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Sunshine, gardens brighten Mother’s Day for many
Photo
Dorothy Gray of Leetonia reaches out to touch a flower as her daughter, Denise Wade of Columbus, photographs the yellow and purple blooms for a lasting memory. The two visited Fellows Riverside Gardens of Mill Creek MetroParks on Sunday, Mother’s Day.
By Sean Barron
YOUNGSTOWN
Numerous volunteers at Mill Creek MetroParks’ Fellows Riverside Gardens were doing their part to add touches of brightness to Mother’s Day for many women — one red columbine at a time.
“You can’t ask for nicer weather,” Ellen Speicher said, referring to the 77-degree temperature and light breeze that greeted those who came to Sunday’s Mother’s Day plant sale at the D.D. and Velma Davis Education and Visitor Center.
The event was part of a larger spring plant sale that got underway Thursday at the gardens, noted Speicher, an assistant horticultural director.
Sponsoring the seven-hour fundraiser was the Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens.
A steady flow of people of all ages bought flowers such as columbine, the blooms of which also can be orange and yellow. In addition, the plant likes a lot of sun and attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.
A variety of plants and flowers were being sold, such as carnations and roses for $1 and $2 apiece, cut flowers, hanging and potted plants, annuals and perennials.
Examples included dianthus, which blooms into summer and is highly fragrant, and petunias, which also draw butterflies and hummingbirds. Other popular ones were coleus, impatiens, peonies, herb plants, begonias, basil, snapdragons, lilies of the valley, oriental lilies and cranesbill, a purple perennial that blooms into fall and that Speicher referred to as “the real geranium.”
Sunday’s turnout was large partly because the harsh winter likely increased people’s desire to get outdoors and start working on their gardens, she noted. The severe, prolonged cold damaged many rose bushes and other plants in people’s yards because the ground was frozen up to 18 inches beneath the surface and for longer than normal, depriving them of water and nutrients, she continued.
Speicher also cautioned that people should probably wait until later this month to add tomatoes, peppers, coleus and other warm-weather plants to their gardens, since they tend to struggle more when the temperature drops below 50 degrees.
Other items for sale were an acorn-shaped birdhouse, $5 containers of biodegradable twine, flat-soaker hoses, green moss to line baskets and topiaries, and weeding tools. Many other people enjoyed walking through and photographing the surrounding gardens. Trolley rides also were offered as part of the sale.
Speicher noted that Sunday’s sale will continue as a summer sale, which will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday until the end of June at Fellows.
“This year, we had lovely weather,” Sara Scudier, a master gardener, said of the Mother’s Day gathering.
Scudier added that all funds raised from the sales goes toward projects related to the gardens.
She also thanked the estimated 100 volunteers, many of whom priced, sold and moved the merchandise. Others set up tables and kept everything watered, Scudier said.