Plant lovers’ bonanza in Downtown Brooklyn on Friday

Downtown Brooklyn Partnership selling lush tropical plants at deep discount

October 30, 2014 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Tropical plants in Downtown Brooklyn. Photo courtesy of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership

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Hankering to brighten up your home with spectacular tropical plants – and want to get them at a deep discount?

The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership is selling dozens of healthy tropical plants that the organization planted to beautify medians and parks over the warm months.

The sale includes more than 75 hand-picked beauties, from flowering hibiscus to elephant ear plants and 10-foot palm trees.

“We’re making our neighborhood more sustainable by repurposing some of our summer plantings,” said Ryan Grew, deputy director of operations for the Partnership. “The neighborhood that benefits from these plantings can help support future efforts by making a purchase – not to mention save more than 50 percent off what they would normally pay for these plants retail.”

Crews from the Chelsea Garden Center, which oversees the planting, were out with shovels on Tuesday digging out colorful crotons, lush ferns and towering triangle palms.

Bob Reitmeyer, project manager from the Center, told the Brooklyn Eagle that the plants, which have been soaking up the sun all summer, can be kept on terraces and stoops while the weather is mild, then brought indoors to a sunny spot over the winter.

Some of the larger specimens are donated to the Housing Authority for lobbies, he said. “The really big ones go to places like the lobby of IBM,” he added.

Prices start at $25, and all proceeds will go toward supporting year-round beautification efforts throughout the neighborhood.

The sale takes place on Friday from noon to 6 p.m. at Albee Square, at the corner of Fulton and Bond streets, the site of the weekly farmers market.