We have our share of Johnson grass and bittercress. The darn bittercress often overwinters. I try and go around with a hoe and get it loose so it will dry up during winter months.
We've taken some advantage of this strange weather to clean beds and cut back hellebores and such. I plan to have a number of hellobores available for the swap. I just have to remember to tag them with their color and type.

More and more of us are experiencing warm spells that are allowing us to get out and play in the dirt (YAAAAY!). As such, we're starting to sort things out as to what we want to offer.

By opening registration early, people can start building their plant lists in the swap tool and use it as a way of keeping track of their planned offerings. It will also allow us to start figuring out what we may be looking for.

Because of the really screwy weather we're having this year, I am going to open the registration for Jan's May swap on February 21.

I realize that this gives us 2 months before trading actually begins, but I think it will help people stay organized.

Also, for those that are unfamiliar with the swap tool, it will give them plenty of time to play around, ask questions, etc.

Date Reminders:
- Registration NOW OPEN at https://garden.org/apps/swap/view/10/
- Trading Begins Tuesday, April 18, 2017
- Trading Ends Wednesday, May 3, 2017
- In-Person Swap Saturday, May 6, 2017

This swap is being hosted by Jan and Jeff in Pennsville, New Jersey. Directions will be posted the week of the swap.

There are two threads set up for the Mid-Atlantic Gardeners 2017 Spring Plant Swap.

The first thread is to let us know who is attending and what food or beverage item they are bringing for the pot luck lunch.
2017 Spring Plant Swap

The second thread is for general chat about the swap. This thread also contains information on how the swap will be conducted.
2017 Spring Plant Swap CHAT

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them to the chat thread.

If you've never been to an in-person swap, don't be shy! After all, where else can you go and hang out with a bunch of people talking about plants with enthusiasm?

One of Larrys projects this year is to create a wooded wildflower garden. Given that our yard is clay and rock, creating the right environment is going to take some work.

We've looked at some wildflowers at nurseries, and those suckers are expensive! So, I set out with Google to see what I can find.

BINGO! I found a wholesale nursery that has most everything on his list and several on mine. The problem is is that they only sell in lots of 100. Now, 100 fern, that I can work with. But 100 mayapples or dutchmans breeches? I don't think so.

It works out to about $1.00 per plant, more or less, and I was wondering if anyone would be interested in splitting some lots. If you are, let me know what kind of SHADE wildflower you might be interested in, and I can check with Larry to see if he's interested in it. Either that, or people split the lot amongst themselves.

Things I/we're interested in are

Fern: Autumn Fern*; Bracken Fern; Cinnamon; Dixie Fern; Lady Fern*; Ostrich Fern*;

As far as fern go, we have some of the above (*). But, I love fern, so I'm always looking for new places to put it. We currently have 2 large and 5 smaller areas. They're a mix of Autumn, Christmas, Cinnamon, Indian Holly, Japanese Shield, Lady, Lady-in-Red, Maidenhair, Northern Lady, Royal, Sensitive.

Yep, I love fern!

In theory, we have a few wildflower, but it's a guessing game every year as to whether or not they come back each year.


Wildflowers: Angelica; Bleeding Heart; Blood Root; Blue Lobelia; Canada White Violet; Doll Eye; Dutchmans Breeches; Fire Pink; Jack In The Pulpit; May Apple; Red Cardinal Flower; Snow On The Mountain; Solomon Seal; Squirrel Corn; Sweet Betsy Trillium; Trillium, Beige; Trillium, Bent; Trillium, Great White; Trillium, Lanceleaf; Trillium, Painted; Trillium, Pink; Trillium, Purple; Trillium, Red; Trillium, Sessile; Trillium, Southern Red; Trillium, Toadshade; Trillium, Yellow; Trout Lily; Violet, Bird Foot; Violet, Blue; Violet, Canada White; Violet, Cream; Violet, Green; Violet, Long Spurred; Violet, Yellow, Woodland; Violet, Yellow, Halberd Leaf; Violet, White; Wild Ginger;

Please let me know if your interested.

They carry...

