Annual Plant Sale 2023 Report
The plant sale was a success again, and our net profit was $1,975, exceeding our budgeted amount of $1,800. This is great news for our scholarship fund, and we were already able to present two scholarships of $1,000 each at the FFA program a few weeks ago. Julia Prisco from Columbia and Alexa DeAndrade from Mansfield received the scholarships. We made $2,011 from plant sales and $90 from cash donations to the scholarship fund (total income $2,101). Our only expenses were $50 to E.O. Smith FFA for soil and pots, $10 for laminating a sign, and $84 to the Storrs Congregational Church Women’s Fellowship for the resale of their plants left over from their plant sale earlier.
Volunteers. A special thanks to the four club members who helped me organize the plant sale this year: Hollie Stephens took care of distributing the posters, Nancy Rucker put out her green signs around town, and Marcella Grogan and Karin Rickards helped organize the volunteers. Nancy Smith, Marcella and Karin transported the tomatoes from Nancy’s house, and Arlene Gazza picked up Shirley’s plants. Thanks to all our 26 volunteers on Friday afternoon who helped transport, unload, arrange and price plants. We were finished by 4 PM with 16 full tables of plants. A reminder for next year to put 4 PM as a cut off time for delivering plants instead of 5 PM.
Many of Friday’s volunteers came back to work on Saturday. We had a total of 19 volunteers, including young Lily Braun who was an adder. Saturday was busy answering plant questions, reorganizing plants, adding up bills, and cleaning up. The cashiers (Hollie Stephens, Marcella Grogan, Tony Rash and Tove Rosado were busy all morning. All the volunteers worked tirelessly and cleaned up so well on Saturday that we were finished by noon. By 11:30 we had our half-price sale and finally gave remaining plants away to workers and several happy shoppers. Many of our usual volunteers helped again: Ann, Arlene, Barbara, Carol, Pam, Hollie, Honey, Jane Ann, Joanne, Joan, Judy, Sharry, Karin, Kathy W., Marcella, Nancy R., Nancy S., Nancy Y., Renie, Rita, Susan, Penne, Tony, and Tove. We were happy to see our newest members Lin Kline, and Eleiza and Lily Braun volunteering to help. Thank you also to Nancy R. and Joanne Sousa for providing us with drinks and sandwiches on Saturday.
Plants. Our EO Smith FFA student did a wonderful job planting and repotting almost 700 hundred tomato plants: many types of heirloom and hybrids. Most plants were large, healthy and beautiful and were well worth the price of $2 for each 4” pot, other smaller plants we later sold for $1/pot. Tomatoes were again the most popular item for sale. However, there were too many tomato plants – 47 flats with most containing 18 plants. I brought home 15 flats of the smaller plants, and the usual woman from the community garden was very happy to get the donation. Later, Debra sold $40 worth from her house, and I sold another $35 to friends who couldn’t make the sale – all at $1/plant.
Tomatoes and anything in bloom sold quickly, even what we consider “common” plants such as pulmonaria, ajuga, corydalis, and even forget-me-nots. The groundcovers, shrubs and shade plants sold particularly well. Plants that were well labeled with color, type, bloom time and size sold quicker than those with sparse information. Any lily or iris without such information did not sell well. Siberian iris did not sell well, nor did the grasses, but possibly because some had not even turned green yet. About 30 leftover non-special plants were donated to the library for their plant swap and Peggy McCarthy was delighted. We could have used more sun plants - we sold out of rudbeckia, echinacea, etc. very quickly.
Chris Campbell from Tri-County Greenhouses was extremely generous again this year providing over 50 plants – perennials and annuals. We also had donated hanging baskets from Lemek Farm, thanks to Penne Williams. Jim Kelly, our favorite speaker about pruning, donated a beautiful blooming azalea. Shirley contributed her usual huge number of perennials and shrubs, and Debra Hultgren supplied many herb plants and perennials. Four people also made a cash contribution to our scholarship fund: Nancy Orth, Tove Rosado, Nancy Yantz, and a shopper with a 12-year-old son who was very excited about plants.
Thanks again to everyone for their help with another successful plant sale. I think I can speak for most volunteers in saying that we also had a lot of fun both days and enjoyed being with each other. Please forgive me if I left out the names of any volunteers.
Kathe Gable, Plant Sale Chairman
I was a little concerned about reaching our budgeted amount because of the late growing season, and the fact that our tomatoes were not being planted and tended by our resident expert, Shirley Ogozalek. Julia Prisco planted Shirley’s seeds at the EO Smith greenhouse and tended them until Nancy Smith picked them up (in 4 truckloads) and took care of them at her house the week prior to our sale. They looked great by sale time. For next year Nancy already has two new members who volunteered to help her plant the tomatoes at EO Smith. Thanks to all of you who donated plants from your gardens. We had enough plants to fill all 16 tables. People were again lined up by 8:45 AM and couldn’t wait to get in to shop.