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Volunteers Beverly Rooker, Katelyn Elliott and Jordan Reidel are all smiles during the annual plant sale held at the Earth and Arts Festival on Saturday, April 22.

Volunteers Pamela Saunders and Lissa Cash happily chat while helping at the plant sale held at the Earth and Arts Festival on Saturday, April 22. Photos submitted by Danika Hike/Suffolk Master Gardeners Association

Stacey Smith of the Suffolk Master Gardeners Association presents White Dogwoods, River Birches and much more at the annual plant sale held on Saturday, April 22 at the Earth and Arts Festival.

The Master Gardeners also sold Heucheras and Heuchera Purple-Petticoats to Earth and Arts Festival goers as part of their plant sale on Saturday, April 22. Photo by James Robinson

Suffolk Master Gardeners Association is one of the first vendors participants saw at the Earth and Arts Festival April 22. There, members sold plants and gardening tools as part of its yearly plant sale. 

The sale is the “major fundraiser for the year,” said Suffolk Master Gardeners Association President Brenda Craig.

“We do this plant sale every year and we’re happy that the Earth and Arts festival is back up and running so that we can tag along with them,” Craig said.

Craig said SMG association assists those who want to learn about gardening and how to become master gardeners.

“We provide education to the community and usually, most years, we have a training class where we bring new people who are interested and they learn to be Master Gardeners and then we fan out into the community,” she said with a laugh.

Craig described working on having monthly speaker’s and presentations as part of its classes and education.

“We have been working really hard lately to get a speaker’s bureau kind of situation set up where somebody is out monthly or so, either at the Suffolk Arts Center or somewhere where we can do a presentation on some kind of gardening related thing,” Craig said.  “When you are a member of the Suffolk Master Gardeners, we have a monthly meeting for our membership. And we do make an effort to offer some kind of educational thing to our members every month.”

Likewise, Craig discussed upcoming education features in the works, with topics such as day lilies and orchids for attendees to check out. Finally, she spoke on the overall goal of the association.

“Our purpose of being is to provide good horticultural practices in the community, educate people how to do that,” she said. “[We] got a lot of people who are interested in pollinators and gardening to support pollinators, and water stewarding, all those kinds of things.”

For more information, visit the group’s website at suffolkmastergardener.org.

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