May Program

Our Annual Auction and Silent Auction
Featuring Colonel Barry Lovelace as Auctioneer  

The program this month will be our fifteenth annual plant auction. Plan to come, bid, and pick up a beautiful plant, horticultural equipment, gift certificates, and other plant related items at a reasonable price. To make this a success, you will need to actively participate. First, if possible, we would like you to bring a plant (or whatever) that you think someone would like to buy, and second, you need to bring money to buy someone else’s contribution. It would be helpful if you would identify your plant with name, growing habit (sun or shade), and any other growing information you think would be helpful to the buyer. You could even attach your name so the buyer could contact you if they have any questions. Put the information on a stake or a piece of paper attached to the plant. You should bring your auction contributions in a half-hour or so before our 7:30 meeting starting time. Barry Lovelace has again agreed to be the auctioneer.

Because the Silent Auction has been so successful the past few years we will have it again this year as an accompaniment to our usual “Barry Lovelace” live auction. Keeping it all in the family, Joann Lovelace will be in charge of the silent auction with cochairs Carol Kay Johnson and Barbara Wagner. We are now soliciting items for the silent auction to be brought in that evening, May 26. It would be helpful if club members and guest donors would e-mail Joann at jlovelace@austin.rr.com or phone her at 502-2428 to give her an idea of what you are donating. If you didn’t pick up a Silent Auction bid sheet at the April meeting you can get one by e-mailing Joann or print page 7 of this newsletter. It would also be helpful if you had one of these filled out in advance for each item you bring.

What to bring??? Anything that you think a fellow gardener would like to buy: books, tools, garden art, clothing/accessories, pottery, garden themed dishes or serving pieces, folk art, paintings, containers, collectibles, craft items, antiques, you name it! If you like it (or once liked it) chances are there is someone else who would like it too. The silent auction is primarily limited to non-plant items. Most plants should be submitted to the regular auction. Exceptions can be made. Although Joann would prefer to know ahead of time what you plan to bring, you could also just show up with it the evening of May 26.

Those of you who have attended past auctions know that this will be an entertaining evening whether you end up buying anything or not. We will not have Show-and- Tell or Trade-a-Plant at the May meeting.

Mark your calendar now for Thursday, May 26, in the Austin Area Garden Center. Bring your friends to the meeting, especially your rich, horticultural friends.

-Norman