Gardeners flock to Sonoma County Fair for annual plant sale

Hundreds of people rushed to the Sonoma County Fair’s Hall of Flowers early Monday, pulling red wagons, pushing dollies and carrying huge baskets in the annual quest to grab plants and flowers for sale after the close of the fair.

Aubrey Ballinger of Santa Rosa and Kathy Bell of Lodi scoped out the hall building a day earlier to determine what they’d go for in the morning.

“We made a mental list,” Ballinger said.

Within minutes of the 7 a.m. opening, they bought succulents of various sizes - a nod to the drought and because they genuinely like them, they said.

“It’s not to be missed,” Bell said of the sale. “It’s the best part of the fair.”

The popular event capped the 15-day fair, which ended Sunday. Preliminary figures show the fair drew 175,258 paying customers, down 4.5 percent from last year when 183,446 tickets were purchased over a 16-day period.

Ticket revenue was about $1.5 million, compared to $1.6 million last year.

A shorter schedule, coupled with a one-week delay to the start of horse racing, caused the decline, said Katie Fonsen Young, the fair’s interim manager.

Still, she said on-track wagers were up 25 percent over eight days and paid parking revenue rose 10 percent, driven by a $1 rate increase.

Livestock auction earnings increased by $175,000 to about $1.4 million. And a number of special events, such as the professional rodeo and monster truck competition, sold out.

“It was another amazing fair,” Young said. “We were really pleased.”

Also on the rise were food and beverage sales, which increased 4.5 percent to $2.7 million, Young said.

Fairgoers choosing from an array of vendors consumed 4,640 pounds of spaghetti, 130,000 mini-donuts, 1,250 pounds of fudge, 1,500 dipped apples and two tons of kettle corn, Young said.

More than 14,800 seniors attended the fair for free.

On Monday, organizers packed it all up while the green-thumb crowd swarmed the Hall of Flowers. Many of the plants were going for $5 each, including some large hydrangeas.

Marty Cablk’s red wagon held a few colorful coleus plants and “I don’t know what those others are,” he said, pointing to other purple flowers he’d purchased.

The Healdsburg resident was next headed for an area that featured plants to attract bees. “They’re very popular,” he said.

Many of the shoppers were regulars, some having come each year for decades. But Santa Rosa resident Vicky Hill was making her first trip to the plant sale.

“The prices here are jaw-dropping,” said Hill, who was a little overwhelmed with the options surrounding her.