I, personally, won't believe any of this "swap" stuff until I see some pics.

Hehehehe! We really just made it all up to make people envious, David! But give me a couple days and IÂll get some fake pictures made up to go with the story!

But you wonÂt be seeing any tonite! I just got done carrying most of the stuff in, and IÂm WAY too tired to be messing with downloading pictures tonite. I'll try to get it done before I leave on my vacation.

Thank you for your post about the (fake) swap, Jennifer. And good luck planting your (fake) plants in your rocky soil. Sorry we never got around to doing the propagation demo and using your poppy roots. I donÂt know if IÂll have time or not, but if I do IÂll stick them in some soil and see if I can keep them going long enough for the Spring Swap.

Take care of your tomatoes,
Skybird

Oh, gee...I brought my camera all the way there and never took even one photo!
Tomatoes are inside, thanks.
I hope leaving my leftover plants was okay!! I had read that someone was going to bring them to habitat for humanity...then I worried on the way home that I might be leaving you with a mess to clean up!!
Afterall, all was well with the dogs when we got back, no poop. We just finished their training session so, time to rest!
Maybe I should take a photo of the little plantlettes I brought back?
J.

Most of the leftover plantsÂincluding most of the dayliliesÂwent home with Alice to go to Habitat for Humanity in Ft. Collins.

After everybody was gone, I looked thru what was left and found some really cool things. IÂm too tired to remember what they are right now, but if I can find somewhere to put themÂand thatÂs a BIG if as all of you who were here now knowÂIÂm gonna keep most of that stuff----and IÂm giving a couple to my neighbors who shoveled my walk all last winterÂand the neighbors who will be watching my house and taking care of my plants while IÂm on vacation. So that pretty much finishes them off. One of the leftovers was a fall crocus which I had no idea was even thereÂand I donÂt have a clue who brought itÂbut IÂm delighted to have it. It looked like a perfectly dead plantÂso IÂm not surprised it was still there! I hope it blooms this fall yet!

DonÂt feel too bad about not taking any pictures! I did the same thing at the Spring Swap! But do take some pictures of your new adoptees for us. We need to do SOMETHING to convince David there really was a swap!

Glad your house was poop-free when you got home,
Skybird

Yes, thank you so much, Skybird, for hosting. Her garden is so pretty and unique plants and tidy and labeled! Skybird, you should have gone into event planning! Her perennials are gorgeous. Have fun on vacation!

I can't believe the amount of plants I came home with-easily $200 worth of plants if I had bought at the garden center. I filled u most of the back of my Honda civic trunk with mostly xeric plants (thank you Amester!). And there were so many plants left to give to Habitat for Humanity and Skybird's neighbors.

And thanks for the bird house gourd, kansas gardener (I'm sorry I can't remember your screen name) my son is so excited to put that out! She drove all the way from Kansas!

Thanks, catlady, for doing the daylily demonstration-I learned a lot from it and not just about daylilies- gardening in general.

And thank you Lindy Loo for sharing her potting soil recipes that she's actually conducted studies on her own potted plants to come up with the perfect growing mix.

It was fun to meet new people and see the others I met this past spring. I hope to see everyone in the spring. I would love to host the spring swap again.

Thanks for a fun day!

Charlene

Hi Charlene,

This is gonna be my last post tonite, butÂyipeee! IÂd love to go to another swap at your house. Wanna see all the changes from this spring! Are you up for a FEW more people than we had this spring?

If you get a chance, take a couple pictures of the plants you got and post them to help us convince David there really was a swap! I hadnÂt thot of that, but I think IÂll get all of mine together into one place tomorrow and take a picture before I do anything with them too.

Thank you for the compliment, but IÂm not so sure about the event planning! More than one or two a year and I think IÂd be dead real quick!

Keep an eye on how many hours of sun youÂre getting on the north side of your house where youÂre looking for recommendations, and let us know. IÂll see if I can come up with some possibilities for you. And I bet somebody would have some recommendations for shrubs too if they knew how much sun itÂs getting.

Thanks for coming, Charlene. And thanks for the yummy red cabbage coleslawÂpart of which IÂm going to take along when I leave on my trip!

