Thank you, Bonnie, for hosting the plant swap! We had a wonderful time, as always. It is great to meet up with old friends and meet new ones.

Thank you, everyone, for your generosity in sharing starts of all these fantastic plants and seeds.

We will have a fun Mother's Day in the garden, for sure.

Yes! Thank you, Bonnie, fort hosting this time! Your ranch is a wonderful place for the swap. The peace and quiet out there made me not want to leave--and I could sit and watch your baby colt for hours!!! And the pork and rice with gravy was wonderful. Our first swap with what amounted to a "real" meal! All the food was great, and thank you to each of you for your contribution.

This was a really nice swap. It was fun to see the regulars again, and nice to have a few New Swappers too. It seemed to me more relaxed than some previous swaps, and it was nice, with fewer people, to be able to go around in "number order" to pick more than just twice before going into the free-for-all. And I thought it was really nice that people hung around after picking plants to roam around and talk a little more. Seems like there's usually a mad rush to leave once folks have their booty! I really enjoyed it this time!

Glad the weather cooperated for us! No sun, but no rain either, and the temperature wasn't bad at all. Thank you, Bonnie, for letting us eat inside the house, and doing the swapping inside of the barn worked out great too.

Thank you to everyone who brought plants and seeds and other stuff to swap! It is always amazing how much "stuff" there is relative to the number of people!

For anyone who got any of the plants I brought, I really, really want them to thrive for you, so if you have ANY questions about what to do with them--now or later--please let me know!

I'm tired...........
.....................and really looking forward to the next swap!

Skybird

P.S. Kenny, sorry you couldn't make it this time. Hope you'll think about coming to a future swap.

Bonnie,

I thoroughly enjoyed the swap at your place. I didn't want to leave! Thanks to you and Terry for a wonderful day. My rose and rasperry plants are already in the ground.

Thanks to Skybird for organizing and bringing a greenhouse full of plants, lol! What a great selection of plants and seeds we had today!

It was great seeing all of you. I'll enjoy planting my new treasures!

Barb

Huge thanks to Bonnie and Terry, and what a beautiful place! Chris was so sorry that he had to leave early, but again wanted me to tell you thank you for having us out! Oh, and he wants to know when we can move in--you guys have pretty much our dream setup out there.

My one question I forgot to ask was this: Greg, is that prize-winning pepper plant hardened off at all? I'm going to stick it in the garage tonight cuz it's kinda cold out there (a few more degrees, it might be crystals instead of drops falling from the sky!)

Good food, good people, heckuva good time! Thanks to all!

~Dani

What a fantastic time. We always measure the success of our events by how much fun we have and this one rates right up there with the best of them. Special appreciation to all: the food was delicious, so many HEALTHY plants and great friends!

And thanks for leaving the place in the same condition you found it it. If I did not know the troupe hand visited I could not tell by looking at it this morning.

Ditto on all the compliments to you, Bonnie and Terry, and for what a wonderful swap it was! Good eats, good talk, good fun :^) What a great way to spend the day - loved it!

I know there are folks in this group that are not located in Colorado where these swaps are held (or at least the ones that I've seen organized since I've been a member). Hope you all are able to have some gatherings like this as well with RMG'ers in your area!

Marj

Bonnie & Terry, Thank You very much for hosting this swap. Very enjoyable getting out into the country. :-)

Dani, yes the pepper plant is fully hardened off. Everything I brought was hardened off except for the few basil plants which had just started going outside.

A couple of questions for those who were at the swap yesterday:

1. In the container with the packs of pink and yellow hibiscus seed was an envelope labeled "Taiwanese cabbage". We took a few seeds of this. However, we'd like to know what kind of cabbage this is. So, if these were your contributions to our swap, would you mind telling us a bit more about this cabbage?

2. The food was yummy! We'd love to get recipes, please!

Thanks!

Thank you to both Bonnie and Terry! It was a great swap and we had a ton of fun!

