Trade Secrets is better than ever

Trade Secrets’ “Sunday in the Park” had a record number of gardeners, volunteers, plants, books and antiques on a cool May 17 at Lime Rock Park.

By 9:30 a.m., early ticket holders filled the parking lots, enjoyed a quick cup of coffee and a muffin and started inspecting the overwhelming variety of curated antiques, garden ornaments and plants from shy native shade lovers to blooming peonies and even vegetable starts.

The annual destination event that attracts gardeners from as far away as Indiana benefits Project SAGE, a nonprofit organization based in Lakeville that is dedicated to supporting, advocating, guiding and educating victims of relationship violence through a range of services and outreach programs.

Over 50 vendors exhibited their wares from French garden chairs and exotic plants to large stone urns under peaked white tents. Natalie Randall of RT Facts in Kent, who has exhibited since the very first Trade Secrets held at Bunny Williams’s house in Falls Village 25 years ago, observed that there were more vendors and more buyers than ever.

Admirers of Martha Stewart, one of the earliest supporters of the event, waited in a very long line to have a personally signed copy of “Martha Stewart’s Gardening Handbook.” The Sunday sale was preceded by a day of garden tours on Saturday including Bunny Williams’s own garden and other gardens in Salisbury, West Cornwall, and Millbrook.

  

Christine Bates

Very heavy stone garden ornaments and urns are a specialty of Judy Milne Antiques from Kingston.