There has been a hive of activity at the Friends of the Orange Botanic Gardens’ propagation nursery these past few weeks as volunteers get ready for another massive Spring Plant Sale.

Taking place this November 8-9, the sale promises to be a green thumb’s delight, with thousands of locally-propagated native and exotic plants up for grabs at very reasonable prices.

“We've got a huge selection of natives and we have a big range of exotics as well,” said Friends volunteer Libby West, “but the natives are very popular because they're grown from local cuttings or local seeds which are gathered from the surrounding districts.

“So everything that is grown is very suitable for this climate and they thrive in the right conditions.”

The Friends of the Orange Botanic Gardens is a group of keen volunteer gardeners who raise money to support our local Botanic Garden. Their two annual sales, in spring and autumn, are their major fundraising events for the year.

“It's as much social as it is active,” said Friends president Simon Wood. “We all enjoy just the activity of gardening and the enjoyment of the company of others.

“We have an area where we propagate plants from which we then conduct our two sales a year and the money goes back into the gardens in some way or another.”

“An example of that moment is the native display garden, which the council is organising, which is quite a formal garden featuring native plants, which is going to be an example for people to come and see what sort of garden plants they can use.”

Over the years, the Friends have donated features like the analemmatic (horizontal) sundial, several sculptures, seating, and other infrastructure.

Don’t miss the Friends of the Orange Botanic Gardens Spring Plant Sale, which takes place at the Orange Botanic Gardens propagation area from 8.30am to 3pm on Saturday, November 8, and 8.30am to 1pm on Sunday, November 9.

The propagation area is located between the entrance to the Botanic Gardens and the Adventure Playground.