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Plants, Plants and more Plants! This is what you will see when you visit the Orange County Master Gardeners’ Annual Bloomin’ Crazy Plant Fair. Held yearly at the pavilion in Cormier Park, 8235 FM 1442, Orangefield, this year it will be on Saturday, April 10 from 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. The weather is expected to be great. There will be hundreds of plants to choose from to beautify you landscape, patio and home and start your spring vegetable garden. All which have been locally grown by the Master Gardeners and local wholesale nursery suppliers.

This year will be a little different from the norms of the past. We will be observing CDC and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service guidelines for COVID-19 precautions. We request customers to wear masks, covering both the mouth and nose and temperatures will be take before entry. Social distancing will be observed with entry to a limited number of customers at a time. Numbers will be passed put upon arrival so you can remain in your cars instead of in line.

There will be several different citrus varieties including orange, Satsuma, lemon, lime and grapefruit for sale. In addition to citrus the blueberries are grown by a local grower who supplies blueberries to HEB statewide., Thornless blackberries, sweet strawberries, summer raspberries are just a few of the fruit we will have. By special request we have Dorsett and Anna Apple trees, which only require 200 chilling hours in order to set fruit. And they are good cross pollinators for each other. A chilling hour is any continuous time period during the winter which is 45 degrees or lower. In addition to the Apples, we will have Florida King and Sam Houston variety peaches along with the Sweet Sothern Cherry.

For your landscape and flower beds, we will have the famous Texas SuperStar plants available along with native Texas, perennial and annual plants that grow best in our area. There will be such a large assortment of plants, too many to list, you will have to come see for yourself. Of course, vegetables can’t be left out; with 8 varieties of tomatoes including the newly named Texas Superstar Celebrity Tomato and 7 varieties of peppers, some of which are the hot, hot varieties. Herbs and other vegetables are included for your selection.

The plant sale is the main and sometimes only fundraiser the organization has each year. With monies raised, it helps fund projects and educational opportunities for all of Orange County in the horticultural area along with school projects. In addition, we present a scholarship yearly to a Lamar-Orange student.

Our Ask the Master Gardener expert will be there to answer your gardening questions along with any of the Master Gardeners in the different plant areas. This year three vendor booths will be on premise to accentuate your plant buying. The vendors will have available organic fertilizers, honey made products, and how to grow asparagus books. So come prepared to spend time browsing all our plants and vendors.

To learn more about Orange County Master Gardeners please visit our website https://txmg.org/orange. Monthly meetings are held the second Thursday of each month from 6:30 – 8 p.m. at the Orange County EXPO Center. The public is invited to attend any of the meetings. Or, you can visit our Facebook page Orange County Texas Master Gardeners.