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Hunting season has begun for gardeners
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Published: April 18, 2009
This is the time when gardeners get dizzy trying to keep up with all the plant sales. Seems like every botanical garden, garden club and plant society has a sale in April. Never mind that you also have to find time to put all those plants in the ground. But we can worry about that later.
For now, it's the thrill of the hunt. And the ideal plant is out there waiting for you to complete the happy marriage and bring it into your garden.
Today, April 18, you can find plant sales at the Garden Club Council sale at the Dixie Classic Fair, Reynolda Gardens, Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens in Belmont, UNC Charlotte Botanical Gardens and Central Piedmont Community College. The Master Gardeners of Forsyth County have their sale going on continuously at Tanglewood. Next weekend the developing Paul Ciener Botanical Garden in Kernersville will hold its spring sale at the Main Street United Methodist Church.
But if you're looking for herbs, the sale to head to next week is the North Carolina Unit of the Herb Society of America Annual Sale in Greensboro. This huge herb sale is held at the Greek Orthodox Church, 800 Westridge Road on April 23 -- yes a Thursday -- from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. It seems like a good excuse to call in sick.
There will be thousands of plants ranging from common spices to Thai basil and coffee plants. This is the 25th year of the sale, which started in Joan King's carport and has grown to a major event. The knowledgeable members of the Herb Society of America will be there to assist you. "They have been working since September to put this sale together, securing growers, organizing volunteers and training members to help customers select plants and answer questions about growing, using and caring for plants" said Ann Burke, who is heading up the promotion of this years sale.
Cinnamon basil? No problem
The sale features just about any herb imaginable. It has developed
a reputation as a spot to find unusual plants. Along with the standard culinary herbs, there will be varieties within the categories. For example, you can expect English thyme, the standard culinary variety. But there will also be caraway thyme, lemon thyme and others. The same is true of basil, a tomato's best friend. Expect the standard varieties like Genovese, but also lemon basil, lime basil, cinnamon basil, columnar basil and others. There will be dozens of varieties of scented geraniums, including chocolate, rose, lemon and many varieties of salvia, both ornamental and culinary.
The N.C. Unit of the Herb Society has gone to great lengths to accommodate shoppers. One clever and useful thing is the idea of a shopping list for herbs.
You may wish to put together a garden of French culinary herbs. You can study the list to find herbs used in Bouquet garni, Fines herbs, or Herbs de Provence. Similar checklists have been created for "A Summer Harvest Sachet." Here, the plants would be lavender, mint, lemon verbena and scented geraniums. Instructions say to use one cup of dried leaves of each. Then add a cup of dried rose petals and a ½ cup of dried orange peel.
There is a list for creating a Bible, Shakespeare or Medicinal herb garden, for tea gardens and herbs for liqueurs. A wide variety of ethnic blends have their own list including Indian curry and Chinese five spice powder.
All the spices involved in these recipes will not be available at the sale, nor would you be able to grow them all if they were. But at least a few of the ingredients can come out of your garden. There is no substitute for fresh-garden herbs. And growing and drying your own can save a bundle of money, too.
Maybe you could use that extra money at the next plant sale.
■ If you have a gardening question or story idea, write to David Bare in care of Features, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27101-3159, or send e-mail to his attention to gardening@wsjournal.com.
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