Orange County prepares for their annual PlantFest featuring over 2,000 plants

For the third year in a row, the Master Gardener volunteers of Orange County will host their annual plant sale and garden festival, PlantFest, this Saturday. 

The festival will take place on Oct. 5 from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Bonnie B. Davis Environment and Agricultural Center in Hillsborough. The Orange County 4-H group will sell coffee and baked goods and there will be a food truck. 

Master Gardener volunteer Margaret Alford Cloud said that past events have attracted between 500 and 1,000 attendees. She also said the festival will feature a garden sale, art sale, hands-on demonstrations and children’s activities.  

Ginny Phelan, co-chairperson of PlantFest 2024, said PlantFest features nearly 2,000 plants, most of which are native to North Carolina, with prices ranging from $5-$30. 

Phelan said that the festival will include educational displays on invasive plants, a biodiversity tent, vermiculture and beehive workshops, a gardening basics booth providing demonstrations on pruning, tool care and composting. There will also be hands-on activities for children to learn about various insects and gardening methods.  

Lynn Calder, the co-chairperson of the PlantFest Kids’ Booth Committee, said the opportunities for children at PlantFest include a butterfly wing craft, a scavenger hunt and potting seedlings, as well as educational activities such as a vermiculture tank and a plant growth model.  

"We hope it encourages parents to come because it's someplace they can bring kids and get kids activities and [it] gives them a fun interesting thing to do on a Saturday morning," she said. 

Calder said that despite the event being impacted by rain last year, she is excited for PlantFest’s turnout this year. 

“Two years ago, we were outside, and being outside was wonderful and it was a beautiful day, and then last year it poured rain, sort of like it did over the weekend, and we went inside, and actually the whole event worked great," she said. 

Master Gardeners is a volunteer program from the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service. Their programs are often run through land grant universities which are universities created to promote agricultural and mechanical efforts.  The North Carolina chapter primarily works with North Carolina State University and North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. 

The proceeds from the plant and art sale benefit the Master Gardener volunteers’ educational activities of Orange County, Cloud said. 

“[We aim to] raise our image in the community so people know more about us and can know that they can come to us with gardening questions,” Cloud said. 

Phelan said that while the festival aims to raise funds for Master Gardener programs in the area, there is a steadfast goal of educating the community on science-based gardening practices to support the environment. 

"We don't go with old wives tales or anything like that," Phelan said."We are definitely science-based, and we try to give out this science-based information when we talk with the community or are out working with the community."

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the organization the Master Gardeners are part of. They are part of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service.

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