Our 2nd Annual Master Gardener Plant Sale
Another Master Gardener Success Story.... By Dennis Green
The 2nd St. Louis Master Gardener plant sale concluded on Saturday, April 28th. The weather turned out to be ideal and the sale was a huge success. Over 25,000 plants were sold or donated to 17 non-profit organizations. Ninety per cent of the plants were grown from seeds or cuttings in the South Technical High School green houses. Several purchasers commented on the rich diversity and unusual variety not ordinarily found at many plant sales. The cuttings commenced in the fall when several Master Gardeners brought in ‘Mother Plants’ and work continued as seeds were started in the winter months.
The success of this project is due to the countless hours provided by thirty-one dedicated volunteers under the leadership of Karen Koehneman and her ever-present dependable aide-de-camp, Karla Standlee. The latter two put in hundreds of hours and were present on almost a daily basis. All the volunteer Master Gardeners contributed significantly to the overall common effort which encompassed such diverse tasks as washing pots and trays; maintaining the greenhouses from weed eradication to vacuuming tables; building additional tables; watering and more watering, planting seeds to transplanting seedlings to larger pots; moving plants from greenhouse to greenhouse or outdoors; and maintaining a vegetable garden. Special thanks, just to name a few, goes to; Leon Zickrick for his great vision of what the greenhouse could become for our organization and coordinating with the Special School District to make it happen. Leon was also responsible for the plantings around South Tech High School and leading the attack on weeds within the greenhouses; Gary Hartman for the water garden plants; Margaret Lahrmann for the signage; Linda Robson, Meg Johnson and Alberta Chalick for being the Transition Student leaders; Lil Collins, Jan Hermann, Jennifer Schamber, John Hensley, Leon, Maxine Stone and Marilyn Clagett for presentations to the Culinary Arts students; Claire Chosid for handling container design; Mark Kalk as the Perennials Manager; and Chuck Brust for managing the Elephant Ears. We hope to see more Master Gardeners in the next season. Summer greenhouse maintenance will be announced later as the crew has taken time off to work in their own gardens and maybe even take a much needed vacation.
On behalf of the entire Master Organization, we thank all of the Greenhouse volunteers for a fantastic greenhouse season! We also want to extend our appreciation to our coordinates at the Special School District for their support in our efforts at the greenhouse.
Additional Photos available on our St Louis Master Gardener Facebook page, to view click on the Facebook logo in the lefthand corner of this page.
