Plant Sale - For Friends Only - Save the Date!!
Come and join us for our 36th Annual Master Gardener Spring Plant Sale! Our theme this year is “Let's Grow Together.” Celebrate the way a love of gardening unifies us with one another and with our environment. This year we will be offering over 8,000 plants and 1,300 seeds (from our Seed Swap booth). The Friends date is Wednesday, April 10 from Noon to 4 pm.
For the General Public!!
The Master Gardener Annual Spring Plant Sale at the Arboretum starts Thursday, April 11 through Saturday, April 13 from 10 am to 5 pm each day. Sunday, April 14 starts at Noon and ends at 4 pm.
Beautify your environment and promote sustainability by picking up one or many of the roughly 3,000 native plants we will have available. From flowers that help native pollinators to plants for rain gardens to creek and pondside dwellers to woody shrubs, there’s certain to be something that suits your needs and tastes. Whether you’re looking for something simple like blueberries, or something rarer like buttonbush, silky dogwood, witch hazel, or viburnum, the Plant Sale will have it all.
The raffle will include a gift package from the Arboretum gift shop, artisan woodcrafts from the Master Gardener carpenters, and other items to be determined.
If you have a dull shovel or pair of hedge clippers, bring it with you! Patrick Bertrand will be at the Plant Sale with his equipment to get your tools ready for the growing season.
Volunteers will be available during the sale to help transport purchases to your vehicle. Let us make your garden shopping experience as pleasant and streamlined as possible.
Mark your calendars, home gardeners!
The Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Association’s 36th annual Plant Sale at the New Hanover County Arboretum takes place beginning April 11th, 2024, running through the 14th.
Join us to peruse the extensive variety of annual and perennial plants, including natives, vegetables, herbs, and shrubs we will have available, all ideally suited to growing in Southeastern North Carolina’s conditions and climate. Let us help you bring your gardens to their fullest potential.
Enter a raffle for a chance to win one of several prizes, participate in a seed swap, and search for the perfect specimens to fill out your gardens all while enjoying the vibrant sights, sounds, and smells of the Arboretum.
We can’t wait to see you there!
Attention Home Gardeners! Looking for a specific plant for your garden this year? You just might find it at the Plant Sale! With a focus on plants native to the area, our new offerings will include ground cover species like pussytoes, poppy mallow, frog fruit, wild pink, sedges, green-and-gold, and golden ragwort. If you’re looking for woody shrubs, we will have common plants including highbrush blueberries, American beautyberry, elderberry, and Virginia sweetspire. If you’re looking for something rarer, things like buttonbush, silky dogwood, witch hazel, possumhaw holly, and possumhaw and blackhaw viburnums will also be available. The Propagation Team is hard at work cultivating species like ornamental strawberries, coral bells, brass buttons, blue eyed grass, bugleweed, and dwarf papyrus. No matter your goals for your garden, find what you’re looking for April 11th–14th at the Arboretum!
Do you need convincing to come to this year’s plant sale? When you come to the Plant Sale this year, make sure you bring any dull gardening tools with you! Patrick Bertrand and Mike Hoffman will have a station set up with sharpening equipment to get your shovels, pruners, loppers, shears, and even knives back up to full functionality. Don’t be caught with blunt tools—make sure you’re prepared for the season with everything you need to maintain your garden. Patrick has been a master of his craft—he has been a machinist for over 25 years. Now he is retiring and turning over his business to Mike Hoffman as the new owner of Next Level Sharpening. Mike has been a machinist for twenty years and has worked sharpening restaurant knives, scissors, and salon shears as well as garden tools (just like Pat). He will bring his arsenal of equipment to the Plant Sale, working out of the trunk of his vehicle. Take advantage of his services and join us for the 36th annual NC State Extension Plant Sale at the Arboretum! Let our Japanese Maples Team convince you to come! We are offering a wide variety of Japanese Maples with more than 200 trees available, including a number of new varieties. We will have all sizes from container-sized patio to trees that will become wonderful shade trees… something for every home & garden. All are locally sourced so they are perfectly suited for our area. In spite of their delicate appearance, they are amazingly tough and easy to care for. Additionally, buying locally ensures proper acclimatization. Our Maples Team is made up of experienced Japanese Maples owners who can provide advice on plant care techniques, fertilization, and further education. Don't miss out on the fun and educational environment at our plant sale! Let’s Grow Together! As you prepare for the growing season, you might find yourself with gardening questions you want answered by an expert. In conjunction with the Plant Sale, take advantage of the Plant Clinic! Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or plotting your very first garden, visit the Clinic Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. You will have access to a staff of Master Gardeners to assist you with selecting appropriate plants for your property, analyzing your soil, diagnosing turf problems, and pest and weed identifications. Get prepared for the growing season with all the information you need before bringing new plants home. Join us at the Plant Clinic, located in the Hutaff building, before the Plant Sale! April 11th–14th! Have you been stumped about what to add to your garden this spring at the Master Gardener’s Spring Plant Sale? Has your Wilmington garden left you dissatisfied? Don’t beat yourself up about it, just add some more native plants to the beds! Many new folks moving into the Cape Fear area from up north find it hard to believe that their favorite plants are having a difficult time growing, and the reasons for that are anything but coincidence. Coastal Carolina is notorious for having sandy and acidic soil, which makes it hard for some plants to grown here; they need to either be from areas accustomed to the sandy and acidic soil, like azaleas, or they need to be plants native to the area.