Fern:
Autumn Fern; Beech Fern; Bladder Fern; Bracken Fern; Brake Fern; Chain Fern; Christmas Fern; Cinnamon Fern; Clover Ground Fern; Crested Shield Fern; Deer Fern; Dixie Fern; Ebony Spleenwort Fern; Fiddlehead Fern; Giant Royal Fern; Golden Fern; Hay Scented Fern; Interrupted Fern; Lady Fern; Leatherwood Fern; Maidenhair Fern; Male Fern; Marsh Fern; Narrow Leaf Glade Fern; Netted Chain Fern; New York Fern; Ostrich Fern; Painted Fern; Placeholder; Sensitive Fern; Silvery Glade Fern; Sweet Fern; Sword Fern; Toothwood Fern; Walking Fern; Wood Fern

Wild Flowers:
Adam And Eve; Ajuga Vine; Alum Root; American Ipecac; Angelica; Arrow Arum; Arrowhead Viburnum Plant; Baneberry White; Bearded Sedge; Bellwort; Bird Foot Violet; Bishops Cap; Black Cohosh; Black Eyed Susan; Blackberry Lily; Blazing Star; Bleeding Heart; Blood Root; Blue Cohosh; Blue Eyed Grass; Blue Flag Iris; Blue Lobelia; Blue Phlox; Blue Stem Goldenrod; Blue Wood Aster; Bluebell; Blue-Eyed Grass; Bluets; Bluets Quaker Ladies; Boneset; Bowmanӳ Root; Brown Eyed Susan; Canada White Violet; Careyӳ Saxifrage; Carolina Spring Beauty; Celandine Golden Poppy; Chicory; Cinquefoil; Copper Iris; Cranefly Orchid; Creeping Mint; Creeping Myrtle; Creeping Phlox; Crossvine; Cut Leaf Toothwort; Doll Eye; Downy Lobelia; Dutchmans Breeches; Dwarf Cinquefoil; Dwarf Crested Iris; Dwarf Larkspur; Early Meadow Rue; Early Saxifrage; Elephants Foot; Erect Goldenrod; False Foxglove; False Garlic; False Soloman Seal; Featherbells; Fine Leaf Toothwort; Fire Pink; Fleabane Daisy; Flowering Spurge; Foam Flower; Garden Phlox; Goats Beard Perennial; Golden Ragwort; Goldenseal; Grass of Parnassus; Green Dragon; Harbinger Of Spring; Hardy Geranium; Hepatica; Hispid Buttercup; Honeysuckle Vines; Hummingbird Vine; Hyssop Leaf Thoroughwort; Indian Cucumber Foot; Indian Pink; Ironweed; Jack In The Pulpit; Jacobӳ Ladder; Large Whorled Pagonia; Lark Spur; Least Bluet; Lemon Yellow Daylily; Lily Of The Valley; Long Spurred Violet; Loosestrife; Lowries Aster; Lyre Leaf Sage; Maple Leaf Alumroot; May Apple; Mountain Mint; Mountain Stonecrop; Nodding Sedge; Obedient Plant; Ox Eye Daisy; Partridge Berry; Partridge Berry Squaw Vine; Partridge Pea; Phlox; Pickerelweed; Plantain Leaf Sedge; Pokeweed; Potato Dandelion; Prairie Phlox; Purple Coneflower; Purple Phacelia; Pussytoes; Queen Anns Lace; Red Cardinal Flower; Robins Plantain; Rough Blazing Star; Round Leaf Catchfly; Round Leaf Thoroughwort; Rue Anemone; Sessile Leaf Bellwort; Sharp Lobed Hepatica; Shooting Star; Silver Leaf Golden Aster; Slender Toothwort; Smartweed; Smooth Beardtongue; Snow On The Mountain; Soapwort Gentian; Solomon Seal; Solomonӳ Plume; Southern Blackberry; Southern Stoneseed; Spider Lily; Squirrel Corn; St. Johnӳ Wort; Star Of Bethlehem; Swamp Sunflower; Sweet Betsy Trillium; Sweet Cicely; Sweet Goldenrod; Sweet William; Tennessee Coneflower; Tick Trefoil; Toothwort; Trailing Arbutus; Trillium, Beige; Trillium, Bent; Trillium, Great White; Trillium, Lanceleaf; Trillium, Painted; Trillium, Pink; Trillium, Purple; Trillium, Red; Trillium, Sessile; Trillium, Southern Red; Trillium, Toadshade; Trillium, Yellow; Trout Lily; Trumpet Vine; Turk Cap Lily; Twin Berry; Twin Leaf; Two Flowered Cynthia; Violet Wood Sorrel; Violet, Bird Foot; Violet, Blue; Violet, Canada White; Violet, Cream; Violet, Glade; Violet, Green; Violet, Long Spurred; Violet, Yellow, Woodland; Violet, Yellow, Halberd Leaf; Violet, White; Wakerobin, Showy; White Heath Aster; White Snakeroot; White Stargrass; White Turtlehead; White Wood Aster; Whiteflower Leafcup; Wild Blue Phlox; Wild Columbine; Wild Geranium; Wild Ginger; Wild Lily Of The Valley; Wild Sweet William; Wild Yam; Wineberry; Wingstem; Wingstem; Winter Creeper; Winter Honeysuckle; Wintergreen; Wood Golden Poppy; Xanthorhiza simplicissima (Yellowroot); Yarrow Plant; Yellow Fringed Orchid; Yellow Iris; Yellow Mandarin; Zigzag Goldenrod

