Committee member Libby West said the sale was to have been held this Sunday.

Instead the volunteers will work to a roster to water and tend the plants over the next few months.

The plants are grown from seedlings and cuttings on site at the Botanic Gardens.

Mrs West said some of the plants would be sold to people within the group but most would continue to grow ahead of the next planned sale, the spring event in November.

She said it will mean there will be some bigger than normal offerings at the next sale.

"Some of them will be bigger. We will able to re-pots them into bigger pots," she said.

Mrs West said the social distancing rules also meant only one or two people could tend the plants at any one time.

"We're not allowed to work up there but we can maintain them," she said.

The previous plant sale, last November, saw big demand for drought-resistant plants when Orange was in the grip of serious water shortages with little rainfall at the time.

The Botanic Gardens are still open for public use from 7.30am to dusk.

We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we want to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe below...