Spring Green Elephant Plant Swap

Thought I would get us started early. Here is the link to the Spring Green Elephant Swap. https://auth.gardenweb.com/members/greenelephant

Several of us went to the Fall swap. Had a great time, got tons of wonderful free plants and enjoyed each others company.

I was thinking that if you plan on going to the swap you could list what your bringing and we could set up "trades" before the event. Then you can label items with peoples names on them prior to the swap and keep them set aside until the end of the event. We can then enjoy a sack lunch together and swap our "preset trades." How does that sound to everyone?

The Fall swap was crazy. We tried to swap our "preset trades" during the event and it was terribly confusing. Hopefully if we wait until after it will be much less stressful. Please share your ideas and thoughts. Hope this makes sense. Rachel

Hi Rachel,

Sounds like a good idea to me!
I have been reading all the posts lately that I could and I feel like I cannot catch up....lol
Hope your holidays were fun, I sure had a nice one DH took 11 days vacation and we just did whatever felt good at the moment. We made it down your way last Sunday, spent 6 hours walking around Cabela's...I love that place.
I can't wait until the spring and the trade!

Carla

I have been thinking about it, I miss the one in fall, still working 6/12s have had no time to take a inventory of anything, or to even get some starts going. but I am planing on going. We also need to plan the trip to Dragonfly? (hopefully not within 2 weeks of it)

One thing I do know that I have at this point, Is anyone interested in some Lucky Bamboo cuttings, I need to cut mine back, badly its over 2 feet tall. and I have some trees from arbor day (just got), more than I have room for. will come up with others I'm sure.

Tills,
I would love to try some lucky bamboo in my garden window!

You got it, How many stalks who you like? very easy to grow, find the right pot or vase.

http://www.evesgardengifts.com/learn/number-stalks.htm

Tills, we have to meet this spring somewhere...I have some books to give you and we just need to let our kindred souls get together...lol
Sure hope you can make it to the swap! I would love some bamboo too!
Happy garden dreams,
Carla

One would be lovely and I have the perfect vase for it too!

I plan on being there this time, as long as something bad doesn't happen. I so enjoyed Dragonfly.
I have a box of seeds that I have bought over the last 3 years, when I first got my greenhouse built, did not use them all and I have kept them safe, do you think they are still good? Some where never opened. ( store bought) Where I work we had seeds come in and with my discount they where very cheap so I over bought. Hate to trow them away.

Cocoa: love the new doo, cant wait to meet you, and yes kindred souls

First time I ever felt sick on the ferry, we had a very bumpy ride on the way home tonight because of the wind, was very scary.

Thanks Tills....I tried some of my 3 yr old nasturtum seeds this year and none of them came up...so I threw out all the old seeds and am going to start with new ones. I know how you feel on the ferry...I only ride them if I absolutely have to, I have motion sickness and the ferries are no exception, I have found I am better if I put cotton in my ears???

Tills - I grew carrot from seed that was 10 yrs old. The germination rate was higher than I expected. Maybe it depends on what kind of seed, & how the seed is stored???
I hate to throw stuff out - I might plant them in a pot or two just for a wee experiment.

I hate to throw them away, maybe make a grab bag for the swap and give them away who knows they all may be good. I dont have the time to try to plant them or the pots. there are just to many. what do you think?

I've been wondering something about this spring swap. Seems to me that a lot of my plants still aren't going to be doing too much-and I know I'm a week or two earlier than some of you. So, what sorts of things will you be bringing to the spring swap?

To all you seed sowers, If you are serious Ron denos book it tecnical but good and it is for sale through JLHudson. Also whenever I get seeds I put them in the vegtable crisper. I have more seed in the frig than food. Tilly if your gouing to the swap I would love to donate some seed I have tons and have ordered more. I have an illness and I'm trying to work on it. I have to prik out ever single baby plant and how in the world am I going to sell 500 carexs. I just sowed some 3 year old leptospermum and I think I am going to have thousands. By putting the seeds in the fridge it like winter stratification. I have set up in the daylight basement heat mats and shop light and I go downthere everyday to see what sprouts. To antidepressant.

If I don't make it to the swap, you are only a stones throw from me I can drop them by. do you want a list. I have perennials, annuls and veggies. The poppies I gave to Carol and Kathy I started from seed. They are very Hardy.

