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]

A small selection of the carts from Friday morning.

The plants began arriving today. Middle school students and volunteers spent the day receiving plants from our many growers. Here are a few photos.

Above: We’ve moved the shrubs and trees outside along the front of the Grandstand.

Above: A student “section leader” looks up the names of plants so other students can shelve them.

Above: Students find time for a bit of levity as they carry out their Plant Sale duties.

Photos by Wendy Lutter.

Because of a shipping problem, the following plants will be arriving on Friday morning, hopefully by the time we open our doors at 10 a.m.

We will do our best to have them available as early as possible, but we are not sure right now what time that will be. We apologize to all those who were planning to pick these up earlier:

• A676 Yucca, Red — Hesperaloe parviflora

• A695B Flax, New Zealand — Phormium tenax ‘Jack Sprat’
• R001 Austrian Copper Rose
• R002 Blanc Double de Coubert Rose
• R003 Golden Wings Rose
• R009 Oranges and Lemons Rose
• R010 Rosa Glauca — Rosa glauca
• R014 Northern Encore Rose
• S008 Apple, Honeycrisp — Malus ‘Honeycrisp’
• S025A Bamboo, Yellow Groove — Phyllostachys aureosulcata
• S111 Locust, Purple Robe — Robinia ‘Purple Robe’
• S115A Maple, Autumn Blaze — Acer x freemanii ‘Jeffersed’
• S120 Redbud — Cercis canadensis ‘Minnesota Strain’

Here is a list of plants we know will not be available at the sale, due to a crop failure at the grower. Though this list may look substantial, remember there are just about 2,200 plant varieties in the sale, so this is just about 3% of the total.

If other crop failures become known to us, we will add them here:

Annuals

• Black-Eyed Susan — Rudbeckia ‘Chocolate Orange’ A058
• Firecracker Plant — Russelia ‘Nighlights Tangerine’ A177
• Gaura — Gaura lindheimeri ‘Bijou Butterflies’ A202
• Impatiens, Balfouri A268
• Johnny Jump Up — Viola tricolor ‘Angel Tiger Eyes’ A299
• Nemesia — Nemesia ‘Nemesis Cherry’ A410
• Pentas — Pentas ‘Pom Pom Red’ A432
• Petunia, Violet-Flowered — Petunia integrifolia A464
• Purslane, Flowering — both Mango and Salmon A479 and 480
• Turtle Vine, Callisia repens A566
• Umbrella Flower — Trachelium ‘Devotion Purple’ A571
• Verbena — Verbena ‘Escapade Bright Eye’ A581
• Papaya — Carica papaya A708

Climbers

• Black-Eyed Susan Vine — Thunbergia ‘African Sunset’ C003
• Chinese Red Noodle Bean — Vigna unguiculata ‘Red Noodle’ C010
• Grape, Bluebell — Vitis ‘Bluebell’ C073

Grasses

• Sedge, Seersucker — Carex plantaginea G015
• Feather Reed Grass — Calamagrostis acutiflora ‘El Dorado'’ G023
• Sedge, Variegated Palm — Carex muskingumensis ‘Oehme’ G043

Herbs

• Aloe — Aloe vera H001
• Patchouli — Pogostemon heyneanus H082
• Rosemary — Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Mrs. Howard’s’ H086 SUBSTITUTION Athens Blue Spire

Native Wild Flowers

• Camas, Elegant — Zigadenus elegans N022
• Baneberry, Red — Actaea rubrum N082
• Bottle Gentian — Gentiana andrewsii N032

Perennials

• Butterfly Weed, Hello Yellow — Asclepias tuberosa ‘Hello Yellow’ P132
• Cranesbill, Big Foot — Geranium macrorrhizum ‘Czakor’ P232
• Flower of Scotland — Verbascum ‘Flower of Scotland’ P296
• Foamflower — Tiarella ‘Black Snowflake’ P300
• Gas Plant, White — Dictamnus alba P314
• Hosta, Embroidery P361 — SUBSTITUTION: Blue Baron. A thick, blue-leaved host that forms a flat, spreading mound. From the originators of Blue Mouse Ears. Lavender flowers to 18″ tall. 31″ wide. 8″ tall. 4″ pot, $15.00
• Hosta, Embroidery P364
• Hosta, Shade Parade P386
• Lily, Visaversa — Lilium ‘Visaversa’ P467C
• Monkshood — Aconitum x cammarum ‘Bicolor’ P505
• Oregano, Hop-Flowered — Origanum libanoticum P532 SUBSTITUTION Origanum x ‘Amethyst Falls’. Amethyst flowers flow abundantly from ornamental hops-like cones over attractive, textured glaucous leaves. Drought-resistant; its foliage fills the garden air with its spicy scent.
• Phlox, Creeping — Phlox subulata ‘Appleblossom’ P551
• Pincushion Flower, Giant — Cephalara gigantea tatarica P569
• Rampion, Globe-Headed — Phyteuma hemisphericum P605
• Raspberry, Creeping — Rubus calycinoides P606
• Sage, Ground Cover — Artemisia viridis ‘Tiny Green’ P622
• Spurge, Cushion — Euphorbia amygdaloides x Euphorbia martinii ‘Helena’ P649
• Strawberry, Blue-Leaved — Fragaria chiolensis P689

