I'm putting on a plant swap for my neighborhood association next week.
I've never even been to a plant swap, but thought it sounded like a
fun idea. I'm looking for input on how it should be run. Are their
standards or guidelines, like swapping plants of the same size? Do
folks set out their plants like a garage sale, on a blanket or table?
Like I said, I've never been to one and I'm not sure what to expect or
how to set up the area. I'd love to hear even the most basic of
suggestions.

Thanks.

The message
from (Fleemo) contains these words:

I'm putting on a plant swap for my neighborhood association next week.
I've never even been to a plant swap, but thought it sounded like a
fun idea. I'm looking for input on how it should be run. Are their
standards or guidelines, like swapping plants of the same size? Do
folks set out their plants like a garage sale, on a blanket or table?

Contributors never want to stay beside the plants they brought; they
want to start rummaging through what everyone else brought. Some
plantswaps use communal trestle tables, or if you're using a big open
space like a car park, you can just set plants out in rows on the
ground. Some plant swaps have sections for veg seedlings, herbaceous,
trees etc.

You'll find some people bring plants carefully grown and nurtured in a
proper pot with good compost, an immaculate legible accurate label, and
no weeds or slugs. Others dig up a spadeful of something along (with a
lot of weeds) on the morning of the sale, and dump it in a plastic bag
or cardboard box or just roll it in a newspaper, no name. If there's any
shade, put the dug-up stuff there because it wilts fast.

Either kind of contributor might be offering something really rare and
lovely, or as common as muck. If you have some knowledgeable gardening
friends, it's a good idea to have them hang around to identify plants
and tell beginners who ask, something about them; a plant book can be
useful. Identify helpers with a badge or daft hat. Provide plant labels
and pencils; strips of milk-carton will do.

Size; some people bring seeds that germinated last week and others
bring very large shrubs. Don't worry about it, each bringer has their
own notion of what's fair trade and it aint worth arguing. It's often
Germinated Bean who wants to swap it for rare lilies, and Large Shrub
who chooses a margarine pot of lettuce seedlings. Splitting a huge
herbaceous clump gives more people a share; so a couple of garden forks
or hand tools are useful. So are as many used plastic shopping bags as
you can lay hands on, for people to take their booty home, and a stack
of newspapers for wrapping ones that won't go in bags.

Pure swaps versus paying money, is always a bit of an issue. Some
attendees will be new gardeners or recently moved in, and have nothing
to swap, so it makes sense to decide a fixed price per plant portion or
pot, and to have a cash float for change.

I always have more used plastic pots than I know what to do with, and
a plant swap is a great place to offload them to keen propagators...
stack them in sets of 5 or 10.

Whatever time you announce it for, plantswap afficionadoes will get
there early to bag the best stuff, and create a scrum as it arrives. So,
if you want to start at 2pm, tell the public it starts at 2.30.At the
end of the swap, there is always stuff left over that nobody wants to
drag home, so have a disposal plan.

Have fun..I love plant swaps and have had some wonderful bargains. I
once found one by accident, just as it was closing, and spotted a huge
carton of colchicums in the green, wilting a bit. I asked the lady if I
could buy some and she said " Oh, no need to pay. Nobody knew what they
were, so nobody wanted them..you'd be doing me a big favour if you just
take the whole lot away".

:-)

Janet

Janet Baraclough.. wrote:

Pure swaps versus paying money, is always a bit of an issue. Some
attendees will be new gardeners or recently moved in, and have nothing
to swap, so it makes sense to decide a fixed price per plant portion or
pot, and to have a cash float for change.

Lots of newbies would take anything, and since they'll hopefully come
back and participate the following years, encourage them. People who
have no plants to offer can bring edible things, a batch of their
favorite brownies, for example. Turn the plant swap into a little
garden party.

Suja

On 26 Mar 2004 00:20:10 -0800, (Fleemo) opined:

I'm putting on a plant swap for my neighborhood association next week.
I've never even been to a plant swap, but thought it sounded like a
fun idea. I'm looking for input on how it should be run. Are their
standards or guidelines, like swapping plants of the same size? Do
folks set out their plants like a garage sale, on a blanket or table?
Like I said, I've never been to one and I'm not sure what to expect or
how to set up the area. I'd love to hear even the most basic of
suggestions.

Thanks.

Our garden club brings at least one plant and numbers are picked from a hat.
If, at the end of the first round there are plants left, it is a free for all.
I always bring tons more plants than I take. It's getting harder and harder to
find things I don't already have.

I did, however, fine a variegated artemesia the other day.

V

The message
from escapee contains these words:


Our garden club brings at least one plant and numbers are picked from a hat.
If, at the end of the first round there are plants left, it is a free
for all.
I always bring tons more plants than I take. It's getting harder and
harder to
find things I don't already have.

I did, however, fine a variegated artemesia the other day.

