Get ready to prep patios and lawns at Trillium Garden Club's annual sale
Colorful Bougainvillea plants, hanging baskets and veggie starters will be the stars of the show when the Trillium Garden Club hosts its annual plant sale in May.
Members expect big crowds to flock to the floral booths, pruned and prepped by many of the club’s 40 or so members.
“We have 14-inch patio pots that are just lovely,” said club President Rita Ruscetti of Harmar.
“People love the perennials and the tropicals, too.”
The sale, in its fourth decade, will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 4 in O’Hara Community Park.
Founded in 1947, the garden club operates with the goal of promoting civic enhancement and helping to inspire garden planning, horticulture, floral design and sustainability.
Member Donna Wehrle said the club is known for the annual plant sale, which draws hundreds of shoppers to the park along Fox Chapel Road.
“After a long dreary winter, the plant sale is an uplifting kickoff to the spring season,” Wehrle said. “The location is not only aesthetically, pleasing but motorists on Fox Chapel Road are attracted by the vast array of colorful blooms as they pass by.”
Wehrle said there’s “an exquisite selection” of colorful annuals, popular perennials, cascading baskets, flowering tropical plants and variegated patio pots.
With proceeds from the plant sale that average a few thousand dollars each year, the club has donated to beautification or environmental projects across the area. Beneficiaries have included Camp Guyasuta, Fox Chapel Area School District and Best of Blawnox.
“We provide the funding for plants around the ‘Welcome to Blawnox’ sign, and we maintain a circular planter at the O’Hara Community Park,” Ruscetti said.
The club’s most recent focus is on community gardens, Ruscetti said. Donating money to those efforts not only aids organizers who plan and plot the growing spaces, but it also helps to feed people in need.
“Whatever produce the community gardens have left over, they donate it to Second Harvest Thrift Store in Sharpsburg,” Ruscetti said.
New members are welcome, Ruscetti said, and no experience is needed.
“We’re not just a club for avid gardeners,” she said. “Many of us are trying to learn more.”
Tawnya Panizzi is a TribLive reporter. She joined the Trib in 1997. She can be reached at tpanizzi@triblive.com.
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