Don’t Miss our May Day Plant Sale and Celebration!
Historically, May Day is a festival of spring and flowers; an old-fashioned holiday that has been celebrated for many centuries, although it isn’t commonly celebrated any more in the modern US. This earth-based celebration is inspired by gratitude for fertility and set at a time when seeds sprout, plants begin growing and baby animals are born. For Harlequin’s Gardens, this is not just a time to hold a sale, but also a time to share a true celebration with you, our friends, with live music and dancers.
When Mikl was growing up in Iowa, it was customary for children to make small May Day Baskets out of paper and glue and fill them with flowers or candy. After leaving the basket on a neighbor’s porch, he would ring their doorbell and run!
A main-stay of our entertainment is the Maroon Bells Morris Dancers, who dance every May Day, come rain or shine, on behalf of fertility. They dance all over the County, and have said that we, Harlequin’s Gardens, are their roots because we are an earth-based business connecting with the earth and growing things.
A fun poem from the Maroon Bells Morris Dancers website colorfully explains more:
We do it all day, we do it all night,
because it is, a fertility rite!
That and the beer.
And it helps preserve a very old tradition,
much like drinking beer.
And it embarrasses our offspring,
which we laugh about while drinking beer.
And it’s more fun than aerobics,
which means we can drink more beer.
And it makes us attractive to the opposite sex,
so we can drink beer together.
And it’s a social activity,
which includes drinking beer.
Schedule of Events
We have some other wonderful entertainers joining us on Saturday and Sunday, May 1 and 2. Our musicians, listed below, will provide great music to accompany your browsing.
May1 thru May 9 – MAY DAY PLANT SALE
These are wonderful, neonic-free plants in prime condition, including many native plants and pollinator favorites, ready for planting in your garden! They are not the dregs! Our Store, Bee Barn, and Plant Shelves will be full to bursting when you visit. All week, 2021 Members will be eligible for a $10 discount on a $50 or more purchase of plants (excluding roses & fruit trees). Find out about membership below.
May 1 and 2 – ANNUAL MAY DAY CELEBRATION including:
SATURDAY, MAY 1
10 to 11 am: Maroon Bells Morris Dancers bring us fertility and merriment
11:30 am to 12:30 pm: local harpist Margo Krimmel will treat us to the tunes of O’Carolan and other Celtic, American and original melodies
12:45 to 1:45 pm: Move to the enchanting and spirited mbira music of Zimbabwe with Nyamatsatse
SUNDAY, MAY 2
From 2:00 pm: Boulder Irish Session jig and reel with Boulder’s finest Irish tunes and songs!
Membership
Memberships help Harlequin’s to do those extras that are so valuable to the community but that are not profitable, like: five demonstration gardens of Natives, low-water groundcovers, the New Western Garden etc; plus plastic pot recycling; plant and pest identification for customers; hand-outs on many subjects like pollinator plants, how to plant, what blooms in July etc; local seed collecting and propagation, and more.
If you like what we have been doing, please become a member and help us to do it better, and enjoy the benefits of membership. For a $20 donation, you’ll receive membership for the current calendar year and the following benefits:
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- Half-price Harlequin’s Class of your choice. (Restricted to regular $20 classes.)
- 25% discount on books all year
- During the May Day Week get $10 off a $50 or more purchase of plants (excluding roses & fruit trees)
- During May Day Week, take 10% off roses (except quarts), then
- In August begin the Fall Sale a week early with 20% off most everything
Click here to become a member, visit us at the nursery, or mail a check for $20 to
Harlequin’s Gardens
4795 North 26th Street
Boulder, CO. 80301
We will put you in our Membership file, and your membership will be valid until the end of the 2021 calendar year.
THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL OUR MEMBERS!!!
