MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis Botanic Garden is known to the city as a beautiful escape from the busy streets and office spaces, and it serves as a botanic sanctuary. Filled with trees and plants of all kinds, this space has made a name for itself in Memphis.
Out of the countless activities to choose from at the garden, a popular choice is strolling through the nursery and buying plants for your own home and garden.
One of the gardens' single, largest fundraisers is the upcoming spring nursery sale taking place this week. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the city's social distancing guidelines, the garden has decided to continue this sale online.
Local 24 News spoke with the Executive Director, Michael Allen, about how he and his team plan to keep this popular event going during the outbreak. Here's how it works.
Customers can visit the website, place their respective order, and they pick it up at the garden from a safe distance.
Allen tells Local 24 News in just the first day of online sales, over 90 orders have been places and filled. That's just within a few hours of being posted.
"As many of us are sequestered at home, gardening is one of the things that people are doing. It's a great activity to stay on your property and accomplish something," he added.
Allen says that even after the coronavirus storm clears, the garden plans on making the online nursery a permanent installment.
While he misses the visitor interaction, he is looking forward to how the online store will grow and he looks forward to getting the green light from the city to re-open the garden to the public.
"I suspect we'll keep this online presence because I think we're learning that it's something that our guests will enjoy," he said.
He also mentioned the possibility of a pop-up sale towards the end of May.