Looking for some nice hanging baskets for your porch? How about some annuals like petunias and coleus for color spots in the garden? What about some geraniums or dracaenas for your pots?
Look no further than the Associated Garden Clubs of Spokane’s annual sale this weekend at Manito Park. The AGC’s sale specializes in dozens of varieties of annuals such as geraniums, bacopa, fuchsias, pansies, vegetable starts, herbs and houseplants you can’t find at other sales in town. The sale is Saturday and Sunday at AGC’s greenhouses east of the Gaiser Conservatory in Manito Park.
“We focus on annuals of all kinds, herbs and hanging baskets that aren’t offered at the Friends of Manito Sale in June,” said Jennifer Ogden, a longtime AGC member. “Each of the local plant sales has their specialty, and this is ours. We source all our starts from local nurseries to keep the money in the community economy.”
All the money raised at the sale and other AGC activities goes directly to the AGC’s grant program that supports gardening-related community projects throughout Spokane County. That includes neighborhood and school community gardens, signs or markers for parks and important points of interest, plants or planting materials for projects, statuary, building materials and fencing, and educational gardening materials.
Funding is available to properties and activities that are owned, organized or are in collaboration with a public or nonprofit entity. The grant program is currently open for applications and will be accepting them through May 15. Application information and forms are available at the AGC’s website: www.associatedgardenclubs.org.
The AGC is a consortium of independent gardeners and smaller clubs who work together to improve and beautify Spokane County’s many public spaces and support opportunities for community members and groups to access horticultural education and community development projects.
The Associated Garden Clubs of Spokane was founded in 1896 as the Spokane Floral Association and is celebrated as the first garden club in Washington state. In 1933, the SFA was joined by six other garden clubs who together secured Spokane’s official recognition as the Lilac City. The group continued to collaborate on larger civic projects throughout the city. By 1938, inspired by Portland’s Rose Festival, the group held the first Lilac Festival Flower Show, which included a small parade. The Lilac Festival Flower Show grew over the decades and eventually evolved into our modern annual Lilac Armed Forces Parade currently managed by the Spokane Lilac Festival Association.
The AGC’s grant program began in 1986, and to date has awarded more than $450,000 to groups throughout the area. They have contributed to specific projects such as the new YWCA, Spokane Civic Theatre, Riverfront Park, Hospice of Spokane, the Turner-Moore Heritage Gardens, Polly Judd Park and numerous neighborhood school and community garden projects as well as several projects in Manito Park, urban tree planting projects, signage for parks and neighborhood park corners gardens and landscaping for civic and school projects.
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