GRASS VALLEY, Calif. May 16, 2024 – Today, Nevada Union Horticulture students got hands-on experience as they planted close to 1,000 marigolds along the Fairgrounds’ famed Gold Path under the guidance of Head Gardener Lindsay Hinds. In less than three months the plants will be in full bloom, ready for the Nevada County Fair.
While the students were busy planting, Fair CEO Andrew Trygg was joined by Center for Nonprofit Leadership Director Wendy Willoughby to talk about the upcoming Volunteer and Job Fair. This Sunday, May 19 from noon to 4:00 pm, the Main Street building will host a slew of non-profits and agencies looking to connect with potential volunteers and job seekers.
Back to the Marigolds
Head Gardener Lindsay explained, “We get the plants from Weiss Brothers Nursery in Grass Valley. They start them for us and actually Weiss is very generous in donating the plants, it’s a huge benefit to the Fairgrounds and it’s a wonderful partnership.”
Last year, we quizzed Lindsay about the secret to have beautiful marigolds just in time for the Fair.
“We water them about three times a week. They’ll get some fertilizer and some nutrients. As it starts to warm up, they just love it. They love this hot weather and that gets them going into stride. There are weekly checks, weekly maintenance on them going up into fair. My goal is to have them prime for that Fair week. So the week before Fair is right when I’m looking at where they’re at and kind of making my last minute adjustments on them,” Lindsay shared.
Sounds easy enough, right? But, we wanted to know how she makes “adjustments” to the plants. There’s no dialing up the flowering, or is there?
Hinds chuckled when asked how she can time the full bloom just right. “It has to do with the disbudding of the plants in advance. We call it disbudding when you take off a new bud before it has bloomed. In order to get a nice bloom for the Fair, we do disbudding ahead of time. It allows the plants to prime for that nice big mature look at Fair that we’re used to seeing.”
Go check on the plants this weekend when you stop by the Volunteer and Job Fair. The countdown to the Fair is on!