2 Greensburg-area gardening groups schedule annual plant sales
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Two area gardening groups are planning their annual plant sales this weekend, focusing on native and locally sourced plants, along with those attractive to birds, butterflies, other pollinators and beneficial insects.
Experienced gardeners will be on hand at both events to help shoppers choose the right plants and to offer other garden-related advice.
Greensburg Garden Center
The two-day May Mart will be held at the group’s garden house and Lefevre Butterfly Garden behind the Greensburg Garden & Civic Center, 951 Old Salem Road.
Hours will be 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday.
The sale will feature a wide variety of perennials, both sun- and shade-loving, along with others that are deer-resistant. Some plants are sourced from garden center members’ home gardens.
For gardeners interested in supporting the Monarch butterfly population, two types of milkweed will be available.
Other native plants for sale will include asters, bee balm, cat mint, pink coneflowers, brown-eyed Susans, heliopsis, penstemon, ratibida, verbena and others, according to GGC horticulture chair Elizabeth Pesci.
Also available will be herbs and indoor and outdoor dish gardens, ranging from $3 to $10, containing sedum and various succulents.
“Some of them can live outside all year-round on your patio table,” said GGC co-president Carla Rusnica.
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Other sellers will include Greenridge Garden Club members with heirloom tomato plants; Bob McDonald with hearty indoor plants; Dahlia Society member Drew Graham with various tubers; Greenhouse 22 with annuals and hanging baskets; and Greensburg Hempfield Area Library with bargain best-sellers.
Visitors also can purchase a $3 Bardine’s Country Smokehouse hot dog, and make a lunch of it by adding chips and a drink. Residents of nearby Redstone Highlands will sell homemade cookies.
Center members also will host a small flea market of garden-related items. Handmade butterfly pins will be $1.
Information will be available on volunteering in the butterfly garden, Pesci said.
For information, call 724-837-0245 or visit greensburggardencenter.net.
Westmoreland County Penn State Master Gardeners
The organization’s annual plant sale will be 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday at the Donohoe Center, 214 Donohoe Road, Hempfield.
The sale will feature herbs, perennial plants for shade or sunny locations, annual flowers and hanging baskets, ornamental shrubs and vegetables, along with various native plants, shrubs and trees that are well-suited for local climate changes and are much-needed resources for resident insects and birds.
“By sourcing plants from local and regional nurseries, we support our local nursery folks and provide the best plants possible at very reasonable prices,” said Mandy Smith, Master Gardener coordinator in Westmoreland County.
Volunteers will be available to help shoppers find the right plant for the right place and to diagnose garden problems they may be encountering. They also will have information on how residents can support native bird and insect populations in their own gardens.
Sale proceeds are used to further gardening education for residents of Westmoreland County and for the care of Master Gardener demonstration gardens in Greensburg, Ligonier and Latrobe.
Free and accessible to the visiting public, the demonstration gardens are designed to provide planting inspiration for the home gardener.
For details, visit extension.psu.edu.