The 2017 Garden Fest & More event connected hundreds of attendees with expert growers and offered a wide variety of plants for shoppers to add to their gardens at home.
Vendors ranging from bird houses and flowers to home decor and crafts lined the street offering a wide selection for all in attendance. Garden Fest is one of the Plant City Garden Club’s largest events and has grown significantly over the past nine years, starting with a small selection of plants by the depot and now including diverse vendors along with food options provided by the Plant City Daybreak Rotary Club.
“Tampa and St. Petersburg do a Garden Fest and so we thought it would be neat to do something like that and to have it in the Historic Downtown because it’s kind of about bringing people to our downtown area,” Darcy Stottlemeyer, co-chair of the event and owner of All A Bloom Florist, said. “The other cities around here do it in the spring so we wanted to do something in the fall.”
Stottlemeyer said the event continues to be easier to plan now that the club has consistent vendors that participate. The Garden Club makes it a point to make sure the products offered at the event are diverse and will even limit the event’s size to ensure there is no major competition between sellers.
“I felt like the Garden Club, part of our mission is to educate the public and that’s what we aim to do here,” Cassandra Banning, founder of the Garden Fest and a member of the Garden Club, said. “It brings knowledgeable vendors, which is a good way to educate on gardening, so people can ask the questions they have about different plants and how to care for them.”
That in-depth knowledge is one of the major draws to the event. Each plant vendor can tell shoppers exactly how to care for the flowers and fruit trees they sold and, in many cases, were even offering advice on how to make the plants the shopper had at home flourish.
Jan Griffin, the chair of the event and vice president of the Garden Club, said the feedback has always been overwhelmingly positive for the event. Just walking around she said she saw a mix of both amateur and expert gardeners perusing the plants. The event is intended to offer a little something for everyone so even those who have no prior experience with plants can enjoy the many booths full of unique goods.
After Hurricane Irma barreled through Plant City, Griffin said many in attendance were having to replace staple pieces from their landscaping and were coming to the event to find those coveted plants.
Griffin said while she thinks the event is nice she’s hoping next year they can work on improving advertising for the event so even more people can attend. The Garden Fest is one of the largest events for the club, along with the Flower Show in November and the Horticulture Show at the Florida Strawberry Festival. Banning, however, said it is by far one of the best events offered all year.
“It’s free and parking is free, it’s one of the few things you don’t have to pay a dime for,” Banning said. “It’s a good place to come and learn and explore your other interests, as well.”