I've never done a swap on this new forum before...hopefully it's easy to figure out.

The 10th works for me too. I always work on Sundays...
Gita

Rick has kindly offered to use his considerable organizing skills to help me out with the fall swap!

I was at my first plant swap this past Spring and it was a great experience! Really great people, yummie food and so many plants!!!!! Whatever the date turns out to be, I can't wait for the fall swap!!!!!!! My babies that I brought home from the swap are all doing well

EvergreenMike said:I've never actually been to a swap before. How does it work?

Mike, it looks like no one has answered your question. Here goes...

The NGA site has this thing called a 'swap tool'. Usually, it is used for seed swaps. @Critterologist , aka Jill, used it for the 2016 Spring Swap. All things considered, it worked well.
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To use the tool, you . . .

1. Register for the swap. Currently, registration is set to open on Monday, 11-July.

2. Once registered, you build your own 'swap list'. This is a list of plants/seeds/bulbs/whatever that you have available for trade. You enter the name of the item and how many you have available. There is the ability to attach a photo and also a brief description or note.

3. Trading actually begins on Wednesday, July 20. At this point, all registered users start to receive tickets to call dibs on items available. Each user gets a fresh batch of tickets each day to use.

4. Once trading begins, you are able to check out the master swap list. Items are listed alphabetically, Each entry shows who is offering the item, the item name, quantity available, quantity per offer, notes, optional photo.

5. You can call dibs on an item any time, as long as you have tickets available. Again, each user gets more tickets every day.

The swap tool does all of the accounting for you. Each time someone calls dibs on an item that you are offering, the quantity available for that item is automatically reduced by one.

The system has a 'bought' list of items that you have called dibs on. It also has a 'sold' list of items that you are offering that other people want.

The swap trading is scheduled to end on Friday, 09-Sept and the actual gathering is being held on Saturday, 10-Sept.

While the swap is running, it's a good idea to check your 'sold' list daily so that you can pull everything together. That way, come the morning of 10-Sept, all you need to do is load up the car and head on over.
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I've left out some details, but this should give you an idea.

Registration opens on Monday, 11-Jul-2016.

Let me know if you have any questions.

hi, all. An update to our swap schedule--we are opening up to 'dibs' earlier than originally posted:

-- Enrollment Begins: Mon July 11, 2016
-- Trade Requests ('Dibs') Begin: Wed July 20, 2016
-- Trade Requests End: Fri September 9, 2016
-- Swap: Sat Sept 10

Sept 10th is good for me too. Looking forward to seeing your garden Catmint! Will try to get plants ready but still in a boot for my broken foot until July 24th. I will have lots of succulent and cactus cuttings, offshoots anyway.

Sorry to hear about your broken foot, Frenchy! I broke my ankle a couple summers ago and it was really hard getting around the garden.

Heya! I posted an interest/order thread for FALL BULBS to be picked up at the fall swap. The thread "Mid-Atlantic forum 2016 Fall Bulb Group Buy, pickup at fall swap" in Classifieds and Group Buys forum

ADR's order deadline for free shipping is July 15, so please check out their site and post what you want ASAP. We'll likely be able to put in a second order after that date with free shipping (they've been generous about that in the past), but no guarantees.

I know it's short notice, and I apologize for that, but I bet we'll manage to order a crate or two regardless.

HI Folks,

The swap sounds like so much fun.... But what if your gardens are a jungle of
things you don't know the names of? Or mostly more aggressive plants?

Can you just bring stuff for the free table?

Donna - no need to bring anything but yourself! Of course if you want to bring something for potluck that's always appreciated!

As far as the plants go, try to ID them before you bring them, or at least label them "invasive" if that have that behavior.

If you need help IDing them before the swap, post pics on the board, someone (most likely David or Ric) will know what it is.

Hi Donna! Sure hope you can join us for the get together. As others have stated, this is all about getting together for a fun time with fellow garden enthusiasts. No need to bring plants, and definitely no worries about bringing more or less than what plants you will get in return. Most of us have a lot of no ids also, but as CAM said it is nice to label with whatever info you do know, and there are a lot of knowledgeable plant id experts in the group (I am not one of them LOL). Potluck is casual too. Good time is had by all at these things.

Thanks folks for your encouragement....

Mostly I have lilies (but don't know what they are), they are
all mixed together, with wild ones.

Ground cover type plants, Rose a Sharon,

Oh yeah, and some grasses, but don't know the names...

So, just pot them and bring them, huh...

Sounds like fun...

Welcome Donna. The swap will be heaps of fun. In fact, I just switched my vacation dates to attend it. Look forward to meeting you.

Donna, if you can post pics of your lilies in bloom, and ground covers, we can take a shot at providing an name. I think between all of us, we can pretty much identify anything with some green in it!

Thanks Folks,

Let me take some pics...

Welcome, Donna. No need to bring plants. Just your company. I have been to a few that I have just brought food. It is the camaraderie I look forward to.

Jan said:Welcome, Donna. No need to bring plants. Just your company. I have been to a few that I have just brought food. It is the camaraderie I look forward to.

yes, that's true! and even if you don't bring any plants, you will go home with many!

And Donna, when Robin says "you will go home with many", she isn't exaggerating. You might want to start making some mental notes about three type of space issues in your garden...

- Plenty of space, bring it on!
- Some space left, but it will be tight
- No room left there. You can always squeeze in at lease one more plant!