I had a great time on Saturday. I loved meeting everyone. Thank you all for your generosity. My husband wanted to stop and watch a movie as soon as we left the park. Ugh! I looked and smelled ferocious, but we stopped and watched Captain Phillips. Awesome movie. We took our time driving back and stopped and had dinner. All in all, we had a great day. Thanks again everyone! I worked in the yard all day yesterday. My body is paying for it today at work! Thank goodness I'm not busy. Can't wait until the next plant swap. See you then! Darlene

I saw Shiela with rosemary, in her hand. I sounds like something she would do. I had a great time at the swap. This year I had nothing to do with organizing the swap, I just drove there. Next year, the mayor of Balcones Heights wants us to let her know ahead of time, so she can put a note in their local paper, so if any residents want to attend to swap plants they can. She thought it was a wonderful idea having the swap, so everyone could get together to swap palnts. I call Delia the city secretary, every year, to let her know when we are having our swap, and get the phone number of the officer with the key. This year Delia was not in the office. There are only a few streets with homes in Balcones Heights, you can see them as you drive down Balcones Drive, the main road. Balcones Heights encompasses just less than one square mile. 80% of that is commericial property including Wonderland Mall, Springfield Marriot, Howard Johnson, Luby's, Howard Johnson, Tx Heart Hospital, Norris Confrence Ctr, Dave and Buster's, and at least 6 different Apts complex. There are very few homes, and most residences are seniors, that is why no one ever uses the park, not even children. It is just a neighborhood, but because of all the commercial property, they have a paid fire dept and police dept. If the mayor post information regarding our plant swap in their local paper, I don't think any of the residences will even come, except maybe the mayor. Barbra

Thanks for the info Mara. Anyone know of such a service in San Antonio that is being offered by Natural Gardener? I guess the Ag. extension agency is one, but not sure how responsive they are. I took something once and never heard back. I'd rather have an on the spot ID. Still working on IDing them myself with a 10 power jewelers loop. Also I'm interested in clumping bamboos if anyone sees some 'on' sale and even 'for' sale. I haven't been able to find where chilli thrips have infested bamboos on the internet. Or maybe someone has some to share. A bamboo club used to set up at Vivabotanica. Anybody here a member and know if they will do so next year?

Lisa -- you were missed! You better make it for spring or you'll be in big trouble ... ;-) If anyone is talking to Sheila tell her I'm sorry I forgot to get a bag to put seeds of the Hopi red amaranth in, but I'll bring some to the spring swap. We got to talking about other things and it slipped my mind. Never one to miss a chance to post a picture, lol, this is the plant I'm talking about. I'll be ever grateful to Jolana for passing seeds along to me ...