Vanderbilt Museum Volunteer Gardeners Plan Sale of Flowers, Trees, Shrubs

Calling all gardeners! The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum's corps of volunteer gardeners, who help beautify the landmark Vanderbilt estate, will sell perennials, shrubs and trees at discount prices on Saturday, April 24, from 8:00 to 5:00 in the museum parking lot. Admission to the plant sale is free. 

A second, pre-Mother's Day sale will be held Friday, May 7, from 1:00 to 7:00 and on Saturday, May 8, from 8:00 to 2:00.

The museum also will celebrate National Astronomy Day on April 24, from 11:00 a.m. to midnight. For details, please visit www.vanderbiltmuseum.org.

Bill Hall, a longtime volunteer at the Vanderbilt who is coordinating the sale, says its goal is to sell "the finest quality flowers, shrubs and trees at the fairest prices."

Carol Ghiorsi Hart, executive director of the museum, said many of the three dozen volunteer gardeners have donated their time and skills for years. "Many of these dedicated volunteers are certified master gardeners," she said. "We are grateful for their passion and commitment, which make the museum and mansion look spectacular."

Available stock will include potted flowers for an average of $6.00 to $7.00; rhododendrons for $12.00. Maple trees and Japanese red maples will sell for an average of $15.00; Knockout roses for $15.00; and flats of 48 impatiens for $13.00.

April 24 Sale

Shrubs for sale will include andromeda, azalea, rhododendrons, leucothoe, camellias, tree peony, gold thread cypress, PJM and purple gem rhododendrons, maple trees and dwarf spreading juniper. Perennials will include lupine, hellebores, fox glove and Oriental poppy.

May 7-8 Sale

The second sale will include the stock listed above. Vegetable gardeners will find tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and zucchini. Annuals also will be featured, including flats of impatiens, begonias, gazania, salvia, nicotiana and marigolds. Those looking for instant floral decoration will find hanging baskets of fuchsia, tuberous begonias, impatiens and ivy geraniums. Geraniums, lantana, sweet potato vines, vinca, dracaena and coleus will be available in four-and-a-half-inch pots.

The volunteers, in addition to planting flowers in the estate's two "butterfly" gardens to attract butterflies, plant spring bulbs around the mansion grounds, design plantings for the many smaller gardens and the elegant stone planters, and plant and maintain the large vegetable garden on the grounds of Normandy House, where the museum offices are located.