Afterthoughts of the Chinese Swap on 2-23

Hope I'm not being presumptuous, but that other thread was huge. I had to get on here and put some really exciting new plants into my journal, while I have the labeled baggies handy, and hubb still out, LOL.
The food was great, but again I failed to give away more than I got in plants!. but I really feel like I 'scored'

This message was edited Feb 23, 2008 7:47 PM

I had a wonderful time. It was fantastic to see you all. Many thanks for your generosity, and good companionship, and lots of laughs!

And a big round of applause to Critter who (as usual) outdid herself with her fantastic organizational skills, astounding generosity and thoughfulness, and bingo finesse. With a shout-out to Jim for his moment in the sun.

This message was edited Feb 23, 2008 7:48 PM

Amen to that! I'm busy sorting out all my "loot". And I'll be spending lots of time on plant files, I can see that. Thanks to all of you for being so generous, I really appreciate it. DH is a little er, er, "stunned". He'll get over it, just gives him a chance to play with the big red Horse. LOL

Woohooo! A new thread so we can keep chatting!

THANK YOU to everybody who came for such a memorable afternoon! I got to see friends I'd met before and put faces to friends I'd only met online... How wonderful!

I really appreciate everybody's help in making things run smoothly this afternoon. I'm doing better than I was, but I guess it's still obvious that I'm a little limited when it comes to physical activity -- especially if I'm outside for any amount of time. But I couldn't resist helping sort through that treasure trove of pots that Debbie & Rick brought along!

I couldn't get over how many fun door prizes we ended up with... and I'm still laughing at how almost everybody had the same 2 seed names picked on their Bingo card... if we play Bingo again, I think we will have randomly generated lists on our cards, no picking! LOL Who knew that "Lion's Ear" and "Rose Campion" would be such popular choices?!

Happy, I just love my huge new amaryllis! I've been wanting a 'Red Peacock' for a couple of years; I guess you saw my *happy dance* when I found the tag on the plant you brought. The Christmas cactus that I traded Doc for is just gorgeous, too... I think the little girl who was in the back room is Danna's (the manager's) daughter, and she fell in love with it... I gave her a flower, and she was fascinated. I may have to take a cutting and then give Danna the plant. :-) I did give her that rooting vase stuffed with misc. greenery cuttings, and I think she really liked it (more than polite enthusiasm, if you know what I mean)... they'll all root in water, and they'll make a fun mixed hanging basket.

Speaking of hanging baskets... I couldn't figure out who chose the begonia (the one that looks like 'Chivalry' but didn't come with a name -- dark leaves with a green center streak), but I hope they knew that prize came with the hanging basket and the trailing plectranthus, etc. in the other pots... I assume somebody wanted the plant but didn't have a use for the basket.

I didn't really try to "push" the seeds I'd brought, so I hope everybody that wanted things from me managed to get them. If you're still looking for particular things, just Dmail me... I'll be glad to take a run through my stash and see if I have a pinch of whatever you're searching for. (There was no reasonable way to bring the stash... I'm not that organized, LOL.)

Ack, Cathy, it just occurred to me you were one of the people who had wanted to take a run through my tomato seeds... and we never got to it! Let me know what you're looking for, either generally or specifically, and I'll see what I can do. At this point, I'm not sure who got what in their goodie bags or anything, LOL!

No problem, Critter. I believe I have enough tomato seeds to do most of Fredericksburg and thru Northern VA. LOL

Oh, What a wonderful time. The food was great and the friends even greater. Critter did a wonderful job of getting everything together. I picked up a couple of plants at DPF before the swap and brought home such nice things from the swap. I have a few cuttings and starters and some really nice seeds, not to mention all the wonderful door prizes. That table was really piled high. It was so very nice to reconnect with those that I had met at Harts last year and to meet those that I only knew from on-line. So nice to put a face to the name.

Doccat I'll be sorting through my loot and checking out the Plant files, too. LOL

I want to chime in as well! Tired and sleepy......

Well done, Jill! Now you go home and sleep and rest and keep us informed on what is really "bugging you"! Don't you wish you could just get rid of it with a spritz of some kind of Bug Spray?????

I will leave sorting all through my loot for tomorrow! I have SO MUCH to do before i can even think about starting seeds!!!! The time is really short now.
I have to yet assemble the shelf and then buy 2-3foot shop lights for it. In my heart--I HATE to even be planning for it, as I know I will not have the space anywhere to plant all my new flowers.....Some? Maybe, but I will be giving a a lot of them away to my friends at work.. I will have to really restrain myself to planting ONLY 4-5 seeds of each plant. Last year was just too too bizarre!!!!!

It was nice meeting all of you that I had not met before--and as usual, Bobbie and Rick---and Beck--you always crack me up!!!!

