This Spring I wandered over to the Hosta forums after viewing many magnificient hostas in three particular photo sharing threads here and I started to gain great appreciation for hostas. Next I saw a neat thread there titled, 'Hosta Secret Swap'. I participated in this event sharing hostas with other random 'secret' partners and I felt it was a great event.

Now over the last year I've had folks here ask about trading plants(usually graft wood) and it dawned on me that we could certainly do something similar with conifers. Surely some forum users here already trade on a regular basis but this is a bit different.

If you're unfamiliar with the idea of a 'Secret Swap', basically first people sign up. Then after the sign-up deadline has passed, the names are jumbled into a hat and randomly picked. Then you're given the name of a person with whom you are to send plants to over a specific time period. Fall would work best here I think. Ultimately you receive neat, sometimes very new or unusual plants from your secret partner and then come back to post and share your wonderful(hopefully!) experiences.

This could work well here however there are a couple of hitches. First, I'm not familiar with the laws regarding international shipping of plants so I assume it might have to be seperated into US and Europe groups. Second, conifers can be a bit more finicky then hostas when it comes to climate. Some conifers might freeze to death in the Midwest Winters while others might languish in the hot Texas/California Summers. To get through this hurdle, each Secret Swap participant would have to list 10+ conifer specie groupings which flourish in their area. This would give the sender a good idea of what plants to try and send without killing too many plants.

Lastly, I know a few States have tough plant-quarantine laws. California, Oregon and Washington I believe are all tough to send plants to without paperwork. Those in these affected areas would need to label which plants would be a problem here as well.

So there it is. I think this is both very doable and should be something very fun for all of us to look forward to each Autumn. If I can get at least 8-10 participants in the US and/or Europe then we'll do this. Perhaps the number of people participating would grow each year.

Some ground rules if we do go through with this:

1. Ideally select 1-3 conifers(more is OK but don't go crazy) at a retail cost of no more then $50 for your Secret Swap package.

2. Be sure to send healthy, climate-appropriate plants to your partner.

3. Don't send bare-root conifers, though you may remove some of the soil as long as the roots are kept moist and well packaged for shipping. Dead plants ruin the fun!

4. The 'Secret Swap' season would be from October 1st through October 15th. This would likely ensure almost all participants would be able to plant before Winter strikes.

5. Try and fulfill a plant that your Secret Swap partner is looking for or would like. See my post below for an example.

6. Have fun and enjoy your new plants!

Comments? Ideas? I think we really should do this.

-Will