Rare and Unusual Plants

• Bamboo, Umbrella Fargesia murieliae U001
• Witch Alder Fothergilla major ‘Blue Shadows’ U033
• Voodoo Lily — Amorphophallus henryi U040. SUBSTITUTION: Typhonium Giganteum. Also a voodoo lily like A. henryi, this Chinese aroid produces 12″ long green, arrowhead-shaped leaves in early summer. Then in midsummer, a bizarre 10″ flower spike emerges on a short stalk at ground level. Each flower is a light purple pitcher with a velvety black lining with a black spadix. 20″ tall, same pot size and price as A. henryi (3″ pot, $11.00)

Roses

• John Davis Rosa R012
Shrubs and Trees
• Juniper, Horizontal — Juniperus horizontalis ‘Blue Chip’ S039
• Lilac — Syringa ‘Bailsugar’, Sugar Plum Fairy S045
• Magnolia, Shrub-Form — Magnolia x soulantiana ‘Rustica Rubra’ S056
• Pussy Willow — Salix discolor S062
• Sweetfern — Comptonia peregrina S065
• Willow, Corkscrew — Salix S103

Vegetables

• Brussels Sprouts, Falstaff Red V008
• Edamame — Glycine max V029
• Bloody Butcher heirloom tomato V131
• Coyote heirloom tomato V141
• Ghost Cherry heirloom tomato V146
• Omar’s Lebanese heirloom tomato V159
• Black Pineapple heirloom tomato V162

We have replaced the heirloom tomatoes with some new varieties–see the list of late additions.

We’re open today at 11 a.m., until 8 p.m. We’ve been busy getting ready, with over 800 community volunteers and school parents, staff and friends pitching in.

Above: Friends School of Minnesota founder Raquel Wood helped out on Thursday, working in the hosta section.

Above: The unusual succulents that arrived on Thursday were popular with the students who helped to put them on the sale tables.

If you’re curious about what the whole sale looks like, this video shows it in a slow pan from the west end of the building (looking over the roses) to the north side where the perennials are located along the back of the room, and then around past the annuals to the south side of the room. It’s 40 seconds long.

If you haven’t already seen it, you might want to check out the Plant Sale in Three Minutes video that was posted earlier.

During the 2007 sale, we did a time-lapse photography video of the sale, starting with set up on Monday night. Through the wonders of YouTube, we’re able to post it to the web and put it here for you to see.

Note: There is no sound for the first several seconds, so don’t worry if you hear nothing until the titles end.

Remember, this view of the sale only shows about 20-25 percent of the sale floor, focusing primarily on the native wildflower and herb sections, with the hanging baskets and vegetables in the background. (You can just see the edge of the annuals, and you can’t see the climbers, roses, perennials or shrubs at all.)

Well, the 2007 sale was the place for wagon innovators to see and be seen. Here is a gallery of wagons we saw at the sale. Photos by Pat and MarySo.

Below: An L-shaped cart that accommodates three large plastic bins.

Below: A Plant Sale classic: a stroller used to carry plants.

Below: A new use for those bankers boxes!

Below: Put some plants in your inbox. Or is that the outbox?

Below: This great wagon is available from a Minnesota company, www.ursawagon.com.

Below: The classic Radio Flyer modified with containers.

Below: A new use for plastic shelving. And is that a mechanic’s dollie underneath to supply the wheels?

Below: A two-wheel hand cart, turned flat and used with improvised shelves.

Below: A gardener who is also a dog obedience trainer used what she had!

Below: This person took us seriously about labeling her wagon. And we love the use of a Minnetrista recycling bin!