Thirty-three individuals attended The Friendly Garden Club auction in Rutland on Monday and it was another great event. We dined on great salads, sandwiches, fruit and desserts to garner the energy for the auction that followed our meal. The auctioneer, Ann Erickson, kept the bids lively and her silly sidekick, Delores Lysne, provided comic relief for the evening. Auctioned items included plants fresh from member gardens such as daylilies, maple tree shoots, hostas, and other outdoor plantings, new plants from nearby nurseries, and garden stakes, gloves, and garden decorations and several indoor plants. The lovely table decorations were raffled off during breaks in the competitive auction action. Most attendees went home with one or two auction items and for those who purchased outdoor plants, I hope you have a dry spot in your yard ’cause I know mine is too wet unless I use the outdoor pots — and those seem to have a lot of standing water these days. It was a great time and “hats off” to the cooks and hosts of the annual event. Next year, I’ll have to remember to split the daylilies to share at the auction. I’m running out of room to plant them!!

I went to the Friendly Garden Club’s annual plant auction at the Nordland Lutheran Church parish hall on May 19 and had a blast.  Some people may think that a plant auction would be kind of boring, but the Friendly Garden Club members are not boring.  First of all, they had a fabulous meal which, in itself, was worth the effort of getting ready to go someplace.  And the plants…  Every kind, every color, some fragrant, some not, some in creative and beautiful containers, some in cardboard boxes.  But, they all were sold amid some heavy duty bidding wars.  Ann Erickson and Susan Fust were very entertaining auctioneers and had the bidders laughing and having a great time.  We have the Friendly Garden Club members to thank for the beautiful flowers that adorn the various areas of the City of Rutland.  They use the money raised from their plant auction to purchase the flowers they place around town.  They also make sure the flowers are weeded and watered, so they have work cut out for them all summer.