Asheville – Mark your calendar for Saturday, May 3rd, from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. This one-day event offers a unique opportunity to purchase beautiful, locally grown spring plants and other unusual items at the French Broad River Garden Club Foundation plant sale. Club members have once again brought plants from their own gardens to share and have invited some of their favorite vendors to 1000 Hendersonville Road in south Asheville to offer their items for sale. You will find annuals, perennials, trees, shrubs, herbs, vegetable starts, native plants, milkweed, as well as fresh-cut flowers, plant containers, garden art, and more. This will be the club’s 73rd annual plant sale, with proceeds helping to provide educational scholarships to deserving students in horticulture and conservation.
Throughout Saturday, two educational presentations will be given: “Conservation 2025” and “Container Planting: Tips and Tricks.” This will include a quick and easy way to maintain your garden pruners. While you stroll around visiting with friends, you can enjoy the cheerful tunes played by the Asheville Ukulele Society.
For over 40 years, The Sandy Mush Herb Farm, run by the Jayne family in Leicester, has been collecting, propagating, and selling herbs, perennials, and other interesting wildflowers native to Western North Carolina. They will have tables filled with a full array of their prize-winning plants. Suzanne Nolter of Blazing Star Flowers in Alexander will bring lovely bouquets, annuals, and lush, garden-inspired arrangements for sale—perfect gifts for any occasion.
Tom Ross of High Country Nursery in Fairview will offer Japanese maples and other fine ornamental trees and plants. An amazing variety of stately conifers, dwarf conifers, trees, grasses, and companion landscape plants will be brought to the sale by Bruce Appeldoorn of Appeldoorn Landscape Nursery in Bostic. Horace and Lisa Williams, owners of Maples N More Nursery in Burnsville, are exceptionally knowledgeable and enthusiastic about their maples, evergreens, and conifers.
A small pop-up store is a new addition this year. The shop can be found inside the Market Cabin near the outside vendors. Several talented artists will showcase their pieces. Peter Gentling will display colorful paintings in oil and watercolor. Gentling’s education and early career were in medicine; “he looks for the playful side of things normally seen as mundane and draws attention to the commonly overlooked.” His artwork can be seen at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Gina Palermo is a professional artist and jewelry designer whose pieces can be viewed on the website Nara Jade. Marie Colton Woodard is a talented artist whose paintings and drawings depict the natural world, featuring birds, bees, and flowers. In many of her art pieces, she encourages efforts to help pollinators and beneficial insects—bees and butterflies—to thrive. For the pop-up sale, she is bringing small paintings, stunning bookmarks, and charming cards that make perfect hostess gifts or Mother’s Day presents. Amber Leilani’s photography will also be exhibited. Lisa Lavelle Bowen is a local artist as well as a licensed professional counselor and therapist. She graduated from the Parsons School of Design in New York and Paris and has a wide variety of painting styles, including lovely children’s portraits. At this sale, she will showcase some flower and plant paintings.
Food items will also be available. The incredible vinegars from Scott Waldrop Vinegar Guy will be there with his thick, syrupy handcrafted vinegars in various flavors beyond the favorite balsamic. This year, products from Hickory Nut Gap Farm will be available. Hickory Nut Gap Farm improves the land while producing high-quality 100% grass-fed beef and pasture-raised pork. Aron and Jessica Wehr of Wehrloom Honey/Mead in Robbinsville will bring genuine unadulterated honey in many flavors such as sourwood and lavender-infused honey, along with other items like candles, mead, and skincare products.
The French Broad River Garden Club Foundation was chartered in 1927 and admitted to the Garden Club of America in 1930. The club is committed to promoting the conservation, development, and intelligent use of natural resources in North Carolina and beyond. Its members are passionate about gardening and its role in promoting healthy living and sustainable environments. The French Broad River Garden Club Foundation strives to promote gardening in Western North Carolina and provide educational scholarships to deserving students.
This plant sale is held on the grounds of Clem’s Cabin, located at 1000 Hendersonville Road, south of Biltmore Village, with easy no-fee parking. Anyone who is passionate about plants or simply wants to learn more about gardening is encouraged to attend. The event will be held rain or shine, so be sure to dress accordingly. Visit https://www.frenchbroadrivergc.org/events for all the details.