I heard something interesting once.

If you see a plant leafing or flowering really early in the season, it's bound to be a non-native species, getting the jump on its local neighbors in the race for resources and growing space.

I guess that's why the wild plant sales are all in a lump a couple of weeks after the rest of the plant sales.

The Rhode Island Wild Plant Society, the people who do one of the nicest gardens at the Rhode Island Spring Flower and Garden Show every year, are holding their annual plant sale on Saturday at the URI Greenhouses,
Flagg Road in Kingston.

If you're a member, the sale starts at 8 a.m. for everyone else, the sale is from 9 to 12. At 10:30 a.m., a silent auction for rare and collectible plants begins.

Wildflowers, native shrubs, groundcovers and pond plants well suited to our quirky local weather and garden environments will be on offer.

Also on Saturday, the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary, in Sharon, is holding its own wild plant sale from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The sanctuary is at 293 Moose Hill St. in Sharon. Call (781) 784-5691 for information.

If this Saturday's no good, or if you're a little further north, the New England Wild Flower Society is holding its own sale at Garden in the Woods in Framingham next Saturday, June 9 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This is a big sale -- it advertises itself as the largest sale of wildflowers in New England -- with trees, shrubs, grasses, rarities like lady-slippers, as well as books. The plants are all native this year.

The gardens themselves are lovely -- trails of native plants arranged in environments through the woods. It's a nice morning or afternoon out sometime. And they have plants for sale at their shop throughout the season.

There's a plant for every spot. Go out and find it!