Submitted by Downtown Camas Association
The 23rd annual Camas Plant & Garden Fair will return to historic Downtown Camas on Saturday, May 7 from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. filling the streets with all the offerings of over 100 local nurseries, growers, and garden artists. Customers will find a large assortment of trees, plants, flowers, garden art and furniture, planters, veggie starts, birdhouses and feeders, pottery, metal art, flowering hanging baskets, garden benches, stone art, sculptures, herbs, and more. The Plant & Garden Fair is organized by the Downtown Camas Association (DCA) and offers something for all ages.
Three new vendors coming to the fair this year include Good Year Farms, Don Perry Metal Art and Sow & Sustain Farm. They help round out the list of quality one-of-a-kind plants and garden offerings available.
Good Year Farms – This Washougal nursery owned by Hannah Schrager specializes in PNW native plants. This nursery grows and sells species like camas, trillium, and western columbine and will be bringing a wide variety to the fair. They work closely with a number of educational, volunteer, and civic organizations to provide applied ecological education to the community. Native plants are adapted to our region and make for great backyard habitat for people and pollinators.
Don Perry Metal Art – Don will be bringing his own unique brand of exterior garden metal art to the fair. He uses a plasma cutter and repurposes saw blades and other metals and experiments with the colors that are created from heating the metal with a torch. All of his pieces are hand cut by him and use natural processes and no chemicals. The pieces that are a rusty patina are all left at the coast to rust to a natural fine patina that only comes from salt air. The blues in high carbon steel and the gold in the stainless steel are beautiful additions to the art providing depth and dimension.
Sow & Sustain Farm – This farm new to the fair will be offering vegetable and culinary + medicinal herb plant starts. They’ve trialed hundreds of plant varieties and now offer a selection of some of their favorites that are well-adapted to the Pacific Northwest climate. Their on-farm, custom blended potting soil utilizes certified organic materials and carefully sourced soil amendments to make sure seedlings get off to a good start. All plants are started from seed on-farm and nurtured with care until they’re ready to be sold and planted.
The fair will have over 15 designated vendor experts that customers can talk with to learn more about plants, effective gardening techniques and other related topics. Look for the “yellow sun” signs on expert booth locations. Some of the expert topics include:
- PNW ecology, native plants, backyard habitat, pollinator gardens
- Beekeeping
- Container gardening
- Fuchsia, geraniums, and impatiens
- Carnivorous plants
- Lavender and attracting birds and butterflies to the garden
- When/how to plant vegetable and herb starts; pruning and trellising vegetable plants
- Growing dahlias–planting, care, harvesting flowers, digging and storing tubers for winter
- Herbs: culinary, household and medicinal uses, growing, harvesting & preserving; landscaping with; benefits to pollinators
- Rhododendrons: planting, growing, disease and insect prevention
- Organic vegetable growing
- Perennials
- Houseplants
- Garden design, food forests, plant identification, organic gardening and choosing specific plants for challenging conditions.
The full Plant Fair Expert List and a list of fair vendors can be found at Camas Plant & Garden Fair website. Stop by the DCA info booth at 4th & Cedar fair and pick up the Expert List and booth locations.
“It’s an honor to help connect local farmers, gardeners and artists with their community,” says Leah Nichelson, the vendor liaison for the fair. “This event brings joy and growth to so many people, myself very much included!”
“This fair is a perfect blend of plant diversity and quality and having fun in the community!” says Carrie Schulstad, Executive Director of the DCA. “For the gardening lovers, this event brings so many unique choices with many offerings that are hard to find anywhere else and the experts that can guide you. In addition, there is plenty to do for all ages and having all our wonderful downtown merchants and restaurants right here makes this such a one-of-a-kind experience. We’re so excited to bring this fair back to the streets of Downtown Camas this year!”
There will be many engaging activities for kids. The “Find the Ladybug” game will be returning this year and will be played throughout participating downtown businesses. Players earn tickets to win a Family Gardening Basket for each ladybug they find. Children will also enjoy Rhys Thomas who is returning with his Strolling Jugglemania Show including a giant rose puppet, themed juggling, performances on stilts and other activities. The Kids’ Zone from 10am-3pm, found on Dallas Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues, will include garden related crafts and activities. The free petting zoo by 4-Seasons 4-H Club returns as well, bringing goats, bunnies, and more. Many of the event sponsors also provide free family friendly activities at their booths as well.
Live music at 4th & Cedar will include Bret Malmquist playing acoustic jazz guitar from 10am-12pm and Lance Kinniard performing his popular folk and indie style music from 12-3pm.
Scout Troop 554 will be on hand with their trusty wagons to help citizens transport their purchases as needed.
The Community Advisory Group for the GP Mill Cleanup will also be on hand at 4th & Birch with information on the timeline and specifics of the cleanup and collecting community input.
The DCA will also be hosting the annual “Wheelbarrow Raffle Prize Drawing” with a large assortment of plants, trees, flowers, and garden art donated by fair vendors in a sturdy wheelbarrow donated by Lutz Hardware as well as a “Downtown Gift Card Raffle”. The items will be on display and tickets can be purchased at the DCA table on the corner of 4th and Cedar on the day of the event. The winner will be drawn at 3:00pm.
The DCA thanks the generous sponsors of this event which include our main sponsor Waste Connections of Washington-Clark County as well as Georgia Pacific; Edward Jones, Robert Barber; Juxtaposition; Clover Podiatry; NW Natural; Wafertech; Renewal by Andersen; T-Mobile; Blossom Natural Health and Wellness; Dr. Jared Bowyer, DDS; Minuteman Press, City of Camas and 4 Seasons 4H.
The DCA is a 501c3 nonprofit Main Street Program and works year round to strengthen and promote Downtown Camas through partnerships, events, beautification and historic preservation projects, economic development, advocacy, and tourism functions. For more information on the Plant Fair, see Camas Plant & Garden Fair website or Facebook page. For information on the DCA and other downtown events and initiatives, visit the Downtown Camas Association website.
