For avid gardeners, the Victoria Master Gardeners’ annual plant sale was the place to be Saturday.
Tables were filled with shrubs, herbs, perennials, annuals and vines, with trees and rose bushes spilling out onto the patio at the Victoria County 4-H Activity Center. Green thumbs and plant lovers flooded the center looking for specific plants or browsing the merchandise beginning at 8 a.m.

“I was just looking at the herbs,” said Scott Powell of Victoria. Rubbing his fingers on a sage plant to release the smell, he said, “I grow herbs, and my sage died on me.”

O’Quin Kelly of Port Lavaca said he was looking for things related to butterflies and hummingbirds. Hoping to attract the colorful creatures with certain smells and shades, he said another quality would be plants that needed little water and could be xeriscoped.

“I’m looking for shade plants because we have a lot of trees in our yard,” he said.

Kelly said that the Master Gardeners had a nice selection of plants, and the sale was better than any other plant sales he had been to.

Carolyn Milam of Victoria had never been to the annual sale and decided she needed to visit.

“I’m glad they do this – anything that keeps that garden area open,” she said, referring to the Victoria Educational Gardens, located next to the 4-H Activity Center. All funds from the plant sale will be used for upkeep of the gardens, which are maintained by the Master Gardeners.
While checking out the 2,300 plants, visitors would ask Master Gardeners for advice on what plants grew well and where. There was an information booth set up for particularly tough questions.

Master Gardener Gerrie Van Toledo said that one woman had asked about how to keep pillbugs off her strawberries. The question stumped the gardener, so ag extension agent Joe Janak was brought in to talk about safe pesticides for the edibles.

Van Toledo said that some folks had brought in pictures or cuttings of their plants for advice or identification. One woman, she said, had just moved to the area and didn’t know what she had in her yard.

As she picked up and inspected plants, Elizabeth Wyatt of Victoria said, “I think this is great. I plan to take the Master Gardeners course this year and become a better gardener.”

BY REBECCA HOLM – VICTORIA ADVOCATE