June White
| Special to the Tallahassee Democrat
A local treasured event in the gardening world that has spread a lot of roots over the years is coming to a close.
Birdsong Nature Center in Grady County, Georgia, will hold its last two plant sales from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. March 21 and April 4.
This sale of native plants and old-timey garden plants has become a celebrated event among local gardeners in South Georgia and North Florida over the 19 years that it has served as a fundraiser for the nature center.
Trees that gardeners took home from the earliest years have had time to grow to their full size, shrubs have filled in, and perennials planted from a single 3-inch pot have spread to form masses.
Thanks to the generosity and deep horticultural knowledge shared by local gardeners, Birdsong has been privileged to be able to offer many unique and hard-to-find old garden plants and native plants.
The bounty includes the elegant and exquisitely fragrant Christopher Lilies which grew in the garden of a Tallahassee mayor in the 1930s, Golden Hurricane Lilies that were collected by a Thomasville gardener in the 1940s, and hundreds of rare and unusual cultivars of Wild Azaleas that came from the collaboration of Tallahassee’s Dan Miller and the plants man Ernest Koone in Pine Mountain.
It is gratifying to all who love Birdsong Nature Center to walk or drive around in Tallahassee neighborhoods and see thriving “Birdsong plants” as prominent features in yards and gardens.
Three gardens in particular have been planted over the years with trees, shrubs, and perennials from the sales. A gardener in Midtown has created a native garden in an urban setting with plants she brought home from Birdsong sales. Trilliums, Fringed Campion, and Indian Pinks bloom alongside busy traffic.
In a Killearn Lakes garden a mature Ashe Magnolia purchased as a 3-foot-tall sapling at the 2017 sale now spreads the fragrance of its huge spring blooms through the whole neighborhood.
A couple of gardeners in historic Myers Park have shared cuttings and divisions from their beautiful gardens with Birdsong so that their plants now grow in other gardens miles away.
Gardeners love plants with provenance, and hundreds of plants with funny or touching stories have been offered at the plant sales — a begonia from a long gone great grandmother, a hydrangea rooted from a floral display at the funeral of an uncle, “Professor Elcan’s Lily” a Crinum affectionately named for a Bainbridge school teacher.
In yards and gardens all across North Florida and South Georgia the plant stories are told, and now many will start wistfully with: “This came from Birdsong.”
It is a beautiful time of year for our final sales: to shop for plants, visit with fellow gardeners, and celebrate the success of these mission-based fundraisers. We thank our many customers for their patronage over the years and hope the plants you brought home have thrived and enriched your lives.
Please feel welcome to come out and shop for a special last plant, walk the nature trails, visit the Gift Shop, and enjoy the Bird Window. Admission is free and there will be a $5-off membership special all day. We’ll look forward to seeing you, two last times.
If you go
What: Birdsong Nature Center final plant sales
When: 9 a.m.-1 p.m. March 21 and April 4
Where: Birdsong Nature Center, 2106 Meridian Road, Thomasville, Georgia
Cost: Admission free
Details: Visit birdsongnaturecenter.org; 229-377-4408 or birdsong@birdsongnaturecenter.org
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