"THINK SPRING!" seed swap DISCUSSION

Gita, yes I'd love a cutting or two of Dr. Seuss. I'll swap you a couple of those fancy cucumber seeds for it... you wanted picklers, right? I'm volunteering to pot one group of those figs (ones you're planning to give away in spring) and put them on my light shelf to save you some space, if you want. There will be a table for books and magazines. I don't think we've discussed the spring swap yet; I'm sure we'll talk about it tomorrow.

Sally, I'd love to get some of your Bunny Tails grass seed and a pinch of Jewels of Opar, please. Also, let me know what I owe you for the suet -- or, better yet, please take it out of the "kitty." Thanks for collecting the money for us tomorrow!

Thanks for offering help, Jill---but I will take care of the figs myself.
I enjoy doing things like that....if needed--I have movable table lamps
for them.

So far--the figs have sat by a S. exposure sunny window in my BR.
Top shelf of my seed set-up. NO artificial lights there...
When they were smaller--I did put them under the lights sometimes.
Right now--the Coleus is monopolizing the lights. When I start seeds (few, I hope)
the Coleus will have to find a new spot.

Will bundle up TWO Dr. Seuss for you then. They are in 5" pots.
Don't fuss too much over them. Keep them watered as needed--maybe
with a bit of MG plant food in it now and then.

I guarantee you--those pots are already full of roots. They are OK--till the
foliage really takes off. Then re-pot them in an 8" pot. or--by then--outside...

If you want--I will bring you my Primer on "Seasonal care of brugs".
It will be helpful, as they need to be grown pot-in-pot here..easier to "dig up'
for storage.

OK! off to bundle up your brugs....Gita

Judy, sorry for the late reply, I have been away. I do not cold-moist stratify my seeds in the fridge anymore. I winter sow at appropriate times and cold-dry store unused seeds. Since Asclepias seeds need only 30 days of stratification, just simply winter sow in the near future and there will be plenty of cold yet this season to foster germination. Even seeds requiring 60 days will see enough temperature fluctuation between now and late April.

Gita, I'm also interested in a Dr. Seuss cutting!

OK! Now I need to bundle up three!

Primer also coming your way. Gotta know what to do! Right?

G.

OOPS!

Jill--since SS asked for one--I only have one to give each of you.
I have 3 total--but the 3rd one is still a bit puny....NOT a good year for cuttings...

One is enough--as you need to give them a lot of space to grow---eventually.
Sorry. Gita

One is enough! Thanks, Gita. I made the offer with regard to the figs because I thought I remembered your saying you were going to have a hard time finding space... sounds like you can jockey things around! Gardeners can always find room for a few more baby plants... :-)

Coleup, I'm having issues with that site tonight or with my printer... will try again in the morning to do your bee cards if I have time, but that's a pretty big "if" since I still have seeds I want to split and pack.

Still adding to my "haves" list... :-)

HEY does anybody have a little toy gorilla, maybe one of those old valentine cuties, that they would not mind giving away? just checking... thanks!

I cut 3 sets of Alsobia last night... such a sweet plant for a windowsill pot or a little hanging basket! They put out little trailers of baby plants, similar to what a strawberry plant or spider plant does. I'll put one set in a little vase on the gift table. Who wants dibs on one of the others?

front view of the sweet freckled, fringed bloom

I'll take one of the others :)

going in your goodie bag!

Just got home a bit ago to be greeted by JR and Jamie. As usual we had a good time with our DG friends. Thank you Sally for the suet, Holly already put one up. I'm interested to see if it last longer than the stuff we buy. It's made by the same co. as our less expensive ones.

Sorry, I omitted saying it was nice to meet our newest members.

This message was edited Feb 7, 2015 6:56 PM

Oh, Sally thank you so much for the suet cake. They sure are nice, I just put it out beside our regular cake it will be interesting to see if the birds like one better than the other and compare how fast each one disappears.

Ric and I had a great time, so very nice seeing you all and especially meeting our newest 2 members.

What a wonderful afternoon! Thank you, Jill, for putting it all together. Fun questions and two like-minded additions to our DG group. So nice that the threat of snow was not an issue this year.

Yes, thanks so much for organizing this, Jill, and thanks to our new members whom I hope won't change their minds after having met us ; - )

Reporting in- coleup, Catibird, Gita and Sally and Mark got to Millersville safe.

Thanks everybody for a day of socializing and plant chat and all the seeds ( that I swore I didn't need, ha)

YAY!!!!

Sally, just think how nice the results of your guerrilla sowing will be : - )

Jill, thanks once again for your efforts of organization! What a nice get together. Managed to visit with many of the attendees, my apologies to those I missed. Welcome to the new faces, and thanks for everyone for participating.

Thanks to all for such a great afternoon! Jill, you did a great job organizing everything! The group was so welcoming and the seeds so abundant, that I was truly worn out when I got home!

