Gardening club plant sale returns
Published 1:30 am Saturday, May 2, 2026
It’s first come, first serve at what may be Oak Harbor’s longest-running annual plant sale.
More than 800 plants — including over 100 varieties, at least 40 of which are new this year — can be purchased at the Oak Harbor Garden Club’s upcoming plant sale, to be held from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. May 9. Admission to the sale is free, and the sale will take place near the Autumn Leaves sculpture by North Whidbey Middle School.
Blooming plants, club member Kathy Chalfant explained, may sell out quicker than others available. Hanging baskets can be purchased for Mother’s Day as well.
Club members cultivated everything that will be for sale, all to buyers’ benefit. Chalfant and other members explained that an array of healthy plants known to thrive on Whidbey will be available for reasonable prices.
“It’s not like when you go to Home Depot, you don’t know if it’s going to grow in your necessarily,” Robin Boyle, another member, explained. “We’re here. These are tried and true. These are plants that are going to work in your garden.”
Beautifying Oak Harbor is the club’s mission, and the plant sale — one of the club’s main three fundraisers of the year — is a means to that end. Money raised from the sale is used to fund grants which are distributed to businesses for the purpose of decorating their storefronts, among other things.
“You get good deals and we’re not trying to get rich,” Chalfant said. “We’re trying to have fun and give to the community.”
This year’s sale is the continuation of a longstanding tradition of the club’s, which outlasted even the COVID-19 pandemic; then, the club held a members-only sale, Chalfant explained. The Oak Harbor Garden Club is more than a century old.
Gwen Rhines emphasized that the garden club welcomes all — gardening knowledge and experience is not a prerequisite. Rhines, a garden club member of the last two years, said she knows “nothing” about gardening but wanted to surround herself with gardeners and learn as much as she can.
“You don’t have to be a gardener. You don’t have to have any wisdom about gardening. You just have to love plants. And it’s a great group,” she said.
Boyle echoed that sentiment. Gardening is what unites the group, and a sense of community is why members stay.
“We get so much out of the groups we work with. You build a lot of friendships,” she said. “It’s really fun.”
The plant sale isn’t the only event on the docket for the Oak Harbor Garden Club.
Early bird tickets are available online for the 23rd annual Garden Tour and Tea, another one of the club’s events on June 27. Tickets cost $30 until May 12. Starting May 13, tickets can be purchased for $35 at ACE Hardware on Southeast Pioneer Way, Greenhouse Florist and Nursery on Northeast Seventh Avenue and Mailliard’s Landing Nursery on North Oak Harbor Road.
