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since 12/15/98 |
| Columns::September 29, 2003 Priority seating: University sets spring 2004 policies for transfer admissions Arts and sciences dean will step down at end of current academic year Blue Key Honor Society recognizes contributions of four ‘distinguished’ citizens Plan protects trees in construction zones Hispanic Heritage Month observance gets under way Front Line Leaders The perfect solution: Computer-based teaching revolutionizes freshman chemistry labs Campus Closeup Molecular genetics facility is renamed Integrated Biotechnology Labs Newsmakers Catching up Campus News Garden bargain State Botanical Garden gets ready for its annual fall plant sale Oct. 11 is this year’s date for the fall plant sale at the State Botanical Garden. Jeannette Coplin, director of horticulture and
Columns: Are you responsible for the Botanical Garden’s plant sales? Coplin: My staff and I grow the plants, buy the things we buy-in, make all the plant selections and those kinds of things. Columns: And how many plants to do you normally have? Coplin: To tell you the truth, I don’t know exactly how many. But I do a catalog for every sale--it lists everything that we’re selling, and people can take it home with them--and the catalog’s about 30 pages long. So we have quite a selection. Columns: I don’t remember a catalog in the early years of the plant sale. Coplin: I’ve been doing them, I think, since about 1997--just because it’s gotten to be such a big event, with a lot of different plants. It helps people to see what they might be interested in. And when they get home they can remember what they bought and how big it’s going to get. Columns: How many do you sell? Coplin: We have spring and fall sales. The spring is usually a bigger sale than the fall. In the spring, we usually gross about $25,000, and our profit’s around $10,000. And in the fall, we make maybe $5,000 or $6,000. Columns: And how many people come? Coplin: Hundreds. We have an event called Plantasia in the spring, which is for the Friends, the night before. Columns: That’s a sale for the Friends of the Garden, preceding the public sale? Coplin: Yes. Hundreds come to that. And then hundreds more the next day. In the fall, we do a similar event called Cornucopia, just for our volunteers. They don’t get many perks, and they help us a lot. That’s the one thing I can do for them. They get a chance to buy first, the night before, and then we open to the public all day Saturday. Columns: How long does it last? Coplin: Till 2. We’ve found that that’s when things stop. Most people want to come early and then plant in the afternoon. So it never has benefited us to stay any longer than that. What’s there at 2 we just load up and take back down to the greenhouses, and there’s usually not a lot left by then anyway. It takes all day the day before to get it all up here and get it in place, and when it’s over we can load it all up and be gone in less than 30 minutes. Columns: So you sell a little of everything. Coplin: Yes. We do try to do that, but we also try to have things that you’re not going to find everywhere. And we specialize in certain things for each plant sale. In the spring this year we did native azaleas for our featured plants, and we had hundreds and hundreds, all different kinds. Columns: How much will one of those camellias cost? Coplin: Maybe $6 or $7 per gallon plant. They’re three years old now--it takes a while till they’re a big enough size to sell. Some things take longer to root than others, of course, and you have to cut things at just the right time of year. Over time there’s a lot of labor involved in producing them. Columns: And knowledge. Dr. Bonner must be pleased to see his plants multiply. Coplin: You know, if you’re a real collector like he is, there’s nothing that you’d rather do than show people your collection. This way he can share it and it benefits the Garden too--and he’s a long-time friend of the Garden. It works for everybody. Columns: You said you buy some plants too. Coplin: Yes, we buy in, mostly from local wholesale nurseries. We fill in some gaps that way. We don’t want to be too specialized--we want, say, somebody with a new house to be able to find landscape plants. Columns: Is there any worry about competing with local gardening stores? Coplin: I don’t think we’re competition for anybody who’s in the business, because we only do it twice a year. Certainly none of the people that we buy from or deal with feel that way. Columns: And proceeds go to the Garden? Coplin: Yes--all proceeds benefit the Garden. Sometimes people assume that because we’re the State Botanical Garden we must have a lot of state support, but our state money doesn’t even cover salaries. Everything else we raise on site. Columns: This has grown into a major event over the years. Coplin: It’s huge. We have to rope the place off and not let people in early. But it’s fun too. Columns: How many staff members are there in the horticulture department at the Garden? Coplin: There are 10 of us. Columns: A lot of volunteers must be needed for the sale. Coplin: Yes, about 20 Master Gardeners help, working in shifts, and we have volunteers running cash registers, loading, doing all kinds of things for us. |
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