Event preview

WHAT: 16th Annual Baldwin County Master Gardener Spring Plant Sale

WHEN: April 4, 5 and 6, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

WHERE: Highway 98 across from Weeks Bay Reserve

GARDENING SEMINARS: 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Friday and Saturday

"I don't know anything else except to love gardening," says Daphne resident Selena Vaughn. Even as a child, this budding gardener would place plants in her tea set dishes as she set about to play.

Selena comes from a long line of Irish farmers who immigrated to America during the Potato Famine.

"My dad is the first not to farm for a living in my family," she shares.

Selena enjoys growing both flowers and vegetables, and she has had the good fortune to learn canning and preserving garden bounty from grandparents who taught her well.

"You know you're a gardener when you shop for a car and immediately check to see how many plants it will hold,” Selena says, referencing Jeff Foxworthy — “I can grow corn in the dirt that is in my car. I move my plants around like some people move their furniture.”

Even after many years of gardening, Selena is still fascinated with the process.

"After all these years of planting seeds and cuttings,” she says, “I am still entranced by the magic that comes out of the soil."

Selena, an intern Master Gardener in 2006, volunteered at the organization's popular spring plant sale and was hooked.

"If you're a Master Gardener, working at the plant sale is like a big family reunion,” she says. “Everyone works there at least one day. Talking about plants for a week with plant loving friends — who wouldn't love that?"

Selena found her niche at the sale. She became the plant sale coordinator in 2008 and has been planning ever since.

"We not only sell the plants, but we also grow and propagate many you will see there,” she says. “Our group of talented gardeners plant seeds and grow plants from August until the plant sale in April."

"Many of our plants are nurtured at our Daphne greenhouses,” Selena says. “We grow everything from cuttings and plant our herbs in January and February. We shut down the greenhouses during the heat of summer to air them out. There are fewer pests that way.”

The rest of the plants at the sale are bought from local nurseries.

“They are all grown on the coast for the coast,” Selena says. “We like to sell native plants that don't have to be prayed over or watered every day."

Selena says the plant sale is a group effort.

"We are so grateful to the folks at Weeks Bay Reserve for allowing us to hold our plant sale on their grounds each year," Selena says. "We also appreciate Tom and Thayer Dodd in Semmes, who are solely dedicated to growing native plants, make an appearance at the sale to answer questions, and Bobby Green always comes to share information about growing camellias.”

After the bitter cold of this winter past, what could be better than a sunny garden or a transformed backyard nook embellished with native plants that know how to thrive in our own Baldwin County?

Aided by enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers, amateur and professional gardeners alike will be delighted with the wide selection of premium annuals, perennials, herbs, shrubs, trees, hummingbird and butterfly attracting plants. Valuable horticultural advice will be dispensed from experts and Master Gardeners on site each day.

"With the long growing season we enjoy here, there is no reason not to plant and reap the beautiful results year round,” Selena shares.

Plants available at the Baldwin County Master Gardener Spring Plant Sale

Perennials: Butterfly Weed, Native Canna (rare and endangered), Purple Coneflower, Rose Mallow, Purple Louisiana Iris, Shasta Daisy, Mexican Petunia and Native Pitcher Plant

Shrubs: Variegated Gardenia, Yapon Holly, Mountain Laurel, Banana Shrub, Native Azalea and Dwarf Blueberry

Trees: Swamp Dogwood, Loquat and Japanese Plum Herbs

Vegetables: Tomatoes and peppers

And much more!