RickM
We can provide you with a good bit of Woodland Poppy pretty much all of us have it. Also there is a good bit of Solomon's Seal. Mine is a variegated type. But I know that there are both types in our group. I can dig some MayApples for you as well, and some ferns not sure which ones they are. Also Snow On The Mountain. I have plenty of purple violets. I have white and yellow but not sure if I have enough to share this year. I will check the Dutchman's breaches and see if I have enough to share this year, too. I am not sure how many of these you are looking at planting.

Thanks Holly. Actually, I don't think I'll need anymore poppies (didn't realize I left it in the list). Some of my are poking through the ground now. I don't know if the year-old plants made it or not since it's been so dry.

Quantities on everything is still up in the air. Larry likes to have a 'been there for years' look the first year. He tends to forget that things do spread.

I'd totally go for any kind of Trillium (except maybe beige?), Dutchman's Breeches, or Trout Lily. I love ferns, too. I've got several clumps of ostrich fern, and that one seems to be a good multiplier, but any other fern would interest me even if there's already some "out there." Say 5 of each but cut me off at $50. I'd go for more of certain ones like Trout Lilly, both because they're favorites and also so I could try them in a couple of locations to see where they'd establish.

I'd also love Bluets, Spring Beauty, and Indian Pink (Spigelia marylandica). I still don't seem to have figured out where to plant bleeding hearts... they do better if i leave them in nursery pots than when I plant them out. phoo.

Where are you looking? Terri & I have made runs up to North Creek Nursery in the past... They have beautiful plants!

Are these bags of 100 bare-root plants? If so, be aware that they may break dormancy during shipping and need potting sooner rather than later -- but I've "held" plants like that by simply stuffing 5 of them into a quart pot with a little potting mix and keeping them watered.

Yes, they are bundles of 100 bare root. Their FAQ page says that they dig the day before shipping, and each plant is dipped in Terra-sorb.

If we were to place an order, I could have them sent to Jan's to arrive right before the swap. (I'd have to check with Jan on that!)

I really need to hit the lottery. After paying off the credit cards (again), I'd go crazy with plants. I found a place out in Oregon that has some nice rhododendron. My initial 'order' came to $300+. After paring it down to only 1-year, gallon pots, I got to about $175. for 14 plants.

Of course, Larry asked the dumb question.... Where would you put them?. My response... I'll figure it out! He was neither impressed or supportive.

I sure would hate to be responsible for keeping them alive. I'm not known to have a green thumb with things like that. Read...epic fail

There, there, Rick, your fellow plant addicts understand that having room for plants you want is irrelevant

My goal is seeing plants everywhere in the backyard with paths and no lawn... And the front yard with as little as County rules permit.

Larry keeps saying that he wants the back left 'natural'. I'm still trying to convince him that 'natural' in a wooded setting doesn't mean bare ground.

Depends on the deer population.

