I'm brand new to the swap and can't wait! I was out of town for the Spring swap and have been waiting for the Fall date. I've got to get busy potting up divisions. Brenda, I'd love some Black Cohosh and Bloodroot if anything below interests you. Karen or Alicia if you have any 'Hot Lips' to spare I'm interested and any shorter salvia varieties that you might have. I'm also in need of: Purple coneflower since the voles got mine last year. Brunnera - especially the silver varieties Gaura Siskiyou (pink) Tiarella Astilbe Peach Blossom Agapanthus Variegated Hakone Grass Forget-me-not (myosotis) Hellebores (I must be the only gardener without any) I have to offer: Aster Snowflurry Dogwood seedlings Tree seedlings - while oak, maple, tulip poplar Chinese Indigo (Indigofera kirilowii) Native Heucherra seedlings - green variety that tolerates sun or shade and is pretty much indestructable Wild ginger (it's native - I don't know the strain) Native ferns (sorry, don't know the strains but I can email you photos if interested) Daylilies 'Paper Butterfly' and 'Stargazer' Epimedium Rubrum Purple Creeping Thyme Light Purple Phlox (I don't know the variety) and David Japanese Iris 'Joy Peters' Amsomia Blue Star Iris Cristata (native) Veronica Georgia Blue Geranium Cranesbill 'Blood Red' (pink/purple flower) Chrysanthemum White Bomb

yes, alicia- you were the other one who'd left before i realized it. i hadn't wanted the cuttings to wilt, which is why i waited til after the general swapping, but as usual i was running my mouth too much and didn't notice folks were leaving (never happen with me, right!?). i'll have to go back and look at my list, but i will try and root what i owe you for spring alicia. if not, i can take cuttings. and i didn't even get to say hello- i'm so sorry! a few other folks were supposed to get one thing, but you and ais had the bulk, other than jean, who got hers. jean, and anyone else who got roses from me: if it was not marked, it was veilchenblau. all of the others would have had a name written on a leaf. it roots easily, isn't too thorny, and is not fragrant. it's a very vigorous climber that blooms in clusters that cover the trellis all at once- so it makes a breathtaking tapestry of grapey purple, blueish purple, reddish pinky purple, and an occasional white bloom. no rebloom, sorry to say. very carefree- the only thing is the JBs like it. i don't spray, feed or do anything else to mine except prune- hard- because it grows so big so fast. tam

Haves: I'm waaaay behind the digging curve here, BUT will take a look at some of the want lists and see what I can bring. I think my gweb mail works but in case it doesn't, email me at LynneinMD AT gmail DOT com... Anyone want some miscanthus? I have plant sale leftovers in (I think) 2-gallon pots. Sedum (I don't think it's 'Autumn Joy' but it's similar. Possibly 'Autumn Fire', from the pics I've found online) Sedum 'Dragon's Blood' Sedum 'Tricolor' Dianthus 'Frosty Fire' which is a hot-ish pink, not the red on the tag (not that I care, but I know that some do...!) California Poppy (I think...I planted these as seeds last year and have new plants in the same place..) Creeping Thyme possibly 'Pink Chintz' Rudbeckia Salvia shrub (small pink flowers, no idea which variety) catnip Nepeta 'Walker's Low' Violets Iris - deep dark purple and a whole bunch of surprises. Lynne

I like the suggestion of kale but sometimes getting it to be at the right stage at the right time for a wedding can be tricky in a home garden. For an autumn wedding, you'd have to start it from seed in summer, transplant into the garden in autumn, and keep it sprayed to keep the cabbage loopers (I've been hand-picking them off cole crops all week longs) or imported cabbage worms from leaving holes in the leaves. You also could grow it in containers. I wouldn't try to raise kale plants in anything smaller than a gallon container, with one plant per container. You could put several of them in a really large container though, or grow a row in your garden to harvest and use as needed. Ornamental kale comes in green (kale's green tends to be a dark bluish-green), white, pink, red, and purple, although the red is not a bright red---it is more of a subdued wine red or almost burgundy. Most ornamental kale plants are two tone---like green and purple, green and white, green and pink, etc. Growing kale from seed is ridiculously easy---you grow it the same way you grow cabbage, broccoli, etc. Grasshoppers prefer edible garden kale to all other kale crops, at least in my garden, but rarely touch the ornamental kale. Maybe they don't like the frilly leaves. The ornamental kale plants in my garden were planted into the ground in early October from transplants started from seed in August, and they're about 1/2 grown now. They might be larger but early in the fall they had to fight a lot of hot, dry weather and grasshoppers. I have seed for pink, red and white varities for spring. For fall, I am growing white and purple ones. There's a special kind of kale grown for cut flowers. The variety of the cut flower kale with which I'm familiar is 'Crane' and it comes in several colors. It is a hybrid which means you would get fairly uniform plants with it, which would be important if raising them for a wedding. I'll link one example of crane below. Harris Seeds has a good selection of ornamental kale varieties as does Pinetree Garden Seeds. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Kale Crane at Harris Seed