So I post it here or at the round robin trade forum? Paula

I don't know if these are native to MN, but they are to Michigan. I have seeds from a common type of milkweed that volunteered on a very dry, sandy hill in full sun. In fact, it's spreading like wildfire. I'll never need to plant it again, so you are welcome to any seeds you want. I had several Monarch caterpillars on it last year, so I know they like it. Send me an e-mail if you want some. Martha

Consider joining the North American Native Plant Society. Despite the name (it was formerly the Canadian Wildflower Society), it has largely Canadian members and has an annual, by mail, seed exchange for members. Anyone can buy seed (nominal cost to cover mailing) but donors get a special deal. Members across Canada collect seed and mail it to NANPS who then publish a list of available seed. Judy Here is a link that might be useful: NANPS

Art61, I'd definitely be interested in your cardinal flower seed if you find you have any extra once you've filled your own needs. I let all my native columbines self seed and there is already a new patch of tiny babies starting despite the horrid drought we'd had for about a month. IMHO, protection of the red mulberry is only one facet of what needs to be done. You can plant as many pure red mulberries as you want but if the gene pool is disturbed by the continued importation and planting of the white mulberry, ALL planted or natural red mulberries will continue to be at risk. We have an old, very unkempt arboretum here in Woodstock and it has a mature white mulberry and I'm going to firmly request that it's time to take it down. It can be replaced with something of a more native nature, even if it's not native to our general area, at least it could be native to Canada or Canada and the north-east of USA. It's a danger to our native stocks and serves little purpose in the arboretum which is not the attraction that it should be in our booming little town. Now it is down to finding the time to write the appropriate persons about taking down the tree and see what comes of it. Good luck in your search for your mulberries. I'll let you know if I find any unaffected red mulberries (not likely since there are so few pristine red mulberry left in the whole of the country...they say as low as 80 trees left in canada) in my neck of the woods and collect some seed for you. Here's an eye opening article from the University of Guelph that shows the state of the Red Mulberry and how the white mulberry needs to be eradicated in order for the red to rebound. IMHO with such a small genepool as only 80 specimens, the species may already be doomed as small gene pools almost always mean death to a species as they are not able to survive disease and infestations as those in cases of diverse genepools. At any rate, here's the article: http://www.uoguelph.ca/research/news/articles/1998/preserving_legendary_mulberry.shtml Barb southern Ontario, CANADA