Hiya. I watched the video but I'm still not sure how you increase your buying chips. Thanks!

Cori,

The more other swap members 'buy' of the seeds you offer, the more dibs (aka 'buying chips) you can aquire with which to 'buy' seeds they are offering.

Since the seeds that might be most special to you are most likely available at the beginning of the swap, what you offer should be what the other traders most want at the beginning of the swap, as well.

Sooooo - expanding your knowledge of plants , as well as your understanding about what botanically would make your fellow swappers happy will maximize the quality of what you offer. I believe this is a learning process that can raise the horticultural bar for everyone in the swap.

Increasing your plant and garden knowledge every year like this can enable you to take advantage of seeds you never thought you 'needed' - not to mention garden possibilities you may never have considered either.

That's not a bad thing, because constantly learning something new can prepare us for Change which will always be with us - especially in a garden - where Nature partners with us whether we invite Her to join us or not.

That said, we all probably have different ideas about what we 'need' or 'want' or 'obsess' over. Swapping can be done without learning Latin names or without googling plants being offered - with or without the Latin. Why on earth would anyone want to know Color Height Zone hardiness or germination details or native habitat or Legends and/or Lore or medicinal, culinary uses specific to any given plant? Who gives a hoot about 'Silver' herb gardens or what might grow best in environmental conditions specific to where you live? Don't learn Latin and don't google the Latin name of the plant with zone. None of that is necessary.

Well, I seem to have gotten carried away on my Soap Box, which when it comes to 'Gardening' for some of us, carries us to places farther away botanically than the proverbial Magic Carpet.

Fortunately, a seed swap is full of gardeners who love to ask and answer seedy questions. I hope you join in. Click on Useful Tools on your atp webpage at the top, and you'll find Seed Swaps.

Karen
Thank you for your answer! I'm definitely looking forward to the swap. I've got a long time to prepare!

fyi on propagating Hellebores - About 45 years ago, my late dh and I began a winter garden behind the house with five 2" pots of seedling hybrid Hellebores. They matured over the years, and just before the seed pods dropped their seeds in May-July, we would clean and mulch the area so the freshly ripened seeds would germinate where they fell. Up until about 2014, this garden grew thick and flowered profusely from about March into May - after a while weeds never volunteered there. Holly and boxwood augmented its winter shapes, and a Viburnum × bodnantense 'Dawn' bloomed nearby beginning in February.

We had about 35 years of peace before our garden came to the attention of whoever's been causing various kinds of garden/property damage around here. In all the years we kept a 'Free to Good Home' sign on the street with extra plants from the garden, no one ever trespassed so destructively into the garden as since 2014 here. All they had to do was ask.

Anyhoo - sometimes it's easier to buy a plant and let it self-sow than to begin with a pack of seeds. Sometimes a freshly ripened seed hasn't yet developed germination-inhibiting enzymes that it will later, during subsequent storage.

But since not all seeds germinate the same way, a very useful book on the subject is:
Norman C. Deno's book entitled, "Seed Germination, Theory and Practice" 2nd ed.
- https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/dow...

Wishing you success in all your gardening efforts,
karen

Karen ~ Have there been any intrusions lately?

Evelyn, thank you for asking, but this is not a good time for me to answer questions. As it happens, Ma Nature has thumped pretty hard in last few weeks with not only a very competent contractor's inevitable excavations, but the fall of a monster, ancient 80% dead silver maple, destroying some of contractor's work while it was at it.

So I'll say one thing - there certainly is still the awe of nature to marvel at and nobody got hurt. Right now, I don't care what sprouts - just looking forward to something green coming up - spring's almost here

Karen, I admire your resilience and hope things improve as Spring approaches!

You also get more "tickets" to spend ("dibs") each day of the swap, usually in an increasing fashion (if the host chooses a multiplier of 2, for example, you'll get two tickets the first day, 4 the second day, 6 the third day, and so on). That gives everybody a chance to get the rare/choice offerings even if they aren't there at the starting bell.