Laramie Garden Club plant sale set for May 30 at fairgrounds

Early arrivals at the Albany County Fairgrounds Rabbit Barn had first pick of the Laramie Garden Club’s annual plant sale, which opened at 8 a.m. on May 30 and ran until the plants were gone. The club urged shoppers to line up early, and the draw was a broad selection of locally grown flowers, vegetables, herbs, trees and shrubs.

The sale was more than a one-morning market. The club said proceeds supported community gardens and other projects, including the upkeep of its public plantings around Laramie. Those gardens include the Albany County Courthouse, Albany County Public Library, Danny’s Garden, Laramie Plains Museum, LaBonte Park Demo Bed and the Library Garden. Sale money also went toward new plants, mulch, periodic revamping and general maintenance.

That local focus matters in a place where growing conditions can be unforgiving. The Laramie Garden Club says its members bring more than 400 years of collective gardening experience at 7,200 feet, and its gardening resources emphasize waterwise and cold-tolerant plants for the region’s high-altitude conditions. The sale’s inventory, grown by club members, fit that approach and gave Albany County gardeners a chance to buy plants already adapted to the climate rather than gamble on stock raised for milder weather.

The plant sale is the club’s biggest event of the year and one of its longest-running traditions. A historical profile of the club says the first sale, in 1967, brought in $200, and most of that went to help establish Laramie’s first history museum. The same profile says the early-June sale now raises $5,000 or more each year, a sign of how the fundraiser has grown from a small club effort into a steady source of support for civic landscaping across town.

The organization itself remains a hands-on volunteer group. Annual dues are $5, and members help with garden beds, the plant sale, meetings and committees. The Wyoming Specialty Crop Directory lists Helen Coates as president and Julia Fox as vice president, underscoring the small, member-run structure behind a sale that continues to help stock Laramie’s public gardens and neighborhood planting spaces.