Actaea racemosa is just one of the many plant treasures to be found at the Old Bristol Garden Club’s plant sale on Saturday, June 5.
Gardeners can once again look forward to the annual Old Bristol Garden Club plant sale, which will take place from 8:30-11:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 5. The sale will take place at the Mobius Community Center in Damariscotta on Main Street next to Rising Tide Co-op. There is plenty of parking at the site.
As in years past, the Old Bristol Garden Club is once again offering a special shade plant chosen for its beauty, hardiness, and lack of local availability. The 2021 special plant is Actaea racemosa, which is also known as bugbane or black snakeroot. Reaching a height of 4 to 5 feet in rich, moist soil, bugbane is best suited at the back of the shade border, but it will tolerate several hours of sun. Among its many attributes are drought tolerance, deer resistance, attractive foliage, and lack of pests and diseases. Its stately white spires attract many small pollinators. Bugbane also has a long herbal history.
For the first time the club will offer Asarum splendens, also known as Chinese ginger. This spectacular groundcover and container plant is noted for its large, silver enhanced heart-shaped leaves, which light up a shady spot.
Perennials suited to sunny locations include many varieties of phlox, white rose campion, several cultivars of peach-leaved bellflower, lady’s mantle, iris, coreopsis Zagreb, daylilies, and many more plants dug from members’ gardens.
This year’s sale will feature some unusual perennials and annuals donated to Old Bristol Garden Club by the Land & Garden Preserve located in Seal Harbor. Perennials include Delphinium Pagan Purple, Polemonium Heaven Scent, Lilium canadense (also known as Canada lily), and Primula veris (cowslip). Two notable annual plants are the spectacular double form of snapdragons in both apricot and pink and five varieties of flowering tobacco in several colors.
For plant collectors the club has both an annual and a perennial. The annual is Verbena officinalis Bampton. Recently discovered in Bampton, England, this new verbena offers the gardener a light and airy 2-foot plant suitable for both containers and the front of the sunny border. The petite flowers are lavender pink.
The real treasure of the sale is the Chinese peony. Rarely available, Paeonia mairei is the only peony that will tolerate shade. Large 4-inch blooms are a luscious shade of deep pink. Pots will be sold for $11 first come, first served.
This event is the only fundraiser for the year. Proceeds from the sale are used to support community horticultural projects at the Twin Villages Foodbank Farm, Mobius, Newcastle Veterans’ Memorial Park, Hodgdon Green, and The Lincoln Home, to name a few. These funds also support monthly educational programs that are open to the public.
Anyone who wishes to donate plants to the sale can drop them off at Mobius on Friday, June 4 after 1 p.m. All donations are appreciated.
COVID-19 precautions at Mobius are very strict and are cited as a model by Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. With the building’s doors and windows open, as well as an enhanced air circulation system, air quality is equivalent to that found outdoors. To attend the sale, based on current CDC regulations, all customers will be required to wear a mask.
For more information, email club President Barbara Vitallo at 6sunrises@gmail.com.
