I drove by Tyson Park the other day and noticed they were doing major construction. I called the Parks and Recreation Department to check to make sure the park would be ready by May, and they said it would. Maybe we'll be lucky and it will be all fixed up for us. It's usually in decent shape, so I'm not sure what they are doing to it now.

This is good news! I'm already looking forward to it, and hope that I'll be able to attend - really hate that I missed the fall swap. Thanks for all your efforts in this Brandon.

Hi Brandon,
I am cautiously starting to think that maybe I can make it to the swap. I wanted to, many times, but.
My question is, how neat do my plants have to be? The pictures on the swap page show professionally and carefully potted plants. What if I only dug up a clump of perennials this morning, divided them into several parts and wrapped in burlap and rags? I understand I have to label them. Thank you.

Clumps are fine as long as they'll make it home in good condition. I've brought unpotted clumps of things like Crocosmias before. I think I wrapped the clumps of roots up in newspaper. I have even seen people bring bare-rooted stuff before, but I'm personally a little leery of trading for bare-rooted stuff that time of year. Just keep in mind that the stuff needs to be able to hold up under quite a bit of heat for at least half a day. Many people may also not be able to get everything planted as soon as they get home.

The pictures on the website may "sugarcoat" the appearance of the "average" stuff found at plantswaps, because neatly planted stuff makes better pictures (-:

You'll probably find a broad range of things at plants swaps, from relatively small seedlings to large mature potted plants, and from bare-rooted stuff or newly planted things to things that are about to outgrow their pots.

PS....

If you look closely at the website photos, you'll see that one photo shows Karen holding a jar of brugmansia cuttings. They are probably rooted (not sure), but are definitely not potted. You can also see, in one of the pictures, that some plants are a little wilty. That doesn't necessarily mean the plant is in trouble, but probably does mean that the plant was freshly dug.

Thanks! I'll try my best.

Just wanted to remind everyone, again, about the ETPS. It's about a month and a half away. If you plan to post pretrade offers/requests on our website's "Forum", now's a good time to start getting your lists together. I've already posted about half of what I plan to bring. A few others have also posted offers.

The plant event of the year is next Saturday!!!!!!

Everyone that is coming to the swap, please bring a gardening friend if you can. We usually have between 35 to 60 people at the spring swaps, but I'd love to see that number grow! If you can think of someone that likes growing things, consider asking them to tag along. Even if they don't have things to bring to swap, they will be welcomed, and, I'll bet we can find all kinds of neat plants for them.

I can't believe it, it seems that I am actually coming. My plants are not much, but I have really wanted to check this event out, it's been a while.