I asked when I was there for their Tomatomania sale in May and would be "toward the end of June." They don't seem to publicize it as a "tent sale" any more (at least, haven't in the last few years) but it occurs on the same weekend as their "open house" (when they serve iced tea and cucumber sandwiches on the lawn). Looks as if that event is June 20, so I'm guessing it (the tent sale) will start on Friday the 19th and go 19-20-21. Get there on Friday (early) if you can -- the best stuff goes early! The place is a zoo and you really need to get there early and/or plan on walking a long way from your car. It also REALLY helps to go WITH someone who can stand guard with your pile of stuff while you shop. (They run out of wagons very early on.)

The last two years they have not had the $1 or $2 bare root plants they had the first few years I went, but they've had terrific bargains on tons of other stuff. It's worth the trip for the pots and gardening supplies (hats, tools, etc.) even if you don't get plants...

Oh, geez...decisions, decisions...Saturday at Motorcycle Week or check out this fabulous-sounding GARDEN EVENT??!!!!
Is it worth a 3-4 hour drive?

Oh gosh, I don't know that I'd drive 3-4 hours just for this, particularly given how fast stuff goes (and how variable the stock is). Plus a lot of the best stuff is gone by Saturday (at least that was true when they had the bare root stuff -- one year I went both Friday and Saturday, and what was left on Saturday morning was a fraction of what had been there when they opened at 9 am Friday). You also won't know exactly what from their catalog will be available (so I wouldn't make the trip if you've got your heart set on finding a particular item since there's no guarantee it will be there -- last year, just as a sample, they had the iron garden armillaries, garden hats, gloves, lots of planters, tools (I got a great English-made transplanting shovel which was still $30 but a lot less than the regular price). They do also bring in stuff just for this sale, sometimes completely random (seeming) like Telicherry peppercorns and (last year) Stonewall Kitchens jams and mustards. So it's kind of a crapshoot each year -- a fun crapshoot, but a crapshoot nonetheless. If you go at any time other than 8:45 am, be prepared to park a half mile down the road and WALK to WFF.

A plus, of course, is that you get to walk through their beautiful display gardens. And all shrubs are usually 30 percent off for the whole weekend. Can't recall pricing on other plant materials in the greenhouses but I think it's on sale, too.

I seem to think lately they've back way off on the amount of plants on mega-markdowns at the sale, but put everything on sale for something like 20%-30% off. We usually go Saturday afternoon, and rarely have trouble filling the car. Most of it is stuff like tomato cages, kitchen gadgets, and other oddball stuff. There was the year they were selling men's clothing, the year we got a lot of garlic keepers and should have gotten a lot more.

It does seem the days of half-price tree peonies and $10 bareroot shrubs are gone.

bummer. Ok, but thanks for this thread because I do tend to oogle their offerings at the local Agway, and pass them by because of their prices. I'll have to rethink it.

HOWEVER, I do recall one year that I bought a Limelight Hydrangea at the end of the season, and it was so rootbound that it never recovered, even when it had plenty of time left in the season. Course, this is no reflection on WFF...just the mere fact that perhaps this little Hydrangea needed to be adopted sooner rather than later, and it's a 'hydrangea thang' and not a WFF thing.

I went last year for the first time ever and IT WAS FANTASTIC! At least for me it was. I stocked up on $3 hellebores, an unheard of price around here. A few of them blossomed this year too! They were very young, so I was not necessarily expecting this.

Another nice find was a topiary french lavender for $15. They sell in the catalog starting at $40 and I always wanted one.

They have a lot of plants that I tried. It is nice at those prices to experiment. They have a lot of plants there that I would love to try, but at the full grown perrienial price, I keep it close on my experiments.

I live close-by, so I definitely will be there!

Here is the announcement.

Here is a link that might be useful: WFF Annual Open House

I was thinking of going just to see their white border, but am sure I will come home with a full car too.

It looks to be only 2 hrs away for me, maybe less. Could visit family/friends in Farmington too.

South Carolina is too far for me, but it looks like Park Seed has a Flower Day too on June 27th.

Here is a link that might be useful: Park Seed Flower Day

Well, I did great! I even picked up two nice trellisis. There are a lot of plants I would like to try and now I have a chance to try them at $3 each!