Bedtime,
Skybird

I really enjoyed meeting all of the new people. I hope my daylily presentation was coherent. I decided with a bunch of experienced gardeners, it would be better to do a question and answer than to do Daylilies 101.

Since I'm not real active on the forum, I probably should have told you a little about myself. I am a lifelong gardener, starting with roses at the age of seven. I've grown bearded iris on a large scale and started growing daylilies in 1986. Our garden is an American Hemerocallis Society Display Garden and we grow approximately 4,000 daylily cultivars.

Our peak bloom season is in mid July. We host an Open Garden every year during peak bloom. This year was our 11th Annual. I have potted daylilies for sale at the event and the proceeds go to various cat charities. I raised funds for the Cat Care Society for years. They have their new shelter now and their Vet clinic is fully operational, so this year the funds went to a much needier organization, The Rocky Mountain Alley Cat Alliance. They are the folks who trap, neuter and release the feral cats. They are the only organization of their kind in this area.
A couple of years ago, I tried inviting the members of RMG to the Open Garden and the Garden Web administrators removed my post. I guess they must have thought that this was a place of business. I can't see anything inappropriate in inviting folks to tour an AHS Display Garden. Maybe I'll try it again next year and see what happens.

It was fun and I'll look forward to the next one.
Karen

That is my brand new swap-received cat mint inside Pablo's mouth!

Here is a link that might be useful:

Hi Dee, A hearty thank you for hosting the swap. You are very organized and detail oriented which made for a nice experience. It was great fun looking at some of the unusual plants in your pretty garden. I already have 5 of my new plants in one of my beds. I've decided to rearrange several of my beds so I'm digging and amending like crazy.

Hi Karen, Thank you so much for your talk on day lilies. You are a true expert. I ended up with 6 of your day lilies (of course your husband wanted me to take 6 more)but I now would like to know what they look like. They are prairie blue eyes, raggady ann, lace cookie, salt lake city, Avilda, and Swedish girl. I have looked on several sites and can't find them anywhere. Could you please tell me where to find Photos/info on them??? Thank you, everbloom/Donna

I spent quite a bit of today outside planting. Needed a sweatshirt to stay warm. Brrr! I planted a Butterfly Bush, some iris, a couple daylilies, and the fleabane daisy. I still have another half a dozen to plant, but it was getting dark.

I also tried to plant one of my broccoli seedlings. I put it on my railing on my way to the basement to check on my laundry. I came up, and a varmint was eating it! Only this varmint's name was Nike, and she'd already eaten a couple leaves off my tender seedling. I shooed her away and took the plant back upstairs into the plant room. I'll have to wait until it gets another leaf or two on it.

Bad cat! I didn't know cats liked vegetables.

Donna, I know of a couple of daylily databases. One is Tinker's Garden http://db.tinkersgardens.com/ . The other is the AHS registration database. http://daylilydatabase.org/
This will give you the registered description of the cultivar. Some have pictures and some don't. I'm usually able to find a photo by going to Google and entering ie.
daylily lace cookies.
Here's Prairie Blue Eyes. http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/14363/
Here's Raggedy Andy
http://www.wrightsdaylily.com/daylilyr.html
Lace Cookies
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/65025/
Avilda is on this page.
http://www.daylilies-hostas.com/dayliliesA.html
scroll to the bottom and click on the thumbnail to see a larger photo.
Swedish Girl
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2190523490036924364peottN
Hope this helps.
Karen

Echoing everyone else's sentiments when I say "Thanks Dee!" I had such a fun time, and learned a lot. Karen, your seminar was great! You especially solved the issue of why my daylilies that I moved here from Seattle didn't do as well - WATER! So I'm moving them from the zeric garden to somewhere where they will get more water.

Dee & JC, I think I have some of your poppy root. As I was cleaning up for the Habitat people, I found this bag that said poppy root, so I took it home with hopes to figure out what to do with it. So if you could post some advice I'll try and propogate.

Finally - I have to say that I was a slug yesterday. No, I wasn't eating all the plants I brought home. I just didn't go out and plant them, like so many of you did. Bad Alice!

Now they are sitting in the driveway nursery with a couple of my left over mail order plants and some pansies I bought a week ago. I better get crackin'.

