For the first time in roughly a decade, the Georgia Native Plant Society is canceling its annual April plant sale at Piedmont Park because of the drought.

The news was recently announced to the society's 1,500 members, said Marcia Winchester, vice president of the 13-year-old nonprofit organization. The decision came after months of monitoring the drought's effect on local growers, as well as the organization's own defunct plant rescue efforts.

Kimberly Smith/AJC (ENLARGE)

The drought has curtailed Georgia Native Plant Society efforts to save plants at risk.

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"We didn't want to put the nurseries at greater risk by asking them for donations they may not be able to afford," Winchester said.

She doesn't know whether other plant clubs will follow suit, but noted that the Cherokee Master Gardeners Club, of which she is a member, canceled its event. Groups like the Georgia Hosta Society, which relies on donations from member growers, still plan to have a plant sale.

Eleanor Craig, owner of Fern Ridge Farms in Canton and a regular donor to the native plant society event, called the cancellation a relief.

"I thought that was so sweet of them to do that, because they know everybody is just hanging on," she said. "Hanging on week to week, month to month."

The landscaping industry is losing more than $262 million a month as a result of drought and watering restrictions, with an annual loss of more than $3 billion, according to a December survey by the Georgia Urban Agriculture Council. (The agricultural council represents five urban agricultural associations, including the Metro Atlanta Landscape and Turf Association.)

Theresa Schrum, the native plant society's past-president, cited additional reasons for canceling the sale. The society's plant rescue program, which saves native plants from construction sites and supplies about a third of the sale's inventory, was suspended last June because of the watering ban, she said.

Lastly, the society didn't want to purchase new plants to sell because of watering restrictions, which challenge a plant's odds of survival. (Nursery donations compose a third of the sale's inventory.)

Though half of the society's annual budget comes from the plant sale, Schrum said the group is financially stable and can sustain its yearly projects, such as grants for college students.

The annual native plant sale draws upwards of 800 people to Piedmont Park, Winchester said, and offers about 6,000 perennials, trees and shrubs. In place of the April event, the society is holding a much smaller sale — about 500 plants — before its March 11 meeting, she said.

Information: www.gnps.org.