Wiregrass Master Gardeners host 10-day spring plant sale

First, the sale begins on a Saturday as opposed to Friday. Second, plants will be located under the shady pines near the tropical house at the Dothan Area Botanical Gardens instead of the master gardener nursery area. And, third, you’ll have more than a week to shop for plants rather than just two days.

“This year, we’re going to spread it out over 10 days, actually two weekends,” said Chuck McManus, president of the Wiregrass Master Gardeners Association.

The annual spring plant sale begins Saturday and will continue until April 18. The sale will be held during regular hours at the Dothan Area Botanical Gardens, which is open each day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Dothan Area Botanical Gardens is located at 5130 Headland Ave.

“We’ll set up next to the garden’s office and people will be able to shop, select their plants and then take them inside and pay at the garden’s office,” McManus said. “People in the past would pile in our nursery area, and because of COVID we’re going to try to spread it out. Let people shop and, hopefully, we don’t have too huge of a crowd that first morning.”

The spring plant sale, a fundraiser for the master gardeners, is popular among area home gardeners. The plants are grown from seed, propagated from other plants or even dug up from local yards by master gardeners. People usually line up early to secure a wagon and get the first pick of plants.

Because of COVID-19, last year’s spring sale was basically canceled as far as much of the public was concerned. McManus said the association hosted a private no-contact sale for master gardeners and then set up plants for sale near the walking trail at the Dothan Area Botanical Gardens.

“It was for a shorter time and the association made much less money than we traditionally do,” McManus said.

But for their fall sale, master gardeners set up plants in front of the botanical garden’s tropical house and had one of its best fall plant sales ever, McManus said. The upcoming spring sale will have a similar set-up.

McManus said the group will have a good selection of annuals, perennials, shrubs, indoor plants and vegetables.

“Obviously, we would expect to sell out of some of the plants,” he said. “I can’t imagine we would have near as good as stock the second weekend as the first.”