Browse and not buy? It’s practically impossible
It’s a spring ritual that goes back three decades. The Huntington’s annual plant sale, which takes place this weekend, has become the standard -- a plant lover’s Mecca, not to be missed.
At previous sales we’ve come to know numerous now-beloved plants: ornamental salvias from Mexico and Central America, flowering maples in a rainbow of cheery colors, white heliotrope with vanilla-scented blossoms, herbs of all sorts and a bevy of cactuses and other succulents.
A yearly theme chosen by plant sale manager Shirley Kerins entices us back for more: The fragrant garden, small plants for small spaces, silvery plants (for the silver anniversary), old-fashioned plants, plants for a moonlight garden and drought-tolerant plants (several times) have been a few.
In the nursery, under Kerins’ gentle green thumb, workers are preparing for the event by watering, counting, labeling and arranging the stock into neat blocks.
“Every year -- and this is my 25th as plant sale manager -- I think there can’t possibly be anything new, but look!” Kerins says.
This year’s sale features plants with unusual and beautiful leaves that suggest the colors of autumn all year long -- muted shades that play off the warm browns and beiges of brick and terra cotta. It’s a trend, she says, that picked up speed with the introduction of Heuchera ‘Amber Waves,’ a perennial with ruffled rosy-gold leaves.
The sale includes more than 20 fancy-leafed heucheras, including bronze, deep burgundy, burgundy overlaid with silver, and ‘Green Spice,’ a cultivar in silver-over-green with dark green margins and burgundy veins.
Every year, Kerins corrals old favorites and new introductions from the Huntington’s own collections and from specialty growers up and down the West Coast. She found Fuchsia ‘Autumnale’ in Oregon. Its red stems are embellished with red-veined leaves that emerge burgundy, mature to amber and age to chartreuse. “All of the fall colors are represented at all times, and its horizontal habit makes it ideal for hanging baskets or as a ground cover.”
Collectors of succulents flock to this sale for out-of-the-ordinary specimens, many collected and introduced by the Huntington, home of the renowned Desert Garden. Featured plants include wall pennywort or navelwort, a crevice plant with succulent stems and umbrella-like leaves, each with its own bellybutton; Haworthia truncata and baby toes that form clusters of columnar leaves with translucent leaf-tips; and tiger jaws that look ready to snap, but their teeth are soft and harmless.
Many of the theme plants do well in shade and in containers. “As gardens get smaller and people move to apartments and condos, they need smaller-scale plants in order to have variety. And shade is more likely,” says Kerins.
She estimates this year’s inventory at around 10,000. But there’s never a lot of anything. “We go for variety. Maybe 10 or 12 of each rose, 20 of each heuchera -- the rarer, the fewer. We try to please everyone, but we mostly please ourselves because we get what we like, and I, for one, like it all.”
Each section of the sale area has its own expert, and the central information booth is operated by Huntington staff and knowledgeable volunteers. Plants in each section are arranged by leaf color (burgundy, silver, gold, variegated, etc.) or flower color (look for the pennants that match the flowers).
Come early Sunday for best selection. Barriers come down at 10 a.m.
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Sunday’s sale
The spring plant sale takes place Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Huntington Library, Art Gallery and Botanical Gardens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. Admission is free. The preview sale on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. is for members only; memberships available at the door. Gates open at 8 a.m. both days. More information: (626) 405-2100, www.huntington.org.
