Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Aunt Flora’s sale happens today

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

Published by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. CLICK FOR NEWSPAPER DELIVERY

Home & Garden readers might also want to read Keep it Green, a gardening column by Michael Womack.

Saturday, October 20, 2001
Aunt Flora’s sale happens today
Botanical Gardens offers massive mums, more than 1,500 plants
By Cassandra Hinojosa
Caller-Times

Caller-Times file photo

Aunt Flora will roll into her annual plant sale in her ‘Flutter-Bye’ Beetle. The sale runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the Corpus Christi Botanical Gardens.

Chrysanthemum grower John Vitaglione propagated more than 125 single stem mums that are the size of homecoming mums for the Aunt Flora's Gigantic Fall Plant Sale today at the Corpus Christi Botanical Gardens.
   If mums aren't your thing, other specially propagated plants at the sale will include rubber trees, moon flower and bleeding heart vines, Turk's cap mallows, Aztec grass, sky flowers, rose cactus, and assorted succulents.
   "We started propagating plants in June, and we have propagated over 1,500 for this sale," said Reggie Dirnberger, aka Aunt Flora. "This is the most the master gardeners have ever propagated for one of their sales. It's quite exciting."
   Dirnberger will make her appearance in a red print dress, straw hat, white high tops and a green-and-white apron as people browse and shop among the selections today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A members' pre-sale will be held from 8:30 to 10 a.m. More than 2,000 plants will be available for purchase at this year's sale, according to organizers. Traditional plants such as orchids, bromeliads, tropical foliage, plumeria and landscape plants will be among the selection.
   We are going to have a lot more native and water-wise plants for people's landscapes," said MaryJanecq Crullcq, communications director at the Botanical Gardens. "We have some with beautiful growth habits and colorful blooms."
   The plant sale isn't just about plants, either.
   Yard items for sale will include patio and table top fountains, yard art, plant society vendors, outdoor wooden furniture (cedar and cypress), planters, skin care products, bird feeders and fruit baskets.
   "Master gardeners will be on hand to answer any horticulture questions," MaryJane Crull, communications director at the Botanical Gardens, said. "Besides price, we have photos of the plants when they are in bloom and general plant care instruction."
   A spring plant sale at the Botanical Gardens drew a record 1,900 visitors, Crull said. For today's turnout, off-duty police will control traffic at the S. Staples Street entrance, volunteers within the site will direct parking and people will load larger plants into vehicles, Crull said.
   For her own transportation, Dirnberger plans to arrive in style: She's bringing "Flutter-Bye," her wildly-decorated Volkswagon Beetle.
   The car also goes by the nickname "Botanical Beetle."
   "That is a mobile butterfly garden I created four years ago because I didn't want a plain old Beetle," Dirnberger said. "I wanted something different. You've got to have a little fun in your life."


Contact Cassandra Hinojosa at 886-3617 or hinojosac@caller.com

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND