oerickson, I would love the William Baffin rose please. Any suggestions for what to train it up would be appreciated too (if not, I'm sure I'll figure something out). I will happily bring you some calendula and some California poppies (just to be clear the Cal poppies are short orange flowers, not tall like Oriental poppies; although I'm sure that you knew that).

Hi Pitimpinai,

You have already promised me Echinacea, but I would also love some BlackEyed Susans and your wild ginger if you still have these.

Many thanks, Plantfan

Hi everyone!

A bit over a week ago I typed out responses to all the different postings, and it didn't post!! It took me awhile to get over how mad I was (stupid internet!) and go back through all the posts--and all the new ones.

Here are all my responses, then I'll be posting my Haves list and new Wants list.


To all, I too can bring raspberry plants if there's a need, but it looks like everyone is covered already. Mine are red, 4-5 feet tall and usually make a small second harvest.

Rolrod, do you stay until the end of theswap? I know last year a guy brought a lot of nice, green hostas, but he showed up very close to the end of the swap and there weren't enough takers. If you're doing a big project you may be a great person to re-home things like that. Or maybe one of your cohorts can come a little later and stay to the end?

I'd love those peppers you mentioned, one or two is fine. I think it's too late now (but not when you offered!) for sowing the Shishito, thanks for the offer.


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Hi HappyG!

I would love some calendula seedlings please, if you still have some free

I can bring your some grape hyacinths.
Do you want some probably-pink phlox?

Most of my foxglove babies died over the winter, but I have a ton of fairly new seed if you want some seed for pink.

I'd love to get your address if that's an open offer, so when my reciprocal garden membership expires I don't have to jump right on getting a new one. And so I can scope out your gardens sometime! :)

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Hi Linnea!

Did I give you some ajuga for your friend's spot last year? It seems to do fine in some dry shady spots in my yard. Mine is short and purple.

I'd love some alpine columbine,
ligulara if there's still some available, and
a little of the Golden Tiara hosta please!

Do you want some pink foxglove seeds?
If I get any seedlings from my Midnight Reiter seeds I'll share a couple
I have coreopsis verticillata, do you want some?
Do you have golden lamium yet? I could bring a little
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Hi Pattig:
Siberian irises are not native, do you still want some? A native iris would be the lavender virginia water iris and that may be it for those hardy up here.

Do you have irises to swap? I am planning to coordinate a special Iris swap, for a date after most of our irises have bloomed--but BEFORE any labels wash off or fall off. Are you interested?
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Hi Lisagee:
Have you gotten the native Starry False Solomon's Seal from the the swap (me) yet? It's not usually as tall as the real (non-native) Solomon's Seal but looks very similar.

I am planning to coordinate a special Iris swap, for a date after most of our irises have bloomed--but BEFORE any labels wash off or fall off. Are you interested?

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Jasmine, I'd had that sedum for over 5 years. In its main spot it got mostly crowded out by catmint, but lived on in a small colony in a big pot with a couple other cute sedums. Most of them are dead. We didn't have very low temps last winter, but things died that should not have died. I think it may have been the lack of snow cover.

I will have a redbud baby for you, courtesy of my uncle! It's the standard pink.

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Hi Sonya! Ah, I thought the anemone you brought was a white one. Is your pink anemone tall and fall-blooming? I'll be more excited if it blooms in spring, but I'll happily take some regardless, thanks.

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Hi Plantfan! The swap day is always quite a blur, so I'm wondering who you might be! But if we've seen each other for 4 years I hope I will recognize you (*crosses fingers*--I'm a little faceblind even on days with just a few people!)

I recall walking someone through finding this forum on their phone (not very easy on the phone) and I wonder if that might be you. Anyway, it's nice to see you in the pre-trading group.

When you say geraniums, do you mean the perennial plant, or the ones that are actually pelargoniums? (I know you said geranium but I wanted to check!) I will have some Geranium Bill Wallis.

For black eyed susans, how big of a flower is ok? I have two kinds, one has a medium flower, one small (but a lot of them) they are Rudbeckia triloba and Rudbeckia Goldsturm.

I need to check the spot where my echinaceas reseed and make sure I have some "in stock" :)

Salvias SHOULD do well in my yard, but they have been disappearing, not multiplying, the last couple of years. I hope someone else has success with them!

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VerdantApt, do you have enough strawberry plants promised yet? Mine are standard June-bearing plants that do spread. I have found that plants are happy and spread, die right away, or sit in one spot and suddenly die after 4 years. I'll take the happy spreaders, myself! (But my mom wants the 4-year plants. Except she doesn't actually want to buy and plant it again!)

I can bring you some Indiana beach sand (I don't rob the beach, it blows across the road in some spots) but it may not be the particle size you want. It's the basis of my garden's soil (houses built on top of sand dunes!) so I can attest that it drains really, really well Let me know if you want some. I could probably bring about a gallon.

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Oerickson, may I please have some columbine seedlings? Shorter ones and blues, please, or whatever
Also some anemone robustissima if it's not already taken
And sineilesis!!

Hooray for achieving self-sowing feverfew!!

I have a lot more tansy, how much more do you want?

You mentioned short asters. Do you have any perennial ageratum yet? It can be cut back, like we do with mums, so it stays shorter (like 18" I think, so not truly short) but it blooms really nice and late.

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Lgoffen, I am rooting some lamium Pink Nancy right now and it looks like it's growing roots. If that's true, I'll have a little plant for you at the swap.

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Hi CatherineGray! I'm hoping you will want to meet up later for an Iris Swap!

I have a small blue fescue plant, and have some phlox paniculata (probably pink) for you if you want it.


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Hi MikeinHazelcrest!

Is that butterbur in one of your pics? If no one brings any to the swap this year, I may make the drive if you're willing to share a little!

My garden is in NW Indiana so I load up the car with plants the day before, then drive up the day of the swap to set up tables etc.. That's how awesome the swap and Oerickson and the other people are, you should come! Drive up early and visit Chicago Botanic Gardens then come to the swap (I used to do that before I started helping out)

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Hi, Blosky! Welcome to the swap forum! This is a free-form swap, we all just want to find good homes for our plants and fulfill wishes if we can. You look at what we're offering and let us know what you want. You hostas and daylilies are welcome at the swap, if no one takes you up on them in here! Are there any particular plants you're looking for?

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Hi, EvanstonNewb! Do you have someone bringing raspberries for you yet? If not, I can.
I can also bring pinches of a few different sedums (they root SO easily, just stick them in dirt and water regularly for awhile), and
how much vinca do you want?
Would you like a clematis Sweet Autumn? Google it, it gets very large and blooms in autumn. But this is the first seedling I've gotten from it after 9+ years so that's a plus!
Also I can bring you probably-pink phlox if you want some.

My wants, new adds at the top:

I would like:
Marsh Spurge or similar 18"+ spurge
horseradish
valerian with curly leaf (I have the flat leaf)
petasites/butterbur (I killed it!!) Or if anyone sees it go out on the tables again (it was there last year) grab it!


More anemone canadensis or other spring blooming anemone
geranium johnson's blue (sterile)
borage (annual herb) blue or white
hot red peppers
broken garden tools made of metal, big or little (such as shovels, rakes...)

Thanks!

Uncluttering the thread.

Pitimpinai,

I'm your shade girl, so if you have more ginger I would take that and I will try the epimeidum plant as recommended by seedrat. Thank you!!

Seedrat, thank you for adding more lamium to my pile.

@Evanstonnewb, if you go by your parents in Homewood this summer you can stop by. I am on Kedzie Ave. I have as much of Little Henry as you can carry. See my picture on the third page of this forum.
@Seedrat, you are correct. It is Pestasite Japonicus Variegated. You can have as much as you want. Got it from Heronswood Nursery before they sold it about five plus years ago.

seedrat, thank you so much for redbud. I am really excited. May I have shasta daisy, ice dance sedge, random other sedums, verticillata coreopsis Please? Thank you so much.

@Seedrat - I would love the verticillata. But I don't want to be too grabby because I've already requested a lot and I won't be able to contribute much to the event. So if someone else wants it, it might be more fair to give it to them. But if nobody wants it, I'd be delighted to have it. Otherwise from your list, anything that can do well in shade, that others don't claim, I'm interested in.

Regarding the sweet autumn clematis - I know exactly the plant, I grew it as a kid in my parents' garden. I'll take some if it's not a bother.

For the vinca - I'm planning to put it around my maple tree, so I guess however much you can comfortably part with! But if you only have a little, that's fine too.

For sedum - I've got a few requests out here for various kinds of sedum, in general I like them all and would like to experiment with them, so yes any sedum would be great.

For hellebore - where did you find it for 10$? I've only seen it for 20$ locally and about 15-20$ online.

@pitimpinai - I will bring you the chicken wire and yes I would like some autumn joy sedum

@hazelcrestmikeb - it will probably be at least a month or two until I can get down there, could I contact you later? Would that be a bad time to do transplants, though? Hmm.

Everyone - other than snacks, is there anything else I can bring? Bottled waters? Garbage bags? I don't know. I am blown away by this - it's made me so happy to think about planting up my garden and about how generous people can be. Even if I only got a few plants I'll be thrilled but it seems like I might walk away with a lot more. But I hope I am not being rude by taking too much or ruining the spirit of the event by being grabby -- I'm just excited! I definitely understand if anyone wants to give preference to people who have been part of the event for longer or anything like that!

Whoops just saw Jasmine requested the verticillata while I was typing!

SEEDRAT, in response to : "VerdantApt, do you have enough strawberry plants promised yet? Mine are standard June-bearing plants that do spread. I have found that plants are happy and spread, die right away, or sit in one spot and suddenly die after 4 years. I'll take the happy spreaders, myself! (But my mom wants the 4-year plants. Except she doesn't actually want to buy and plant it again!)

I can bring you some Indiana beach sand (I don't rob the beach, it blows across the road in some spots) but it may not be the particle size you want. It's the basis of my garden's soil (houses built on top of sand dunes!) so I can attest that it drains really, really well Smiling Let me know if you want some. I could probably bring about a gallon."
=


I don't think anyone has offered me strawberry plants yet, so if you'd like to bring some, that'd be great. Please mark them as Junebearing, since that's what they are. Have you found anything that works against strawberry flea beetles?

I'll pass on the beach sand. I'm looking for a sand that's meant for potting mixes. Thanks for the offer though. :-)

I'd like some raspberry plants if you have extras, because it sounds like they might be a different variety than the one I just got.

Do you have a photo of the "sad kalanchoe"? It'd help for me to know the full name, since kalanchoes can vary in appearance. Same for the tradescantia cuttings. I have pots of Tradescantia spathacea (Moses in the Cradle), Tradescantia pallida (Purple Heart Plant), and Tradescantia zebrina (standard Wandering Jew) growing.

Please feel free to send me a private message if that makes sharing photos easier. Thanks!

EvanstonNewb, I think you missed my previous post. May I have the citrus plant food please, if it was not spoken already?

VerdantApt, "tradescantia moses in the cradle" looks interesting. If you have extra to spare may I have it please?

Thank you so much

Jasmine - oh I didn't see your request for that! Yes it's yours I'll be sure you get it.

Uncluttered the thread.

Jasmine: Yes, I can bring you some cuttings of Tradescantia spathacea "Moses in the Cradle".

EvanstonNewb, I can bring you most of these you asked for; phlox, monarda, ligularia Desdemona, asters, and Columbine, Lunaria, Autumn joy sedum, Silene dioica.

- For the Ligularia I have to find the seedlings behind other taller things, but they should be there. Too much rain, I have not been able to step into that part of the garden.

- About the Eupatorium : it gets to be about 3 to 3 1/2 feet tall. Tall and narrow, until you get a bigger clump going. Which takes at least a few years. I like the fact that it blooms in the fall, when not much else is going on.

- I would like the bird seed and suet cakes if not already spoken for. My husband retired recently and is really getting into birds.

Oerickson, any big root geranium; macrorrhizum or any of them. I am trying to cover some difficult areas, and the big root geraniums seem tolerant of conditions like occasional flooding.

-- I will bring you more white daffodils; I already marked them, as they bloom very early.
-- Do you want the deep blue /purple short spurred alpine columbine? I figured everyone at the swap must have it already, but it is so reliable. Height seems to vary, though, between a foot to 2 feet in bloom. I think it's tallest in my beds with the richest soil. Shortest in a couple of rocky places.

Pitimpinai, I would love some epimedium if you have enough. I am trying to get something to grow under the dry shade of my parkway maple, and that was recommend to me.

Seedrat, I will bring you alpine columbine, ligulara, and the Golden Tiara hosta.

-- Re: pink foxgloves: I love foxgloves but am crummy at sowing seeds.... unless they can be direct sown?
-- Coreopsis verticillata would be great.
-- Do you still have any feverfew? I love it. I bought some bare root last year, but it didn't overwinter.

