Swap at Harts

I had a wonderful time - even arriving as late as I did...big old thank you to everyone...couldn't believe the amount of plants I came with...ya'll are so bad.

I agree...I had a genuinely good time...the people, the food, the plants, the weather, the scenery...all wonderful. Thanks a bunch to Diane for hosting!! I came home with a lot of great plants that I am excited about getting in the ground.

- Brent

Brent definitely took the prize for The Most Organized Gardener in Virginia. No, make that Mid Atlantic. Such pretty plants too.

Chantell, please tell your daughter her cake was beautiful and I loved the colors and the, what do you call the words on a cake? Inscription?

Chantell has the prettiest grandbaby you've ever seen. We're not counting Ruby's grandbaby because she wasn't here. LOL

Hart... thank you, thank you, thank you... for such a wonderful day, and for helping to make my first plant swap such a success! To all who gave and shared with me, thank you. It is so nice to put faces to names, and to be able to call so many wonderful people friends.

My only regret is that I brought my new digital camera with me to take lots of photos, and never remembered to take it out of the truck! LOL!!! I hope someone else managed to take pictures and will share!

I'm finally off to bed. Good night and thanks again to all, and especially you hart who gets supreme award for magnificent hostess!!!

Karen

Yes, it was a shame we didn't get to eat Christine's cake. It was beautiful!! I hope somebody took a picture to post.

Gita was a good and patient co pilot, even when I took that accidental side trip to Arlington ..........And as pooped as we were, we took a few minutes to tour my yard and scavenge columbine seeds : ^ ) and a 'regular' chives, - we are sick--darn thoguht I had a picture for ya Gita, but don't

Ya know... I find that you can never get enough Axidental side trips to Arlington. Sallyg, I'm going to be looking for that recipe of yours on the other thread.

Hey, who left me a little white rose? It's adorable.

Thank you, Thank you Thank you to Hart for a very wonderful day. It was just so great getting to meet everyone. Ric and I had so much fun.
Wrightie, I brought a White Rose, I know someone had gotten it I think it might have been Hart, but I'm not sure. If you have the one I brought then it is White Dawn a climbing rose will get may be 15 ft. and is a repeat bloomer.
My goal for next year is to be just half as organized as Brent was.
Brent tell me about that nifty little label maker you had. I never did get to ask you about that.
I'm sure that somewhere down the line we will need an ID thread because we will never remember what we got and who we got it from.
The food was just unbelievably good, such a shame that we hardy got to touch the cakes they looked wonderful.
Critter, Ric is already cooking this morning with that Sicilian Basil and the Garlic dill.
Ruby and John, Thank you so much for the Lilies, I looked them up and they are going to be just so beautiful when they they bloom next year.
My DIL was here this morning and can't wait to come back and get some of the extras that we brought home for her.

Those of you that could not make it hope to see you next year.

Uh, oh, HollyAnn. This little white rose was in with my stuff so I thought someone was pawning it off on me and I took it home! I'll check to see if it's labeled. Hart, I may owe you a rose!!!

On a side note, Holly, I Ieft you a message on your Spring thread this morning, but I see that you failed to fall for the bait. Dratz...

Brent, I'm sorry that I didn't get over to see your table o' goodies!

This message was edited Jun 10, 2007 12:31 PM

I haven't seen the bait, Wrightie. Just got up a little while. I am one tired puppy today. LOL

I was kind of stacking my stuff up there near where you were but if you can use that rose, please keep it. I can get another one next year.

Ok...time to leave a "proper" message...was fighting with the kids to use the computer...LOL
Everyone was wonderful - I'm sorry I didn't get to spend enough time with everyone!! Brent...sadly I don't think I even got over to see your pretties!! I was so concerned with getting the promised plants to everyone that I don't think I saw but one or two tables. You ALL were incredibly generous!! If anyone has questions about any plants I gave you, don't hesitate to ask me. All plants I gave out should have at least a popsicle stick w/my name on it...if there's no stick the pot or bag will be written on.
Diane - you're incredble. What an undertaking to have ALL of us converging upon your house and getting this all organized esp. with everything you were trying to do with your chickies. :) That was so very sweet of you and was greatly appreciated.
Next time....I WILL make sure to bring name tags...I can't remember from one room to the next what I went in there for...hopefully knowing that, will help everyone to understand my repeated "Ummm, what was your name again?" LOL

Hey guys - realy quick - gotsta get back to work - had a great time - awesome to meet everyone - thanks for all the plants - and Diane - thank you again for everything you did - what an undertaking!!! I'll write more later - need to get back to proofreading about "ablation catheters"

Becky

I've got plant swap hangover! Stayed up late last night going over every moment and telling my husband all about it and what great fun we had. Now there are plants on my deck that have replaced the ones I just got rid of, but I just look at them and quickly look away like someone who drank too much and doesn't even want to see a beer for a while. Who am I kidding though, as soon as I'm done catching up here, it's outside I will go. Hart, Thank You So Much! It was a great deal of work for someone to take on and you did it brilliantly. Food was great, I wish I could have tried everthing but there was so much. And the best thing was meeting all the people. Everyone was so nice and it is so great to be able to put a face to a name now when we read a post. Jill and I just rambled on about how much fun we had on the ride home. We stopped at a a place selling concrete and metal garden sculptures "garden whimsy" and Jill just kept looking and saying "Hmm I wonder if I could make that out of Hypertufa". Then when we got back, I showed here around my garden then we swapped some leftover food we brought back before she headed home. Well I just glanced out my sliding door and there are some plants looking a little droopy. Have to go out to give them some attention. Yes, I am a plantaholic. And I refuse to get help!

.... and Bobbie kept looking around at the concrete pieces and saying, "Hmmm... that's not going to fit in the car!" They did have some good gargoyles and great pigs (all sizes), and they had some cool mushrooms (which I am sure we can make out of hypertufa!).

Okay, I give up. WHERE IS THIS PLACE LOCATED?

Okay, I see a group visit to Harpers in the future. LOL

http://www.harperslawnornaments.com/subpage.php?pg=273

Oh, I've seen that website before. I am not going to panic. There was not one spare square cubic inch of space left in our vehicle yesterday, and there's no way that I could have balanced a huge concrete statue on my lap. Right???

I don't think this was where they stopped, Wrightie. Unless they were waaaaaay lost. LOL This is in Harrisonburg. It's the best concrete statue place on earth, or close to it. They have a lot of water garden things and Mexican pottery too. It's a favorite for those of us who live out here.

Oh by the way... I'm out on my back patio with the laptop and wireless connection so that I can refer to Plant Files as I decide which plants to stick where. My neighbors wouldn't 'get' that, but I bet you lot would...

you bet we do 'get it' Thats the thing with this---finding a group who 'get it' with plants!!!!!!!!!! It's so fun to discuss on a more than the most basic level. Like when Gita offers me some plant from her yard and I say can you spare it and she said Sure it's like..TRASH, I have so much. I get it!
No idea I could have such a good time with a group I had barely met before!
hope happy got enuf siberian

Hiya Everyone,
Diane, I cant thank you enough for such a GREAT day... I dont know if I could have pulled it off as well as you.... You were a wonderful hostess and you deserve a Gold metel :-)
It was so nice to meet all of you and I will have to ask many questions when we get everything out of the truck.. We just got into the house....
Does no one have pictures???? I have a few but did not download yet to puter...
Ok got to go help... I had a wonderful time with everyone....
SUsan

when i had the chance for me & my family to meet diane my husband explained to her that he looks at all of us as crack-addicts...."hey, got any cuttings or seeds or extras, etc?"
the stamps help feed my addiction by enabling swaps, trades for sasbe, seeds, etc
ups, usps, fedex, & maybe even dhl are all in cahoots too....he rolled his eyes when my favorite mail person, cheryl, brought over pots!

i'm trying to explain to my uprooted plants why they don't have their new families.....they aren't being very nice about it one bit!

i really missed meeting all of you & if i find myself going in a direction near any of you i'll let you know and perhaps we can tag up then

LOL... my friends know not to throw out nursery pots, either. :-)

Frederick often seems to be "on the way" for folks, and several highways (15, 340, 70, 270, 355) are within just a couple miles of my house... so everyone should feel free to drop by for a cup of coffee or whatever if you're going to be in the area!

