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Sunday is Discount Day!  There’s a good selection of plants left, so head on over to the sale.

The sale runs from 12:00 noon to 4:00 p.m. Wristbands will be available starting at 9:00 a.m.  

The discount is one-third off.  Keep track of your plants at full price. We’ll take the discount at the tally tables.

Sunday is a BYOB: Bring Your Own Box! We are really short on flats this year, so you might be happier if you bring your own. We’ll gladly reuse any you might have at home from this year — or before!

What’s left?

There’s a good selection in almost every section of the sale. There are plants that are sold-out, of course, but there’s plenty left to fill out your garden. Here’s a few:

• Climbing Plants: LOTS — especially clematis
• Herbs: A nice selection.
• Roses: MANY roses left. Great choice of shrub and climbing roses.
• Shrubs/Trees: Large choice of magnolias and rhododendren. Other shrubs and trees, too, including the Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick.
• Fruits: Apples, peaches, plums, grapes and blueberries. Yum!
• Grasses: Good selection.
• Natives: Less than usual, but worth checking out.
• Perennials: Good assortment.
• Annuals: Lots of coleus! Plenty of other choices, too. Zinnias and more.
• Succulents: some really great buys!
• Vegetables: Tomatoes, cabbage, onions. And more.

If you've attended the plant sale over the past 10 years, you might have noticed a green, frowning face on the signs for some plants. That face, known as the Mr. Yuk symbol, indicates the plant is poisionous to humans. Sara Barsel is the volunteer responsible for the Mr. Yuk campaign.

Sara has volunteered with the plant sale for over a decade. Prior to starting the Mr. Yuk program, Sara noticed many plant sale shoppers with kids and dogs in tow, who were selecting plants that could be both toxic and attractive to children and pets. Sara's ethic of responsible gardening and passion for education led her start the Mr. Yuk campaign. 

"I've been a teacher and I know that kids put stuff in their mouths," she said. "It's important for people to know the consequences of what they are buying."

Sara assesses each new plant that's added to the plant sale catalog, as well all plants flagged with the Mr. Yuk symbol during previous sales. As a scientist with a Ph.D in genetics and a masters of science in botany, Sara brings a scholarly approach to her work. She weighs the research available from a variety of sources before presenting her findings to the Plant Sale Planning Committee. She estimates she spends between 60 and 100 hours each year reviewing plants.

"It's one thing for an adult to make a choice to tend a poisionous plant, but some plants like baneberry (Actaea pachypoda) are very attractive to kids. We need to be responsible for what we plant in areas accessible to children and pets."

Sara maintains a large garden in her Roseville neighborhood. She cultivates plants that will attract polinators, butterflies, birds, and neighbors. Her garden is full of edible fruits and vegetables and native wildflowers and shrubs.

"When I first started gardening I overheard two elderly ladies talking as they slowly walked past the garden. One said 'This garden is a reason to visit.'

"I will always maintain the garden for that. The garden is a focal point for conversation. People who wouldn't talk to me do so because of the garden."

To learn more about Mr. Yuk and plant safety, check out Sara's articles, Some Thoughts on Responsible Gardening from Mr. Yuk and Poisonous Plants: A Few Words from Mr. Yuk. And watch for the Mr. Yuk symbols when making your plant-buying decisions.

Photo of the highly toxic common foxglove, Digitalis purpurea, by jcart1534, Wikimedia Commons

Every year, plant sale customers are delighted to find a plentiful supply cardboard boxes to carry their plants.  For the past two years, they have used over 10,000 of these boxes.  Where do the boxes come from?  

A few months before the plant sale begins, a dedicated group of parents and supporters is hard at work collecting cardboard boxes from grocery stores all across the Twin Cities. The stores are happy to have the boxes go to good use (instead of the crusher), but they don't have much room to store them. So the volunteers take them home, 10, 20, 50 at a time. Then the boxes move to huge semi-trailers at the Fairgrounds to be stored for the sale. Almost three trailers full! And there they are for plant sale customers!

We need several new volunteers this year to collect boxes.  If you are looking for a volunteer opportunity before the sale, this is a great option. Please contact us at info@friendsschoolplantsale.com if you're interested.

The Friends School Plant Sale is offering a new vegetable this year:  ramps – a native, wild-foraged cousin of the leek.  (V138 and V139)

Their flavor is garlicky-mellow, their culinary usefulness is broad, and their health benefits are considerable. If you enjoy cooking with local ingredients, consider cultivating ramps. 

These shade-lovers are edible in early spring (leaves and all), so a planting in your shaded yard could expand your harvest season. Carefully dig, clean and trim them, then have a ball caramelizing, grilling, roasting, currying, pureeing, pickling or otherwise preserving the little darlings.
 
A new book, Ramps: Cooking with the Best Kept Secret of the Appalachian Trail, is a charming resource for first-time ramp cooks. 

Every recipe feels accessible. The ingredient lists are straightforward. There's a pleasing diversity of dishes that can be made using ramps (along with a good deal of compelling photos): salad dressings, fish and chicken, various soups, crepes, risotto, biscuits, fritters, jam, dips and much more.

Recipes for every day and fancier dishes, too. Plus instructions on freezing and preserving your ramp harvest.

But my favorite feature of the ramp?  Dry eyes in the kitchen.  Ramps don’t make you cry!

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Here's a previous article we wrote about ramps.