W W--

It was nice to meet you--and so nice to have young people join us...
Sorry I did not get to talk to you. I understand you own a small Nursery?
Please tell us more about that....
I am sure we will see you at the Spring Plant Swap---wherever that will be..

I also hope you took lots and lots of seeds from Big Box. no one is limited
to just one packet.
D-mail me if you have any questions on any of the seeds you took.
I gather them all--so i can help you with what to expect..

Jill, thanks again for organizing this swap---I loved the food! Must be getting better at
knowing what to choose....

Gita

Great meeting you, WatermarkWoods! I hope to see you at the spring swap!

Thanks again for organizing it, Jill.

It was great seeing everybody yesterday. Many thanks to Jill for organizing the event. What fun!

Sally, the woodpeckers asked me to give thanks to you for the yummy suet :-).

I really enjoyed yesterday. It was great seeing old friends, meeting the new comers, and as always a BIG THANKS to Jill for organizing. I was up early this morning and got the seeds that I picked up sowed in flats and out on the deck. I've been using the aluminum foil cake pans with the plastic lids, poking holes in top and bottom. Seems to work well. Here is what I got done this morning - listing it to thank the givers and also to remind me later in spring:

Muddy - Ageratum
Critter - Joy Pye Weed gathered in Ontario, Alpine Catchfly
Joyanna - Dianthus
Greenthumb and Ecnalg - Hesperis matronalis
Watermark Woods - White Hybiscus/Swamp Rose and Carolina Allspice seeds are soaking for sowing tomorrow
Who? - bag with the seedpods marked double pink columbine
Unknown DGer, probably from a piggy swap - mixed cleome

wow Terri, next game, you get the prize for fastest sowing!

Glad you all had a great time!!!

The seed swap was so much fun! Thanks to all who came... I know some of you had long drives to join us. Such fun to welcome Julie (WatermarkWoods) and Tham (thamng) also! I enjoyed visiting with everybody, and it was especially fun to chat with Darcy (Sequoia's DW) during lunch -- easy to see why he's smitten!

Joyanna says she had lots of fun too... not sure why she was being so quiet/shy, but she wouldn't have missed it! She had fun putting her seed packs in everybody's bags... they are perennial dianthus and should do well being winter sowed, even straight into a pot if you choose. She & I try to find flowers that are both pretty & easy when we pick out her gift seeds. :-)

Speedy prize goes to Terri, for sure! Planning to do some winter sowing today also, and to get started with indoor sowing -- Torenia likes a big head start, and if I start Aleppo peppers early maybe I'll get red peppers before frost.

If anybody picked up the Vigna caracalla aka snail or corkscrew vine from the misc table (3 seeds), start them now.. they take a while to start blooming, but their fragrance is worth the fuss!

Oh, Jan, we did have a good time! I'm so glad that After so many years of me being a 'no show' that by hitching a ride in Sally's Swap mobile and Mark's excellent driving to and fro and the good banter with all occupants (Gita and Catbird/Robin) and no bad weather worries, I've finally gotten to see what I was missing.

For Jan or anyone else who hasn't attended this function or who wasn't able to make it (Buttoner!!! et al) hope you all can feel the 'Let's get together again real soon' we miss and like each other vibes spreading out you alls' way!

I'm still feeling Quite 'chatty' this am. I thought I might fill you in some.

Almost everyone appreciates Jill's setting this all up year after year, and she does have organizational skills that in my book are only surpassed by her warm hearted creativity in making people feel welcomed and special as individuals and as a group or sub group, she definitely 'drew a circle that included all kinds of gardeners and gardening and the ways our individual styles and preferences dovetailed and merged forming beautiful alive ever changing kalidascopic patterns, like the beautiful quilts Robin showed us pictures of, or the gorgeous 'goodie bags', the buffet array of nourishment, or the endless possibilities of the seeds each of us are or brought to share.

Thank y ou Jill and all.

Of course, who could fail to be charmed by Joyana! Yep, she's growing like a weed and ever so so sweet and I hope the planet we all enjoy is as bright and beautiful and full of possibilities as Joyana and all children dream and deserve it to be and we can manage to pass on!

My uber thought is that seeds contain all of the past and all of the future. I consider it a sacred act to save and plant a seed, to nurture life.

Another sweet moment was during the game Jill conducted when the question was about attending the Philly Flower Show. Ithink the team Ric and Holly were on got the point when Holly answered that she couldn't say how many more than four they had attended, but it was from before Jamies was born! We all 'awwwwed' and they both grinned that love light at each other.

And we have County Fair blue ribbon winners (Jill and Joyana for basil?) and giant pumpkin growers (new Terry) and thos that have less full sun than I do and move their plants am (Hubby) and pm (wife) Those newbies from Muddies area of Va sound like keepers and as crazy as the rest of us 'dedicated ' gardeners!