Skybird--I found the plant tag for the Dwarf White Lily of the Nile and there are a couple of names on it. One is "Lirio del Nilo blanco enano" and the other is Agapanthus africanus 'Peter Pan White'. Care: Full sun 6+ hours direct sun, water usage: arid dry (mine gets a good bit of water where it's at which might be why it grows so slowly for me), bloom time: summer, spacing 12-18", growth rate: medium, avg. size 18" x 18", cold hardiness: 20 to 10 degrees (it dies completely back in the winter), pruning: remove spent flowers, fertilization: before new growth begins.

I brought the taiwanese cabbage seeds and I'm afraid I don't know anything about them. A customer of Roger's who did have an asian restaurant gave them to him this spring. Sorry I don't know exactly what they are. I started some seeds indoors and just put the plants in my garden a couple of days ago. I did read that you can plant taiwanese cabbage in July for a fall harvest.

Yikes, Garden!!! I think you are a VERY lucky person! :-) Hardy to 10-20 degrees would be zones 8 and 9. I looked online and some sites say hardy to zone 7--with protection. Most of us around here are zone 5ish which goes to 20 degrees below zero. We've definitely had warm winters for the last couple years, but even with that you must have yours planted in EXACTLY the right place! I tried one of the 'Headbourne Hybrids' Agapanthus that I got at Timberline a few years ago and never saw hide nor hair--or would that be stem nor leaf--of it the next spring. That one is said, "by some people," to be hardy to zone 5. I knew it would be very marginal, but was really hoping! I'll plant yours next to a big rock to give it some extra heat, and maybe I'll mulch it pretty heavily with some maple leaves this fall--which will make it the very first perennial I've ever mulched! I really like Lily of the Nile flowers and really, really hope it makes it for me! The Lirio del Nilo blanco part of the label is "Lily of the Nile white," don't know what "enano" is! It sounds kinda like Italian--but I'm sure it's Spanish! The "arid dry" part!!! Don't you believe it! Recently I was looking up something and ran into info about "xeric plants" in Florida! Don't have a CLUE what they consider to be a "xeric" plant, but I'm quite sure if they tried to grow OUR kind of "xeric" plants they'd rot and die in a couple weeks! I'd stick the Agapanthus in with the "Florida type of xeric plants" and give it lots of water--so it sounds like you're being very nice to yours! When I was checking it out, BTW, I discovered they have tuberous tap roots, and since yours should have a pretty deep root now that it's survived a couple winters it should make it more likely to survive future winters, but if the crown freezes it's still gonna be a goner, so you might want to consider starting to mulch it with something that won't pack/mat down too. I really, really want this to make it, so if we're going to have a really cold winter I might even fill a 2 (or bigger) gallon pot with maple leaves and invert it over the entire plant area. At least putting it in early will give it time to develop a fairly decent root over summer. Thanks for the info. The one I got at Timberline wasn't cheap, so at least if this one doesn't make it I'm not losing bucks again. Thanks for bringing it to the swap! It's the kind of thing I love to play with!

About the cabbage seeds, Polygonum, I was thinking it might be bok choy/pak choi so I googled it and came up with something that looks more like the kind of cabbage we're used to! Google it and you'll get lots of info. Sounds like a "sweet" cabbage, and sounds pretty good to me!

Is it time for the Fall Swap yet??? I think we should have it in Kersey again so we could all enjoy some more of the wonderful Country Peace and Quiet--and check up on the colt again! I do hope we can come back again sometime, Bonnie, but, no, I'm not serious about invading you again so quickly! But I REALLY did enjoy this swap!

Thank you again for hosting the swap,
Skybird

Thanks for the provenance and speculations about the Taiwanese cabbage seeds.

It could be a bok choy. Could be a Chinese/Napa cabbage type. Could be a heading sort of cabbage -- there are a flattish/oblate cabbages that go under that name. Could be hybrid, could be open-pollinated.

The most likely, I suspect, is a flat-head cabbage, probably hybrid seed.

I guess I'll plant it and see for myself! And then plant again in midsummer if it bolts too quickly to see if it heads up by winter.

Today was rather rainy. We got rain overnight, too. So the ground is too wet to do much planting! Argh! So frustrating. It was easy to pull weeds, though. I also found a few new shoots on plants that apparently are going to survive the winter after all.

