The Plant Sale

 This morning I volunteered to be the “Plant Checker” at the UC Botanical Garden special sale for Insectivorous Plants.  It was outside, with everyone masked, and good social distance was maintained.  I sat behind a table, so I felt safe.  Everyone loves insectivorous plants: the Venus flytraps are perhaps the most famous, but Pitcher plants, Nepenthes, sundews and butterworts are also cool.  These plants have evolved with leaf adaptations to catch insects.  Some have tubular shaped leaves with downward facing hairs that trap bees and other insects, others have sticky pads that trap insects and eventually digest them.  They live in wet bogs and swamps. Their roots can’t absorb the nitrogen they need because of the acidic conditions in the bogs. The insects they catch provide the nitrogen.  As a docent, I noticed that boys seem particularly attracted to these plants and often would proudly explain how the plants catch their insects.  Today’s plant sale was wildly successful with people of all ages buying lots and lots of the plants.  Some were real aficionados looking for the most rare and special plants.  Some plants sold for as much as $100.  A favorite customer was a dad with two kids each with paper bags containing their allowances.  After carefully looking at everything, they  picked a large Venus fly trap and an antler sundew.  As I tallied up the prices of plants on a sales slip, I heard wonderful stories of where folks had seen the plants in the wild.  One lady told of a summer house in the Adirondacks by a lake where the wet front yard of the cabin was solid with sundew plants.  She’s loved them ever since.  Another woman told of a trip up to Oregon where they stopped at a pull out and took a board walk into the forest where they came upon a bog filled solid with pitcher plants.  I love plant sales because everyone is so happy and hopeful.  The energy is always really good.  It was filled with special joy at being able to have a plant sale again and love because so many people especially love the insectivorous plants.  I guess during the pandemic people are really tending their boggy gardens.  The wait to get in took a really long time because the sales area was small with only three groups at a time allowed in.  Some people waited more than an hour in the hot sun to get in, but everyone was mellow and happy to be there.  Maybe patience is another fruit of the pandemic.  The preliminary totals are astounding:  $5400 for the 2 hours the sale was open today.  And the sale goes on tomorrow morning!!!