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.

This year we’re issuing wristbands to early-arriving plant sale shoppers on Friday and Sunday. We hope it will be the fairest and quickest way to get everyone into the Grandstand and we appreciate your patience and understanding as we give this new system a whirl.

How Will it Work?
When you arrive at the Grandstand area, look for the white tent; that’s where you’ll get your wristband. Each human arm presented will be given a wristband with a group number on it. Starting at 11 a.m., groups will enter the Grandstand in numerical order. (There will be 50 - 75 people in each group, but you won’t be snaking single-file all the way back to Ye Old Mill, so it should go faster.)

How Early Do I Have to Arrive to Get a Wristband?
You can come whenever you’d like. The sale starts at 11 a.m. Friday. We’ll be handing out wristbands by 9 a.m. If you get there before we do, just form a nice, friendly line (like you have in the past) and we’ll make sure everyone in line gets a wristband first.

Do I Have to Wait in Line for the Sale to Start?
No. Once you have your wristband, you are free to move about the Fairgrounds. Browse some of the new things we’ll have outside; go for a walk; sit in the sun, or the shade (or your car, if it’s raining).

Can I Get a Wristband for Someone Coming Later in the Morning?
Unfortunately, no. It’s one wristband per person, as you arrive. Yes, we know someone may be parking the car, but with 50 - 75 people per group, chances are their wristband will have the same group number as yours. If not, they’ll probably be entering the Grandstand about five minutes after you. The beauty of a sale this big is there’ll be plenty of plants waiting for you inside. But if you want to be sure you and your friends enter together, wait until you’re all present to get your wristbands.

What do the Wristband Colors Mean?
Wristbands are orange, blue and green. You’ll see three corresponding color-coded lanes that lead to the grandstand entrance. The wristband color just indicates what lane you’ll use when your group number is called. Our goal is to have people continuously queuing up and moving.

Confused?
Just remember, everyone in a tie-dyed shirt is a volunteer, and they’re there to help. Again, your patience, understanding and sense of humor will help us make this new system a success! Thanks in advance.

1. One-stop shopping. Annuals and perennials, rare and native plants, vegetables and herbs, trees and shrubs, vines and water plants: you can make all your plant purchases for the year at once.

2. Useful catalog and new website. You will find more information in the catalog and on the website than on most plant labels in regular nurseries. Starting this year, we are doing our best to find as many color photos of our plants as possible for you.

3. Huge variety of unusual plants. To buy the out-of-the-ordinary plants we sell, you’d have to search local nurseries, dozens of different catalogs, and many Internet sources. For instance, this year we have 33 different varieties of stonecrop, 21 coral bells, 42 coleus, 42 hosta, and 47 heirloom tomatoes. Looking everywhere for that special plant? Let us know so we can try to find it for you.

4. Logical organization. The long straight tables with numbered signs mean you can both browse without worrying that you’re missing something and also locate the plant you need because it is right where it is supposed to be. Try finding a store with a system like that!

5. Local growers. Most of our plants are grown in Minnesota and its next-door neighbors (including Canada). Our growers can often grow otherwise unavailable plants from seed just for the sale!

6. Great starter plants. Stores tend to sell older, larger plants (which is great for instant gardening), but they do cost more.

7. Unbelievable prices. Even our larger plants are inexpensive — just check on the prices in a store or nursery and you’ll see! Also, compare our last year’s prices to this year’s — we try hard not to raise them, and sometimes manage to decrease them. On Sunday, everything is half price!

8. Profit goes to school scholarships. It’s just nice to know that your money is going to a good cause. The school kids, their parents (including parents whose kids graduated long, long ago!) and school staff all contribute their time and hard work to the plant sale.

9. Community project. Hundreds of volunteers, including several who work many hundreds of hours a year on the sale, make the sale both possible and enjoyable.

10. Once-a-year, awe-inspiring event. The Friends School Plant Sale is the largest plant sale in the Midwest. It’s exciting for beginning or experienced gardeners. Shoppers tell us that they find their hearts beating faster just driving past the State Fairgrounds in early spring. And, when the catalog is finally out, well, the only moment better than that is when you finally walk into the Grandstand and see 66,000 square feet of plants.

Local blogger Grace Kelly has written her take on the Friends School Plant Sale. Thanks, Grace!

Other bloggers having their say about the sale include Stuccohouse and the Whitely Creek Bed & Breakfast. Thanks for spreading the word!

Looking for the shopping list form? Here it is. It’s also on the Doing the Sale page.

Downloadable shopping list form (pdf, 12K)

We’ve offered gift certificates to the Plant Sale for years, but usually we just put a little ad about it in the catalog.

After receiving a couple of calls about it recently, though, we realized it might be more timely to remind our readers (which generally includes people who are gardening-crazed enough to be reading this website in December) that you can purchase a gift certificate any time, including right now as the holidays approach! Or, if you’re like me, you can hint to your friends and significant others that you wouldn’t mind getting one yourself…

To get one, please call Friends School during school hours (generally 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. weekdays).

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!

Plant Sale shopper Angee sent in this photo of her wagon. She wrote:

I made a second deck for my wagon. I planned it out before I built it, so it just fits in the back of my Subaru.

I look forward to the plant sale every year like a child looks forward to Christmas.

Thanks for sending in your cart, Angee!

If you would like to share your cart, email a photo to photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com.

Plant Sale shopper Nancy Hokkanen of Bloomington sent us a description of her cart:

“For several years I shopped the plant sale pulling a folding aluminum two-wheeled cart from a thrift store. It had enough space to hold two stackable plastic crates. I put the short, bushy plants in the bottom crate and let the tall plants overflow from the top crate.

“I also brought several wooden clementine boxes–great when six-packs have been broken, and can be turned upside down to protect plants underneath and create another stacking level.

“The vertical cart left more walking space for people around me, and I didn’t have to worry about others tripping over a long wagon handle on the ground. It could easily be pulled with one hand.”

Thanks, Nancy! If you want to share your cart inspirations, email them to info@friendsschoolplantsale.com, or add a comment to this post.