Did you know we’ve long had gift certificates for the Friends School Plant Sale? But we didn’t have an easy way to sell them… you had to send a check to the school.

Now you can buy certificates through the school’s secure website in the following amounts: $25, $40, $50, $75 and $100.

The school office will receive your request and send a certificate to your address or directly to the address of anyone you want to honor with a gift.

We all love it when the school bus arrives on Wednesday and the student volunteers run, uh, speed-walk at maximum speed into the Grandstand to start working on the plant sale.

Their main jobs are to unload the trucks, figure out where each plant goes and put it there, water the plants, help shoppers, and clean up when the sale is over. These are real jobs, not busy work! These jobs require skill, strength, speed, common sense, perseverance, focus, teamwork, tact, and sometimes a little arithmetic. Thanks, kids, you were all great!

EVERYTHING is half price. There are lots and lots of great plants left for you to buy at the half-price sale! Remember to record the FULL price on your shopping form and leave the arithmetic to the check-out volunteers with their adding machines.

Doors open at noon, wristbands are given out at 10:00AM, and there will surely be a line to get those wristbands before 10:00AM. Remember the shopping carts are in short supply, so bring your own wagon WITH YOUR NAME ON IT.

We are also running very short of cardboard flats to carry plants, so if you possibly can, bring your own flats for carrying.

There are several dozen of most of these plants:

Perennials

Astilbe (e.g. Fanal Red P 032)
Asters (e.g. Dream of Beauty P 016)
Anemone, Fall (e.g Annabella Deep Pink P 003)
Beardtongue (e.g. Scarlet Queen P 056)
Balloon Flower (e.g. Fuji Pink P 046)
Bellflower (e.g. Octopus P 088)
Bee Balm (e.g. Garden View Scarlet P 070)
Butterfly Weed (e.g. P 133)
Hardy Cactus (e.g. Prickly Pear P 142)
Columbine (e.g. Songbird P 181)
Cranesbill (e.g. Johnson’s Blue )
Foxgloves (e.g. Camelot Lavender P 306)
Iris (e.g. LOTS of Louisiana Black Gamecock  P 427)
Hosta (e.g. Diamond Tiara P 369)
Hollyhocks (e.g. Peaches n Dreams P 355)
Ligularia (e.g. Rocket P 462)
Lamb’s Ear (e.g. Helene von Stein P 448)
Mums (e.g. Stardust P 511)
Monkshood (e.g. Sparks Variety P 498)
Phlox (e.g. Appleblossom P 547)
Blue Poppies P 580 including a larger size that may bloom this year
Creeping Raspberry P 601
Stonecrop (e.g. Lemon Coral P 688)
Thyme (e.g. Mother of Thyme P 698)

For the first time in a long while, we have significant numbers of water plants left.

Annuals

Alyssum A 006

Begonia (e.g. Escargot A 043)
Flowering Cabbage (e.g. Peacock Red A 072)
Coleus (e.g. Trailing Queen A 140)
Hummingbird Mint (e.g. Acapulco Rose A 251)
Tropical Hibiscus A 652A
Brush Cherry Topiaries A 641
Impatiens (e.g. Extreme White A 264)
Star Jasmine A 653 — lots!
Johnny Jump-Ups A 306
Lisianthus (Mariachi Pink A 328)
Petunias
Phormium Tom Thumb A 649
Spikes — lots! in different colors
Flowering Tobacco (Nicotiana) (e.g. Babybella A 534)
Verbena (e.g. Peaches & Cream A 558)
Zinnia (e.g. Magellan Coral A 586)
Indoor/Outdoor Succulents (e.g. Echeveria Von Pearl A 669)
Clivia A 645
Banana Siam Ruby A 638

Vegetables

Large numbers heirloom tomatoes
Seeds for beans, beets and corn
A good range of other vegetables

Herbs

Lots of basil!
Significant amounts of lavender
Smaller amounts of most of the rest of the herb list

Bulbs and Bareroots

While there were some sellouts among lilies and daylilies, there are substantial numbers left of many.

Climbing Plants

No Malabar Spinach — but a smattering of other annual vines.
Quite a number of various clematis
Perennial vines are also available in pretty significant quantities (no hops, though — they were a crop failure)

Fruit

If you’re looking to plant for food, there’s a lot at the sale for you:

All three kinds of apples are left
Hundreds of blueberries, due to their late arrival on Friday
Cranberries! both kinds
Honeyberry ‘Berry Blue’ — unfortunately, the other variety was a crop failure but plant one now so it can grow for a year and be ready when you get another variety next year
Lingonberries
Peaches
Lots of strawberries — Fragoo Pink, Honeoye, Ozark Beauty and Alpine

Shrubs and Trees

No azaleas or rhododendrons… no bamboo but most other items are still available.
In the shrubs in small pots, there are very significant numbers of the two Sunjoy Gold Barberries.
A lot of beautiful trees (not many magnolias) but there are still Japanese maples, redbuds, tamaracks and both kinds of Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick.

