Penn State Master Gardeners of Lebanon County

Another successful plant sale! Thank you everyone for all your support. We had a great time and hope you did too! Can’t wait to see all your gardens and containers. Happy planting!!!

Proven winners annuals a flat of 8 for $20! You have 20 minutes. HURRY!!!

Natives! Monarchs LOVE natives!

We have so many left to choose from and we have decided to reduce the price for those of you who haven’t made it over yet… and the repeat shoppers.

The plant sale benefits the community with educational programs for all ages!

Just under 2 hours left.

OMG! PERENNIALS are NOW DISCOUNTED now too! And we have plenty!!!

Hellebores
Stonecrop
Sedum
Salvia
Primrose
Grasses
Sedges
Iris
Clematis
Hibiscus
Dianthus
…
And more!

The plant sale is in full swing with just 2 hours left!

And we thought we’d tell you ALL ANNUALS are now $3.25 for 4” pot. That’s AMAZING!!!

Come down to the expo center! We are here until noon!

It’s the eve of the plant sale, and a special monarch butterfly flew in just to give you a sneak peek. We are looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow!

Rain or shine, 8 AM to noon, 5000 plants, and a whole lot of fun! The Lebanon County Master Gardener Plant Sale and Garden Faire benefit community educational programs and more.

TOMORROW is the awaited Master Gardeners of Lebanon County Plant Sale and Garden Faire! 

Are you coming for natives? Perennials? Tomatoes and peppers? Annuals? Herbs? Hanging baskets? All of the above! 

We thought you might want a map. The colors represent the colors of the table clothes to find your sought after section quickly.

A few reminders:
🌼 Come early for the best selections. The sale begins at 8 am, rain or shine.
🌼 The cash and check line move MUCH faster than the credit card line.
🌼 This year we will have a plant sitting section to hold your plants while you get more. 
🌼 The green elephant yard sale section is cash donation to the master gardeners and the community programs they offer.
🌼 We highly encourage you bring your wagon. we have some but they snatched up get pretty quickly.
🌼 The queen bee 🐝 will be buzzing around. Pictures are highly encouraged.

What makes the Lebanon County Master Gardeners and our plant sale stand out? We not only bring expert knowledge, healthy, beautiful plants by the thousands, we also add humor. Just take a peak at part of our hanging basket display and what’s at the herbs tables.

The plant sale is TOMORROW from 8 am to noon at the Lebanon Valley Expo Center.

"What is companion planting?"

"It's planting companion plants with your companion.”

Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes 🍅

Anyone else thinking about that homegrown tomato sandwich?

We have plenty of tomato varieties of all shapes and sizes and colors.

The Lebanon County Master Gardener Plant Sale is this Saturday, May 4 from 8 am to noon at the Lebanon Valley Expo. Come early for the best selections.

The annuals are here! The truck was filled to capacity and we mean FILLED. There are so many varieties, most Proven Winner specialty varieties that you can’t get anywhere else. We have your spillers, fillers, and thrillers for your containers and the choices feel endless. Check out the tables with the purple table clothes for annuals.

The Lebanon County Master Gardeners Plant Sale and Garden Faire is the Saturday, May 4th from 8 am to noon at the Lebanon Valley Expo center. Come early for the best selections and please bring your wagons 👩‍🌾

Native plant pick up day from one of our favorite green houses. Master Gardeners were there a few months ago planting and selecting just for you. There will be so many choices this Saturday at the plant sale.

HELPFUL HINT: The table clothes for the native plants will be yellow for sun loving and blue for shade loving.

The Lebanon County Master Gardeners’ Plant sale and Garden Faire will be this Saturday, May 4 from 8 am to noon at thw Lebanon County Expo. Come early for best selections.

Great bargains at the Green Elephant 💚 🐘 Sale!

The Lebanon County Master Gardeners donate a variety of plants and gently used tools at the Green Elephant table at the Plant and Garden Faire Sale, on May 4, 2023. Our gardeners love to share plants and knowledge, so each plant will be identified along with growing instructions.

A recommended donation for the plants and other gardening related items will be on display as you leave the sale. All proceeds from the event will benefit future programs and projects of the Penn State Extension Master Gardeners of Lebanon County.
Looking forward to seeing you all there.

📷 -JBowen, Master Gardener

Have you ever heard of a toothache plant 🦷 🪴 ? Or maybe you know it as an eyeball plant 👁️ 🪴?

