Torrential rains the day before muddied up the parking lot, but despite their cars getting stuck in the meadow, a long string of early bird shoppers were already waiting in line at Lions Gate Farm in Sharon, CT. The annual Trade Secrets plant and garden antiques show, co-sponsored this year by CTC&G was opening at 8 a.m.
Founded over a decade ago by Bunny Williams to benefit Women’s Support Services, which provides assistance for women in crisis, the show draws faithful shoppers who look forward to its wide-range of plant varieties and unusual garden fixtures.
This year Martha Stewart was ecstatically taking home Epimedium she found at Garden Vision and Solomon Seal bought at Hillside Nursery. Shopping for her new house in Charleston, Carolyne Roehm bought two tropical Alcantarea odorata, which she may drive down to South Carolina in a U-Haul truck. Balsamo Antiques sold a remarkable terra cotta-tone Scottish stone plinth with a lion head motif that will find a new home in the Hamptons. Long after lunch catered by The Farmer’s Wife, visitors trickled out at 3 p.m.—many already looking forward to next year’s show.
