Purchase, Plant, and Prosper!

March 28, 2025

The FECO Fifth Annual Plant Sale! Coming up Sunday, April 13, 1-4pm.

Veggie starts, flowers, native and ornamental plants, dahlia tubers, other misc. bulbs, fruiting plants, fairy furniture, free seeds and more.

You’re a gamer? We can offer Plant ID Bingo and a Native Plant Quiz! Meet nice people. Take a tour of the garden. Watch for innovative methods of water conservation and irrigation, clever re-use of materials, our native plant garden and cut a few sprigs from the herb spiral. There might even be a hula hoop nearby.

Sue with starts

How did our plant sales get started? I recently asked Sue if she remembered why we started an annual plant sale back in 2021. Sue wrote back, “To host a second fundraising event (in addition to the Cider Fest) for the community. We wanted to attract people who may not be aware of FECO and what we do. Plus, people were still starving for a break from COVID paralysis.”

COVID was a dark cloud. Back in March 2021 many people had not yet been vaccinated. We are lucky to host outdoor events. Nevertheless, organizers gathered necessary masks and added extra space between tables.

Sue’s memory is correct. However, Sue’s capacity and insatiable enthusiasm for plants was a driver! To host a successful event a highly skilled organizer is needed and Jodi R magnificently pulled all the pieces together. Rounding out that first plant sale committee were two other MVPs: Becky, and Jake.

Becky rounded up neighborhood kids to color plant sale flyers. “I thanked the kids and moms after I picked up or they dropped off the posters. They all enjoyed the task.”

More than one visitor has asked for Julie’s famous pea starts ‘recipe’. Her pea plants sold in record time!

On the fly sale enhancements included:

♦Moving and regrouping plants as tables emptied. (Having plant info signs that could easily be picked up was helpful.)

♦Changing to color-coding for plant prices turned out to be quicker than pricing each plant.

♦Asking visitors how they heard about the plant sale provided valuable input for the future.

♦Requesting pots and other supplies from neighborhood groups like Buy Nothing helped with marketing.

I recorded my personal observations during that mostly rain-free spring day: people walked, they seemed happy, plants were sold, there was a nice variety of plants, and the planning from the core group was superb as far as layout, signage, and readiness for the 10am start time.

Jodi, Yuchen and Becky

Jodi recorded Sue’s final after-sale comment, “I also think we might have a little celebration this summer for volunteers from the sale and who have helped through this challenging (COVID) year. Maybe we could use some of the profits and order a bunch of pizzas some evening when the weather gets nice and take a few hours to sit in the orchard!”

Ack! We forgot to have the party! Well. We will make sure we schedule a volunteer celebration after this year’s sale.

Ruth

2021 Volunteers: Jodi R, Becky C, Jake W and Sue H were key organizers. Other volunteers: Kathleen W, Yuchen, Julie S Y, Marilyn, Pat C, Jennifer K, Sue H, Nancy H, Melody D and West H. Other friends donated plants: Kate F., Mike E, Cyrus D, Al j and Leah. Al J also did some advertising for us. Meg provided equipment