Roses

A nice selection, including large numbers of the cute little Miniature Angel Wings among others.

Native Wild Flowers

A broad range from the list.

So many plants, so little time!

Thousands of people made their way through the sale, buying everything from ageratum to zebra plant.

After a long wait, the blueberries finally arrived late in the afternoon, thanks to the heroic efforts of the American Blueberry Company. Varieties: Northland, Chippewa, Polaris and Tom Cat. $15.00 each, and they can be found in the fruit section, which is outside within the fence at the east end of the building.

And, of course, there were some great homemade carts in use!

The 2009 Friends School Plant Sale opens at 11 a.m. on Friday, May 8. We close at 8 p.m. today, then open up again at 10 a.m. Saturday (with restocking happening on many items before opening), then close at 6 p.m.

Sunday hours are 12 noon to 4 p.m., when everything remaining is half price!

The students, parents and many other volunteers have been working hard to get it all set up and it looks beautiful.

Due to a major shipping error on the part of a grower, we will not have any of the blueberries listed in the catalog.

We are so sorry to have to report this.

UPDATE: We believe we have found another source for blueberries, and so hope to have them at the sale by midday on Friday.

There are a number of other crop failures to report that are NOT shown here, probably amounting to at least 5 percent of what was listed in the catalog. We apologize that the information has arrived very late and is not available to you yet.

Annuals

• Lemon, Meyer Citrus x meyeri A654. We are VERY sad to report that a national quarantine on citrus plant materials means we cannot get the much-anticipated Meyer lemons. : - (
• Dusty Miller — Senecio cineraria ‘Silver Lace’ A169

Herbs

• Aloe vera H001 Pot size and price change — only available in larger pots than we had listed, details to come on increased price
• Red Shiso — Perilla

Native Wild Flowers

• Angelica — Angelica atropurpurea N002

Perennials

• Globeflower — Trollius chinensis ‘Golden Queen’ P318
• Hens and Chicks — Sempervivum ‘Twilight Blues’ P339 SUBSTITUTION ‘Classic’ — Large, gray-green, spiderweb, red tinged rosettes.
• Hens and Chicks, Mini — Jovibarba hirta arenaria P345
• Monkshood — Aconitum carmichaelli ‘Pink Sensation’ P500
• Ratstripper — Paxistima canbyi P602
• Rhubarb, Ornamental Rheum palmatum tanguticum P605 — NOT a crop failure, changing to a 2.5″ pot for $3.00 (cheaper! but smaller).

Rare and Unusual Plants

• Hybrid Lady Slipper — Cypripedium hybrida ‘Aki’ SUBSTITUTION: Philipp AND Inge (some of each)

Shrubs and Trees

• We will be very short on Yellow Horn — Xanthoceras sorbifolia S068A and S068B
• Boxwood — Buxus microphylla ‘Wintergreen’ S081
• Hydrangea, Big Leaf — Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Cityline Rio’ S093B

What can you do with a shopping cart and a video camera? (No children were involved in the making of this video.)

See all three of the Friends School Plant Sale videos on YouTube

Or you can watch the Three-Minute Plant Sale here or the 270 Degree View here.

This year’s plant sale had two pieces of major media coverage.

On Thursday before the sale, Mary V (our publicity coordinator and outside line wrangler extraordinaire), school development director Wendy Lutter, and four of our 8th graders were on KARE 11’s 4 p.m. newscast for about 5 minutes. You can read about what they said at this link and if you click the red “video” link below the photo of Mums on that page, they’ve included the video story. They also linked to the full version of our 30-Second Plant Sale video.

Mary, Wendy and the kids did a great job!

Then on Friday morning of the sale’s opening, Plant Sale founder Henry was interviewed for the Star Tribune’s Dirt on Gardening podcast. You can listen to that here (requires the Flash 8 player).

I haven’t had time to listen to this one yet but Henry says “It was interesting to hear it.” Hope you all agree!

Happy Mother’s Day!

All the rain on Saturday is good news for those who like to shop at the half-price sale on Sunday. There were quite a few plants left on Saturday night, especially annuals and shrubs.

We will be using the new wristband system on Sunday which means that, if you want to, you can come early and get your wristband, then return when the wrist-band volunteers advise you to. It is hard to predict how early you would want to get your wristband if you want to be in the first six groups of fifty, but my best guess is two hours before the sale starts.

Remember, write down the full price, and then we cut it in half at the checkout!

Here is a very partial list of the plants I noticed that were still on the shelves tonight. Many are annuals, but there were many perennials, natives, and others, including a number of plants that we have always sold out of before Sunday in the past.