Here are some tips to get ready for the growing season!
1. Remove any weeds or debris from your flower and vegetable gardens. Consider adding fresh mulch to these beds where necessary.
2. Prune, prune, prune. Now is a good time to prune your roses. Trees and shrubs also love a good pruning at this time of year (late winter/early spring). Chop off some of that old wood and shape the plant before those buds break dormancy. Clean off the rust and residue on your pruners or replace them.
3. Now we can start preparing your soil for the new season. During the winter season, your soil tends to become compacted. Loosen up that soil by tilling or turning it while mixing in well-composted mulch, leaf-litter and aged manure.
4. Now we get to the fun stuff, start setting up your new planters and garden beds this year. Decide what you want to plant. Information will be available to you in early April regarding the varieties of plants that will be for sale at the Arboretum.
5. If some of your perennials seem too crowded together, then this is the time to dig them up and replant while they are in dormancy. Dig under the plant root ball and lift it out of the ground. Then try and untangle the roots by hand. Evenly space out the plants and replant immediately.
Then maybe you should head over to the plant clinic at the Arboretum before the plant sale begins on April 11. Master Gardeners are available in the clinic, Monday through Friday, between 10 am and 4 pm to assist you with your garden questions and provide you with helpful information on such things as companion planting and the right kind of annuals or perennials to plant for the sun and shade areas of your property. While there, you can also obtain information on what to do to analyze your soil for the proper pH and soil nutrients. You can also obtain tips on the proper pruning of your roses and other shrubs and trees.
The plant clinic can even help you maintain the quality of your garden before you add anything new to it by identifying key insects that help sustain your garden and teach you when the right time is to use pre-emergent applications. The plant clinic also emphasizes the avoidance of a blanket pesticide to keep your garden and the environment healthy. To keep your garden green come to the plant clinic for some tips and helpful take home informational fact sheets.
Biologists consider non-native plants like the Japanese honeysuckle and the multiflora rose to be one of the most serious problems facing the native plant and wildlife populations in the United States, but fear not! Plants native to the areas you live are easier to grow! Since plants like sunflowers, wild petunias and mistletoe have adapted their growth to life in the North Carolina area, they require little maintenance. They have adapted to the sandy and acidic soil that Wilmington is famous for. Additionally, native plants attract local butterflies and bees, which promote even healthier plant growth. Caterpillars are picky eater
s, so if you want to attract some butterflies, you have to go with the plants they are used to. 
Plus, if you are a lazy gardener, native plants are the way to go! Native plants that attract birds, butterflies and bees are best when left untidy, so do your part and follow in mother nature’s footsteps! Non-native plants create competition for native ones, eventually becoming naturalized, which means that they survive, spread, and reproduce on their own. Treat your garden and community with love by planting native.
You might ask yourself, “Well, where can I find the right plants that can grow here without the headaches?”
Luckily for you, the Master Gardener Volunteer Association is hosting their 36th annual plant sale April 11 to April 14.
Now is a good time for new Wilmingtonians to establish a healthy garden on their newly bought properties. New homes can offer a lot of room for creative opportunities and freedom when it comes to space management and gardening, which creates a perfect opportunity to introduce some new plants to the fold. Our team of master gardeners and hard-at-work volunteers have been cultivating over 5,000 plants that are grown on at the Arboretum on site and ready to roll, with an emphasis on native plants. It does not stop there, since the new Wilmingtonian will be amazed by the shear variety on display this year; shrubs, azaleas, Japanese maples, perennial and annual flowers, herbs and vegetables will all be offered (with a wide selection of each to choose from at that!)
The same can be said to residents with established homes in the Wilmington area who are seeking to expand their desolate lawns. Some great choices for the busy gardener are our wide selection of native plants. Since they are adapted to Wilmington’s coarse and sandy soil, they only require a little bit of tender love and care, alongside a keen eye, and attention that only a green thumb enthusiast can provide. Native plants attract natural pollinators like birds, bees and butterflies, all of which promote a healthier garden space and ecosystem alike.
You would think that the Master Gardener Volunteer Association Plant Sale would only offer plants to sell, but you would be dead wrong. Patrick Bertrand, a machinist of 25 years, will be offering his services to help sharpen dull gardening tools, like shovels, hoes, loppers, pruners, and even knives from your kitchen if you choose. Patrick says that new shovels and hoes fresh off the shelves can always use a good sharpening since they usually come out of the box dull, so do not hesitate when bringing in your toolbox. We are also hosting a free seed swap to encourage new and veteran gardeners alike to experiment with new additions to their fledgling gardens. New gardeners can ask their master gardener workers or fellow community members for tips while they barter for seeds, and veteran gardeners can expand their gardens a whole lot easier.
If you are looking for plants to make your property more connected with nature, or just need to tidy up that old flowerbed, then stop by the Master Gardener Volunteer Association Plant Sale from April 11 to 14 at the Wilmington Arboretum. Seeds, flowers, tool-sharpener, a sense of community. You name it, we got it!