Paula, The "only 39 days away" made me realize I'd better get busy figuring out what I am going to bring! I suppose it is a foregone conclusion I'll be bringing my extra tomato plants, and so far I've managed to not kill very many seedlings, so I have a lot of extras. I need to scout the garden and see what else I'll have to bring. Give the onions time to perk up. Often it takes them a couple of weeks after they were planted before you see much happening above ground, but they're likely putting out roots below ground. For door prizes, people bring anything they want to give away. We 'sign in' on a sign-in sheet when we arrive, and then someone (I think last year it was Plantermunn and Mrs. Plantermunn as they organized last year's plant swap) makes slips of paper with each person's name of them. Near the end of the swap (or maybe in the middle...), someone pulls the names out of a hat and awards door prizes. It is great fun. CONGRATS to DH on his new job. I know y'all must be so excited! It is a shame you're going to lose your full-time gardener, though. lol I think you mean Gamebird? She hasn't been online much this year. I hope that's a good thing and means she did find a new job. In this economy, it has been so hard to see so many folks unemployed for so long. I hope she's doing well. Maybe she'll see this thread and pop in to let us know if she's OK. Ilene, I do think we have some lurkers who are more comfortable reading than posting, and I hope they'll post more often too! OK, y'all, I need to go type a weather alert because the weekend brings us the start of spring, significantly cooler weather, and a chance of snow--so don't plant any warm-season stuff yet. Dawn

Mariann - Oh you are so welcome, I love sharing my experiences and there is so little info on this on the interent, with any form of detail. As far as the place I kept them, due to the time frame with Early Spring, I put the cuttings indoors. Really wasn't sure if they should be warm or cold, but I figured if I'm trying to root them from dormancy, they need to be coming out of dormancy. My assumption was correct on these particular items. I can't say on other woody cuttings, but I prefer the quicker method (in warmth) than the unknown "stick them in the ground" method. They ended up starting green growth, before the outdoor items did. I've actually heard that, depending on the HW cuttings, keeping them warm helps the root growth, so they were in my upstairs bathroom at about 70 degrees constant. Now I'm testing out the softwood cuttings...oh it's so much different! But the bagging method works beautifully with that as well. I have 3 English Laurel cuttings in baggie method and 3 English Laurel cuttings in perlite method. The baggie method has roots EVERYWHERE! And I do mean EVERYWHERE!!! They are growing roots over the entire stem! 3 out of 3 are growing roots. The perlite/bottle method is just starting to get root buds, but isn't showing alot of promise. 2 of the cuttings have died off, so I'm awaiting the growth of roots on one of the 3 cuttings. I'm kind of getting a feel from the type of plant (that I can't explain it) as to which type of rooting method to use for which type of plant. Some seem to do beautifully in the perlite and bottle method and others do better in the baggie method. I suppose it's just keeping notes on each type of plant. Wanted to point out on the propagation boxes above, the only thing lacking is a plugged terra cotta pot to dispense moisture. I've included a link below for one on GW. While they are beautiful, they need the moisture. Check out Easy Propagation Chamber on GW and you'll see what I mean. This is so fun....Thanks so much for the fun.... Toni Here is a link that might be useful: Easy propagation chamber

Wow! I got my seeds! It took a little detective work to figure out what swap this package belonged to, but once the fear of having lost my mind were over and i started pulling out my seed packets and recording them, the pleasure stretched out to 181 packets of a great variety of seeds, thanks to all of you, my new GGF(great and generous friends). you guys are de bom! The assortment is awsome considering that there was no want list matchups at all. Cathy, awsome job sorting our packages, I only got 2 of my own seeds, and the rest was just pure pleasure to receive and record! Thank you. Chris

Amy, It was great but we missed you and wished you had been there with us. Jen, I would hope so! If you didn't take home enough plants to keep your busy, then cleary that means you must take home a lot more next year. Mia, They both do vine and do best on a trellis. However, you could let them sprawl if you want. With the Armenian cukes, I grow them both ways....letting each plant climb or spray as it prefers, and get a great harvest either way. With the summer squash plants that are C. moschata, they vine wildly and will do so whether on the ground or climbing something. I find them easier to control on a trellis. In lieu of a trellis, how about an extra large bamboo teepee for each plant? I can just picture a certain little Sprout playing inside each teepee this summer. Dawn