a female box turtle proceeded to lay eggs a few feet away from our tent setup. Turtles are seen as symbols of resilience, protection, wisdom, and creativity in many cultures around the world.
The weather threatened, but didn’t deter us, and we opened the floodgates at 9:30 (we apologize to those who were ready and hoping to shop at 9:00!). Our plants were rapidly scooped up (at below retail prices!!) and in the end, we only had a few things remaining which we will happily plant in the CHH gardens.
All in all, we corralled the BEST VOLUNTEERS (including significant others) and put on a fantastic event. Our sale to benefit the gardens of Community Hospice House was a smashing success, with 300 attendees and somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 plants sold (we lost count!) We could NOT have done this without the leadership of Jean Abramson, Tanya Prather, Kathie Breen and Kerry Parsons. Thank you ladies!!
We are so incredibly grateful to all of our donors and especially our volunteers who gathered/loaded/transported/unloaded plants and tables and tents ~ and all manner of infrastructure needed to pull this off ~ into trailers (even a horse trailer!), trucks, SUVs and the Mighty Mini…and then tear it all down and return everything back to the Community Hospice House. A special shout out to St. John Neumann Parish for allowing us to use their parking lot. And our heartfelt thanks to all of you who came out in the downpour to purchase our spectacular plants! We are exhausted but gratified with the results.
This was a fantastic community event that will help sustain our gardens this year. It is one we will long remember. Now, we return to the gardens.
~ Until next time, Barb