And a special thanks to "buttoneer" for her immense knowledge on all the plants and seeds she brought--except--the names were "ALL Latin to me"!!!!!........:o))

Gita

I just heard from Shirley, and she's safely home after a little car trouble.

Shirley, thanks for letting me know you're OK! We were worried. *HUGS*

Many many thanks to all of you who made this activity one of the finest I have ever attended.

There...........this is to say my humble thanks and also indicates that I got the road behind me even if my behind is a bit tired.

Now I shall pop a few pix at taken at random. You all may right click to your hearts content. If that does not work and you would like one or more D Mail me with our regular Email so I can send more than one at a time.

Oh yes, I'm sorry I didn't manage to have more time to talk with Buttoneer (and pump her for information, LOL)... she's a treasure!

Another pix.

More pix.

Oopps...sorry. Here 'tis again. :)

Dern these fool things. :)

It's my age....that's my story and I am sticking to it.

Big smiles. Ummm good too..

Doc, you were busy with that camera! Thanks for taking all those great photos. :-D

More chow time...........

That's all folks. Who's next?

All pix taken with the Canon Rebel, 18 - 55 stock zoom lens, auto settings. All I did was push the button.

I may have to get more details from you at some point... I'm having a good time with my new little camera, and it's taking some nice shots, but one of the things I've been considering saving up my DG article money for is a digital SLR...

Doc, neglected to mention it above, but I'm glad you're safely home again also! It was so cool that you were willing and able to drive all that way for this event... I think you and Debbie & Rick were probably about tied for longest distance traveled, although I liked the way you made your road trip into a larger event so you didn't have to drive all the way down and back in one day.

I'll hunt up my camera cable in a moment. :-)

Doc, It was nice to meet you. Buttoneer and I were talking on the way home we wished we had realized who you were when we were over at the DPF. You know I was so busy looking at the plants I didn't even notice that there was anyone else in the nursery. LOL
I should have gotten out my camera, I hear your the go to guy. I could have gotten a few pointers. Looking forward to talking more next time we get together.
Shirley, Sorry you missed all the fun but glad to know that you got home ok. We were a bit worried about you.

These get-togethers always feel like the tip of the iceberg -- I never have enough time to begin to talk to anyone -- Jenn, I never even said boo to you and your Mom, for example, and Sally, we hardly crossed paths, and I really wanted to talk to you guys. So many people, so little time, so much fun!

A special heart-felt thanks to Rick and Debbie for the Tiarellas and Euphorbias which I adore. I was doing a little private happy dance in my kitchen, and I asked my husband if you could ever believe how excited I was -- he agreed it was unlikely! And those great pots -- they will be put to wonderful use. Many many heartfelt thanks. More thanks to come, but I'm off to make labels (and sleep, I suppose).

The gourd that was made up into an apple bird house was grown in my garden and crafted in my shop. The name of the gourd? Apple Gourd. They are in some of the seed catalogs. It takes a lot of garden space to grow gourds. If anyone would only want one or two to play with you might be better off just purchasing a few. If you want to grow be aware that they must be started early and taken care of all summer otherwise the skins will not be thick enough to craft.

Shirley-- We kept looking at the door and hoping we would see you walking in next. I hope you can come to the next get-together! I was really looking forward to meeting you finally. (And I hope your car is ok.)

Sounds like everyone had lots of fun. I thought of you all many times during the day. Dogpipe, thank you for sharing the pictures. Sounds very much like the swap at Hart's when everyone brought so much stuff and was begging each other to take things off their hands. So glad that things came off well.

Ruby

Arrived home safely just before 7 PM - what a day! Just wish we had had more time to chat with everyone but still wonderful I'll now be able to remember faces with your names :) Haven't even had a chance to take a second look at what I brought home but want to thank everyone - Wow! too many choices and so little time! Rick laughed at me because of all the plant choices, I chose the ceramic frog that someone? brought! I've got plans for the frog, a new area in the gardens I'm going to be developing, hopefully in time for our Open House but more on that later! Just enough time left before leaving and Rick said, I can't believe you chose the frog instead of that beautiful Begonia! So in answer to your question Jill, I grabbed the Begonia - thank you ! It will find a special place with the four Begonias we picked up at Dutch Plant Farms :) I've got to get some pictures of the haul we made at DPF - loved that place and guess it's a good thing they hadn't received their new shipment from Florida, otherwise I would have been in REAL trouble :)

Our apologies to docgipe for taking a right instead of a left on our trip from DPF to the restaurant :) It was so much fun meeting you, Holly and Judy at DPF! I'm going to start a new thread with the photos I took. I'm still trying to figure out this new camera and unfortunately they aren't that good but glad I at least got a few to remember this special day :) Thank you everyone for a fantastic day and especially want to thank Jill for all her hard work in planning and organizing this get-together - hope you can now relax and take care of yourself! Hopefully I'll have another opportunity to meet everyone again at a future meet :)

Debbie

Aw, nuts! I just found a little potted "wasp" violet that was supposed to go home with Doc... didn't make it into the box! That's OK, as I'm sure I'll be sending some plantlets his way once I get going again with the propagating... I'll be sure to include that one or something similar!

