Fair now done, plants get a new home

Wagons and wheelbarrows, bursting with color, rolled out of the Sonoma County Fair Hall of Flowers early Tuesday as plant buyers hustled to their cars, unloaded and returned to the hall for more.

From veteran plant sale buyers to newbies, at 7 a.m. hundreds of people dispersed throughout the huge hall and outer courtyard to take advantage of the annual sale.

The plant sale gives nurseries a change to sell off the plants they’ve used for displays at the fair’s Hall of Flowers. The fair ended Monday.

The sale is open until 3 p.m.

“I always scope it out ahead of time,” said Jenny Jones, of Santa Rosa.

A true veteran of the sale of more than 40 years, Jones admitted to still getting excited as she first enters the hall, trying to make her way to the plants she’s already eyeballed.

“There’s a little feeling of frenzy,” Jones said.

This round, her colorful load included purple hydrangeas, light blue French hydrangeas, orange dahlias and multi-colored roses.

“It’s a great deal. I love it, every year,” she said.

Tuesday, several shoppers, sellers and workers, said the crowd seemed bigger than last year, perhaps due to the huge variety of really colorful flowers.

The theme this year was the Seasons of New England.