Doing the Sale

The Plant Sale is held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, inside the Grandstand. It can be reached by car, bike, transit, or on foot. 

Driving

Recommended driving routes can be found here. When planning your visit, note that Highway 280 will be closed during the Plant Sale this year. 

Parking at the Plant Sale is free, and available to everyone in the large parking lot northwest of the Grandstand. This is the lot the State Fair uses as its Transit Hub. 

We have two accessible parking lots: one closer to the Garden Fair, and one closer to the Plant Sale’s actual entrance. Visitors who need accessible parking are encouraged to use one or both of these lots. You can see the exact locations of these lots, and learn more ab­out ­accessibility at the sale here. 

Bus, bike, and pedestrian access

• The best pedestrian and bike gate to use is Gate 9 (also called the Loop Gate) on the south side of the Fairgrounds. It is adjacent to the off-road bike path on Como ave, and next to a Route 3 bus stop for the Fairgrounds.
• The Fairgrounds are served by the 3 bus on Como Avenue, the A Line rapid transit bus on Snelling Avenue, and the U of M's 121 Campus Connector on Randall Avenue.
• Bus schedules, route planning from where you are, and Next Ride are available here at www.metrotransit.org

Metro Mobility

The Metro Mobility address is 1780 West Dan Patch Ave, Falcon Heights. This location is at the point of Dan Patch that curves, near the west end of the Grandstand, as close to the sale’s entrance as possible. For more on getting to the sale through Metro Mobility, visit our accessibility page. 

Please call us at 651-621-8930 (711 relay service) or email info@Friends SchoolPlantSale.com with any questions about accessibility or additional accommodations. 

Wristband system in use each day for admission

Shoppers are given a ­paper wristband as they arrive at the Wristband Booth — located on the west edge of the Garden Fair — one per person. 

Wristbands are ­distributed ­starting at:

• Friday: 6:30 a.m. (sale opens at 9:00)
• Saturday: 8:00 a.m. (sale opens at 10:00)
• Sunday: 9:00 a.m. (sale opens at 10:00 — all remaining plants 1/3 off)

Wristbands are needed for entry from when the sale opens until at least early afternoon. 

Each wristband has a number, indicating its admission group. Each group has 100 people in it. The lower your wristband number, the sooner you will enter the sale. Depending on when you arrive, your wait to get into the sale may vary from a few minutes to a few hours. You can find more information about wait times here.

While you’re waiting, plan to visit our outdoor Garden Fair, where we host exhibitors selling garden-related products, and a variety of food trucks.

If you prefer, you can also leave the Fairgrounds altogether and come back closer to the time when your wristband group will be entering. If you’re leaving and returning, we recommend signing up for our texting system. If you do, you will be notified when your wristband number is coming up. You can sign up for the texts after you receive your wristband or on the day you plan to shop if you just want to know when wristbands are no longer needed.

You’ll be called to line up with your group at the west end of the Grandstand. When it is your group’s turn to enter, you’ll be welcomed into the sale by volunteers.

­Please note: If you have friends arriving later than you or parking the car, they will be given a ­wristband number at the time of their arrival, not yours. This system makes the waiting process fair for everyone, and we appreciate your cooperation.

If you leave the area and return after your group has entered the building, you can enter the sale as soon as you arrive.

Going through the Sale

Keep track of your purchases as you go through the sale. You can pick up a shopping list form at the door, or if you like to plan ahead, search plants on our website and save them to your My Plant List, then print out your list and bring it along. You can also hand-write your list ahead of time on our printable form (pdf, 12K). If you bring a list with you, you can cross out anything you don’t buy or change the quantity to your actual purchase as you go through the sale. 

We strongly recommend bringing your own cart or wagon to carry your plants. There are some shopping carts available at the sale, but they are in constant use. If you bring a wagon, please label it somehow so it doesn’t get mixed up with someone else’s; and don’t leave your wagon unattended. We love creative carts, but be sure to think about how your cart will function. We can’t allow any sleds, or wagons that are connected together like a train, because they’re hazardous to other shoppers. Here are some ideas from your fellow shoppers.

Temporary plant parking: If you're shopping and need to leave your plants somewhere while you get more, you can park them (with your name) in a volunteer-supervised area near the spot on the sale map where it says Enter Checkout Line. 

We encourage you to bring your own flats or trays more than ever (perhaps from a past year). Some shoppers find plastic storage bins work really well because they can be stacked. If you have extra boxes in your garage... bring them along and leave them with us for ­others to use. We have a Bring Your Own Box raffle — one ticket per box or container. Details here.

Finding the Plants You’re Looking for

In the sale, the catalog numbers are your best means of locating the plants. Each category (such as Annuals or Perennials) has a letter to begin its catalog numbers (G for Grasses, H for Herbs). Remember — the numbers are assigned alphabetically by the common name we give the plants (for instance, Hollyhock, French, rather than French Hollyhock). Plants beginning with U are in Unusual and Rare Plants. There are subcategories in these sections: Annuals (which starts with Outdoor/Indoor Plants), Climbers, Miniatures, and Unusual — so in those sections, the catalog numbers may not appear to be assigned completely alphabetically, but it's because the plants have been divided into subcategories and then numbered alphabetically. 

Perennial plant listings that give the pot size as "bulb" or "bareroot" are located on shelves near the Info Desk tent. For other sections, they are on the table within their sections.

The Find Plants section of the site is great for searching ahead of time for plants that meet your needs. For instance, you can ask it to show you all the native plants that are no more than 36" tall with yellow flowers that are good for bees and grow in part sun/part shade, or all the pink perennials with interesting foliage. It's also a good way to quickly find all of the new plants. Check it out when you're making your list! As the sale approaches, you can also ask Find Plants to exclude any plant that's a crop failure, or after the sale has started, you can ask it to exclude plants that have sold out.

We restock plants before we open on Saturday morning if they are marked with the truck symbol. 

When a plant is a crop failure or sells out, we update our website as quickly as we can. Sellouts are shown on Friday and Saturday (not on Sunday). You can see this information in the “Find plants” part of the website. We also send out an email on Saturday night with a broad overview of what is left for the discount sale. Sign up to get that email here.

Keep track of your plants

At the checkouts you will need the plant’s name, its cost, and how many you have. This is important: Shoppers who do not record the cost and quantity for each plant will have to go to the Price Check so they don’t impede those who have recorded the information.

If you have a plant that you cannot identify, stop by the Info Desk under the big ramp outside in front of the Grandstand before getting into the checkout line. All prices must be recorded on your sheet before checkout.

How does it work?

Checkout is a two-step process: Your plants are added up in one area, based on your tally sheet, then you pay at the cashier tables.

You will be able to pay for your plants with check, Apple Pay, MasterCard, Visa, Discover, or American Express, or cash. Checks should be made out to Friends School of Minnesota or FSM.

Always write the full price of plants on your ­tally sheet. On ­discount Sunday, the one-third discount is taken at the register.

How long does it take?

Be advised that you may have to wait to check out, but as always, we work hard to minimize the wait time. (In fact, if you see a line forming, it may make more sense to wait 10 minutes rather than joining it and making it longer.)

After checkout, you can leave your plants at Curbside Plant Pickup and return to get them in your car. Please drive slowly and watch for pedestrians. If you used one of our shopping carts, the cart must be left at Curbside Pickup and cannot be taken to your car. Volunteers in orange vests will help.

Note: If you parked in the accessible parking lot behind the Grandstand, do not use Curbside Plant Pickup. Instead, bring your cart back up to the accessible lot, and volunteers will assist with getting your plants loaded and cart returned. You can find more information about accessibility here.