UT Arboretum Society to have plant sale Saturday, April 18

A wide variety of plants, blacksmith demonstration, and food will be featured

The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society will have its 48th annual Spring Plant Sale on Saturday, April 18. The sale is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the UT Arboretum at 901 South Illinois Avenue in Oak Ridge.

The “Members Only” sale will be on Friday evening, April 17, from 5 to 7 p.m. Memberships may be purchased at that time for this “early bird” shopping opportunity. Checks and credit cards will be accepted.

This year, the Arboretum Society will gather the best of four local nurseries in one location. Beaver Creek and Riverdale Nurseries from Knoxville, Sunlight Gardens from Andersonville, and East Fork Nursery from Sevierville will be offering a large and varied selection of shrubs, trees, wildflowers, perennials, annuals, and edibles.

Brad Greenwood Designs will display unique botanically themed copper garden ornaments and steel features for the home and yard. He will have his forge on site for blacksmithing demonstrations. Dano’s Hot Dogs will be back by popular demand.

The Society will be offering a limited supply of “The Rising Sun” Redbud. This brand new Redbud displays brilliant, golden tangerine, and lime colored, heart-shaped foliage all summer.

Retired UT horticulture professor Will Witte, the “Answer Man,” will be on hand to answer your plant questions and will be selling books from his personal horticulture library.

The University of Tennessee Arboretum Society is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. The Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the objectives and programs of the University of Tennessee’s 250-acre Arboretum in Oak Ridge. Proceeds from this sale and other Society fundraising events go toward the operating expenses and endowment fund for the UT Arboretum.

The Arboretum is part of the UT Forest Resources AgResearch and Education Center, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2014. To learn more about the Arboretum Society and the UT Arboretum Endowment Fund, go to www.utarboretumsociety.org.

To learn more about the sale or the UT Arboretum Society, go to the Arboretum website. For more information on the program, call (865) 483-3571.