Herb Festival a regional draw

By Raed Battah, rbattah@bgdailynews.com — 270-783-3246

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Herb fans from Bowling Green to Arkansas are expected to descend upon the city for the sixth annual Herb Festival.

The event is presented by Wild Bird and Nature Store on Lehman Avenue.

Weve had people from as far away as Illinois, Ohio and Arkansas come to our festival, organizer Jefty Carpenter said. We tried this year to incorporate this as a tourist event since many of the buyers will be coming from out of town and maybe staying overnight.

The festival is an open-air market set up in a vacant lot next to the strip center housing the Wild Bird and Nature Store.

My sister, Kim Rainey, and I were into these plants and wed go to herb festivals in other towns, but we didnt have one in this area, Carpenter said. We decided to have one here after Kim opened up the Wild Bird store.

Out in the parking lot, within makeshift boundaries, are trays upon trays of perennials and herbs, blooming potted plants, potted vines and Carpenters favorite, the antique rose.

We go to Brenham, Texas, to the antique rose emporium, Carpenter said. Thats a thousand miles. But you cant get antique roses just anywhere, so we rent a big truck and drive them back.

The antique roses are set and potted in two-gallon containers. A potted antique rose runs about $26.

Theyre all highly fragrant, Carpenter said. And very low maintenance. We sell the climbers and the bushes. We have white, pink and yellow antique roses for the festival.

Gerry Sawyer acts as Carpenters assistant in organizing the festival and collecting inventory. The two also have other jobs and operate Plants Alive. Sawyer traveled with Carpenter to Brenham to get the antique roses.

I get the ones that are zoned for this area (Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois), he said. Most of the roses that we have, when planted, will bloom on Derby Day.

A center aisle of herbs stirs up familiar fragrances as one walks through the display.

Theyre awesome, customer Eleanor Asher said. You can use them fresh or dry them. Theyre great on fresh tomatoes or, well, I put them on everything.

Carpenter lightly rubbed each of the variety of herbs demonstrating their scent.

This is curly parsley, its great for cooking, Carpenter said, holding out her hand. You smell the rosemary, and how about this lemon thyme? And the pineapple sage, well, the butterflies love this one.

Carpenter set up a special section called the Hummingbird Corner specifically for hummingbird plants. A similar corner is set up for shade plants.

The festival, which started today, will run from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Saturday. To help promote the event and spread word to other communities, the Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitors Bureau has included it on their Web site and in some fliers at the bureaus office on Three Springs Road.

We learned of the festival a couple of months ago and we wanted to list it in our calendar of events, said marketing director Vicki Fitch. We thought it was a really neat thing that was attracting a lot of people.

Fitch said the event could become even more popular with the right marketing.

Were encouraging her to track her visitors and get an idea to see if theyve come to Bowling Green specifically for this event, she said. Were just trying to get the word out far and wide. Visitors coming in for the show may decide to stay in our hotels, eat at our restaurants and visit our other tourist attractions.

Information about the Herb Festival, including a complete list of herbs and plants available at the show, is available at www.herbfestival.net. Or contact the Wild Bird and Nature Store at 901 Lehman Ave. at (270) 746-0203.

 Daily News ·813 College St. ·PO Box 90012 ·Bowling Green, KY ·42102 ·270-781-1700