Green thumbs cash in

By Casey Neill
RARE plants and garden favourites will be on show and sale at Ferny Creek Horticultural Society Ornamental Garden next month.
The Plant Collectors Sale and Rare Plant Expo is the not-for-profit organisation’s major fund-raiser for the year. It will use cash collected to maintain its hall, garden and gardening equipment.
The garden’s Linden Lawn will be filled with marquees from 10am to 4.30pm on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 March. Nursery owners will sell rare and collectable plants, along with trees and shrubs, garden tools, machinery, fertilisers and more.
Visitors can explore a gemstone display inside the hall, see a botanical artist at work, pick up a gardening book, and check out a wood-turning display.
The four-hectare ornamental garden was established near Sherbrooke Forest in 1957. The area’s cool climate, abundant rainfall and rich volcanic soil create ideal growing conditions for a wide range of plants.
Entry to the Plant Collectors Sale and Rare Plant Expo is $5 per person, and free for children under 14. Site parking is ample, and buses are welcome by arrangement.
Light lunches, a sausage sizzle, refreshments and Devonshire tea will be available.
Ferny Creek Horticultural Society Ornamental Garden is at 100 Hilton Road, Sassafras.