OZAUKEE COUNTY — Two recent Ozaukee Master Gardener talks are now available on the group’s website.
One is Bevin Cohen’s Let’s Talk Tomatoes: America’s Favorite Fruit. In addition to explaining how he grows and takes care of tomatoes, Cohen shares some tomato origin stories.
Recently, Cohen received three boxes with 900 varieties of tomatoes from the collection of Thane Earle, a Wisconsin native credited with building a collection of over 1,200 tomato varieties.
The second talk is New and Underused Plants with Brent Horvath, the president and grower for Intrinsic Perennial Gardens, Inc. in Illinois. His presentation focused on some unique plants — many of which he bred.
He talked about intrinsic breeds and selects plants that can grow in tough Midwest conditions, such as hot, humid summers and cold, wet winters.
Ozaukee Master Gardeners hosted these speakers as a prelude to its annual plant sale, which will take place May 18 at the Ozaukee County Fairgrounds.
The sale will offer more than 10,000 plants including Cohen’s favorite tomato, Amish paste, which is a Thane Earle discovery. Over 280 varieties are purchased from local growers.
The sale will include:
- Native, pollinator, and herbs
- Plants breed Zone 5a
- 100s of perennials including wide selection of Intrinsic Perennial Garden plants
- Unique and hard to find plants
- Culinary herbs
- Ornamental and aromatics
- Grasses
- Over 40 varieties of tomatoes including dwarf and patio tomatoes
- 22 pepper and 16 vegetable varieties grown by Ozaukee Master Gardeners
The plant list will be available on May 1 on the group’s website, . To view the presentations, go under the Speaker Series tab.