No? Well we have and we’re so fascinated by its looks and culinary effects that we HAD to offer it at this years plant sale. Here are two great resources to learn more about this unique and mystifying plant.

https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/acmella-oleracea/

https://www.uaex.uada.edu/yard-garden/resource-library/plant-week/Acmella-oleracea-Eyeball-Plant-Toothache-Plant-07-28-2017.aspx

The Lebanon County Master Gardeners Plant and Garden Faire will be held indoors on May 4th, 8 a.m. to noon at the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center, 80 Rocherty Road, Lebanon, PA 17042.

Hope to see you there!



📷: Courtesy of kidseedco.com

Perennials are great for pollinators and we can't wait to share information about them and highlight some of the many perennials we will have at the Master Gardener Plant Sale and Garden Faire.

Perennials are suitable for beds, containers, and flower boxes. We will have perennials for both sun and shade. Some of our favorite perennials include: Achillea (Yarrow), Aquilegia (Columbine), Dicentra (Bleeding Heart), Echinacea (Coneflower), Geraniums, Hellebores (Lenten Rose), Phlox, and Sedums.

Perennial plants live for more than two growing seasons. This means the plants go dormant in late fall / winter and reemerge in the spring. Some perennials can last for decades! The attraction of perennials are many. They feed pollinators, add color and textures to our gardens, and bloom at different times which allows for an ever evolving garden throughout the growing season.

Come early for the best selection. Admission and parking are FREE! The Lebanon County Master Gardeners Plant and Garden Faire will be held indoors on May 4, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center, 80 Rocherty Road, Lebanon, PA 17042.



📷 Shawn Lane, Penn State Extension Master Gardener

One of the many outstanding things the Lebanon County Master Gardener's Plant Sale has to offer is featured plants that won't be found at other sales or nurseries. This year's showstopper is Tecoma Chicklet Orange Esperenza by Proven Winners. Just look at that orange gradient color! Bees and hummingbirds will be all over this sun loving beauty. Additional growing information can be found here: https://www.provenwinners.com/plants/tecoma/chicklet-orange-esperanza-tecoma-x

And to really rally excitement for this year's annuals, take a sneak peak at the more than 2,000 plants we will have available and the master gardeners who trellised the vines and pinched blossoms. Can you feel the excitement now?!?!?!

The Lebanon County Master Gardeners Plant and Garden Faire will be held indoors on May 4, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center, 80 Rocherty Road, Lebanon, PA 17042. Shop early for the best selection. Admission and parking are FREE! Don't forget your wagon 😉



📷 Photo Credit: Deb Seibert, Master Gardener

The Master Gardeners of Lebanon County YMCA Garden Committee participated in the April 20 Day of Caring in Lebanon County. We were fortunate to host a volunteer family of four industrious workers. They wheelbarrowed our soil amendments and added some colorful painted decorations to our raised beds. Weeds were pulled and trash removed. The garden looks tidy and ready for another season of flowers and vegetables.

Please stop by the garden located at the Lebanon YMCA on North 7th St. The garden is in the fenced area between the Y building and the Quittapahilla Creek.

Stay tuned in for what the Master Gardeners' YMCA Community Garden Committee will have to offer next.

📷 Photo Credit, Sulynn Richard, Master Gardener

HAPPY EARTH DAY!!!

Earth Day is the perfect day to talk about Native Perennials.

Native plants are hosts to pollinators that are important for food production in our area such as butterflies, bees, and moths. We will have several types of milkweeds which are host to the famous monarch butterfly. Goldenrods and asters bloom in the fall and are important for monarchs and other species who are migrating south for the winter. Grasses that will be available are helpful with erosion and areas where other plants may struggle to grow and provide seed and cover to several types of birds. Through the cold season of winter, fruit bearing shrubs such as Winterberry Holly and elderberry are important food sources. Hummingbirds can't resist the showy blooms of cardinal flower and bee balm. The Master Gardener’s will be offering many, many native plants for sale that will grow in a variety of conditions and offer habitat to many local pollinators.

Come to the Lebanon County Master Gardener’s Plant Sale and Garden Faire on Saturday, May 4, 8 am- noon, your local pollinators will be glad you did!!!



📷 Shawn Lane, Penn State Extension Master Gardener

ONE HUNDRED! YES, 100! Annual plant varieties will be for sale at this year’s Master Gardener’s Plant Sale and Garden Faire.

There will be hanging baskets and special collections curated by Master Gardeners for your containers, flower boxes and beds. Whether potting up containers or planting in garden beds, annuals are a great way to add color to your landscape!

