City of Windsor’s annual plant sale less than a month away

A small army of professional gardeners is working away inside of Windsor’s new greenhouse ahead of the 27th annual Paul Martin Garden Perennial Plant Sale next month.

At the same time, crews are preparing outdoor gardens and flower beds in all major parks as the weather warms and the spring planting season in the city nears.

“The weather warming is always very exciting,” said Windsor’s Horticulture Supervisor Mike Murphy.

“We have a variety of plants here. I would almost say we have over 100,000 different varieties of plants from annuals to perennials to shrubbery,” Murphy explained. “We're not really in the dirt planting anything yet. Weather still does get pretty chilly at night. Our tulip program is just starting to come now in most of our major parks. So you'll be able to see those popping out of the ground and starting to flower.”

The popular plant sale provides green thumbs with an assortment of perennials, grass, herbs, shrubs, and a small selection of trees.

Nell Martin Roses will also be available along with different varieties of tomatoes, peppers, basil, rosemary, daylilies, hosta, peonies, yucca, rhubarb, raspberries, strawberries, dahlias, cannas, and lavender plants.

Windsor’s horticulture supervisor Mike Murphy inside the City of Windsor Greenhouse on April 10, 2024. (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor)

Murphy continued, “The last couple of weeks here have been pretty warm. It gets everybody in the mood to get out there and get started. Temperatures are still dropping pretty low at night. So any of your sensitive plant material or your annual flowers, we do recommend holding off at least until the long weekend in May is a general rule of thumb. But again everything is pretty weather dependent.”

Landscape and horticultural professor at St. Clair College, Sandy MacDonald, said it’s not too early to get gardens going with the right type of plants and to plan where the rest of your plants or vegetables will eventually go.

“Do we need fertilizers? Do we need peat moss? Do we need bags of manure, topsoil et cetera. Get all those things ready to go so that when you're out there in the garden on an amazing day like today, you can just go all gangbusters all day long. You've got all the supplies and materials you need,” MacDonald said.

“Those cool season crops, we should be seeding those now. Seems cold, but things like lettuce and spinach and arugula and Swiss chard, all those green vegetables, this a great time to get them in the ground. They like the cool weather. Even if we have a frost, which I think we probably will still have a frost, even yet they'll tolerate that,” said MacDonald.

He continued, “Tomatoes and eggplants and peppers, we wouldn't be sowing things like our cucumbers or our squash, watermelons, muskmelons, it's still too cold for that. The ground is cool. It is warming up, but it's going to take a little while before the ground is warm and we're past the danger of frost.”

Proceeds from the city’s plant sale will continue to fund the Paul Martin Garden at Willistead Park.

A full list of available plants has been posted on the City of Windsor’s website. 

The events takes place at 2449 McDougall St. on Saturday, May 4.

Gates open 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.