Hi, I have these extras in my garden to trade: Allium - karativense - white Butterfly bush - purple Confederate Rose - white opens to pink Caster Bean plants Black eyed Susans Echinacea - white swan Fennel Horsetail Iris - dark purple & also some mauve & burgandy Karl Foerster reed grass Ribbon grass - strawberries & cream Lamb's Ear Lemon Balm Lupine - mixed colors Ligustrum - rooted - 12-18" Moonflower vine - lavender Red Hot Poker Passiflora - maypop Pineapple sage Mints - apple, orange, spearmint, peppermint Rose of Sharon - rooted,about 12-18" Salvia - Purple knockout sage Queen Anne's lace Umbrella plant Yarrow- yellow & red Please email me as I don't always check this post. Thanks, Annette

Just had another one of these moments today. Someone stopped me today because she heard I was a botanist and wanted to know why her red maple was growing so slowly. I asked if the leaves were turning yellow (thinking it might be chlorosis from growing on alkaline soil). She said no, the leaves are red. At that point I figured it was a Japanese maple and told her it was probably just naturally slow growing. Then she wanted to know how long before she could sit under it for shade, and I said that if it was a Japanese maple then it might not ever get that big. "No", she replied, "what I have is a red maple". When I suggested possibly planting a red-leaf Norway spruce if shade was what she desired she said "I already have a red maple" and walked away.

re: cow names - I was a city kid moved to dairy country. Learned all those terms, but the hardest to remember/figure out was Polled Herford vs heifer. And with horses, the difference between a colt and a foal, colt being kind of the generic term many use incorrectly for a foal. That definitely wasn't the limit to my ignorance about country living, that's for sure, but the folks there were equally ignorant about some of the things those of us raised in the city were more familiar with. Usually it has nothing to do with brain power, just exposure. One of my favorite stories about common sense is a cousin who married young, with no domestic skills at all (her mother did everything for her). I was visiting and her husband went to the kitchen to get us some refreshments. He call out, "Susie, why did you put the ice cube trays in the freezer without filling them with water?" She replied, "But we didn't NEED ice cubes." She's not lived that one down.

Yep, I sow my seeds as soon as I have them - either self-collected, swapped or bought. I can't really see that it matters too much because plants have to grow under the conditions I can offer...which is mostly, place in soil, water, wait. Tbf, I do have some fails but I just don't want to get stuck with growing tricky and demanding plants. I don't tend to berate myself for germination fails, but definitely feel bad if plants gallantly germinate, then fail because I am too inconsistent or they need more/less light, water, fuss than I can easily offer. This year, for the first time, I did actually do a formal fridge stratification...but think I would have had exactly the same results if I had simply put them in the greenhouse and left them alone to get on with it. I sowed around 80 or so seed varieties, with 5 no shows (including relatively trouble free ones such as echinacea) No sign of anisodontea, cyclamen, schizachrium and 1 I have forgotten, while 2 of my apiaceae germinated, but turned up their toes (heptaptera and a selinum). I tend to go along with Ray Brown's advice at PlantWorld too...but I have also bought a couple of Gold Nugget seeds from Jelitto which have been treated to avoid cold stratification. I think my fails happened because I had seed arrive in January and the natural winter stratification in my greenhouse was not long enough (cyclamen and clematis), so I will keep the pots for another long cycle of natural winter chilling. I never use heated propagators, extra lighting or chemicals. I may scuff the seeds up if they have a recalcitrant seedcoat...or even do a water soak (but rarely). The worst that happens is certain plants which need both heat and a long season (such as thunbergias, cobaens, ipomea) take so long to get going that frost arrives before I see a single bloom. Doesn't matter with most perennials, but those which tend to act as annuals (in my climate) tend to be a bit of a wash-out.