"I've never gotten a box from something I purchased without an invoice, and I guess I expect the same for trading."
This isn't the same as purchasing and perhaps if you think it should be, you should purchase instead of trade.
I'm not being sarcastic here but perfectly serious. If you expect a plant trade to be the same as purchasing by mail order, you're bound to be disappointed at some point because traders aren't vendors.
It was inevitable
The only time an included note is really useful to me is when somebody is sending me a SASBE... especially if they forget to tell me their DG name! Unless they've included a printout of our posted or Dmailed exchange, I'm not sure I've ever gotten a "packing slip." I do appreciate that a nice little handwritten note would be polite to include, and I know I always enjoy getting notes... but when I'm sending out a lot of seeds, I figure people would rather just get their seeds sooner. :-)
I put my username in () under my return address. That is how I know most people on DG anyway so I figure that is how they would know me to.
I just traded with her. Did not put my name in the box. Never thought about it. Just worried about the quality and condition of the plant I was sending. Hope she wasn't talking about me. I will give it to her though, what she sent was well labled and packaged very well.
Davie
some people...like me...trade both on gw and on daves. although there are some people that use both places for the most part it seems like 2 different worlds to me. when i am trading heavily if i don't have a username it can get hard to figure out. i don't keep records at all. just my memory which is going slowly. but all i can remember are usernames and plant names. twice i have gotten boxes with no plant names and no user name in the same trade. i wrote letters to both the people asking if i owed them anything and who they were. gave them all of my usernames and my email address and never heard back from either of them. to me the long and the short of it is that it is just much easier to get all the information you need on the box...even if i kept records it would still be EASIER to have this information on the box. plant names and who you are. i don't need a note. you can just jot that user name or even the plant name on the outside of the box while you are standing in the post office line waiting to pay for postage. lol. kathy, you are easy because your user name is the same as your real name. but peope ain't gonna have a clue who barbara allison is but i'm bettin' they won't forget mamajack. lol.
lol...mamajack, for the sake of this thread...lol...that will not die (trading is fun, and follow through is a heck of a lot more important to me than names or notes..etc)...
I have to separate the traders like myself that might be sending several boxes out in a day from folks that only trade every once in awhile. Really everything we're talking about are only issues for us heavy traders. I can't say it's fair to ask more (might not be much more, but maybe it's just who I am not to bother folks much) of a person because I choose to take on 7 trades to send out on Monday
All anyone has to do is ask the trader to put their dg name on the box and the other person will more than likely comply. I am too busy keeping up with my own system so that I don't ask for anything more than plants from the other person to remember my own name half the time, much less do anything else extra. But if someone asked me (lol) I would take note and do it. Communication is all it takes
Just my two pennies, but I am fairly new to trading and think it is a fun way to get plants. It is like Christmas all year. However my expectations are not high and I do not look at it any differently than if a friend gives me a plant or cutting. I would thank her and be happy for it. I do worry a little when I hear how seriously some DGers take trading. I only want to expand my plant list and have some fun! I truly think that if you have certain things you expect in trading that like stated above you need to say that when the dmailing starts. It is then up to the person to accept it or not. I guess I just look at it as passing a few plants along ...
lavender, thanks for adding your input, and you bring up a great point, for those of us who trade a lot and are spending way too much for postage (I speak only for myself here, lol) I do think it can become a little serious. I try and keep it fun...but I am also going to have to tame it down a bit, too, it's so addictive :)
I don't always find the trade tracker user friendly enough for me. it's very easy to set up a datebase in Excel. You can add all the columns you want and doing a search on an address takes a second. If I am sending more than 1 type of plant in a box, I label each one. Often times, if I'm just send 1 plants, like the box of MG Bush cuttings the other day, I just pack them well. I do put my return address on the box but don't always include my dg name. I guess I just figure the other person is smart enough to find it if they need to.
When the trading season gets more active, I will be printing out return address labels using my DG name instead of actual name but I ran out last year and haven't had time this year.
I can't believe how heated some of this conversation has gotten. I think that's quite silly. I actually feel like I got bashed here...and why? What's the big deal? One thing I've always loved about DG is that folks can agree to disagree here. What's going on here? Is there something below the surface or did someone just have a bad day?
