BOWDOINHAM — Conveniently seated in a pile of soil as she slips strips of greenery into their own re-used pots before covering the roots with dark substantive earth — Betsy Steen pauses and reaches for the red binder.

In it is a record of how many of each variety of plants, flowers and shrubs, strewn everywhere in the volunteer potting operation, sold at each of the annual Bowdoinham Public Library plant sales during the past five years. Many of the plants sold are grown and nurtured in a large holding bed in the front yard of Steen’s farm located on Route 24 overlooking Merrymeeting Bay.

Many are grown by fellow volunteers like Steen’s sister, Sarah Stapler, who is growing 500 plants. Others raise a specific plant or flower variety, honing cultivation of that specific species to a fine science.

The sale will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Town hall on School Street, and its volunteers note that business sprouts early and remains brisk from the outset.

The women helping pot plants at Steen’s farm on May 11 estimate it takes hundreds of hours to prepare for the plant sale — from planting, watering and weeding (hence the tradition of weeding Wednesdays at the Steen farm) — to pulling from beds the stock that will be sold at the annual sale.

They usually start potting on Patriot’s Day and whatever is left over after the sale gets replanted. Steen regularly checks her binder to gauge how many of each perennial they should pot this year. Rows and rows of plants already lined Steen’s yard, and would continue to grow so they will be ready at the end of the week for transport to Town Hall.

Anniversary

Saturday’s plant sale is projected to be even busier than usual, as this year marks the town’s 250th anniversary.

This year’s sale is designed to recognize the benchmark anniversary by highlighting heirloom plants among the “hundreds of perennials, the scores of annuals and vegetable seedlings and the trees and shrubs offered,” that have been in holding beds since last year’s sale, according to a release about the sale. “Many heritage perennials are of historical significance for medicinal, ornamental or household purposes. To help with the planning of your heritage garden, there will be handouts listing the plants which were grown in colonial communities such as Strawberry Banke and Sturbridge Village.”

Steen said she believes the definition of a heritage garden depends on the gardener planting it.

“It could be a garden, I think when you say heritage garden, it could be what your grandmother had that you remember as a little child,” she said. “Or it could be just things that were here before 1800 or before 1850 … or when your house was built.”

A legislative sentiment recently honored the sale as the longest running plant sale in the state. Saturday will mark the 39th year of the library’s plant sale, which funds nearly half of the library’s budget. Last year the plant sale raised about $12,000.

Leslie Anderson, one of the volunteers who originally started the sale, emphasized that rather than importing plants in potting soil, the plants have been grown locally, most right in Bowdoinham, for at least a year so they are acclimated. The stock includes divisions of perennials that have come through the winter, and the green thumbs buy annual seeds to grow each year.

Steen, Anderson said, “is the one without whose organization, there might never have been a second (plant sale).”

The sale is an effort now that involves many volunteers who do different jobs, beyond growing the plants ranging from moving the plants to set up for the sale to working as cashier during the sale.

Resting by Steen’s Croc-clad feet was a tray full of plastic containers that had been cut into strips grouped by color. These are inserted in flower pots accordingly to indicate to shoppers the color of the flowers. Signs with pictures and information will hang above the plants at the sale.

This year, because it is the town’s 250th anniversary, “We said we would do something historic,” Steen said. They will be using stickers to designate plants that are U.S., Maine or colonial natives. Another volunteer, Ruth Johnson, went through the plant list and researched each, “so we know which one came with the settlers and which ones are Maine natives.”

There will be posters this year displaying a weaver’s garden, plants used for weaving; a Shakespearean garden with plants named after Shakespeare works; a saint’s garden that could have plants such as Bishop’s Weed and St. John’s Wort; an edible garden; and a colonial garden.

Steen loves hostas and said she was tickled after Johnson sat down at a computer and “worked through the three men from the Dutch East India Co. that brought the first batches of hostas back (from Japan), because you couldn’t get into Japan. These guys were doctors and they were the only people who were allowed, and over a period of 60 or 80 years, they brought back about 12 hostas, which were the beginnings — the parents of all the stuff that’s out there now. And we are going to be selling most of them.”

“Hostas are cool,” Steen continued. “They seed. And they don’t look like much as babies, but then they get into their teenage years and it’s like they begin developing noses and things so you can see what they’re going to look like. And they begin to get a color and a leaf shape. I’ve had some gorgeous (hostas). I’ve named some… Lemon Curd is one. They’re fun, and at this point, I find them all over the place. There’s so many hostas (up behind the house) that I never know who the parents are because they’re quite promiscuous.”

One of the plants they usually sell out of is Bee Balm, which can be used for tea, smells great is a favorite of hummingbirds and comes in red, pink, purple and white, according to Steen.

Rhubarb is another big seller along with basil, select tomato varieties, parsley, dark-purple lilacs and mock orange shrubs. One year everything pink was selling, said volunteer Cathy Reynolds. Steen has said that people have become more knowledgeable through the years about plants, “which is great.”

The sale draws people from the area and as far away as Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Locals have family members from away who are sure to visit while the sale is going on.

“The nice thing is, it’s such a community effort,” Steen said. “It’s a great way for people to get to know each other.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com