I found this in my travels...looks interesting! TBG COLLECTABLE PLANT SALE Tuesday, May 8 through Friday, May 11, 2007 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. THIS IS NOT LIKE ANY OTHER PLANT SALE! New Plant Introductions and Hot Colours for 2007 Piet Oudolf Plant Combinations Free Landscape Planning and Plant Selection Advice Unique Plants found in the Toronto Botanical Garden Planting assistance for ready-to-take-home containers & urns For the Plant Collector: Rare and Unusual Perennials For the Beginner: Advice and Information from Toronto Master Gardeners Something For Everyone: Heirloom and Ornamental Vegetables, Fragrant and Hardy Roses, Dwarf Evergreens, New Shrub Introductions, Native Plants and Much More! Click here for the form to Pre-order your plants! ((copy & paste link) http://www.torontobotanicalgarden.ca/specialevent.htm#earth

Yes, I seem to remember you had family last year. It went very well and of course the weather was great for it. Lots of people came for the event and plenty of people came upon it just by being in Piedmont Park. I understand ABG was having an herb sale and some people might have done both. Don't be put off by the line. The sale occupies two sides of a very broad path so the crowd quickly gets distributed as people stop to look at trees/shrubs (the first area) or head straight for the trilliums. There are plenty of people with dogs, many of them because they just happened to be in the park and wandered through. Lots of park visitors bike, walk or skate their way through the sale. We only have a sale of this magnitude once a year. We do sell a few plants at meetings (every other month at ABG) and also at the symposium. You are welcome to attend a meeting as a guest and buy some plants while you are there. The meeting topics are posted on the web as the date gets closer. The next meeting will be May 9th (a Wednesday) at 7 pm in Day Hall at ABG. The topic is not yet posted. As for the sale, some stuff ran out early - jack in the pulpits and foamflower were gone by 10:30, but some trilliums and heuchera were there until the end. The two sabal minor palms (seedlings) did not sell. I think people who don't know are still unsure about having palms in Atlanta. We had tons of Virginia sweetspire (our Plant of the Year) and it all sold, but maple leaf viburnums were still available to the end. All but two of the native azaleas sold and we had a lot of those. So, I think it was a success. We (the volunteers) had lots of fun, met a lot of new people and got to talk plants all day. Can't ask for much more than that! :) Hope to see you there next year.

FYI for next year, The National Arboretum holds a native plant sale at the end of March every year in conjuction with their Lahr Symposium. One of the vendors was Doyle Farm nursery. They are located in Pennsylvannia just over the Maryland border, above Jarretsville. Their website lists native plant sales in the area they will be attending. (It's on their "tours and open house" link, http://www.doylefarm.com/events.html) One sale is in Fairfax VA, Saturday April 29. Others are being held at Ladew Topiary Gardens, The Baltimore Herb Festiva, etc., While they sell by mailorder its nice to see the plants you're buying. The plants I bought from them at The Arboretum, White Turtlehead (Chelone Glabra) and Nodding Ladies Tresses (Spiranthes Cernua) are growing really well. If you find any other sales in the Maryland area please post them, I'd love to know about them. :) -Helen

I have two teni's in bloom and tree peonies are opening now, Elizabeth Blair Hirsh, Fen Dai Bai, two unnamed tree seedlings. The one seedling I have been watching the bloom got nipped by something and took the top off just as the freeze hit and does not appear to be opening any further than it was. Next year I will definately wrap it with many layers of wire. The bud was the size of a supersized jawbreaker and looked like it would have been a peachy pink. Even if you are not in the area of this tour check your local gardens. Many have established Chinese or Japanese gardens and should have tree peonies. Tree peonies generally bloom earlier that the regular herbaceous.