I just wanted to add my 'ditto' to all that has been said. We had a great time!
Charlene, you are More than welcome for the gourd, did you only take one (the rule was to take several?). Seriously, if anyone needs or wants more for projects, Please email me, I have many to share!
Dee, it was So nice of you to open up your garden and home to us, thank you again!
Karen, thanks so much for the daylily help. I had to laugh when you talked about trimming with scissors, my husband and I are still doing that, but not after I order one of those handy dandy root knives you talked about. You made my husband and daughter So happy with that tidbit of information.
It was great to meet you all and thanks again for including us in your invitation and making us feel welcome.
Kelly aka ksplanter

Alice, I assumed the poppy roots were still with the seeds and some of the other stuff I have on piles all over! If you have them, hereÂs what to do with them!

Cut the roots into about 1 1/4" pieces. Assuming you canÂt be sure which is the "top" of the root, lay them horizontally in a small pot or, better, shallow tray of NEW potting mix (in this case sterile could make a difference). Cover them with about a quarter inch of soil. Firm the soil and bottom water to saturate the soil, and then probably cover them LIGHTLY with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out too quicklyÂbut allow for some air circulation too so they donÂt stay too wet and rot. It should take several weeksÂpossibly up to a couple monthsÂbut youÂll eventually see baby plants start to come up from the roots. After the first time you saturate the soil, donÂt get it that wet again. Just keep it moist. Let it get on the dryish side before you water again, then water lightly just enough to moisten it.

Since you have plenty of root, you can also do this. Cut a section of root into pieces, keeping them all going the "same direction." Then stick them into new soil vertically with one end of some of them up, and the other end of the rest of them up. Push them into the soil so the top of the root is just even with the top of the soil. Water the same as above. The ones that are in the soil "right side up" will root. The oneÂs that are upside down probably wonÂtÂbut IÂm not absolutely positive about that!

Oriental poppies rot pretty easily, so once you see new growth starting, leave them dry out almost all the way before you water again. That will also help promote additional root development. And donÂt pot them up into too big a pot, or they WILL rot.

With all the roots you have, if youÂre successful, you can bring a whole bunch of orange oriental poppy plants to the Spring Swap!

Gotta go! IÂm not way behind on my vacation preparations anymoreÂIÂm way, way, way behind!

Skybird

P.S. Kelly, thank you again for the "thank you!" (IÂm gonna see if I can use it on my trip!) You didnÂt get your Mesa Verde and your columbine with the tree growing in them! When I get back from vacation you can send me your address and IÂll pack them up and send them to you! I'll email you when I get back!

Thanks Dee! I'll get this done as soon as possible. Hope the roots will last. My 10 month old puppy was spayed yesterday, so I'm kind of tied to her for the next couple of days.

Have a blast on vacation!

Alice,

Leave the bag open far enough that there's some air circulation. If moisture builds up in the bag, there could be a problem. A LITTLE bit dried out will be better than too wet.

Outta here,
Skybird

Hi Karen,
Thank you so much for providing web sites for the plants I got from you. I have now found pictues of all. I like the fact I have a few of the ruffle variety. As I told you at the swap, my favorites from you are still the 2 spider daylilies I got about 4 years ago.
Thanks again,
everbloom-Donna

I'd like to put in my thanks as well - it was so fun to meet everyone and I did the happy dance all night in honor of all of the lovely plants I received. :)

I was so inspired by you all--very excited to be getting back into gardening since moving here 2 years ago. Even though we are still in a rental, I just had to clear some space and get some things growing. Next Spring/Early Summer I will transplant what I can. Here's some photos of the new garden space. Thank goodness for a cool weekend to clear out all the weeds and broken glass from the side yard. These pics were taken in the morning, but it gets good southwest exposure and hopefully everything will be quite happy here!

Dee--thanks so much for the inspiring garden and great hosting! What a fun day.

Nedra--if your lurking out there :) thanks for the well prepared plants. I'm especially excited about my nanking cherry. Do you know if it would be ok to keep this in a 5 gallon peat pot? I have some of those around, but not sure if it would be OK in this until about next May.

MMMM...my house smells of lavendar from whoever brought the huge bag of dried lavendar. Dee handed it to me as I was leaving--love it. What variety is it and is it hardy?

