Norfolk Master Gardeners
830 Southampton Ave., Ste 2069
Norfolk, Virginia 23510-1045
Fall Plant Sale 2023
The 2023 Fall Plant Sale was very close to being canceled. The local weather forecast rain for the late morning and Siri on my iPhone said very nicely that the rain would start at 10am – just in time to open the virtual doors! Bugfest had canceled the day before the event due to many of their participants coming from out of town. Arbor Day was still on so in my mind we had to persevere! We had close to 1000 plants to sell and didn’t have a rain date. Both Kim Stewart and I longed for clear driveways and a backyard that didn’t look like a garden center! I channeled my inner Oregonian and confirmed that this show would go on!
The Fall Sale is unique in that we have one day to set up, sell and break down. Unlike the spring sale, all setup has to happen in a few hours prior to opening. Tables arrive first and are set up quickly to get ready for the plants. We also had a center display of scarecrows, hay bales, pumpkins and more to set the mood for fall. They were delivered to the site along with the tables. Next, the plants were loaded onto trailers and delivered to the park. Some of the team filled their cars with plants from the site farthest from the park so that the most plants that needed to be transported by trailer had the shortest trip on sale day.
The plant sale is a project made up of various committees. I am so grateful for the hard work and team spirit from all of our leads. Let me introduce you to the folks that made this successful even in the horrendous conditions. But first, I need to thank Connie Kellam for getting me ready for this sale – solo! And that includes everything down to weather – Remember the Spring Sale of 2022!
Fall Plant Sale Committees
Carts - Ben Potts – Ben got plants to cars so efficiently that we never had a backup. Backups are the kiss of death for sales. No one likes to wait in line and even less so in the rain. Believe it or not we had some crowds even though the weather was awful and Ben kept it moving!
Plant transportation - Dan Haworth – Dan and his fellow trailer owner, Charlotte Keogh made moving the plants (~ 1000 of them) from Kim Stewart’s and my house happen seamlessly. Also, thanks to all those who loaded their cars the night before the event keeping our trips to a minimum.
Volunteer Coordinator - Ginny Alberts – Ginny kept us rested, hydrated and fed AND she also policed the exit – yes people tried to leave with full carts w/o paying. They had no idea Ginny was watching!
Sign Up Genius - Ginny Alberts – This tool gave us a good perspective of staffing for the Sale and where we need to focus efforts to recruit additional help. Chris Huber helped initially but his new job kept him behind the scenes for much of the fall planning.
Scarecrows - Pam Brangan –
Our scarecrows were AWESOME. Pam went to a scarecrow class and led a fun group through the process. There are some good pictures on our Plant Sale web page if you haven’t seen them yet (nmgv.org/plant-sale).
Also Barb Wilson posted many of them on our Facebook page
(facebook.com/norfolkmasters)!
Clothesline Signs for Plants - Nancy DelVecchio – Nancy and her team did an awesome job and a HUGE amount of work and research making signs for our clothesline concept. The weather kept us from installing it for this fall sale BUT Nancy is chomping at the bit to unveil it next spring. You are going to be blown away when you see this at our Spring Plant Sale 2024!
Design Layout and Setup/Breakdown - Jim Affeldt – Jim just makes it happen! Somehow we got ~1000 plants from trailers and cars to their correct spots. He and his team went from a pile of tables, straw bales, scarecrows, pumpkins, and plants to the most incredible setup I’ve seen! And yes, he stays on site until the last tent is loaded and the site looks as good as it did before we arrived!
Tables and cashier - Mitch Swecker – Mitch worked hard not only keeping track of tables and running the cashier booth BUT he took up my slack when I was ill and kept the 400+ plants healthy at our home when I couldn’t. He has the plant sale checkout down to a science! Mitch said the cashiers worked seamlessly without him when he was moving plants around. I can’t thank him enough.
Team Everywhere – This wasn’t an official team but the sale wouldn’t have been as successful without it. These three were EVERYWHERE and took charge whenever needed. Thank you to “The Hahn Sisters” (Helen Hahn and Kym Hahn Talley) and to Sheila Tjeder our House Plant Designer extraordinaire! It is often the behind-the-scenes people who quietly make a team cohesive. These folks were the glue for the Fall Sale. Thank you for all that you did to keep us moving along!
All Things Plants - Kim Stewart (aka Kim1). – Kim1 managed everything that grew for this sale. She was an inspiration to her team and is the reason we had as many beautiful flowers, shrubs and trees as we did. She made us ALL better gardeners! I can’t thank her enough for the tireless work she put in – she did take a day or two off because she had a MAJOR blocked artery and had to be hospitalized! But she was back at it in a couple of days. She made this sale a huge success and I was so fortunate to have her as the Plant Committee (All Things Plants) Lead!
Special thanks to the Communications Committee led by Jill Lewis. Jill helped us devise a winning campaign that involved expert timing on social media posts and honing the message on the flyers to distribute to local businesses. Jill and her committee created buzz all over Norfolk and the internet. Barb Wilson made sure we were EVERYWHERE on the internet. Barb manages the Norfolk Master Gardener's social media sites (Facebook and Instagram). If you hadn’t heard about the plant sale, chances are you were living under a big rock!
And now thank you to all of the Norfolk Master Gardeners who donated plants and signed up to support our Fall Sale! Everyone pitched in and worked incredibly hard through horrendous weather conditions. We had the most successful Fall Sale ever thanks to everyone who showed up and dug in! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Mark your calendars for our Spring Sale at the Hermitage – April 11 and 12, 2024!
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