Get ready to get your hands dirty. It’s time to plant.
The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension Office greenhouse and gardens are full of green right now, but staff anticipate a variety of color in time for the Santa Rosa County Master Gardeners’ annual plant sale at the UF/IFAS Extension Office located at 6263 Dogwood Drive in Milton on Friday and Saturday, April 10 and 11 from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Heirloom and unusual varieties of herbs and tomatoes will be available, as well as colias, blueberries, poppies, and other annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees. Sandra Sherman, the chair of the plant sale said, “We’re trying to incorporate butterfly plants and also just beautiful plants to put in your garden, as well as herbs and tomatoes. So it’s a wide variety.”
The Master Gardeners, according to Residential Horticulture Agent Mary Derrick, study insects, turf, plant propagation and other gardening subjects over 15 weeks from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Thursday. Once certified, new master gardeners serve 75 volunteer hours and participate in 10 learning hours within the first year of their certification. They can meet volunteer hours through answering horticultural questions, participating in community and school garden projects, and performing soil sample evaluations.
Derrick said the 14 students in this year’s class come from varied backgrounds. She said there are retired nurses and educators, a student who owns a farm, a Santa Rosa County Chamber of Commerce employee, a transplant from Nebraska, and a Master Forester.
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The master gardeners maintain the demonstration garden at the Extension Office. Frances Andrews is the current president of the Santa Rosa County Master Gardeners. The garden is open to the public, she said, “to enjoy and as a teaching and learning place for the people who go through the master gardener course and then for the public in general.”
New to the garden she said are four varieties of daffodils, “particularly suited to Florida.” In the patch are also pansies, dianthus, onions, potatoes, squash with a raised bed, which is a box about waist high, for handicapped people who couldn’t otherwise garden, Andrews said. “We like to show that kind of possibility.”
(Andrews picking weeds from the pansies, daffodils, and dianthus "commonly called pinks" below the demo garden's sign)
In conjunction with the sale, the Florida Federation of Garden Clubs will host the Small Standard Flower Show in the auditorium. All are welcome to submit entries on Thursday, April 9 from 9 to 11 a.m.
“The Doctor is In” booth staff will answer gardening and landscape questions at the exhibit. Expert advice from the Commercial Horticulture Agent on growing tomatoes is available on Friday the 10th from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. until 4 p.m., and on Saturday the 11th from 8 a.m. until 12 p.m. Enjoy educational displays on agriculture, marine science and home canning. Stay for lunch or a snack offered by 4-H youth.
Overflow parking is available at the U.S. Army Reserve Center on Dogwood Drive just south of the Extension Office. For those using the Army Reserve parking, Sherman said, “We will also have what we call a ‘plant pickup.’ When you buy your plants, you’re not going to have to take them all the way back to the National Guard Army. Someone will bag them, put your name on them, (and) take them to the loading area. You can go get your vehicle. Come back and pick up your plants right there."
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Master Gardeners greening up for spring