Gardeners converge on Green Spring Gardens for the Big Plant Sale
By Julia Key
The annual Spring Garden Day drew plant enthusiasts to Green Spring Gardens on May 16 for gardening advice, plant sales, and food.
Some of the vendors traveled significant distances to participate in the Big Plant Sale, while others are long-time residents of Annandale. And while some began growing plants recently, others have a lifelong connection to gardening.
Among them is Barbara Stewart, president of the National Capital Area Chapter of the Gesneriad Society. Stewart, a Vienna native who has participated in the sale for five years, said she enjoys the event because it allows members of the society to show off their gesneriads.
African violets, lipstick plants, gloxinia, and many other flowering plants are in the Gesneriaceae family.
Stewart also said that, for many visitors, the Big Plant Sale provides an opportunity to learn about unfamiliar plant species.
“Club members come from all over the world, and we really just share plants, have workshops about plants, and learn how to grow them,” Stewart said. “The sale is a great way to show people plants they didn’t know they could grow.”
\
In addition to the plant vendors that lined up along the walkway around the open lawn, there were two booths hosted by the Extension Master Gardener Program, where volunteers gave out free seeds and offered gardening advice.
That program is a volunteer-driven educational initiative within the Virginia Cooperative Extension, a public educational organization affiliated with Virginia Tech, Virginia State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local government agencies.
“Our role is to educate the public on the best practices for gardening and answer questions about pests, diseases, plant identification, and soil,” said Mona Leigh, a volunteer with Extension Master Gardeners.
Leigh has been volunteering at the plant sale since 2013 and also volunteers at Green Spring’s edible garden, where peppers, eggplant, and bok choi are growing.
“I love promoting gardening and the love of plants more than anything,” Leigh said. “The edible garden is great because we raise plants, answer questions about the food, and then we donate anything that grows to food banks here in Fairfax County.”
Jason Williams of Annandale brought a stroller to make sure his small children didn’t get too tired and a wagon to cart his new plants home.
“I love gardening, so I always bring my kids to local events like this so that they can learn to garden and grow food, too,” Williams said. “I let them each pick something out to grow at home so they feel more connected to the garden.”
Williams has been coming to the plant sale as long as he can remember, even before he knew much about plants.
“The first time I came, I bought this tomato plant and told myself it was going to be the first plant I have that lives, and it wasn’t,” he said, “but it kept encouraging me to get more plants and learn to raise them.”
Outside the sale, June Wong, a long-time volunteer at Green Spring Gardens, was directing traffic in 80-degree heat.
“It feels like more people are attending the sale over the years,” Wong said. “It makes me happy that even though more people stay inside, there are still people buying plants.”
She visits Green Spring nearly every weekend, even though it’s a 30-minute commute from her home. The plant sale is worth the drive to meet people who also love gardening, she said. “I’m committed. I have loved to garden since the 80s.”
Julia Key, Annandale Today’s summer intern, is a student at Penn State University, where she is majoring in digital and print journalism.
Related story: Viewpoint – Green Spring Gardens should focus on conservation