For many Clark County gardeners, Mother’s Day weekend is synonymous with the Master Gardener Foundation Plant Sale, held in collaboration with the WSU Extension Clark County Master Gardener program, and 2023 was no different.
At the three-day sale, held May 12 to May 14 at the 78th Street Heritage Farm, hundreds of customers strolled through the grounds and greenhouses to select from 23,000 plants. There were 575 varieties of shrubs, perennials, Pacific Northwest natives, annuals, edibles (including an impressive selection of 49 varieties of tomatoes), herbs, and houseplants, all grown by Master Gardener volunteers.
Donated tools, recycled gardening essentials, hand-crafted garden ornamentation and bagged potting soil were sold as well.
Clara Conner, the Hardy Fuchsia greenhouse team leader, reported that enthusiasm was high among customers despite the record-breaking 90-degree temperatures, and she was delighted to see that shoppers were prepared for the sale, arriving with detailed shopping lists in hand.
The sale grossed more than $61,000 for the benefit of the Master Gardener Foundation of Clark County programs. That included contributions to the operating costs of the WSU Extension Clark County Master Gardener Program and other community-based horticultural programs in the county, including the organic demonstration field and the 4-H garden, where trained community mentors work with juvenile offenders to grow food for the local food pantries and homeless shelters.
The plant sale’s success was achieved through the dedicated efforts of many volunteers, some working year round. In the months leading up to the sale, 112 volunteers on eight teams grew plants from cuttings, divisions, seeds and small plugs. A generous donation of plant starts donated by Terra Nova Nurseries of Canby, Oregon, were grown to sale size, which added a selection of specialty perennials for shoppers to snap up.
During the sale, 142 volunteers were on hand to help customers and answer questions from both experienced and novice gardeners.
Even after the event ended, when profits were tallied and volunteer hours were tabulated, the work continued. Key team members gathered to share observations and “lessons learned” in an effort to make the next sale better than the last.
In all, volunteers logged a total of nearly 2,500 hours of service during the annual event.
One happy customer summed up her experience this way: “All the volunteers were lovely and there were so many amazing plants.”
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Erika Johnson is the program coordinator of the WSU Extension Clark County Master Gardener program.
