Flower buyers snap up plants at post-fair sale

<p>Wagons and wheelbarrows, bursting with color, rolled out of the Sonoma County Fair Hall of Flowers on Tuesday as plant buyers hustled to their cars, unloaded and returned to the hall for more.</p><p>From veteran plant sale buyers to newbies, hundreds of people dispersed throughout the huge hall and outer courtyard to take advantage of the annual sale.</p><p>"This is my first time," said Adam Dodds, of Santa Rosa.</p><p>Dodds arrived at 6:30 a.m. and found a few hundred people already in line for the 7 a.m. opening.</p><p>He was motivated by the need to fill in his front yard, newly relieved of its lawn, and was pleased with his success.</p><p>"I timed it during a big landscape job," Dodds said.</p><p>Already two trips made to his car with loads of grasses, he was back for some color with a blue hue.</p><p>The overall cost was about $100. "Not too bad," Dodds said.</p><p>The plant sale, held at the end of the Sonoma County Fair, gives nurseries a chance to sell at bargain prices the plants they've used for displays at the fair's Hall of Flowers. The fair ended Monday.</p><p>Tuesday, several shoppers, sellers and workers, said the crowd seemed bigger than last year, perhaps due to the huge variety of vibrantly colorful flowers and trees.</p><p>This year's theme was Seasons of New England.</p><p>"Last year it was like a funeral," said longtime nurseryman Paul Swanson of Santa Rosa. "Nobody had any money."</p><p>This year seemed better, Swanson said, moving between customers and shuttling plants. "We won't know until the dust settles."</p><p>Jenny Jones of Santa Rosa has come to the day-after sale for more than 40 years with a strategy.</p><p>"I always scope it out ahead of time," said Jones, allowing her to go directly to the plants she wants.</p><p>She said that despite so many years, she still gets excited as she first enters the hall for the sale.</p><p>"There's a little feeling of frenzy," Jones said.</p><p>First-timer Rod Boudreau of Santa Rosa said he wasn't sure of everything he bought.</p><p>But it all was overflowing a large wheelbarrow he pushed as he headed out the door.</p><p>The morning was a success, Boudreau said.</p><p>"I've always wanted to come to the Sonoma County Fair plant sale," he said.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat</p><p>.com.</p>