Never mind I read that wrong, sorry Heidi

This message was edited Jan 7, 2008 9:21 PM

Heidi,
Thanks for the tip on the book. I will look it up. By the way we all have that illness your talking about! Admit it everyone we are plantaholics and DG is our drug along with every nursery, seed catalog and plant sale!

Heidi
I found something neat, maybe you could sale your seeds. they are cute but takes time to do.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/799616/

Mary -

No kidding that those poppies are hardy. The frost hasn't even bothered them - they are still green!! I've never seen such a thing.

I've seen them bloom in the snow out here and never die down for the winter. maybe I over did something when I started them, they just keep going. and I cant remember which seed it was, I did 3 diff. kinds at that time. all store bought seeds for 88 cents at Big Lots 21/2 years ago. LOL

I will try to make it to the spring Green Elephant.

If I am not too much of a slacker, I should be able to round up some divisions of a nice 4-6 foot tall clumping bamboo, some red Crocosmia, Freesia, and some Coreopsis that are taking over the garden.

AnalogDog, that's great. I'm looking forward to meeting you!!

Um...I can bring cookies?

Absolutely! Gardeners love cookies, at least this one does!

Most folks love to eat & garden. It's a great treat!
By the way - no permission is necessary.
And now we've all made a mental note about your cookies.....
Hmmm... I'm hungry now.

Going to put in for vacation around that time, hope it works out. That way I know I'll make it.

Cool, Mary. It'll be good to have you there. BTW, I have my trees from Arbor Day, too. 4 white flowering dogwood, 3 golden rain tree, 3 redbud and one mystery tree. I've left them sitting in water in the house for too long - one of the redbuds is budding and the extra mystery tree is sprouting little green branches!!

I'm So sad
I saved seeds from my Iris, did the soak bath, and put them in the frig. for the 4-6 weeks called for and my DH cleaning out the Frig. threw them away, So heartbroken.

Mine have not done nothing, and my mystery tree was a Crapemyrtle,
It told me that on the package of the Tree Identification key, did you get that?

So sad about your iris . . . I'm sure your DH feels horrible.

I got the insert that told me what the three kinds they intended to send were. I don't think there was anything about a fourth kind of tree - it's marked with dark green.

Did you get a tree idenfication key that listed more trees than what you expected? Does it say anything about a tree marked with dark green?

Yes the Green is the Crapemyrtle (Lagerstroemia indica)

Sweet!! Thank you. I've been wanting a crape myrtle.

Thank you, Mary.

Much snow there last night? How are the roads out your way?

No snow, but a deep freeze tryed to post on the other tread and lost the hole thing,
about you and the trip in the ice, will go back don't know what happend.

So, Heidi, does this mean that you are offering seedlings at the swap because you are going to have way too many babies? This is a plant swap. The last one was a seed swap. You should come to the swap if you can. It's fun. I plan to go, at least if we are in town. My son is going to Washington DC for the first week in March, which means me and DH have a week to ourselves. What a treat! We may go away for that week.
But anyway, Heidi, I'm coming up your way in February to visit my Indianola friend so if you want to donate to the swap and you can't come, I'll take your stuff for you. If I end up being away, I can pass it to Rachel. If I misunderstood your post, that's okay, too. It's late and I've been gardening all day so I have plants on the brain.

I was in the greenhouse and noticed a clay pot on underneath one of the shelves. It had dirt clinging to the bottom of it and somehow seeds must have spilled into the pot from somewhere, only God knows where. There were all these little seedlings in that pot with hardly any soil at all to grow in. I haven't the faintest idea what they are but they are all nicely potted and under light right now so I'm sure that I will find out soon. Most of my lily seeds have germinated so I spend a very satisfying hour or so pricking out lily seedlings, too.

I probably can't go but would love to donate. I have this need to pot up every single seedling and in reality I could never sell them all. Let me know when you are up here to see you freind and let me know what you are driveing and I'll fill you up. To all of you that go to social functions I will support you from afar. I have so many things that I'm trying to do in a short time that there is no way I could ever go. I have so many friends that keep me in the loop so I kind of know what is happening for not ever being there.

I think I will be breaking out the remay fabric for a few days for some of the little babies. Things in pots are just not as tough as things in the ground

Okay. I'll be driving a van but I'll let you know for sure the date when it gets settled. You won't have any trouble getting rid of the babies, and we can make sure everyone knows where they came from. You should give me a small supply of your business cards to pass out with the seedlings. A lot of people there are new gardeners so they need resources!

