It was a rainy, drippy slog that tested gardeners’ grit on April 11, the first of the American Horticultural Society’s (AHS) two-day, annual, spring garden market in Mount Vernon. Ellen Sliger with Nature by Design said the temperature, hovering around 44 degrees, was 20 degrees below normal, as she tried to operate her handheld credit card machine with gloved fingers. 

The 35 vendors, most huddled under sodden tents awaiting customers, tried to keep spirits up. “Today we have the diehard gardeners,” said Dave O’Neill with Radical Roots from Harrisonburg, Virginia. 

By 2 p.m., Ben Stowe with Little Hat Creek Farm had had about 30 customers since the 9 a.m. opening.

It rained, poured and drizzled all day. The plants loved it.

On Sunday, the rain had stopped, but the sky was overcast and gray. By 1 p.m., the temperature had inched up to 50 degrees. Nonetheless, the plant lovers descended. By the 3 p.m. end, around 1,300 had purchased and perused over two days. Last year, around 2,300 people shopped on two sunny days.

Stowe brought “ecologically grown” vegetables, fruits and other plants from his Nelson County, Virginia, farm. This was his third year, calling it “a good market.” His website says “We are doing our best to leave our land and our community better than we found it.”

The “Peony’s Envy” sign lured the curious by the name alone. Kathleen Gagan grows only peonies at her Bernardsville, New Jersey, farm and gave Cory McGee of Hollin Hills a how-to-grow-peonies tutorial. “I’m trying to learn,” McGee said. 

On peonies, Gagan explained, “I got into this by accident. It’s the first crop I grew that did not fail. The deer won’t eat them.” She has a 14-acre display garden and 12 acres in production at her farm. Asked how many peonies? She replied, “Tens of thousands.”

Mount Vernon-area potter Bruce Ciske goes every year to sell his distinctive vases and containers, often bought by Ikebana enthusiasts. “I wouldn’t miss it,” he said. “There are pleasant people here.”

Ryan Starnes’s iron garden art, including butterflies and dragonflies made from spoons, forks and knives, sparkled even in the rain. He’s with Greg’s Art and Garden and came all the way from Covington, Kentucky. 

Inside the estate house, more art, woodworks, stoneware, floral arrangements, ceramics, soap and other products were for sale.

This year’s market sponsors were Hartley Botanic, Bartlett Tree Experts, Burke and Herbert Bank, Wegmans, the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, Thomas Fannon and Sons, Alexandria Living Magazine and Party Potty.

AHS headquarters at River Farm is on the northernmost of George Washington’s five farms.    

Tallamy Coming Up

On April 17 at 2 p.m., in a virtual program, native plant champion Dr. Douglas Tallamy will discuss his new book, How Can I Help? Saving Nature with Your Yard. For more programs, visit www.ahsgardening.org/.