Spring 2020 Native Plant Sale

by The Propagation TeamPosted onAnnouncements
Plants getting ready for the Spring 2020 Native Pant Sale. Photo bt Margaret Widdowson.
Plants getting ready for the Spring 2020 Native Pant Sale. Left to right: Frosty Blue ceanothus, a batch of black oak acorns just starting to germinate and a few pots of just-emerging seedlings (showy milkweed, pearly everlasting, and wavy-leaved soap plant), then Purple Haze California aster, and finally Joyce Coulter ceanothus. Photo by Margaret Widdowson.

The 2020 Spring Plant Sale at Shasta College is set for Thursday through Saturday, April 16–18, so mark your calendars for a great 3-day sale, preceded by the members-only sale on Wednesday, April 15, from 4 to 6 PM.  We will be selling California native plants from 8 AM to 5 PM on Thursday and Friday, and 9 AM to 3 PM on Saturday. 

We need plenty of members to help out with shifts at this event.  The type of help we need typically involves setting up (Wednesday, April 15, from 2 to 4 PM), selling plants, giving advice, moving plants, or just being your friendly self during the sale.  You do not have to be a plant expert to participate!  If you can spare a few hours on any of these days, please call or text Margaret Widdowson at 916/752-0941, or Susan Libonati-Barnes at 530/515-9247, or e-mail us at ShastaCNPSPropagation@gmail.com  We will also have sign-up sheets at the upcoming March Chapter meeting and propagation sessions.

We will again be selling plants in both the gallon-sized and  quart-sized containers.   This spring we have a great selection of Ceanothus, California wild lilac shrubs: favorites like Joyce Coulter and the petite Skylark, and a new ground cover variety: Centennial.  We also have a nice selection of sages, Salvias, with plenty of groundcover creeping sage and Bee’s Bliss sage, and a couple new shrub varieties for us: Whirly Blue Cleveland sage and Pacific Blue Brandegee’s sage.  Several wild buckwheats are also available, including coast buckwheat and the shrubby California buckwheat and St. Catherine’s lace. We have our usual selection of flowering shrubs, including the ever-popular snowberry, California rose, Douglas’ spiraea, dogwoods, and mock orange, and something new for the spring: pitcher sage (Lepechinia calycina).  We also hope to have some colorful annuals in 6-packs, featuring lacy phacelia and California poppy.  And lastly, and most important of all, the almost-mythical white-flowering blue-eyed grass ‘San Simeon’ – yes, it exists and we finally have it available!

Pitcher sage or woodbalm. Photo by Keir Morse.
Pitcher sage or woodbalm (Lepechinia calycina), new for us, a fragrant shrub related to the Salvias, it’s found around the Skyway below Paradise and south in the Sierra foothills and along the Coast Ranges foothills. Photo by Keir Morse.

Please download and post the plant sale flyer at your place or work or play! Our annual plant sales help fund many of the Chapter’s activities including scholarships, grants, programs, and the general running of the Chapter. -Plant Propagation Team

2020 Spring Plant Sale flyer designed by Margaret Widdowson.
2020 Spring Plant Sale flyer. Please download the printable version of this flyer by clicking the link in the last paragraph, above, and post it at your place of work and/or play! Flyer designed by Margaret Widdowson.