Okay y'all, since you like my story telling so much, here is today's story. (Another long post.)
I loaded the car last night (in the rain), got to sleep early. Woke up every hour thinking I had missed the alarm. Finally woke one more time to find the alarm was in another room. Whew. Okay, did the whole morning ritual and put the air conditioning on for the dogs as the weather predictied 89 degrees (portable Pinguino A/C unti) and headed off to the swap.
As soon as I parked my car was surrounded by people who know who I am and what I might have. They offer to help carry stuff - that means they get first dibs.
Most of the plants were labeled so I avoided that type of question but I was able to tell each person about the plants they selected. I had written 'garden.org' on several of the labels so hopefully some of the folks will visit us here.
(Hurray for new members!)
One of the absolute favorite plants were the Sage Palm which were donated by the generous NGA member - lots of happy campers with new plants. One woman who had taken two Sago came back. She said her sister would kill her if she didn't get one for sister. No problem; there were plenty.
My twice-a-year-plant-friend Eric and I took turns sitting in the lawn chair. I am old and feeble. He is young but will be having knee surgery; together we answered lots of questions. Eric is my hero today. Why? Remember how I purchased a case of 1,100 pots? Eric brought not only pots, but also carry trays; tons of them - I filled my car!!
I invited one plant family to come to my home. I had only brought one Hawaiian Ginger plant and someone else grabbed it so I let them know I had more at the house. Hope they come to visit at my garden soon. They are a very nice family.
Oh, what did I get at the swap? Not much for myself. There is a lovely German lady who usually attends every swap with her mother; they always bring something wonderful - with labels and growing information. From them I received Obedient plants, all nicely rooted. Then I picked up Spider plants - 3 types. Elephant ears. Bulbs for white Spider Lily - I do not know the exact name. I forget what else. I'll add more as I remember.
Since my two daughters each now each have an office, I focused on indoor plants suitable for that type of location. Got a beautiful Jade plant, several Pothos cuttings which I will root, a snake plant Sansevieria trifasciata
(forgive me if that is spelled wrong as the copy/paste does not yet work on my new Chromebook)...older daughter talked me through how to use copy/paste on this Chromebook!!), seeds for Sweet Siberian Watermelon
, and...well, since I forgot my camera
, I will make a list and take photos and post them as soon as I am able.
As I walked back and forth to my car to get more plants, to put my new stuff in the car...there were some people waiting by my car. I just assumed they were waiting for plants. No. They had noticed something was amiss
and were waiting for me to return to the car. There was a huge, HUGE, nail in the sidewall of my tire
and they did not want to leave the swap without letting me know. I absolutely love
plant people. They might be greedy when it comes to acquiring plants, but dang it all, they are really good people when it comes to watching out for each other.
Since the nail was in the back tire, I was able to drive (carefully) to the tire shop where I purchased 4 new tires. Most expensive swap ever!! Over $400, but at least the tires come with a hazard policy. Even plants don't do that!
Hope you enjoyed my day as much as I did.