Just to clarify, because now I feel like it's needed, when I said
Quoting:
I've never gotten a box from something I purchased without an invoice, and I guess I expect the same for trading.
What I meant by that was that when I pack up a box or envelope I do my best to make it professional, as if it DID come from a company. If packing things like they DID come from a company isn't our ultimate goal as good traders, then what is? What are we aspiring to?...and these are just my thoughts on trading, I'm sure there's things I haven't thought of or considered...and that's why I never told anyone I thought they were wrong for doing what they do.
Believe me, I don't expect trading to be anything like mail order. I could tell you stories...we could all tell stories. A 5 lb box full of dirt and a few dried out twigs. Most all of us have been there and gone through that....but isn't that what is trying to be avoided by making threads and posts like this?
There will NEVER be a set of rules that all traders will agree to, unless it's something that is put out by DG....and even then not everyone will agree to it, they will just abide by them if they want to trade.
To each his or her own. It's not that big of a deal. I'm certainly not going to argue over this or hurt someone's feelings over it, life is too short and there's wayyyy more important things to be concerned about.
I hope everyone has a great day and a great weekend.
Heather
I certainly understand where you are coming from and respect the fact that you would like your plants mailed in a certain way. You have that right and will probably get it if it is communicated that way to the prospective trader. I had my own sis mail me a bubble envie of mud and spiderwort lol. Perhaps with time and the major growth in this site, there can be a separate trading list for the collectors. I can understand thier need to be meticulous with what they receive. I just personally really don't care, I am only paying postage and I have killed off far more plants( zone and light requirement denial) than I would ever receive from DG members. I truly don't think anyone meant disrespect, just the usual enthusiastic commenting that DG is known for! you have a happy Easter Holiday too!
well heather, i for one did not take what you said in any other way than the way i am taking what everyone else said...including me. in the best of all possible worlds we would all like to receive plants the way we send them out...else why would we send them the way we do. although that box of dirt person would prob. frown on any of us doing them that way. lol. one does wonder what people like that are thinking when they do that. i got plants inside a manila envelope once...not a bubble envelope. they were just stuck inside. no packing. nothing on the roots. black mush. i immediately paid for return postage and sent the whole thing back to the trader along with a note saying that i couldn't use any of what she sent.
I look on trades as an exchange of gifts between gardening friends. :-)
Whether you approach trades more seriously or "just for fun," though, putting your DG name on or in the box or envelope somewhere ensures the recipient knows who sent it. I've received trade or "just thought you'd like this" items that had me really scrambling through old threads and Dmails, trying to figure out who had sent it... I'd have been really embarrassed if I hadn't been able to thank them properly or figure out if I still owed them something! I just get so used to using DG names that real names can throw me for a loop! LOL
This thread has taken a lot of twists and turns, and much has been said about "tone"... many good points have been made... but I think the original intent of the thread was very simple, to encourage people to please include their DG names somewhere when they send something out. If you've got a DG name, you can figure out the rest. :-)
Well I am a dummy and I forget to do it when I am hurrying to the post office and doing a million things at once lol! I do however have my doh! moments and dmail the person and let them know. I am sure I will never get that organized and I so envy those who are with their lists and their spreadsheets! You go my gardening friends !!
I just receveid three trades yesterday, and hurried to get them in the garden so that the plants would be happy, thne spent most o f last evening cataloging them. I now realize that since I am at the beginning of my trades, that a spreadsheet would be a good way to catalog and keep track of where I got them.
I also keep a 3 ring binder with all (wellmost) of my plants, it also chronicles where I purchased (or received in case of trades now) the plant and where it is planted. Sometimes they are so easy to lose even in a 1/2 acre. Remember, the goal is not to have ANY grass, at least that is what I am accused of.
Thanks for all the input on trade etiquette, and tracking.
LOL... our "lawn" area has been shrinking here since we moved in, too. I think DH may be protecting what is left in back... when I first started laying out the garden areas, he was very specific about how big a strip of grass he wanted to have left, and I have to say that the gardens, little orchard area etc. got a very generous allotment of our yard (also about half an acre, with most of the space in the back).
Ok, how about this? It is inevitable that...
1) Even though 98% of my trades come well packaged, there's still that 2% who send 5 lbs of dirt and dead plants...or black mush in manila envies.