Oh...ya'll are so funny...and sadly I DO understand as well!!! My DD just kept shaking her head saying..."mom, there's more in the van then there was on the drive up...seriously!" Wrightie...I left DG up while running from the front yard to the back yard...trying to remember where I'd originally had planned on them going...

Ruby and John- Giant trophy for Tearing Selves Away from Precious New Baby!!

Gita and hart- Grandpa is being put in a box this morning, Priority. He is going to a better place!

It is a soft addiction.
I worked on hostas last night. Will get pics soon. Anybody need a trashcan full of green liriope?

I think I need to make a list of everything and then note where it is allowed to be in my yard. I have this trouble tearing out extra things that pop up because I forget I have them all over or at least in other places. For example, I have decided that LOV and spiderwort will be very good in the lamiastrum. Now to remember that decision long enough to put them there. Wild white campion is going under the red maple. Now to remember that I can eliminate all the volunteers elsewhere.

It's just as well you didn't offer the trashcan full of liriope at the swap... I'm not sure we'd have managed to fit it into the car! I've got several clumps of it, though, and I'll bet in another year or two I will have enough to divide and use to edge a bed. :-)

(edited to add, But please don't send me any... I am so far behind on getting things planted out here!)

This message was edited Jun 11, 2007 8:54 AM

Sally,

You are mailing it o me???? WOW!

I will send you postage when i get it.

Thanks a bunch! Gita

"Brent tell me about that nifty little label maker you had. I never did get to ask you about that."

The label maker was a present for my wife. I gave it a try for printing labels for my potted up plants and it is pretty handy. I don't know the exact model number for my label maker. It is made by Brother and it does not look like they sell the exact one anymore. Here is a link to one the looks identical but it has a USB connection so you can print directly from your computer.

http://www.advizia.com/brother/modelDetail.asp?PkgID=383859&User=ptouch&Rnd=15

I thought that I paid around $60 for mine; this one seems to sell for around $80. The refill tapes run about $20 each.

- Brent

Just an idea, but if you could find a wholesale source for that label maker and tapes, I'll bet you could do a very successful coop.

Sally, I read your post first thing this morning, not still awake yet, and the putting Grandpa in a box really threw me for a loop. LOL

Happy, the correct cultivar of the Toad Lily that I marked as "Taipei Silk" is "Sinonome"
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/81021/index.html

Miatablu: Thank you for the Toad Lily and the same!

SallyG: I got TONS of siberians -- I divided them (I am a compulsive divider) and potted them right up. Many thanks!

Gita- DO NOT send me postage!!!! Should arrive tomorrow. You gave me much more in plants. Kids are tickled with pregnant onion. Daturas are looking fab, and christmas cactus, your wood hyacinth bulbs are bigger than mine and more #, and don't forget the mystery daffs. Fuggeddaboutit !

hart- sorry! I was counting on you having the context, didn't mean to startle LOL

Anybody who took my Minnow daff- I just read a descrition that does not sound the same. I may have unwittingly pawned off something else. My journal pic is what it is and I think it's a nice pleasant one.

happy- they should stay green all summer. Thx Back at ya! I'm gearing up for a nice edge of your smallr-scale hostas, I got lots of green-white and several gold-greens and that cool big gold green

Wrightie, I don't believe I marked the cuttings that you have from me. The purple one is Plectranthus "Mona Lavender", and the Coleus was called "Freckles".

