Master Gardener plant sale celebrates 30th anniversary
From left, Heather Brenner, Joyce Tomaselli and Philomena Kiernan hold some of the colorful plants that were on sale on Friday, May 19, and Saturday, May 20, at the Master Gardeners plant sale at the County Home & Garden Center in Millbrook. 
Photo by Judith O’Hara Balfe

Master Gardener plant sale celebrates 30th anniversary

MILLBROOK —  The Master Gardener plant sale at the Dutchess County Farm & Home Center, Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCE), was held on Friday, May 19, and Saturday, May 20.

This was the 30th year of the sale, which has become a place where people not only buy plants, but share information, growing tips and gardening stories. They also talk about perennials bought years ago that are still thriving, and brag about the colors and heights of their plants  and how they have propagated.

The sale was rain or shine, and there was traffic congestion when it opened at 10 a.m. on Friday; the heavy flow of customers lasted until closing time at 4 p.m.

According to Joyce Tomaselli, community horticulture resource educator at CCE, the Master Gardeners grew about 11,000 plants, many from plugs. Vegetables were grown from seeds. Items remaining after the sale are given to churches or community gardens.

The Master Gardeners are all volunteers, and work with the county CCE office to provide information and  answer questions about gardening and soil.

They also will test soil when dropped off at the Home and Garden Center. They can identify plant and insect samples, diagnose plant samples and perform soil pH testing in their horticulture diagnostic lab.

Dutchess County was the first county in New York state to train volunteers in the Master Gardeners program. There are 1,100 of them in New York state, 80 in Dutchess County.

All funding for CCE’s community horticulture program was cut by the county in 2011, so the program depends on the success of the plant sale to fund its educational programming. For questions about the program or delivering samples for diagnosis, call 845-677-8223 ext. 115.

Latest News

Millerton’s Festival of Lights ushers in the holiday season

The Grinch Mobile was part of the procession of the Festival of Lights in Millerton on Friday, Nov. 29.

Photo by Olivia Valentine

MILLERTON — Holiday cheer was in abundance in Millerton at the annual Festival of Lights this past weekend, a celebration of the spirit of the season, which appropriately began following a brief but seasonal snowfall.

Starting with the lighting of the holiday tree, and featuring an array of festively decorated vehicles, onlookers enjoyed a brightly illuminated steady procession of participants from various regional fire departments, local businesses and houses of worship.

Keep ReadingShow less
Getting the upper hand on mighty phragmites

Phragmites australis australis in North Canaan.

John Coston

Finally rain. For weeks, the only place there had been moisture was in the marsh and even there, areas that usually catch my boots in the mud were dry. I could not see the footprints of the bear (or is it deer?) that have been digging up and eating the underground skunk cabbage flowers. Not that I could do anything to stop it. A layer of snow that actually sticks around for a while seems like wishful thinking these days.

Masses of skunk cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, appeared one spring, like magic, after we hired a team to remove the barberry from about an acre of the marsh adjacent to the driveway. Of course, it had been there all along, waiting patiently underground or hiding in the barberry’s thorny shrub-cages, but we had not seen it. That was about eight years ago; after the barberry’s removal there have been successive infestations of invasives but also, as with the skunk cabbage, some welcome new sightings of native plants.

Keep ReadingShow less
'Cornwall reads Cornwall' returns

Roxana Robinson reads Cornwall, Nov. 30.

Natalia Zukerman

Bob Meyers, President and Publisher of the Cornwall Chronicle, kicked off the 5th annual Cornwall Reads Cornwall event at the UCC in Cornwall on Nov. 30 with a warm welcome and a gentle reminder to silence cell phones. Over the next hour, the audience was transported back in time as local writers, editors, luminaries, and students brought the Chronicle’s archives to life.

“This reading has become an annual event,” said Meyers, “as well as a welcome distraction from Thanksgiving leftovers.” He then noted that the event “was the original brainchild of Roxana Robinson.” Meyers added, “She also arranged to have this take place on the day of her birth,” at which point the audience wished the celebrated local author a happy birthday.

Keep ReadingShow less