Plant sale wraps up at the Paca House Garden
Weekend event raised $31,000 for historic building
Entering the Paca Garden plant sale on Sunday, guests heard background music from a ukulele played by John Shields.
Shields has been playing the ukulele for over 40 years and has volunteered at the Paca Garden for 10 years, but since the pandemic he hasn’t had a chance to perform in front of people until Sunday.
“It feels really good, but I got to get used to singing with a mask — it is like putting a mute on a trumpet,” Shields said. “I love seeing things getting going again.”
During the pandemic, Shields went to Facebook to post his content for a music outlet and ended up posting over 100 songs in a year. “I never had Facebook and I was against it, but it was fun and I got a lot of responses from people I went to school with. They didn’t even know I played the guitar and ukulele,” Shields said.
Cheryl Findlay, chair of the plant sale, asked Shields to play while they sold plants.
Findlay said native, pollinator and drought-resistant plants, all hand-grown by volunteers, have been the most popular. A
The brand new plant this year was an Agastache, which is in the mint family and is very fragrant, Findlay said. She said in the summer it gets beautiful purple blossoms and bees love them. She picked some up for her personal garden.
Japanese ferns and Amsonia have been popular as well. The purple Amsonia blooms in the fall. The garden also had an Arum plant that goes dormant in the spring and summer but blooms in the winter.
Iris plants are one of Findlay’s favorites, which she calls an old-fashioned plant that has a long bloom time. “The iris are very fragrant, and I recently cut some and put in a vase, and my husband walked by them and was like ‘Wow they smell great,’ “Findlay said.
Bare Naked Ladies have been selling constantly at the garden because they have big leaves that are dying now, but in a month
a flower stalk will sprout with no leaves around it, Findlay said.
Last year the plant sale was online. Findlay said it is wonderful being back outside for this event. “The volunteers missed being able to talk to customers about their favorite plants, and we are really happy we can do this,” Findlay said.
Maria Lee has been volunteering for over 20 years and specializes in culinary plants. A tomato plant San Marzano has been the most popular and was the first to sell out. Lee said it is good for sauces.
The basil plants this year have been selling constantly, Lee said, and a fish pepper that is native to Maryland is popular and sold almost right away. She said it is spicy.
Lee called last year chaos because of the pandemic but said this year is wonderful.
Carrie Kiewitt, senior vice president at Historic Annapolis, organized this garden sale and said this one of her favorite events of the year.
“People have so much fun here and bring their whole families. It’s nice to see how happy people are,” Kiewitt said. “We love it and so happy we were able to do it this way, this year.”
Kiewitt said gardening was important during the pandemic since it is something you can do alone and an outdoor space with social distance. “It gives you that instant gratification that your yard looks beautiful and then you can watch it all year round,” Kiewitt added.
The plant sale raised $31,000 to maintain the Paca garden and house, a record number.
Paca Garden will be doing an online sale again this year May 17 at 10 a.m., for anyone that couldn’t make it to the weekend sale.