2 hours as a pro-bono city worker = $1000

For you dumpster divers out there - I had a fun activity. It was plant diving at the city park while the city workers did their job.

Set the stage: Holiday yesterday, hard frost last night - thousands of dollars worth of plants that the city was going to throw away.

I was there at 8 am, introduced myself, was extremely courteous and explained that I heard they were throwing away the plants and could I have some of the ones they were tossing in a heap on the ground.

Three grocery bags later - I head home, tell my boss I have an errand to run and go back. Again, I was quite courteous, and after having seen a woman walk away with a small handful of snapdragons - she said she was allowed to pick them. I introduced myself to the gentleman who appeared to be the team lead - he said yes, I could pick some plants. We chatted a bit about how it was a shame to go to waste - and he even offered me one of those tall paper bags to put my stash. In an hour or so after going back, I was able to get upwards of 50 Australian canna lily rhisomes the size of my hand or bigger (WOWOWOWOWOW), snapdragons (for the seeds), coleus, silver dollar, aramanthus, elepant ears. I even got 2 dahlia rhisomes almost the size of my HEAD with 15+ babies on it.

It started as picking a few and ooh and ahhh...got my bag, headed for the cannas since they weren't going to do them for the afternoon - I thought I'd just help out and make their jobs easier. :-))

wow girl....you had the haul of the century....good job!!!
now, I cant wait to see the photos next year of the australian cannas...they should be spectacular.

Great work! Maybe you'll be trading some of those Australian cannas for other types in the spring?

Or maybe sooner? sly grin

I hear you like sun-loving hostas... (nudging lupine aside slightly)

(Elbowing John slightly *grin*) then you must ADORE the Sun-lovers Coleus.

broad grin...I'm going to inventory what I have this weekend, pull everything out and see what I can send along - I'd be happy to share, I did sort of go bezerk and get a LOT of stuff (6 grocery bags and a large home depot size bag might have been a bit of overkill for my yard). I'd love to share what I found. Some of these are pretty darn heavy. More to follow! I'll try to start something on the plant trading forum this weekend. I don't formally have a "trade list". If anyone has recommendations or ideas on whether I should break up these dahlia monster bulbs, please email me. Do I break them up or keep them together.

(oops, sorry lupine, was that your foot? ;-) )

sbarr, the dahlia roots will need to be broken up, the important thing is that each root must have a piece of the stem (an 'eye' or shoot) in order to grow.

Be my guest John, I am not too successful keeping dahlias over the winter. Sbarr, I would love to share some of your loot, so if there is anything of mine you would like, just let me know! Or I would be happy to send you postage. (Bowing politely)

Besides, I got some of my own "loot" today and am riding high! I will post details on a different thread.

lupine, I cannot keep dahlia roots overwinter either, they always seem to wither and turn hard, unless they get soft and mushy and rot. Will watch for your details...

Wow, what a haul!! Great treasures there. Good for you!