How are you all doing getting everything planted? Last year I planted all my plants when I got home from the swap but this year there was just no way with such a large number of plants and with having had no sleep. I started on Monday and have planted a little bit each day and today I am almost entirely finished. I have a few plants with some root/transplant shock, so I'm leaving them in the pots until they are feeling better. No sense adding insult to injury so I have them with saucers of water under them and in a nice shady spot where they can recover. So how are the rest of you doing? I think Heather is going to be planting till October with all the stuff she traded. Ross, that Monk's hood was just amazing size. It's in the back row of my deck garden right up next to the deck and it's so tall it sticks up almost a foot above deck level. Jeff, the native plants you gave me each have a special place. The two spicebush are planted in my little thicket of spicebush seedlings and the Kentucky Coffee Tree is up at the front of the woods so I can watch it grow. To all the people who gave me Lupines...they are planted all around my side yard and back, anywhere where they will catch a bit of sun part of the day. From the gambler's circle I got a lovely little Iris...can't recall now if it was Japanese or German but it has one purple flower on it that has just opened. Anyone remember putting a single purple iris in a green pot? If you do, let me know which type of iris it is. I also took extra virginia creeper from the gamblers circle, compliments of Bill and Gwen. They also gave me a pot of VC and a bag of cuttings to grow on my garden arch that leads into our woods. Once it starts growing up the arch it's going to look so pretty with it's scarlet autumn colour. It will be right next to 2 Wicheta Blue Junipers and some burning bushes and I love the look of that red and blue together. On the ground is bright red Cardinal Flower which will be blooming right around the time the Creeper turns red and behind them are Arrowwood Viburnums which turn yellow and Serviceberries which turn orange. It should all be a very lovely show of colour once everything is established. Heather, I've got almost everything from you planted except for the Persicaria and Pulmonaria. The Persicaria is looking really good now so it can likely be planted next week but that poor Pulmonaria has horrible shock. I've known Pulmonaria to be very sensitive to transplant or divide and it looks like crap for a bit but then it suddenly rebounds, so I'm sure this one will be just fine. Do you know the name of it? It's the one with the large, ovate, solid green leaves. I got a total of 6 ferns from 2 different people and all have been planted in my woods and are looking FANTASTIC! There's nothing like ferns to make a woods feel cool, even on a blasted hot day. :o) Anyone else not mentioned, I've already planted the plants you gave me and they are all doing well. I had several colours of Achillia (sp?) and it looked terribly wilted when I got home but a few days in water and it perked right up and is doing really well in the ground. Well, let us know how you're all coming along with your planting. Barb southern Ontario, CANADA

Ciao Nicky- I received my parcel on American Thanksgiving, so that was extra super because Duane was home and got to share in the surprises! You really outdid yourself this year with the care and consideration you gave to the inventory list and the quality of the seeds. This is a smaller swap than some of the others that I participate in, but you managed to fill 11 wishes off of my edibles list! That's VERY impressive! The quality of the flowers was also better than ever before, so thank you very much and consider yourself hugged by me!

i see one flower, bottom left arrow the rest look like leaves to me. its real hard to tell until they are large enough to see the difference. Male usually hangs down from a stem. females have a wider bud. Herm's look like females, but , sometimes a bit more narrow Mangodog is on spot about them hating cold-wet feet too. will quickly kill them. I use chicken poo. its high in nitrogen sometimes i use a high N fertilizer with micronutes they respond real good to both. - Mangodog are you sure that is a TR Hovey ? The fruit is hanging down on stems which means it was a male flower. (supposedly) and now a male fruit. I looked at other pics of TR hoveys they are only supposed to get 6-8 ft tall. mine is only 4ft (but still young) you might have something different there. https://logeesblog.wordpress.com/category/carica-papaya-t-r-hovey/ Here is a link that might be useful: TR hovey

this is the second one they have had recently so there may be another. (fingers crossed)