I hope I've responded to all the recent conversation (below). I plan to post a complete list of who gets what in the next couple of days. But feel free to just tell me! :)

The nursery with the $10 hellebores is Fraser's Thimble Farms. And actually, only some of the Hellebores are $10, but they include the Lady series, which are the hellebores I bought locally on clearance and which have made me quite happy. Others are $15 and probably some go higher. Unless otherwise stated the hellebores are one gallon and most are blooming size (I called and asked) They're in Canada so an order does have the added cost of the sanitation certificate. The one time I tried a mail-order hellebore (not from them!) it was $16, came in a 2-inch pot, took 4 years to bloom, then was the wrong color. So I'm excited about a much better price for bigger plants, hopefully the right color. I want some yellows and more whites. They are done with spring shipping, sadly, but will ship again in fall. If anyone wants to go in together on an order (and we can do money through paypal with purchase protection for everyone) we could coordinate that, and just have to do one sanitary certificate.

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Evanston Newb:
don't worry about grabbing a lot! I could fill my SUV twice with my extra plants, so I have to choose what to bring each year. What if what I didn't bring is what someone wanted? That's why we like this pre-trading. The fact that you're looking to find ways you can contribute means that you deserve ALL the plants :)
I love snacks so if you're happy to bring some snacks I think that would be great! I usually bring a huge tray of costco cookies but if other people are bringing snacks maybe I can just do a smaller tray.
Water is probably welcome, I'll wait for Oerickson to say Yes for sure. Thanks for offering to bring some stuff!

I have enough verticillata for both of you

How shady is your shade? light, or deep? Do you have Tovara Painter's Palette yet? It has variegated foliage and def works in part shade, I'm not sure about deep shade. It reseeds plenty, I just pull them with the "true" weeds.

There's also lysimachia firecracker, a deep purple plant in deep shade, but it spreads by roots and it rather fast about it too. I don't bring it to the swap unless someone wants it, since it's harder to get rid of root-spreaders than seed-spreaders (mostly. Never let creeping ladybell go to seed!!!)
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verdant Apt

I looked up flea beetles and I think I've never seen them. Maybe all the birds in the yard help me out (even though they gobble the strawberries sometimes. "Hey lady, I was eating a flea beetle for you!")
the plants are trad. variegata, according to pics online
and pallida
kalanchoe pic to come, I need energy and daylight for it.

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Linnea:
I can bring you feverfew (and the other(s)), no problem.
I did direct sow some foxgloves this spring (when I saw how all the older ones died). I haven't really looked to see how many have popped up. Have you sown inside a wintersowing 2-liter greenhouse? It makes seed starting so much easier. I can bring you a container set up with the foxglove seeds if you'd like (and i'll sow them for you if you want) but maybe part of what you don't like is dealing with the tiny seedlings.
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Thanks, HazelcrestMike! First I'll see if some shows up at the swap, then I'll be in touch about a visit if needed.

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Jasmine and Pitimpinai: requests noted

Pitimpinai, I'm with you on doing reusable table covers. Last year when we talked about this I think I worked out a tarp size at Menard's that could be cut in half and cover two tables. One has to be careful with tarp sizes because the size on the package is the size BEFORE they fold it over and add grommets!

Also, the cheapest level of tarp...isn't all that waterproof. At least the Menard's cheap ones. I think we need to co with the next grade. And I think if we used Visqueen (thick plastic) the tape will come off without tearing the plastic.


I was kind of stymied on what to do with muddy tarps at the end of the day. Well, if we can we'll hose them off there, and bring big trash bags for carrying them home. (We may have to pull trays of plants out of the car to put the flat bag of tarps down first. Or maybe we'll remember to save a spot for them as we (ok, ME!) grab plants and stick them in the car without any organization.) And if we run out of time/energy, we'll put them into the trash bags muddy and hose them off at home.

Let's continue to use tape and the stretchy plastic, unless someone wants to invest in a bunch of bungee cords (or sew elastic bands). That could be phase 2 unless someone feels very ambitious for this year.

Most tables are 6-foot, some are 8-foot, I think. We use 10-12 of them. There's one round one for the food, maybe that one can have a "fresh" tablecloth each year?

This is something anyone and everyone could bring:

Mini-blind plant labels--no one has to bring a lot, but we ran out of labels last year. If everyone with access to old mini-blinds brings some, we'll be set.

If you've been to the swap you've seen them. I'll post a web pic of them too. Just cut them straight across every 5 inches or so (I say straight, because at the swap we carry them in our pockets and when they're cut at an angle they HURT)

I plan to bring plenty myself, but...just as a backup, let's get a few people on the label crew!