2) That the lawn is going to disappear, no matter how much DH protests. His is a losing battle....so sorry honey. My thoughts are that he should just enjoy his garage during the summer while I'm not overwintering plants in it!
3) I will lose track of who is sending me what and what I'm sending to who. Life gets busy and sometimes I can't even remember if I've fed the dogs yet.
4) For some of us, keeping records is part of the fun of trading. For others that's too much like what we have to do at work. (I've tried the 3ring binder thing, and I misplaced that long ago! If it shows up in a box with your trade you can keep it, maybe you can sell it on eBay as an item of gardening interest.)
5) I have also lost soooo many plants, from trade or otherwise. I don't know why it's so hard for me to admit that. I guess it makes me feel like a loser. It's quite difficult when someone d-mails you to see how the rose (or honeysuckle, lilac, bachelor buttons, daylilies, water lettuce, etc.) they sent is doing and you have to tell them it croaked. Most folks are understanding and laugh it off, some even send another plant/cutting. As long as no one addresses the plants they are sending me to "Loser Heathrjoy" I guess it'll all be ok in the end.
I'll just share real quickly (if that's possible for me) why I love to trade...
Yeah, I like the idea of getting plants for cheap. That's what first lured me into trading both seeds and plants. However, over the last few years of trading I've come enjoy my plants from trades more because of who they came from. I have a memory garden and most all of the plants in it were given to me...not even trades, just given to me. The memory garden itself is such a place of peace for me when I'm missing my loved one. It warms my heart so very much when I look at each flower or plant in that garden and know that each and every one was given to me in love...even "strangers" wanted me to feel better. That kind of generosity is hard to find in today's world, but I'm surrounded by it in my garden. I know who gave me each plant, and if I ever do forget it's written on it's tag (what it is, who gave it, and the year it was planted).
Just the other day I was reading in the Memory Garden Forum about a DG member that we recently lost. He was a great guy, although I didn't have the opportunity to know him, it's obvious what a sweet man he was from the memories everyone was posting. He was also quite the seed mailer from what I read. He had sent his tomato seeds all over the US. I'm pretty sure they were organic and heirlooms. His son came on and posted that he would be sending out seeds in his Father's memory to some DGers. It made his son happy to think that his Dad's tomatoes would be growing for years to come. How wonderful is that?
I recently read another post somewhere that someone's neighbor had passed, he had been quite the gardener. One of his prized plants was a Trumpet Vine. I've always *hated* Trumpet Vine...but as the DGer told the story about her neighbor and his love for this plant my whole opinion of it changed. The DGer was offering some plants or seed from this man's garden of the Trumpet Vine...to be grown in his memory. I didn't respond to the offer because I've got wayyyyy more than my share of this plant...but my whole attitude of it changed and I've decided to let go of my vengeance for Trumpet Vine and allow some to grow in this man's honor.
I hope that if the day ever comes that trading becomes like a business transaction FOR ME I'll have the foresight to stop, at least to take a break. FOR ME, trading is more than fun, it's sharing joy, hope and memories. Maybe you'd call me sappy, and that's ok....I've been called much worse!
Wow, maybe it is Easter (a time of rebirth) Maybe I'm hormonal, Maybe I'm just an avid garderner, but you have summed it all up beautifully. Thank you. I need a moment to go get a tissue to wipe my eyes. What a group!
Heatherjoy,
I so enjoyed reading your post. You made me laugh and touched my heart too.
Joy
PS. My daughter's name is Heather and my name is Joy. :-)
This message was edited Mar 22, 2008 2:08 PM
Heather I so agree. What better legacy to leave this world than to share your cherished plants with someone and they take root in their hearts and homes. I cannot think of a better legacy to leave. A touch of beauty in a world that is too often not these days. We all have stories of a friend or loved ones plant or special flower they passed along and it will never leave us, nor will they, as long as we continue the tradition. I still have an Epie given to me by a sweet elderly lady I only knew for a short time in 1989. But she touched my heart and I have never forgotten her and I still have the plant she gave me. Thank you for telling us what sharing plants means to you and I so agree. That is a great sentiment for Easter Eve.
heather, that was beautifully said. and girl i love your sense of humor. number 2 is still making me laugh.