Debbie, I'm glad you liked the geranium but sorry you didn't realize you were meant to take the hanging basket and the other plants in it as well. Happy took the little trailing plectranthus home, but nobody wanted the homely cut-back silver plectranthus... it would've sprung forth with new growth in no time! LOL At least the "dormant" adenium seedling found a home. :-)

I started a thread where we can discuss and get info on the plants and seeds we acquired at the swap.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/816962/

This message was edited Feb 24, 2008 9:21 AM

Good idea, Holly! Then we can stick to photos and stories for this thread... :-)

I'm still unpacking my treasures from the swap, getting plants and cuttings settled in and looking up seeds in PF!

Thanks to all who chatted up Jim & kept him from being overwhelmed by "plant talk!"

So glad you all had a good time and every one is home safe and sound. I really enjoy looking at the pictures too.
Chris ♥

I'm glad Shirley is OK, but I'm so disappointed she wasn't able to make it after trying so hard! I didn't realize MapQuest was giving such confusing directions... I had assumed that with people coming in on different roads, MapQuest or GoogleMaps would be the easiest way to do directions. The restaurant is right off 15, but with all those interchanges on top of each other in that part of town, I guess MapQuest made a hash of the directions. :-( Shirley, I've got some seeds for you, and you'll have to let me know what else you're looking for... I know I can't really make up for the trouble & disappointment, but at least I can send you seeds!

Hiya all - I have some pictures to post - just haven't got them loaded yet :-) Had a great time, got some great stuff and enjoyed meeting everyone - easy drive home and collected hubby and he took Chantell and I out to dinner :-) Imagine, I was hungry after all that food! :)
Fell asleep before 10.30 PM - which in itself is unheard of - now I am drinking coffee and getting read to start the work I set aside to "play" yesterday :-)

Critter, just another thank you from me for organizing all of this - hopefully you will feel better and SOON!
Hugs to all
Beck

Hi everybody. So happy to meet you all. Now I can put faces with the names. Critter, you really did a nice job on organizing this get-together. It was my first one, but not my last one. I hope you are feeling better. I can imagine it must have been very hard on you, not feeling well, to do all this. Doc, what can I say? I'm sorry I didn't recognize you as a DG member over at the nursery. Better late than never. Thanks so much for the poppy seeds, which are now in my refrigerator. And also the other seeds you gave me. Critter, Holly, Gita, etc, thanks so much for sharing your seeds. Next time I will have mine more organized. I thoroughly enjoyed "communicating" with foxnfirefly. I made hand gestures (don't know how to sign) and writing notes. It made it so special to be able to communicate with you. Becky, you NEED a greenhouse. You sound just like me BG (before greenhouse) with plants under lights in the house. RCN, so delightful to run into you at the nursery. I wasn't trying to ignore you, I just wanted to devote more time to seeing what they had for sale. When I get started in a converstion, I forget all about why I was there. Gita, hope I was able to help you with plant descriptions. Maybe next time, I will print out descriptions & pix of the seeds so you know what you are getting when you get them. I've been using botanical names for years. Whenever you swap seeds with people overseas, their common name is usually different from our common name & using the botanical name clears things up as to which plant it actually is. Will try to list what I got on the other thread. Holly, thanks so much for driving me down there. Next time, it's my turn. Good to see you again, as always.

SUNGLASSSES ALERT: Did anyone leave a pair of sunglasses at the swap? I picked up a pair -- just let me know. They don't appear to be prescription. They were on the end of the table in the back left (the one where Jenn and her Mom sat).

Who was it that was brave enough to take some of my Wintersweet Bush (Chimanthus praecox) seeds?
I ask, because Terry (DG Adm.) once posted very good directions on how to germinate them. I tried to search my past D-mails, but did not find it. I know she told me that you can search for it by topic/poster's name--or something.

If you cannot find it, I know I copied it out--somewhere.....

Here is what the bush looks like this time of year--it's usual bloom time. This bed is at the end of my driveway.

Here is a close-up of the blooms. They are very small (1/2"-3/4") and bloom right on the stems. They are quite fragrant!

These are the seed pods which form after the blooms are done and the bush has leafed out.
Each pod has from 2-4 seeds in it. They are pretty large--about the size of a black sunflower seed.
As the season progresses, they turn brown and dry, and can be harvested by end of Summer.

Here are my pix of the party. I will try best I can to put everybody's correct names in but if I goof, please let me know. Tnx. RCN & Critter