Most hands went up when Jill's prompt was "Who has the most unplanted plants sitting around in pots?" lol and honest we are, too. I forget what the special prize was for that one!

And there was quite a bit of hilarity when the query was "Whose partner not all that interested in gardening, will still help out and dig holes?" I think that point went to Aspenhill and Mike and his backhoe! God bless all our DPs who help or at least are getting better at 'doing no harm'!

Taking a short break BBL.

Yeah thanks so much Jill, you did a great job getting everything together! I especially liked the game we played, that was a lot of fun. Darcy had a really great time too. I definitely took more seeds than I needed but I guess that's what an addict does. Welcome Julie. I didn't get a chance to talk with you but I did take a pack of Calycanthus seeds so thank you for those. Big thanks to Gita as well for all the seeds and books.

Aspen, I am so impressed! Good idea about using cakepans.

What a gorgeous day we have for sowing...almost 60 here! I've done some WS in pots but am about to run out of soil. I'm low on pots, too, so I'll starting direct sowing and try to remember where I've sowed already.

I did think of another way to use seeds, though...my teenage niece wants a wildflower garden and my sister has lots of room for one. And then there are always places ripe for stealth sowing ; - )

This message was edited Feb 8, 2015 1:43 PM

Hey, Jeff say Good Morning to Darcy, too. I enjoyed talking with you both re Phoenix and H2O as we have kin there, and your upcomin cruise! Horray for getaways. Here is a link to the American clothing company that lets us trace the cooton they use back to the farmer who grew it!
http://www.allamericanclothing.com/life/2013/12/17/abc-world-news-traces-made-in-america-jeans-back-to-the-farmer-who-grew-the-cotton.html

Julie, the link above says they help support 12,000 small cotton growers in the USA. Hope we can have more conversations like we had and wth David/Greenthumb and others about what's native about native and different adaptability to local circumstances with an eye on the larger ecosystem. bioregion. So happy to have the MidWest as a shared experience with you as well as your native plant doings and the Monarch butterfly journey. Personally, I think Easterers get plant milkweed but someone who has seen firsthand how rapidly milkweed/Monarch habtiat has been lost in the Midwest/Texas etc where Monarch moms surviving Mexico winters begin the migration really gets how much milkweed needs to be available for the three generations it takes to even get to us here!

Pat and David, sorry I didn't get to hear of your plans and involvement with the projects of Loundoun County Wildlife. Hope to re up the Milkweed for Monarchs thread with an update on overwintering numbers and I'm sure Jill and Muddy and other gorilla gardeners and all of our seeds and efforts can see the MA bee a more pollinator friendly place!

Yes, Jan, I did score a point and win a prize for most caterpillars raised! Lovely little butterfly wind chime and a butterfly keychain thingy which Joyana promptly bejeweled! As you well know, raising 400 Monachs from egg to release took the helping hands of most of us to pull off, and all the milkweed we could find! So I will hang the windchime and when I hear it ring I will think of the angels here and on my route and all along the way. May we all find joy in the journey.

Speaking of journey reminds me of a highlight of this swap which was a personal guided tour of all of the buffet food! It was conducted by Ric! I told Holly that he gives a food tour much like his garden tours: a grand gesture to bgin the questfor in this casr 'duck' with a running commentary and brisk pace and a few quiet stops in front of choice items...never did find the 'duck' though, but discover both kinds of flounder on my own when he went off on anothermission having come full circle. Thanks Ric, you de man.

Oh, I am sure I am leaving out so much like how good it was to see Donner again and how short the 'visiting' time was even though we sat next to each other, and how SSG has become quite the gardener and no longer a newbie, or how quickly the books and magazines Gita brought found new homes, or that people discovered that I had hair! lol or Jeff really did bring his own Soy Sauce, or what a variety of 'gifts' and giveaways, et or how birds got suet , plants got stakes and even my cats got gourmet cat food (Thanks Muddy, They are working on Royal Canin after a blind sniff test of all varieties you passed on to me!)

One last story then, This Seed Swap has become an annual event and it is held annually at Chef Lins. We eat and then adjourn to the back room for swapping... Seems this year even Chef Lin got in on our Swap when one of us (new Terry??) brought a super large floral landscape paintin to give away. As it was being brought in to the back area and set up on the gift table Chef Lin (?) requested that it remain and become a part of that room's decor (the colors matched beautifully) What a great way to reserve our space for future gatherings!

Muddy, almost 60 at your place? As you known, we don't live that far away, and it is a chilly 45 degrees here. I can see brighter skies to the south, guess that makes the difference. Its been cloudy here all day.

Edited to say: Went on line - 56 at Dulles, 46 up the road at Leesburg.

This message was edited Feb 8, 2015 3:30 PM