WATCH: Kelowna is a gardening paradise

Yes, spring has been a long time coming, but it’s now time to get your hands dirty and get planting.

The late start to growing season has not deterred Kelowna’s legions of green thumbs, according to Kelowna Garden Club President Alicja Paradzik.

“They’re enthusiastic regardless of what the weather is,” she said. “It’s a great place to garden here. We have wonderful weather; you can grow a lot of stuff you can’t grow anywhere else.

The club, now approaching a century of work, officially kicked off their season with their annual plant sale Saturday at Guisachan Heritage Park, which they use as a fundraiser to help put on bigger events later in the year. The venue hosts their annual juried flower show in the early summer.

Paradzik said there isn’t one specific item people are in the hunt for, it just depends on their own set up and added vegetable plants are on the slower side of demand.

“They’re planted when we have no more frost and there is still a risk of frost coming up,” she said. “But all the perennials and the bushes, shrubs, and trees you try to plant. Those [you plant] as early in the spring as you can so they can get started rooting before it gets too hot. “

The garden club has 120 people currently registered. Paradzik said it’s been great to see membership increasing because it keeps them excited and going strong.

“We’re getting more people coming to the meetings which I think is a result of not being able to do that during COVID,” she said. “Now people are so enthusiastic to come to the meetings, so you get this good vibe when people get together. It’s wonderful.”

The Kelowna Garden Club was established in 1924.

More information can be found online.