Grow, little plants! I need to make starts to share with all my friends this fall!

I'll add a thank you to our hosts and to everyone for bringing plants. H

Thank you so much Bonnie & Terry for being such amazing hosts and what a magical place your home is! I just didn't want to leave. Your raspberries were in the ground the next day! I hope it makes it. It was good to see some familiar faces from last Spring swap and I'll try to remember some others for the next swap. Hopefully I can make the Fall swap this year. BTW Who made the Strawberry Rhubarb crumble? It was soooo goooodd I had seconds! I'll share my quiche recipe in a little bit since a couple of people have asked.

Someone brought a salvia blue victoria - I looked it up and it's an annual? can you tell me more about this?

Also I think Greg (gjcore) was the one who brought the tarragon and oregano I picked up. Are these herbs perennials? I have very little knowledge about herbs other than eating them! and embarrassed to say never had much luck growing them indoors.

For those of you that had gotten some of my teeny tiny seedlings here's a bit of info about them. I am sure you'd figured out by now that they are good to be outside but keep them in the cups for a few more weeks before planting out. They were also situated in bright shade under the front porch so not really subjected to direct sun. You all are amazing gardeners anyways and know more what to do than me!

Aster Liliput Blue Moon ( Annual )
Here's a Link with pics and info
These were purchased seeds from Parks which was winter sown this year.

Liatris Spicata Floristan White ( Perennial )
Here's a Link with pics and info. Also winter sown this year

Penstemon Red Riding Hood
Rooted cuttings from nursery purchased plant. I was told it's drought tolerant and have not bothered much after it's 1st year with watering and seems happy enough to put out blooms the last 2 yrs. Here's a couple of close-up pics I just took yesterday and mine are just about ready to bloom since I didn't have a good one earlier to share and was waiting for some buds to finally open! The colour is a brighter shade of red.

I'll post a link to pictures in a new thread. Thank you everyone! Hope everyone is enjoying their little plantlets.

I just looked up the blue salvia, since I too was a lucky recipient. It is Blue Victoria salvia, right?

If so, it is a perennial in zone 7 and higher, treated as an annual in climates colder than that. Some people do report decent reseeding in zone 6, but it's spotty. Even zone 7 can be a little iffy. In other words, it's not hardy below about 5 F.

It sounds like a great plant. Here is a link to some descriptions and comments.

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/plant-finder/plant-details/kc/c814/salvia-farinacea-victoria-blue.aspx

(There's a Dave's Garden link that shows up if you do a google search, but Garden Web won't let me post it.)

I am going to put mine in a protected south-facing area, and will save seeds if the plant does well enough to set seeds.

It likes sun to part shade, is about 12-18" high and wide, long blooming, is heat and drought tolerant, will tolerate clay soils, and is deer resistant (depending on your local deer, of course). Its flowers are blue to blue-violet.

The oregano should be hardy in our climate. The tarragon probably is, but might do better in a slightly protected site, or get mulched in the winter. Both are perennials and listed as cold hardy at least into zone 5.

I've started putting your aster, liatris, and penstemon outside for the day. They got a little windblown today, but hopefully will recover quickly.

All of skybird's frost-tolerant plants are outside, waiting for enough roots to grow to be able to find them their permanent spots.

The rose is in the ground. So are the hollyhocks, all but one sprig of ornamental grass, and several other plants. So far, so good...

Your lovely penstemon, liatris, and aster seedlings went outside for the first time today, for a few hours of direct morning sun. They are looking a little windblown but hopefully nothing too bad. They are back inside for the day now. I am looking forward to being able to plant them outside. I have spots picked out and everything!

I started the "Salvia Blue Victoria Seed" (Salvia farinacea) from seed (Botanical Interests) last year and planted the starts in a corner of my raised garden bed to attract bees and it worked wonderfully with no pest or disease problems. They reseeded this spring and those are the starts that I brought to the swap. It is an annual in our zone 5.

I love these flowers in that they bloom prolifically from mid summer through a couple of light frosts in the fall. The foliage is very pretty also.

Here is the Botanical Interests seed link

Here is a link that might be useful: Botanical Interests Seed Link