Spring blooming bulbs

First, if you didn’t already see them near the Info Desk, we have potted up spring bulbs (which will quickly grow to be like those shown in the picture above in a few days to a week), originally priced at $2 for a 4″ pot, $4 for a 6″ pot, and $6 for a 7″ pot. As with everything else, you will be able to take 50% off at the register. There are tulips and hyacinths in 4 and 6″ sizes, and mixed bulb gardens in the 7″ pots. What a great Mother’s Day present!

Rare Plants

• Cohosh, Pink Spike — beautiful in the pot right now and even better in the garden
• Dogwood, Pagoda ‘Golden Shadows’
• Elm, Miniature
• several different rare Lady Slippers
• Lily, Martagon
• Peony, Scarlet
• Peony, Woody
• different Voodoo Lilies

Perennials

• many, many Hosta
• Lilies in pots: ‘Easter Morn’ & “Firey Bells’ (a great red-orange)
• Bleeding Heart, Fringed
• Burnet, Menzies’
• many different Coral Bells including ‘Caramel’ & ‘Midnight Rose’
• Coneflower ‘Kim’s Knee High’
• Pickerel Rush (a water plant)

Climbers

• Morning Glories

Native Wild Flowers
Generally a not bad assortment, but here are the ones that are most available:

• Beardtongue, Large Flowered (our cover plant from 2006, see the photo below!)
• Cardinal flower in four packs
• Culver’s Root
• Stiff Goldenrod
• Wood Lily (these are tiny seedlings)
• Labrador Violet
• Virginia Bluebells — lots! This usually sells out way before this time.
• Wild Ginger (Ramsey County source)
• Hepatica, Sharp-Lobed
• Meadow Rue, both types
• Rue Anemone — lots! Buy this, it’s a great spring woodland ephemeral. (Pat says: The ones I bought last year are blooming right this minute)
• Solomon’s Seal, Starry (Ramsey County source)
• Trout Lily — these are dormant in the pots

Photo by Pat, taken next to the Goodwill in St. Paul’s Midway, summer 2005.

Herbs

• A good variety of lavenders

Annuals

• Black-Eyed Susan ‘Cherokee Sunset’
• Bells of Ireland
• many different Begonia
• lots of Alyssum
• Ageratum
• several different Amaranths
• Artichoke, Globe
• Asparagus Fern
• Bachelor’s Buttons ‘Midnight’ & ‘Blue Boy’
• lots of great Coleus, including ‘Dr. Wu’ and ‘Colleen’
• Cockscomb ‘Star Trek Rose’
• Calendula
• Flowering Cabbage
• annual Butterfly Flower
• Butterfly Bush, annual, ‘Pink Delight’
• lots of Dusty Miller
• lots of various Cosmos
• Daisy, Blue-Eyed, ‘Pumpkin Pie’
• Dahlia ‘Mystic Illusion’
• lots of various Impatiens
• Hibiscus, annual ‘Maple Sugar’ (looks like Japanese Maple!)
• Grass, Ruby
• Grass, Bunny Tails
• Golden Dewdrop
• Globe Amaranth purple
• many different fancy leaf Geraniums
• Gaura
• different Fuchsia
• lots of different Pansies and Johnny Jump-Ups
• lots of different Nasturtium
• several different Nemesia
• lots of different Snapdragons
• lots of different Salvias, including Black and Blue, which is wonderful for hummingbirds
• Aeonium including ‘Zwartkop’!!!!
• Kalanchoe Flapjack
• Mandevilla, Red & Pink
• Golden Trumpet Vine
• Kangaroo Paws, both colors
• Elephant Ears
• Bananas
• Clivia
• Venus Fly Traps in cute little containers

Shrubs and Trees

• Azaleas (Lilac, Mandarin and Western Lights especially)
• PJM Rhododendrons (especially Compacta)
• Buffaloberry
• Hibiscus, Christi — this is was developed by the Cockers of Rochester, Minn. The plants are still dormant (Hibiscus “wake up” very late!) but they will bear beautiful 6–8″ ruby red flowers!
• An assortment of Lilacs, including a few of the grafted and weeping ones
• Royal Star magnolias
• American Chestnut and Cucumber Magnolias — both these great U.S. native trees are immature looking in the pot, but have good root systems and will grow into great additions in your landscape
• Locust, Purple Robe — large pots (5 gallon) and quite tall for transporting, but these are beautiful trees (wonderful flowers), great for smaller yards!
• There is one Redbud left — don’t fight over it! (We’re Quakers)
• An assortment of the small shrubs — lots of Weigela (My Monet !!! and Red Prince especially)
• The native groundcover shrub Kinnikinnick (a late addition we weren’t expecting, in gallons)

Roses

• Golden Wings
• Rosa Glauca
• William Baffin climber, believe it or not

[Additional reporting “from the field” by Pat]