Plant Discovery Day - Plant and Art Sale

  • By: Karen Skubik
  • April 19, 2014
  • 479
                        
A day that offers both rare and everyday plants for sale, nature art, guided walks in Secrest Arboretum, and a Bug Zoo must mean it’s time for Plant Discovery Day – Plant and Garden Sale at The Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. The 21st annual event, defined as “A premier plant and art sale featuring hard-to-find annuals and perennials, herbs, woody plants and art for the home and landscape” takes place on May 10th from 9 am – 3 pm with most of the action taking place in and around Fisher Auditorium. Visitors will have the opportunity to talk to horticultural experts to find just the right species for their planting locations. Joe Cochran, Secrest Arboretum Operations Manager, shared a list of vendors which includes: Quailcrest Farm with annuals, herbs, and perennials; Francis Nock Nursery with Japanese Maples, dwarf conifers, azaleas and specialty ornamentals; T&J Nursery with Edibles for the landscape, antique garden roses, blue spruce, white fir, dahlia tubers and unusual plants; The Conifer Garden with dwarf conifers and specialty grafted plants in small sizes; The Wooster High School Science Club with native plants; and The OARDC Plant Pathology graduate students with heirloom vegetables. A longer list of available plants can be found at http://secrest.osu.edu/eventview.asp?id=4555. The novice gardener will find popular annuals and herbs, whereas master gardeners will appreciate the website’s list of unique plants that will be auctioned in both oral and silent formats. Auction proceeds benefit the Secrest Arboretum Learning and Resource Center building fund. Although the unrelated duo of Joe Cochran and Ken Cochran, Secrest Arboretum Director, are the driving force behind Plant Discovery Day, Joe Cochran said, “We do have lots of helpers that make it happen”. In fact there are over sixty volunteers with over two-thirds coming from the Wooster Friends of Secrest Arboretum. Lyn Bauer, president of the Friends group, has been assisting at PDD for 15 years ever since she first “got hooked” volunteering in the arboretum. “I don’t think of it as volunteering, to me it’s visiting friends and their gardens”, added Bauer. Dedee O’Neil, also a member of the Friends group is this year’s organizer of the invited artists. O’Neil noted, “This is primarily a plant sale. The arts and crafts vendors have been a nice addition, but the plants take center stage.” Often, the line between plants and art is murky as most of the art is focused on nature. Some examples of the art vendors includes: Paul Swarmer’s stunning nature photographs, Carl Medure’s lovely stone pieces, Jody Lanham’s whimsical pieces from gourds, and JB Wood 'N Craft who creates Adirondack chairs, garden bridges, birdhouses and trellises. With both sunshine and precipitation critical components of plants’ survival, the event welcomes visitors regardless of weather conditions. Fisher Auditorium is located at 1680 Madison Avenue in Wooster. Parking and admission are free, and lunch service is provided by the Montessori School of Wooster.


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