It’s nice when some traditions never go away. Mother’s Day weekend is synonymous with “garden club plant sale” along the shoreline. Never mind that Mother Nature has fast-forwarded from a long winter to beach season and gardeners are already bemoaning the lack of rain.

Most garden clubs hold their annual plant sales in May to capitalize on the pent-up demand by many of us to plant something, be it herbs and veggies, some colorful pansies or geraniums, perennials or a shrub or two. Spring is also time to divide over-grown perennials, so the idea is for garden club members to dig and divide their treasures.

One can count on these “member plants” to be hardy, and probably somewhat deer resistant, if there is such a plant anymore, or there would be nothing to dig up. In addition, many clubs bring in choice plants selected from area wholesale nurseries and farms, which means that we’re buying local, not picking from among stock that has been trucked up from the Carolinas. No offence to warmer climates, but we have some great plant growers in Connecticut.

Here is by no means a complete list of sales this weekend, but some of my annual favorites:

Duck River Garden Club in Old Lyme caters to Friday shoppers as well as the Saturday crowd, opening at noon Friday and running until 7 p.m. at the Old Lyme Shopping Center on Halls Road. The sale continues on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. DRGC has a reputation for some of the best hanging baskets around, just in time for Mother’s Day. Plus, there’s always an interesting assortment of pots, vases and gardening gadgets in the garden shed.

East Lyme Garden Club’s sale is for Saturday early birds, from 8 to 11:30 a.m. at the East Lyme Town Pavilion, and known for its member plants over the years. See more at www.eastlymegardenclub.org

The Essex Garden Club’s May Market, Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., has turned into a town social event in Essex Town Park. It features annual plants, herbs, garlic salt, gently used home and garden treasures, jewelry, worms for composting, nurtured members’ plants, a cafe for lunch and a silent auction.

North Stonington Garden Club is introducing hand-made bird houses and bringing back more fairy houses this year. Led by woodworker Molly Burton, a handful of members created these designs with natural materials and oddities found on walks and hikes. There also will be tufa trough landscapes with rock garden plants and six heirloom varieties of tomato plants, plus member plants, annuals and herbs. The sale is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the North Stonington Elementary School on Route 2. Heed the club’s advice to bring your own wagon to fill up with one-of-a-kind creations and plants (see www.nsgardenclub.org).

Continue shopping next weekend with the Thames River Garden Club from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 16, at Waterford Town Hall. It features highly sought-after perennials dug from the yard of a member whose garden is often on Garden Conservancy tours. Members also have been making hypertufa containers for alpine gardens; pick from a selection of containers, alpine plants or assembled alpine gardens. See thamesrivergc.wordpress.com for details.

And save the date for the Trillium Garden Club’s sale on Saturday, June 6, from 9 a.m. to noon on the Children’s Patio at the Groton Public Library, 52 Newtown Road, Groton.

So, get out there and support your industrious community gardening clubs, the ones who plant and tend the flower pots around your town hall, host interesting gardening talks during the winter months and generally know what’s going on in your home town.

When she’s not gardening in Old Lyme, Suzanne hosts a weekly radio show, “CT Outdoors,” on WLIS 1420 AM and WMRD 1150 AM, Saturdays from 1 to 1:30 p.m. and Sundays from 7 to 7:30 a.m., or listen to archived show in the On Demand section of www.wliswmrd.net.