PEO Plant Sale to offer historically-connected plants for sale

PEO Chapter HI will offer a variety of plants at its 2nd annual sale Friday, May 20, from 1-4 pm at 500 St. Thomas St., Iowa City, which is just off Rochester Avenue in Iowa City.

The PEO has just received some plants with a special connection. Jim Hayes, an Iowa City attorney and owner of the Grant Wood house on Court Street, has donated to the PEO sale daylilies that Iowa's famed artist planted when he lived in Iowa City. The daylily colors are known but the cultivar names have escaped to time.

Gretchen Harshbarger, a co-founder of Project GREEN, planted shade-loving hosta when landscaping this property in the 1970s. Hostas eventually became one of Iowa City's most favored plants for its durability and ability to outlast deer invasion.

The sale will benefit the Peggy Mauch Scholarship Fund to support women’s educational goals. P.E.O. was founded in 1869 at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, by a group of women bonded by enthusiasm for women's opportunities. Educational opportunity is the primary philanthropy of the P.E.O. The organization sponsors six international philanthropies or projects designed to assist women with their educational goals.