Handing out Dragonfly cards is a great idea. There are so many gardening newbies there who would love to form some good relationships.

Please promote - it's the least we could do for Heidi!!!

Plant swap: I'm going to bring extra seedlings of anything I can't use, to give away.
I went through all my seeds today, and produced a spreadsheet. I will be planting as much as possible indoors, and some more WS-ing. I will not have time to dig/divide, and I thought people might appreciate having some baby-stage plants. Many plants seem to do better when allowed to establish in the area in which they will be grown.
I don't care so much about the "swap" factor...well, unless you have something I'd like.

I got out today while Ty was asleep (I am an at-home dad right now, as I walked into work on Monday 1/7, and was laid off by my newbie boss before I did anything) and dug up Freesia, Crocosmia, Rudbeckia, and one other pretty invasive I keep forgetting the name of.

I think the bulbs will do fine, they had some weak sprouts, but I am keeping a good bit of soil on them. What should I do with the non-bulb divisions? I have them as bigger masses of soil and root right now in a plastic bucket in my unheated garage. No growth was visible on either.

Should I try to pot them up? How else can I keep them for the trade? If I should pot them, who's got pots I can use and is nearby? I dumped a big pile into the recycling last summer before I found DG.

In Mountlake Terrace the last snow dumped about 6" on us. It is all but completely gone.

I have my own business cards for me, and I sell nothing. I find them very useful for stuff like this, or just talking to folks at a party. I use www.vistaprint.com, where personal cards are like $5 per 250, it takes about a week. I like the deal. I just put my name, address, and phone on them with a bit of decoration. Its a great deal.

Don't you hate those D'oh! moments with stuff like pots? I threw out a tray for holding 4" pots that I would dearly love to have back right now,even though it was cracked.

Worst case, no one cared at all when I brought plants oh-so-stylishly "potted up" in plastic grocery sacks. So, don't worry if that's all that works out.

Labels are really the important thing. Pixy & Rachel used plastic silverware and wrote the plant names on them-that worked well. Other people used pieces of old mini blinds. I tried blue painter's tape, which I think would have been fine if I'd gotten them actually onto the bags. I wasn't expecting the frenzied interest in all things plant when I got there-so be warned! ;)

oh boy - who needs 4" pots & 1 gal nursery pots?
I have plenty. Let me know if you want & I'll bring.

AnDog - doubled plastic grocery bags work well. Be sure to make labels that can go into the bags, or write on the bag with an indelible pen like a sharpie. This is what I did - worked fine & there was no tag to misplace. Pot up whatever you can - often we think that no one will want the things that we are willing to part with. Wrong!
I parted with LOTS of Crocosmia!!! I love the stuff, but since I started out with 5 clumps that had exceeded their allotted space, it was an easy decision.
As far as things being invasive - if you know it to be so IN WASHINGTON, then tell people. However, many people assume that because a plant is invasive elsewhere, it will de designated as such, here, which is often inaccurate. Just be sure you know your plants - you might be peppered with questions about them!

When we moved into our house, 5 years ago, we had a friend that was demolishing her house for a rebuild, and she sent me home with tons of plants including crocosmia and freesia bulbs. The garden I was starting had been a little triangle up by the street which the previous owner or contractor put in a cherry tree shrub. I did not know they did that to cherry trees, but I had to work around it and dig through the roots of the tree, which I later removed.

Well, all the digging in such well rooted soil tuckered me out, and I was left with about 25 bulbs that I could not recognize. They turned out to be more of the same, freesia and crocosmia. But in my flogged state, I wanted nothing to do with more bulbs, so I dumped them in the ground together, and forgot about them. The next summer the ground showed a decent mound from all the bulbs growing, and has been a dense growing area that I wanted to carve into, and did today.

Holy Zombies Batman! Bulbs were in that soil thicker than I have ever seen. Wall to wall, and down 6 or 8 inches. Everything was doing fine, and matted together with roots. Wow. I filled a small box from just that area. There must have been hundreds of bulbs in there.

I will bag up the plants courtesy of Albertsons. I was thinking about that, but did not know if it was too trailer trash. Now, as to keeping them alive, should I get them out of the garage, and into someplace outside?