Anyone who I gave the Plectranthus to in a small plastic cup, it should stay in there for a few weeks because I just took the cuttings about a week or two ago (if I'm not too late telling you this). Hart the one I gave to you in the small pot has been rooted and has just recently started showing new growth.
Here's the a pic of the Plectranthus that I took cuttings from.
My Journal http://davesgarden.com/journal/j/si/132710/
It's at the base and behind my Clematis where I extended the bed back so my neighbor wouldn't weed wack it again.
My Journal http://davesgarden.com/journal/j/si/132707/
Here's the Plant Files http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/57891/index.html

Let me know if anyone has questions about what I gave them. I think I labeled all my stuff and had my name, Bobbie, and my screen name, Miatablu, written in of course, blue.

I should note similarly that most of the plants I potted up for the swap should stay in their pots for a bit... I tried to choose containers that had a little room for the roots to grow, both so the root balls would be a nice size for planting out and so people wouldn't have to rush to get them into the ground. In particular, the Rose Campion and Corydalis seedlings that I dug out of the garden just recently had very tiny roots and should stay in their little cells until they fill the pot with roots. The purple Lysimachia came up with small roots also, but it's pretty bullet proof LOL.

Thanks, Miata. I'll update my journal accordingly.

Now... who did I get those banana babies from - my mind is a vast wasteland - was it HollyAnn? Susan? I want to know if it's okay to place them in full sun or would that be too much for them? Also, I cannot find the paper that I jotted my notes on. I have two different types of 'nanas which are now mysteries to me. Sorry!

I'd love to know what 'nanas too. I just killed off a musa basjoo I had traded for a few weeks ago, and really really want another one (serial murderer). So I'd love to start planning for the next swap NOW.

Just an FYI...Becky and I hit the pottery in Williamsburg last fall...and picked up some "nanas" in good size pots cheap!!! Hmmm...I'll have to ask her if she remembers how much they were. Mine went immediately into a 10" or 12" pot!! Still looks good...and believe me, I can kill things...so sad.

Bananas love sun... just harden them off by exposing them gradually over a couple of days, in case the pups haven't been out in full sun yet. I have 4 large banana plants lying down in the bed by the deck right now, with row cover over the leaves, and I'm hoping they've adjusted enough to be planted upright this evening. I overwintered them semi-dormant in the basement, but I didn't consider the challenge of trying to harden off something that's 7-8 feet tall! I bought them in fall of 2005, but they were just a foot or two tall when I planted them out last summer, so it wasn't an issue. (Mine are not M. basjoo, which is hardy... I have 'Ice Cream Banana' and 'Apple Banana', although who knows if I will ever manage to fruit them... I also have an unknown one that is *not* 'Dwarf Orinocco', as it's the largest of the bunch!)

BTW, if you got any plants from me (likely in a black 4" pot with a label) feel free to D-Mail me any questions. Some of the labels had just a short name with a number that refers back to a spreadsheet of mine.

For example I know that some of the containers said "#1 Salvia" which is Salvia farinacea 'Blue Bedder' (http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/2868/index.html). It is a great plant with about an 80% winter survival rate for me. The container marked "Salvia superba" were the 'Blue Queen' seeds purchased from Swallowtail Garden Seeds (http://www.swallowtailgardenseeds.com/perennials/salviaper.html).

There is more info on my initial "haves/wants" post (http://davesgarden.com/forums/p.php?pid=3519602).

Ruby: I feel like I took half your garden...thanks for the great plants! I sure hope I gave you a couple to take home.

Diane: I sure hope you were able to break away for a few minutes to get a few plants for your own garden.

- Brent

Brent: Do any of your salvias (like Blue Bedder) do ok in partial shade? You probably don't know, because I think you said yours is a sunny garden. . . .

just glanced at miatablu journal, looks extensive! I plan t o peruse when I have time..
Brent- I'm lovin' the scabiosa. That was one beautiful specimen of your many . I had heard scabiosa highly recommended for this area.