Margaret Roach And Berkshire Botanical Garden Plan A Big Green Weekend

Spring is in the air. Well, rain is in the air, if you’re going to be specific about it, it’s mostly rain. But it’s causing the daffodils, pansies and crocuses to pop up and that’s a fine tradeoff. If you’ve got spring fever, too, and are itching to buy new plants, or if you need some inspiration and guidance for this year’s garden, you’ll want to free up the weekend of May 10 and 11. On both Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11, Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Mass. will hold its Plants and Answers: Be-a-better-gardener Plant Sale. And on Saturday, over in Copake Falls, NY (about 35 minutes away from the BBG), Margaret Roach will lecture, open her garden to the public and host an on-site rare plant sale with Broken Arrow Nursery. Here’s all of the info you need to help you plan your big green weekend. 

Berkshire Botanical Garden Plants & Answers Sale
Friday, May 10: Early buying for members 9-11 a.m.
Open to the public 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Saturday, May 11: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Free admission

With more than 1,000 plants representing more than 180 species, it’s easy to see why the BBG’s annual sale is so popular. A huge bonus for attendees is the opportunity to ask questions of the staff and volunteers who are full of common sense suggestions and plant information for anyone from a rank beginner to a seasoned gardener.

“The mission of the garden is education,” says Robin Parow, the site’s director of marketing communications. “This sale has so many teaching moments. A beginning gardener can come to this sale and leave with ideas, knowledge and all the ingredients, plant-wise, to begin their journey in gardening.”

Visitors can bend the ear of volunteers from the Western Massachusetts Master Gardeners Association, who will be staffing a booth during the sale, or they can flag down anyone with an “ask me” button.

An overview of what you’ll find at the sale includes plants displayed by habitat — sunny areas, beds and borders, dry areas, woodland edge — along with annuals and perennials, many of them from the BBG’s own gardens; tropicals, vines, organic vegetable and herb plants, hanging baskets and plants donated by nurseries from throughout the tri-state area. 

New this year is a section concentrating on plants that attract native pollinators such as bees, moths, hummingbirds and butterflies. You’ll also be able to pre-order a boxed lunch for the first time, which will be available after you’ve shopped the plants, pop-up vendors and the book sale; bid for items in the silent auction; and viewed the Nature Narratives exhibit in the Center House and the Garden in its “high spring” glory.

Open Garden Day with Margaret Roach
Saturday, May 11 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
"Gardening for the Birds" Lecture: 9 a.m.

Many of you, local and otherwise, are already quite familiar with gardener and author Margaret Roach, a former contributor to Martha Stewart Living and Newsday. A few times a year, she generously opens her Copake Falls, NY garden to the public and the first open day of this year will be on Saturday, May 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. As is often the case, her friends from Broken Arrow Nursery will be on-site selling a selection of rare plants.

The day also coincides with, and will serve as a celebration of, the release of Roach’s updated 1998 classic book, A Way to Garden. At 9 a.m., just down the road at Church of St. John in the Wilderness, Roach will give the illustrated lecture “Gardening for the Birds,” full of her personal tips and tricks to attract more birds to your property. Tickets to the lecture are $20, but pre-order the new book and your ticket is free.

The new, expanded A Way to Garden is based on Roach’s first book, an award-winner which was published 21 years ago. At first, she thought the book would need only a little tweaking, but “Twenty-one years is a long time,” says Roach. “Now we know about pollinator plants, native plants and habitat gardening. There were so many subjects that we didn’t have the scientific understanding of, and now we do,” she says. “And, as with everything aesthetic, people’s tastes change.” The book uses the same structure, based on Roach’s 365-day garden, which she calls a year-round delight, but one-third of the book is brand new, and it’s twice as long as the original version.

“I’m a different gardener now and I’ve been through many more adventures since then,” says Roach. From how you planted a shrub back then — dig a cavernous hole and put peat moss in it — to new technical knowledge gained through the last 21 years of scientific research, things are not the same. “There were plants that didn’t exist back then and some of those that did have proven to be invasive, so I started over. That’s what happens, it’s like a period piece. I’ve really evolved it.”

While you’re in area, Roach encourages you to stop by Tiny Hearts Flower Shop in downtown Hillsdale, which will be hosting a sale of annual flower transplants and dahlia tubers from its own farm as well as vegetable and herb starts from Mx Morningstar Farm.

Next door, at HGS Home Chef, John Michelotti will lead the workshop “Easy Mushroom Growing Indoors & Out” at 10 a.m. And at 2 p.m., Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple will offer a cooking class on “Harnessing the Power of Fresh Herbs.” There are a very limited number of spaces available in each class, and tickets should be purchased ASAP.