We will have annuals for both sun and shade. Angelonia, Begonia, Calibrachoa, Coleus, Dahlia, Geraniums, Impatiens, Lantana, Lobelia, Nemesia, Petunia, Salvia, Thunbergia, and Verbena are just a few of the annuals that will be available at the plant sale.

The Lebanon County Master Gardeners Plant and Garden Faire will be held indoors on May 4, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center, 80 Rocherty Road, Lebanon, PA 17042. Shop early for the best selection. Admission and parking are FREE! Don't forget your wagon 😉



📷: Shawn Lane, Penn State Extension Master Gardener

A Tomato Tale: The Mortgage Lifter Tomato

Legend has it that this big beefsteak tomato earned its name by paying off the mortgage of a radiator repairman in West Virginia. The story is that in the 1930s, M.C. “Radiator Charlie” Byles developed the tomato by hand pollinating the flowers grown from the seeds of the biggest tomatoes he could find.

At the end of seven years, he had a plant that typically yield 1-pound fruits and a marketing plan. He called his variety, “Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter,” and sold enough plants to pay off his mortgage.

Today there are multiple Mortgage Lifter varieties. Like Charlie’s, they tend to produce meaty, large fruits that have a great flavor.

Mortgage Lifter tomatoes and many other heirloom and hybrid varieties will be available for sale at the Lebanon County Master Gardeners Plant Sale and Garden Faire on May 4th from 8 a.m. to noon at the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center, 80 Rocherty Road, Lebanon, PA 17042.



📷: M.H., Penn State Extension Master Gardener

An heirloom pepper story: Jimmy Nardello Peppers

This red pepper hales from the old country—the Basilicata region of Italy. When Giuseppe and Angella Nardello emigrated to the U.S. in 1887, Giuseppe and Angella Nardello brought a taste of home with them. The Nardellos settled in Connecticut and planted the long, thin-skinned peppers year after year.

One of 11 children, Jimmy inherited his parents’ green thumb and continued growing the pepper. It became his namesake when he gave seeds to Seed Savers Exchange which has been saving and sharing heirloom seeds since 1975.

Jimmy Nardello peppers can be fried, dried, roasted or eaten raw. Plants can be so productive that they may need to be staked.

Jimmy Nardello peppers and many other varieties will be available for sale at the Lebanon County Master Gardeners Plant Sale and Garden Faire on May 4th from 8 a.m. to noon at the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center, 80 Rocherty Road, Lebanon, PA 17042.



📷: Shawn Lane, Master Gardener

Calling all Tomato and Pepper Lovers! For this year’s Master Gardeners' Plant Sale, we will have 15-20 varieties of tomatoes available for purchase: heirlooms and hybrids, determinate and indeterminate, cherry tomatoes to beefsteaks and all sizes in between. Want to grow more than red tomatoes? We got you covered with yellow, purple, orange, even black.

Let's talk about peppers, sweet and hot. This year's plant sale will have 15 varieties of peppers meticulously selected by our Master Gardeners. There will be sweet and medium-hot and extremely hot varieties for sale.

That's so many choices which is why we'll have our Master Gardeners standing by to help you find the best tomatoes and peppers for your tastes and gardens.

Come early for the best selection. Admission and parking are FREE! The Lebanon County Master Gardeners Plant and Garden Faire will be held indoors on May 4, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center, 80 Rocherty Road, Lebanon, PA 17042.


📷: Shawn Lane, Penn State Extension Master Gardener

Some flavors are "mint" to be together and make no "mint"-stake, these mint varieties are no exception.

Introducing a few of our "mint"-astic varieties that will be available for sale at the Master Gardener's Plant Sale on May 4th. Meet the fruity mints: Strawberry, Apple, Orange, Pineapple and Berries and Cream Mint. It's like an herbal fruit assort-"mint" for your herb garden.

Want to learn more about these unique mint varies? Just stop by the herb tables and the master gardeners will answer all your minty questions. And because mint is so "cool", we'll be offering some refreshing mint-infused water at the herb tables too.

The Lebanon County Master Gardeners Plant and Garden Faire will be held indoors on May 4th, 8 a.m. to noon at the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center, 80 Rocherty Road, Lebanon, PA 17042.



📷 Photo Credits:
Strawberry Mint [Photo: alybaba/Shutterstock.com]
Berries and Cream Mint [Photo: unknown/Shutterstock.com]
Orange Mint [Photo: Skyprayer2005/Shutterstock.com]
Apple Mint [Photo: junichi arai/Shutterstock.com]
Pineapple Mint[Photo: CHWeiss/Shutterstock.com]