Plantasia 2019 offers a plethora of plants, a kids fairy garden, and more
by Lorne Chambers | Editor
The Lowcountry’s premiere garden festival and plant sale, Plantasia, returns to West Ashley this month for two days of activities and plants, plants, and more plants. Put on by the Charleston Horticultural Society (CHS), Planatasia 2019 will again be held at Old Towne Creek County Park, off of Old Towne Road, next to Charlestowne Landing.
“It’s an ideal setting both for convenience and aesthetic as it is a beautiful, peaceful natural setting and ideal for a plant festival,” says Kyle Barnette, CHS’s Executive Director. “We love being there and in West Ashley.” CHS’s home base is also located in West Ashley in the South Windermere Shopping center.
Plantasia sees close to 3,000 visitors from all over the southeast and continues to grow each year. “It is our largest and most vital fundraising program of the year, which helps support all of our horticulture educational programming throughout the entire year,” says Barnette.
Plantasia 2019, is gearing up this month to be the biggest and boldest festival yet. An extensive collection of unique and everyday plants are always the centerpiece of the celebration, but there’s a lot more to this year’s Plantasia,” says Barnette.
“Due to having other plant vendors on site along with ourselves, we could estimate we will have over 5,000 plants for sale at Plantasia,” says Barnette. But new this year will be the CHS HORT Boutique, which is a separate shopping area at Plantasia that will feature specialty garden items, including unique hand-blown glass garden art pieces, CHS’s new tote bags, and Campo clay pots for sale.
Also new this year will be the debut of the Plantasia Fairy Garden Workshop for kids where children are encouraged to come dressed in their fairy garden best to meet Tinkerbell and learn about the magic of gardening. Food trucks and specialty vendors will be on site so patrons can shop for all their garden accessory needs without having to leave for lunch.
The weekend gets kicked off Friday, April 12 with the popular catered Plantasia Preview Party, a ticketed event the evening before the big festival day, where attendees can nosh on delicious bites from Thurston Southern Catering and enjoy a variety of wine and beer while getting first access to all of the plants, garden accessories and vendors at the sale. The Plantasia Preview Party will also see the annual Iron Trowel garden design competition and the debut of the new CHS Garden Boutique.
As part of the Plantasia Preview Party, CHS will be honoring long-time West Ashley resident and legendary gardener Lucile MacLennan. “She is about to turn 99 years old and is still a vital and active influencer in the Charleston garden scene,” says Barnette.
Then the main Plantasia event starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday April 13 and is open and free to the public. The annual garden festival and sale, which sees more than 2,500 visitors over the two day event, will offer attendees a massive variety of plants that are perfect for spring planting along with a plethora of garden experts on hand to advise, assist and educate expert and novice gardeners alike.
The Plantasia Preview Party will be held April 12, 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $50 for Charleston Horticultural Society members, $60 for guests. Then Plantasia 2019 will be held Saturday, April 13, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. and is free to the public. Both events will be held at Old Towne Creek County Park, located at 1400 Old Towne Road. For tickets to the Preview Party or more information, call (843) 579-9922 or visit www.chashortsoc.org.
