The Pollinator Palooza plant sale put over 1500 native plants into the yards of gardeners all over our region and raised thousands of dollars to help Sustainable Saratoga carry out its mission. And, it was the hard work and generosity of many individuals that made it all possible. If we forgot to include you in the list below, please let us know and we will correct our mistake!


Thank you first and foremost to Brian and Debbie Oligny for letting us use their greenhouse free of charge to grow our plants, and then letting us host the Palooza on their beautiful property in Gansevoort. We literally could not have done it without them.

Oligny greenhouse full of plants

The greenhouse full of plants before the sale

greenhouse volunteers with seedlings

Chris with some of our greenhouse volunteers

A huge thank you to Christine Burghart, whose baby this was. She conceived of the event, named it and made it happen. It was thrilling to watch her in action.

Thank you to the greenhouse team who potted out 1500 plants and watered them daily for two months: Chris Burghart, Nora Cheek, Johanna Garrison, Dianna Goodwin, Julie and Art Holmberg, Gayle Kyler, Lois Leonard, Wendy Mahaney and her extended family, and Rachelle Thomas.

Thank you to the generous donors who gave us seed money to get the Palooza off the ground: Adirondack Trust Company, Chris Burghart, Johanna Garrison, Dianna Goodwin, Julie Holmberg, and Roohan Realty.

Winner of the American Beauties native pollinator garden with his new plants

The happy winner of the American Beauties native pollinator garden

Thank you to the businesses that donated items for our raffle: American Beauties Native Plants, Balet Flowers, Booth’s Blend Compost, Catskill Native Nursery, Dehn’s Flowers, Eastern Mountain Sports, Featherbed Lane Farm, Roosevelt Baths and Spa, Saratoga Olive Oil Company, and Wild Things Rescue Nursery.

Big thank you to Jennifer Michelle for soliciting donations for the raffle. Thanks to Nora Cheek for organizing the raffle displays. And thanks to Nora and Jeff Cheek and Maja Mahaney for selling tickets at the Palooza. Nice job!

Thank you to Hannaford for providing snacks and drinks.

Thank you to Capital Region PRISM, Saratoga PLAN and Wild Ones for setting up information tables and demonstrations at the Palooza.

Thank you to our Palooza volunteers who prepared for the day, set up the event, directed traffic, staffed the booths, answered questions in the greenhouse, cashiered, kept things flowing, and cleaned up at the end. In alphabetical order they are: Robin Ambrosino, Sierra Bouchard, Chris and Karl Burghart, Nora and Jeff Cheek, Dan Chernoff, Max and Michael Cohen, Diane and Tom Denny, Anne Ernst, Laura Faulk, Art and Julie Holmberg, Eileen Hurley, Johanna Garrison, Dianna Goodwin, Deb Johnson, Cassandra Kellam, Gayle Kyler and Wayne, Lois Leonard, Bob Lippman, Maja and Wendy Mahaney, Paul Murphy, Jennifer Michelle, Caroline Rothaug, Lisa Salamon and Margie Shepard.


And, finally, a big thank you to all the gardeners who showed up in droves to support our efforts and to give new homes to the plants we grew. We sold out of everything except a few exceptionally scraggly milkweed plants. We planted them elsewhere and they are doing well.

Greenhouse with empty tables

Sold out!

Thank you!

The Sustainable Saratoga Pollinator Initiative Committee

Want to know more? Check out our Pollinator pages