The London Grove Friends Meeting Plant Sale is from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 10. Along with the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup, the Unionville Community Fair, and the Cheshire Races, the plant sale is one of the highlights of my year. I mark the date on my calendar, my phone and my office whiteboard so I don't schedule anything else for the day.
That's because it's not just a plant sale; it's a community event where friends and neighbors from so many different circles get to catch up after the winter. I attend for the social aspect even when I don't need to buy any plants at all ("need" being a very loose term; I always end up buying at least a funky new kind of basil).
There's a soothing, reassuring sense of sameness to the sale: you know who's going to be behind the perennial table and the hanging basket stand (hi, Pat! hi, Margaret!); you know exactly where to find those beautiful bright-red geraniums and those Brandywine tomato seedlings. The young people who were kindergartners seemingly just yesterday are now taller than their parents and sporting hip haircuts -- but are just as nice as ever as they help out in the Plant Parking area.
Seriously hard-core gardeners will arrive at the very beginning of the day; I'm a bit more relaxed, and usually the first wave is leaving, arms full, as I arrive.
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