From experience, if you're doing significant splitting & re-bagging, you'll want to sort them out at your place before the swap -- it's easier to do the day before than during the hubbub of swap day. If they needed to get them to you 2-3 weeks ahead, then you might need to shove them into pots. So far it sounds like it's just me jumping in :-)... if there's more interest, you might want to move discussion to a thread on the group buy forum. (That's easier than a tree-mail thread bec. you can't add people to a group tree-mail once it's started.)

Storing bare root plants in the fridge works well and is less disturbance to the plants than temporarily potting, initiating growth, and then re-potting.

The lawn area in my back yard keeps shrinking. Part of the work is being done by suckering Silky Dogwood and Elderberry spreading into the grass. I have potted shrubs for which I have no room waiting to be planted (and more on order), so maybe I'll adopt Yardenman's approach, get brave, and kill off another big swath of lawn.

I've never had good look with mail order bare root perennials....maybe it's just me. Survival rate has been less than 25%.

It really depends on what it is. I'd say I have a 95% success rate with hosta and fern.

Good idea re. fridge storage, David. I've really only temporarily potted plants when they've broken dormancy during shipping -- and actually, irises that arrived with significant growth didn't make it, no matter whether they were potted, clump-potted, or planted directly in the garden (the green tops died back soon after planting, and I kept thinking they'd resprout, but no luck... happily, we got a refund).

Seems like Spring Beauties might ship and transplant well since they form little tubers underground... I have no experience transplanting most wildflowers, though. I agree that hostas & ferns are fairly bulletproof. (I'm "in" for any fern except ostrich.)

You could maybe create a small "been there for years" looking area by spacing plants closer together, maybe potting/planting 3 starts in a clump... then expanding the area when the original plants are ready to be divided. That way you don't have to do the soil prep all at once...

I started amending the soil on Saturday. Larry was complaining that the fern on one end were spreading fast enough. Well, when all they have is clay...

At any rate, while clearing the mulch and rock, I did find several root trying to push ahead. I also had some ostrich fern in pots. When I removed two of them from the pot, there was a good 14 inches worth of 'colony' wrapped around each pot. I teased them free and planted them. It should be a much fuller area in a few weeks.

I'm honestly a bit afraid of the wildflower thing. We haven't had the best of luck so far. Over the past 3 years, I"ve planted 50+ dog toothed violets. So far, I've seen all of 2 come up. Nothing so far this year.

I keep pestering him to make up his mind. His response... We have plenty of time.

When he finally makes up his mind, my guess is that they'll be sold out for the season. And then he will get a big I told you so!

My perception of wildflowers is, some have very specific preferences. Dog tooth violets for example. I love them but so rarely find them in the woods. Maybe once since learning them as a child. Spring beauties, know them from woods in stream areas as a child, have found them on a slope above a stream in Patapsco Park..
Lady slippers, I have found in two different parks here. but maybe find two dozen widely spaced in one park, a dozen in the other. Those seem to like oak trees, and poor soil, with a little pine, not the more solid pine stands. Compare that to some pictures posted of giant thick patches of them. Maybe it's just because virtually all woods around here have been farmed or disturbed at some time in the last 50 years, even if growing into woods now.
I embrace the habit of many woods flowers to be spring ephemeral, and go dormant as needed in summer. I love my columbines and Stylophorum wood poppies. They plant themselves.
Packera aurea is super easy and super spreadable. Judy turned me on to Tovara, aka Persicaria virginiana, another happy spreadable native with cool patterned leaves. The last 3 here, I can share.

Our stylophorum are spreading... ever... so... slowly... I keep trying to encourage them, but they're not having it! The same with bleeding hearts. Although, it looks like I have a couple of new ones 'in the wild' this year.

I have something that pops up here and there that sort of looks like spring beauties, except that the flower is all white.

We actually got a surprise this year. While Larry was tromping through the leaves in the back the other day, he came across a small bunch of crocus. He asked why I planted them back there out of sight. I told him that I haven't planted crocus in several years, so I went to check it out. Lo and behold, a small bunch of crocus!

They're looking a bit droopy thanks to the freezing temps the other night. What's really amazing is that the squirrels haven't destroyed them!