Hi -

This was my first year and I thought I'd give some feedback for others who were interested but didnt' get a chance to go. I have to give kudos to the nursery and the auctioneers. Very professionally run and very smoothly run.

WOW! it was amazing. Let me say up-front, I ended up with six trees for under $60 including a grown (not in a pot) japanese maple.

We got there around 9:45, got our number (it's free) and walked around the trees and shrubs. There are typically no tags on the plants. but, as the auction starts, the auctioneers will tell you what the tree is, if they know. These plants have been in the nursery for a few years and they are excess that won't be used. There are no guarantees or warranties on the plants.

They started right at 10 and the auctioneers were really great. They moved things along, got things going, knew how to work the crowd but prices were quite reasonable. There were probably 8-12 rows of trees that they started out with with over 30-40 trees in each row, starting out with evergreens and then crab apple, maple (different varieties), birch, a few magnolia, a few locust, a few gingko, a few weeping cherry, some plum trees and a few lilac. Most trees went in the $20 range with a lot of the maple trees going for $5. There were a few high-end trees (the magnolias went for around $40-60, there were small leaves maples, typically $1,000+, that went for $100+)

At the end of each tree row, there were bunches of azaleas that were sold in lots of three (btw $15-20 for three pots). Then they had probably 50-60 lots of shrubberies with 4-6 shrubs in each lot (some type of evergreen, flowering bush, burning bush, ground cover and azalea). The lots went for around $20-30. They had a row of potted japanese maple small trees that went, high-end, around $45.

Also, they would sell in "lots" of trees. So if there were four crabapples together, they would auction them and the highest bidder would a) get their pick and b) could pick all of them.

Our total -- japanese maple good size tree $27.50, river birch $5, two japanese dogwood trees $7/both, maple silverbell $2, and an evergreen tree $7.50.

things I need to do next year -- bring food and water (there was a vendor there who sold hot dogs, hamburgers, water, etc), bring warmer clothes (layers) and gloves.

We were there until the end, almost 2:30. The nursery had people available to move the items to your vehicle. They will load them onto trucks but not onto cars. And you have until the end of the day to get your items out.

I'm stiff and sore from digging the holes yesterday but we got all of the trees into the ground but it was well worth it.

If anyone has questions, let me know. They currently do the auction every year on the 1st or 2nd weekend in May.

-Rini