The Hill Country Master Gardeners will host their annual Blooms and Barrels Sale on Saturday, April 12, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Hill Country Youth Event Center.
If history is any indication, the event may end even earlier.
Lines typically form before doors open, as eager gardeners arrive with carts in tow, ready to shop the sale’s curated selection of native and adaptive plants. Organizers say they’ve grown more than 1,400 plants for the event, but high demand has led to early sellouts in previous years.
“These plants have been chosen and curated to live and flourish in our Hill Country’s long, hot, dry summers,” said Kay Nelson, chair of the Hill Country Master Gardeners (HCMG) greenhouse committee. “We’ve picked the best native and adaptive plants for hardiness and blooming power. We grow and fuss over the plants because we want your Hill Country garden to be a huge success.”
All plants sold are gallon-sized and selected for their ability to thrive in alkaline soils and resist deer. This year’s lineup includes five colors of lantana, eight colors of salvia, fragrant honeysuckle, Mexican mint marigold, and the crowd-favorite Copper Canyon daisy.
“We’re featuring over 40 varietals of blooming bed flowers and hardy herbs, so there’s a lot to choose from,” said Tina Pierson, one of four lead coordinators for the sale. “We’ve nurtured over 1,400 plants for this sale and that still might not meet demand.”
In addition to plants, HCMG will be selling their popular rain barrels, priced at $70 each. Volunteers reconfigure 55-gallon drums throughout the year to help local gardeners collect and store rainwater for their landscapes. A 50% rebate on barrel purchases is available to Kerr County residents through the Upper Guadalupe River Authority; applications will be available on-site.
Proceeds from barrel sales fund scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students pursuing horticultural studies in Texas.
To assist with loading plants and barrels, Kerr County 4-H members will be on hand throughout the event.
The Hill Country Master Gardeners, a volunteer program supported by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, logged more than 10,000 volunteer hours last year on community education efforts and public beautification projects. Applications for the 2026 class of Hill Country Master Gardeners will be available at the event.
For more information on the Blooms and Barrels Sale, including a full plant list or how to become a member, visit www.hillcountrymastergardeners.org or call 830-257-6568.
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