What is a plant exchange anyway?

Do people trade plants? Or do you buy them?

yes a plant exchange is where you trade plants and garden items.
Sometimes you can have a lil luncheon too.

Plants AND lunch? That sounds like fun!

frankford..........You exchange plants.....Here is a picture of NotMartha, me (deann) and cacolos from a plant exchange we went to last year in Alger Michigan......

It is nice to see pictures of people in the Michigan Forum. Thanks! i have this type of camera too so that I can send pictures on the internet. Unfortunately I haven't used it much this winter.

that was one out of control plant trade -let me tell you!!! wow!!!
They did what they could to keep it managed but that went right out the window when the host yelled -GO
It was fun to be with deann and cheryle though!

What do you mean out of control? Were people fighting over plants? When the hostess called go did the people go home or what? I still don't fully understand
plant exchanges. I do know that people give away one plant in exchange for another.My friend told me that some plant might also be sold for money. Is this
possible? Do people barter for items?

What do you mean out of control?

The lady in charge didnt let anyone go around looking at all the other peoples plants-you had to stay right by your plants(bad idea). Then she told everyone the rules and said go...the rules were suppose to be: you go up to someone and ask if they woule like to trade A for B and so on. You were NOT allowed just to take something off someones table. But once she said Go every went everywhere-so NO one was at their tables to trade with-You either stayed at your table and maybe miss out on a great plant(because you had NO prior knowledge of what anyone had)or you took off looking at everyone plants.
People were just taking things off all the tables. We even had the sister ot the Hostess stop the whole trade and DEMAND one of her expensive plants back-everyone stood looking around and no one was coming forward-then she said I WILL search your cars and from underneath a table came her special plant!!! From the same people that brought weeds to trade!
It was horrible I thought and I think Deann and Cheryle agreed!

My friend told me that some plant might also be sold for money. Is this
possible?

YES I have been to a plant trade where there were also people that were selling plants not trading(unless something caught their eye) They had beautiful plants too and yes I bought and traded that day.

I have had 2 plant trades here at my home and they went GREAT.
This yr Im going to have to pass at having it here-im going to be to busy trying to sell plants locally.

I know there will be a plant trade in Flint in June(looking like a sunday)from one of the old members here. I will keep you all posted on any that i hear of!

plant trades can be WONDERFUL!

Thanks for the in depth info. Maybe this last essay you produced should have been featured in jokes and chat . I really got LOL while reading it.

frankford.......If you were at the Plant Exchange, you would not have thoughti t was funny..........NotMartha, Cheryle and myself stayed with our own stuff....i refused to leave my table because I knew what I had would get "ripped off" and so consequently, I only came home with a few things, and because I am a gardener, and felt sorry for some gave alot of my stuff away. As Dori said, this was the most disorganized plant exchange I had ever gone too. Some of the things I got were not what they were labeled and really did not realized it till I got home....Dori, Cheryle and myself had all of our stuff potted and it looked great.....alot of these people had brought their stuff in "bare root". Never again....

The Plant Exchange at Dori's was wonderful......very organized and the folks there were very polite and asked if you were interested in a trade with them.....

Here is a picture of Dori and Cheryle next to the stuff they brought for exchange....my stuff is the table in front of their.....



Deann

We do a spring and fall plant exchange in our garden club.
The way it's supposed to work is you log in your plants upon arrival and get a ticket for each. They recommend 4" pot size but I usually bring bigger stuff because I'm growing various trees from seed and also have stuff potted up way in advance so they're settled in and growing.
Then at 10am people who brought plants can pick out one for each of the tickets they received when they checked in. At 12 members who didn't bring anything or those who want more can purchase remaining items for .50 a piece.

Except for brand new members, this is how it usually happens. We arrive and log our stuff in. Cruise the tables and talk shop. People start hanging around their priority. Then at 10am everyone starts grabbing their stuff and setting it off to the side. Not everyone logs out with how many they actually take. There's several that always bring more than they take and there's usually a bunch of stuff left over.

I don't get excited about them any more because so many people bring the same stuff. You can always count on tons of orange daylilies, lily of valley, mint of every flavor, rudbeckia up the wazoo and ground covers that will come up through concrete. The last two years, I let a list of things I may bring if someone has something I don't have or that's also unusual in the swaps.

I'm going to my first roundup in May and am wondering what kinds of plants will show up. Even if it's more of the same, it'll be a blast to meet all the folks I've been talking to.

Thanks 8ftbed! I've learned a great deal from all who contributed. It shows that there are advantages & disadvantages to an exchange. I definately like your Illinois structured approach with logging in etc.