This is from the FAQ. I was going to delete the line about every swap being cold and rainy, but the forecast as of today is for rain on Friday night. We'll see. Appropriate dress may be tank top and flip flops. chrisMD *********************************************************** **More Free Advice: Helpful Hints for the Day of the Swap** 1. Sign in with the swap organizer. If you need to find someone, check the sign-in list to see if they've arrived. 2. Wear a nametag. Put your Gardenweb name on it, and your real name if you want. Remember - you know what you look like but we don't, and our mental image of you is usually quite different from reality. 3. Spouses, significant others, children and other pets should also get a nametag "John, DH of ChrisMD" or whatever so we know who they belong to. That's also how we know who they aren't. 4. Dress appropriately. Every Maryland swap (fall and spring) has been rainy, grey and cold. You'll be outdoors for 3 hours so wear clothes that can get muddy and waterproof shoes. Eat lots of brownies to keep your body temperature up. Dress the spouses, significant others, children and other pets too so you don't have to listen to "Can we leave now?" for three hours. Feed them lots of brownies - chocolate is a sedative. 5. Bring a piece of paper and label your car with your Gardenweb name. We usually park nose-in and have the trunks open so you can just tape the car's "name-tag" to the top of the open trunk. This sounds really dumb but believe me it helps tremendously in sorting out who is who. 6. Label your plants, either ahead of time, or bring markers to the swap for those who don't play 'name that plant' too well. Cynthia keeps plant labels by the PC and as she agrees to prearranged trades, marks one side of the label with the plant name and the other side with the recipient's name. It also makes it easier for her to sort everything the night before the swap. Clean Popsicle sticks are cheap and make good labels. 7. If you have special trades, presort out each recipient's goodies as you fill your car. ChrisMD puts each recipient's together in a paper grocery bag, labels the bag with the Gardenweb name of the recipient, and leaves it next to her car. That way, people can find her car and find their bag of goodies even if she is not standing right there. This also saves carrying plants from car to car looking for trading partners. When you have a lot of trades, this is critical to YOUR enjoyment of the swap. 8. Remember, a lot of times trading is not directly one-to-one. A gives to B who gives to C who gives to A. There's plenty to go around. There's going to be a LOT of stuff coming to the swap and it's all going to have to leave with someone. The only traders who leave disappointed are the ones who insisted on one-to-one even-steven trades. 9. If you're a newbie and you see something that's new to you, ask what it is. We're happy to share our experience, and our hostas and our physostegias and our rudbeckias.... 10. Please come at the opening time if possible and expect to stay for a while. You'll need that long if you plan on talking to EVERYONE. Plus, we have all those brownie breaks. 11. Free for all is after lunch. Anything not traded or gifted before lunch must be taken home by anyone who even looks at it. If you ask a question, you get two. 12. If the police show up (they usually do) do not offer them Cleome. Offer them brownies. 13. Remember to HAVE A GREAT TIME!

Thanks to all for your help! Sorry that I could not follow your replies more vigilantly. I actually had time to do what Dan suggested. Then covered the weeded zone at the tree's base with its own shedded leaves. ...Then luckily a major shower came along. ...Then the yellowing stopped almost instantly! We love this tree so much; starts to shade the house from the S-W sun, and is a winter haven for redpolls! Many thanks again!

"Fast growing ground cover": weed "multi-stemmed shrub": suckers all over your yard "For the more Experienced Gardener": it dies "Tree grows an amazing ten feet a year": & splits & falls over when the wind blows "haunting, musky aroma": like fox poo "Improved! Replaces the old series": Our patent on the old series has run out.

That's the method I'd prefer. Stuffing the sold sign in before closing was pretty common here (back when houses were selling) There were a couple houses however that had the sold sign up/down and replaced by for sale/up/down. LOL. It always made me wonder what was wrong with them, even though it may have strictly been a credit issue with the buyer.