Plant Heritage spring sale attracts hundreds of visitors

First in the queue was Yvonne Kaill, who had been waiting since 9am.

‘I like different plants, I’m just after something colourful and different,’ she said.

Further down the queue was 10-year-old Sophie Harrison with her grandmother, grandfather and mother.

Sophie keeps her own cactus, which she liked because it does not need too much water.

‘I like gardening with grandma and grandpa, and today I’m mostly going to be carrying baskets,’ she said.

Her grandma, Marion Marsh, was looking for vegetable plugs.

‘With all the rain we’ve had I’ve lost lots of what we had,’ she said.

Hundreds of people turned out for the array of vegetable, herb and flower assortments available.

As the queue began spilling out into the road at Sausmarez Manor, organisers decided to open the gates early.

Jill Bishop of Plant Heritage Guernsey said that the queues gave her hope for good sales.

‘I’ve been stood here chatting to people in the queue, it’s been quite nice,' she said.

‘The reason we do these sales is because we need the funds.'

Linda Fermont, also from Plant Heritage Guernsey, said the money raised from the sale was important for the group.

‘We receive no funding and it’s quite expensive to rent the greenhouse and buy the compost,’ she said.

The group is having to adapt to changing gardening habits.

‘The way people are gardening is changing, land is disappearing so we’re having to work with that,’ Mrs Fermont said.

‘This year we’ve introduced sweet potatoes and we want to increase our range of veg. We are looking at upping our houseplants, doing seed swaps and doing children’s afternoons.’

Plant Heritage Guernsey has about 300 members, who work to conserve plants that thrive or are linked with Guernsey.

The group looks after Guernsey’s nerine collection and is setting up a caparne iris collection.