I may be hosting a seed swap next month for anyone interested in Native Plants, Wildflowers or Hibiscus. Find more information here.
The thread "New Seed Swaps Coming to ATP" in Site Talk forum

I only have 4 sign ups so far. There is still plenty of room and I need more people to make this swap work. Go to this page and select "Hibiscus and Wildflowers Swap" to join. http://garden.org/apps/swap/

I just got my swap list added. I think I ended up with over 70 species when I added in some older seeds from 2012 and 2013. I may still come across a couple more.... just saw some black chokeberries still hanging on in the backyard.

I did post about the swap over on the natives forum on Gardenweb, but haven't gotten any responses. It is not the most active forum there though. Unfortunately they can't look at the seed swap pages here with the swap info, unless they are already a member. I thought about posting it on the general seed swap and round robin forums over there too because they are a lot busier. But, then I thought maybe you wouldn't want too many of us ATP newbies to have to handhold One person I contacted directly did say she might join though.

Anybody is welcome. This swap is actually new for just about everyone. Only 20 of us participated in the Beta Swap. Feel free to invite anyone you want, plus ATP can always use more members.

The swap lists are public but it can be hard to tell what is being offered in a particular swap without joining. For anyone interested in seeing what might be available in the Hib and Wildflower Swap, this link should take you to what is being offered so far. http://garden.org/apps/swap/sw...

Alana, excellent idea, in my opinion, to post that link ... if people can see what others are offering, it can only help generate more interest!

molanic said:One person I contacted directly did say she might join though.

I joined I can't resist Morgan's seeds.

kchd said:

I joined I can't resist Morgan's seeds.

to ATP and thanks for joining.

Good to see you over here Katie! Katie is a most excellent swapper and has gone above and beyond with her preparation of difficult seeds. I thought you weren't going to be able to join this time Katie, so this is a nice surprise. I contacted docmom on gardenweb (Martha) about this swap also. I have swapped natives with her in the wintersowing swap and she is a regular on the butterfly board over there too. Hopefully she will be able to join also.

I was able to get some black chokeberries picked. There is not a whole lot of info on saving those seeds, but it seems like one method is to treat them like tomato seeds and clean off all the pulp and dry them. I did that before, but never tried to germinate any myself. I got it at a local native plant sale several years ago. I was able to find an old picture where I could see the plant tag, and it is the variety 'McKenzie'. It is very pretty, but almost fruits too heavily. The weight of the fruit brought the branches to the ground this year. I harvested over a gallon of berries and put them in the freezer this summer to possibly do something with them, and there was still a ton of fruit on the shrub. It seems it is like rhubarb though and only really edible with a ton of sugar. Robins are the only birds I have seen eat them, but not very enthusiastically.

I had forgotten I bought seed for the New Jersey Tea shrub and Wild Columbine in the spring that I can pinch some extras out of to add to the swap also. I had been collecting seed from my own Wild Columbine, but realized maybe it was crossing with some other columbines I have and the seed wouldn't come true.

Welcome to All Things Plants, Morgan and Katie! I think you'll enjoy the newly-added system for swapping; Jay is one of the first "pioneers" to try hosting a swap after the initial beta test.

Katie and Morgan are both great swappers and gardeners. I'm glad both of you found your way here.

molanic said:I was able to get some black chokeberries picked. There is not a whole lot of info on saving those seeds, but it seems like one method is to treat them like tomato seeds and clean off all the pulp and dry them. I did that before, but never tried to germinate any myself..

Yep. That is what you do. I rub them around on a strainer to remove the pulp. Then put em on a paper towel and let them dry for several days. Then store. Don't have my notes handy - so not sure if they require stratification.

And they are fairly easy to grow from seed. I bought a tree 3 years ago, harvested seeds and planted them in my basement 2 years ago. I think I have 2 seedlings now.

I love chokeberries - my wife hates em.

Thanks so much Alana, and thank you for letting us know about the swaps over here too. I am really enjoying this site. I like to do a couple of swaps a year to get my fix. I had only done the WLOMWL so far this year and am excited to try out this new one. I'm gonna attempt to limit myself to just those two though. :)

Thank you David for the black chokeberry info. That is basically what I ended up doing and they're drying out on the paper towel now.