Home gardeners regularly call the Marshall County Extension Office asking how to properly take care of plants they have acquired. Often times, the plant information provided by a retailer fails to provide the necessary instruction needed to successfully grow the plant or has misleading/incorrect information.

The Marshall Master Gardener Association (MMGA) offers a plant sale annually. This event has three goals. 3.) Provide an outlet for the community to purchase affordable plants with the intent to inspire new horticultural interest. 2.) Raise funds for the Marshall Master Gardener Association. These funds are predominantly used to provide local agriculture students with scholarships, continuing education opportunities for the membership. 1.) Provide horticulture education to the citizens of Marshall County. 

The public floods in as the doors open for the 2024 MMGA Plant Sale 

In an effort to help relieve the above-mentioned plant information problem and achieve their main goal of providing horticulture education to the public, the Marshall Master Gardeners provide plant educational cards with every plant they sell at their annual sale. The gardeners have created over 500 different plant cards! The cards specify the botanical name, plant type, growing zone, size at maturity, bloom/fruit time, light requirements, soil requirements, and flower characteristics if applicable. Other miscellaneous information such as resistance to deer, pollinator friendliness, and more critical details are often included as well. See the sample below. 

Plant Sale Card ExampleWhen surveyed, 90% of the participants of the 2024 Marshall Master Gardener Plant Sale indicated they increased their horticulture knowledge at the sale. Also, the survey comments section was extremely positive and even included personal thank you's from those who learned new information at the sale! 

Marshall Master Gardeners pose with a full room of plants before the 2024 sale! The Master Gardeners plan to completely update the educational cards again this year. They are constantly finding knew ways to improve. Their advising ANR Agent, Nikki Rhein,  is extremely proud of the leaders they have become in this community. Seeing how her countless efforts to train, educate and empower them, has in turn yielded such amazing volunteer leaders and programs, is very rewarding.