I am ape over my nanking cherry, too, and loving that delicate foliage! I'd like to pop mine in a five-gallon pot as well, I hope it will do alright. The only sad thing is that gorgeous peony plant. The dogs broke it off at the base, but I planted it anyway. Please come back next year, little peony! Everyone was planted in a nice square of earth, all prepared and filled with earthy goodness. I suspect that the lavender came from Dee directly. I'm going to use my little bulb of Applegate garlic from Lilacs tonight with dinner. I want to plant it, but mainly I want to eat it! Oh, and we brought home FOUR gourds!! Started with one and left with four...no idea how that happened, really................not really, I do know, I waited, waited, asked, waited, and then took more :)
My boyfriend said he really liked you Kansas gals, "I liked them right off the bat." I liked everyone I met and wish I'd had more time to chat with you all.
I really wanted to talk with Amester more and share info about our friends new cancer book, which is chock full of info on how to take care of yourself for prevention and especially on how to keep it from coming back. But, it was a long day and poor Darren looked like he was going to tear up while you were talking about your experiences. His aunt is starting chemo in six weeks and just had her bladder and uterus removed, so it is a touchy subject at the moment for him.
I wish we had had time to stay longer, but thanks to Lindy-Loo for giving us a mini-presentation on the soil!!
I wish I could remember the names of everyone we met...there was Alice, Lindy-Loo, SingCharlene, the lady who mentioned the flying spaghetti monster, the Kansas gals, Amester, Azura, the couple looking at the tomatoes (one in hat one with perfectly curly hair), CatLady, wasn't there a Ginny? oh, I can't remember!!!!
Glad we went, how is that?

Yes, I'm lurking as usual! But, I really should stop that and add my thanks to you, Dee, for hosting such a fun day.

Ginny and Jennifer, Yes, I think the cherry bushes would make it okay in a 5-gallon container--I'm not sure, though. Does anyone else have an idea about that? Maybe someone else has more experience with it than I do.

An alternate way that I sometimes save things that I don't want to plant is to sink the container somewhere in the garden in soil to the same level. I think that usually works better if it's in a clay pot with drainage, though.

Nedra

I've got everything planted except for two Buddleias and the sedum. Still not entirely sure where to put them. I'd like to put one Buddleia in front, but I'm not sure what will happen to it when I finally am able to landscape the front yard.

I wanted to say thanks to everyone that brought plants to the swap, and of course to Dee for delivering them personally.

I am the lucky recipient of three daylillies, a crocosmia, some columbines, sedums, daisies, sage, and even a houseplant!

I am hoping some of the seeds I mailed made it home with someone.

If there is a spring swap, count me in!

I put my thanks in the other swap thread, but I do want to thank the person that brought the fleabane daisy. I'd been looking all over for one and had been unsuccessful, then I went to the swap and there it was. Kismet.

It's planted next to the back porch where it'll get some sun, and it looks quite healthy and happy.

An extra Thank You to Lilacs of May for the garlic!! I had planned on eating it earlier, but we did not get around to it. Then, last night, I put the entire Applegate bulb, diced, into my pasta primavera. Oh, my word! Talk about a lot of taste from a tiny bulb!!
Diced mushrooms
diced garlic
dash olive oil
1/4 cup diced onion
chopped basil to taste
put in pan, heat with salt and pepper until onions are translucent

add these to the pan:
1 or 1/2 carrot, sliced on the bias
one head of broccoli, separated into florets
half yellow squash, chopped fairly large
handful of green beans, chopped a bit larger than 1"
1/4 to 1/2 bell pepper, any colour, julienned
1/2 cup onion, chopped
basil, chopped
heat until carrots and broccoli stems are tender enough to your liking

all the while, cook pasta. I used gamelli. Drain in a colander, place lid on top to keep warm.
In the pot you cooked the pasta, place the cooked veggies, scraping out all of them but leaving a little bit of mushroom stuck to pan.
place on heat, add Almost a pint of half and half in (for you Canadians, that would be table cream)
add 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
add 1/4 to 1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese, broken or sliced
let medium heat warm it up, raise heat if needed
add nutmeg, about 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon

add pasta, stir/fold until sauce covers it
add veggies, do same
serve, top with more chopped, fresh basil
Eat!!

When re-heating the next day, use the last bit of half and half and a teaspoon of olive oil, warm that first, then add the leftovers