Our garden club holds a raffle at every meeting (great fundraiser,
tickets are 5 for one pound). The prizes are whatever plants, unwanted
xmas gifts etc anyone brings, but they aren't numbered so as each number
is drawn from the hat, the winner gets their pick of what's left. I got
a dierama pulcherrima last time :-)

When we started doing the raffle, some people donated gardening books
they no longer wanted. Then someone had the bright idea that donated
books should instead become a communal gardening library for all
members. They are kept at a member's house for collection and the list
is circulated at meetings (over a hundred and growing).

Janet.

The message
from escapee contains these words:


Our garden club brings at least one plant and numbers are picked from a hat.
If, at the end of the first round there are plants left, it is a free
for all.
I always bring tons more plants than I take. It's getting harder and
harder to
find things I don't already have.

I did, however, fine a variegated artemesia the other day.

Our garden club holds a raffle at every meeting (great fundraiser,
tickets are 5 for one pound). The prizes are whatever plants, unwanted
xmas gifts etc anyone brings, but they aren't numbered so as each number
is drawn from the hat, the winner gets their pick of what's left. I got
a dierama pulcherrima last time :-)

When we started doing the raffle, some people donated gardening books
they no longer wanted. Then someone had the bright idea that donated
books should instead become a communal gardening library for all
members. They are kept at a member's house for collection and the list
is circulated at meetings (over a hundred and growing).

Janet.

The message
from escapee contains these words:


Our garden club brings at least one plant and numbers are picked from a hat.
If, at the end of the first round there are plants left, it is a free
for all.
I always bring tons more plants than I take. It's getting harder and
harder to
find things I don't already have.

It's been a long while since I've participated in a local garden club's
trade encounters. When I did so, I found it pretty much useless unless I
lacked some amazingly common & weedy perennial or wanted to start a new
hen-&-chicks from a single ball. I have right now a "Youth" azalea in its
second year very successfully started from a broken limb, & a "Loder's
White" rhody that was rooted from an old lower limb scarred & placed right
in the ground & almost time to cut it loose from the parent to transplant
in its own location. I'd bring such really nice things to trade but all I
could get for 'em is a pot of scilla or bergenia or some pea seedling a
child brought, so instead I'll just wait until there's someone who needs a
nice wee shrub as an outright gift. My taste in plants runs toward strange
woodland wildflowers & shade plants, & those aren't the things running
rampant in everyone's yard resulting in plenty to trade.

But if you've visited peoples' gardens & know there are plants you'd
really like starts from, they'll surely have things that are not growing
fast enough to trade bits of willynilly, but which will eventually need to
be divided. If you've some pretty nice things to offer on-the-side for
specific plants, maybe you can get some wonderful plants not already being
traded every year, promising something specific & nice for something
specific & nice.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

The message
from escapee contains these words:


Our garden club brings at least one plant and numbers are picked from a hat.
If, at the end of the first round there are plants left, it is a free
for all.
I always bring tons more plants than I take. It's getting harder and
harder to
find things I don't already have.

I did, however, fine a variegated artemesia the other day.

Our garden club holds a raffle at every meeting (great fundraiser,
tickets are 5 for one pound). The prizes are whatever plants, unwanted
xmas gifts etc anyone brings, but they aren't numbered so as each number
is drawn from the hat, the winner gets their pick of what's left. I got
a dierama pulcherrima last time :-)

When we started doing the raffle, some people donated gardening books
they no longer wanted. Then someone had the bright idea that donated
books should instead become a communal gardening library for all
members. They are kept at a member's house for collection and the list
is circulated at meetings (over a hundred and growing).

Janet.

The message
from escapee contains these words:


Our garden club brings at least one plant and numbers are picked from a hat.
If, at the end of the first round there are plants left, it is a free
for all.
I always bring tons more plants than I take. It's getting harder and
harder to
find things I don't already have.

It's been a long while since I've participated in a local garden club's
trade encounters. When I did so, I found it pretty much useless unless I
lacked some amazingly common & weedy perennial or wanted to start a new
hen-&-chicks from a single ball. I have right now a "Youth" azalea in its
second year very successfully started from a broken limb, & a "Loder's
White" rhody that was rooted from an old lower limb scarred & placed right
in the ground & almost time to cut it loose from the parent to transplant
in its own location. I'd bring such really nice things to trade but all I
could get for 'em is a pot of scilla or bergenia or some pea seedling a
child brought, so instead I'll just wait until there's someone who needs a
nice wee shrub as an outright gift. My taste in plants runs toward strange
woodland wildflowers & shade plants, & those aren't the things running
rampant in everyone's yard resulting in plenty to trade.

But if you've visited peoples' gardens & know there are plants you'd
really like starts from, they'll surely have things that are not growing
fast enough to trade bits of willynilly, but which will eventually need to
be divided. If you've some pretty nice things to offer on-the-side for
specific plants, maybe you can get some wonderful plants not already being
traded every year, promising something specific & nice for something
specific & nice.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/