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The William Paca Garden Plant Sale has been an Annapolis tradition for more than 40 years. This year the fight against COVID-19 has forced Historic Annapolis to move the sale to the first week in June and change to a pre-order, curbside pickup format to keep our customers, volunteers and staff safe.
The William Paca Garden Plant Sale will have everything you need to plant your COVID-19 Victory Garden and bring some colorful history to your garden. This year’s plant sale will be held from Saturday, June 6, 2020 to Friday, June 12, 2020 from 10 am – 3 pm. Beginning June 3 customers will be able to browse the full list of plants at www.annapolis.org, select plants for their order, pay for their order via phone, and select a date and approximate time to pick up their plants.
Victory Gardens began in World War I to help feed Europeans who were suffering from food shortages. At the same time, Americans were facing shortages of canned goods, and began backyard gardens as a way of filling the gap and allowing more commercial crops to be sent to the troops overseas.
The idea became even more popular during World War II when an estimated 20 million small gardens produced 40% of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the United States.
To fill your own Victory Garden, the William Paca Garden Spring Plant Sale will feature hundreds of culinary, annual, and vine plants, all hand raised by Historic Annapolis volunteers.
Along with other culinary crops, some special tomatoes including the Micro Tom Tomato will be offered which is considered to the be world’s smallest tomato with plants only 6-8 inches tall. In addition to both yellow and red cherry tomatoes, the relatively new Celano Hybrid, a 2020 AAS (All-American Selections) Winner will be available.
A fun crop to grow with children are the heirloom peanuts, originally brought to the United States from West Africa in the 17th century and one of the first peanuts imported and grown in the colonies.
Among the annuals that bring color to the garden all summer are Wishbone Plant (Torenia kauai) that likes the shade! And, we have biannual Hollyhocks, Nicotiana (flowering Tobacco), and Verbena Bonariensis (Tall verbena) among many other beautiful, flowering annuals.
Among the offerings in the vine category will be the fragrant Snail Vine, which was said to be Thomas Jefferson’s favorite bean and Annapolis’s favorite Hyacinth Bean with its purple flowers, stems and beans.
For additional information visit www.annapolis.org, email info@annapolis.org or call 410-626-1033.
