My Marie Bugnet doesn't sucker but Frau Dagmar is a suckering fool. She suckers out into the lawn and comes up in cracks in our asphalt street. I dug up 15 from one bush this year and could do it again. Yes Henry Hudson does too but not quite as bad. The pavement series of rugosas sucker quite a bit also. Would I plant them as a hedge across the front of my yard? No!!! Frau Dagmar is taller than Marie in my yard when mature. It would look good the first year but soon you'd be fighting the suckers. The first thing I'd do would be to prepare the beds for next spring's planting. Unless you're going to remove those trees that shade the rest of your roses, I'd move them to the new beds so they at least get morning sunlight. Otherwise, except for the few that do get sunlight, you're going to lose the rest to shade or ground ivy. If kept deadheaded and pruned they should fill out and would make a nice show from the street. Have you raised them out of the holes yet?

I've gotten a couple emails asking questions on how this works and I realized that by calling it a "swap/trade" it has given new people the wrong idea. We do not trade or swap a plant for a plant. If you have nothing to swap, you can still come. If you only have three things to get rid of, it is conceivable you could go home with a dozen things. First step...go to the exchange thread and post what you are bringing (gardening and food/drink related). Read all the other posts in that thread and see what others have to offer. If you see something that you really want, set up that trade now, privately. Then that item will be earmarked for you and you can pick it up at the swap. Based on how it went last year, here's how it will work this year... Pack up all your unwanted items even if you posted them on the exchange thread and no one asked for them. There will be non-Gardenweb people here who might want them and beginners who need everything who did not want to appear greedy by asking for all your stuff in the thread. Between 9-10 am show up and unload your stuff. Find a spot in the back or front yard and put all your items down in that spot. Make sure all the plants have labels on them, even if it's nothing more than a marker on a leaf or a piece of tape on a cup. After you've unloaded and found your spot, wander around and look at what everyone else has brought. Eat. Drink. Socialize. When everyone has arrived, we will then, one person at a time, go over our pile of giveaways and stuff. You will tell everyone what you brought, how to cultivate it, etc. If you want whatever is being talked about, raise your hand and it's yours. If more hands go up then there are items, rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors determines who gets it. This is why you might get more than you came with. Plus there are always items that no one wants, and new gardeners can clean up at the end. After it's all done there will be more eating, drinking and socializing. Here's pictures from last year. You can see people discussing their plant giveaways, eating and socializing. Feel free to invite non-Gardenwebbers you might know who would be interested, just post on the exchange thread what they are bringing if you can. Can't wait to meet you all! Lori Here is a link that might be useful: 2009 Swap

Hey swappers, Are we going to let a little rain stop us? Heck, that's what the covered pavilion is for! Besides, the plants will love it and be much less stressed than otherwise. I'm getting plants together tonight, so I'll be ready to go tomorrow. I've got Indigo Spires salvia, "Blackie" sweet potato vine, Moonvine seedlings, a couple of luffa gourd seedlings, some dill, some *huge* fresh cuttings of my Peacock Rose geranium (which needed serious pruning!), a couple of very lanky Turk's Cap that I pulled out of dark shade, and probably other things I can't remember. Possibly some iris rhizomes, and some divisions of naturalized tazettas. And I plan to be there on time this time! ;-) Karen

After the prearranged trades are arranged, MAG swaps have not depended on one-to-one me-and-you swapping (not that all of the prearranged are one for one or only direct trades by any means). We sort of figure that all the swaps even out in the end. So if you don't have anything I want, I give you some of what I have that you want, some body else does the same with me. In the past, we have also said new gardeners just bring brownies or other great food and take home people's spare plants. Last year, there were some problems with plantless people arriving early, swooping down on many plants including many a prearranged plants (especually irksome sometimes ignoring the "if it has a name on the label or bag, it is spoken for"). While I am not proposing a traffic cop be appointed, I do suggest our plantless new people start their taking a little later in the morning. Perhaps keeping in mind our after lunch rule: If you touch a plant you have to take it and if you ask a question about it, you have to take two. And if you leave your car unlocked you may find some one had put Autumn Joy sedum plants in it. You'll can start yelling at me now for being a meanie. KimKa P.S. Bring just about anything garden related, seedlings, divisions, plants, trees, pots, buckets, magazines, tools. Just take home what ever doesn't find a home and make sure it isn't some one's stuff before you make off with it.