It seems like people are more interested in gardening in spring or early summer. Aren't you moving into autumn right now? Aside from seasonal bias, I find the events most attended at our local garden center are those with speakers on certain subjects. The hot topics seem to be small space/container/balcony gardens, edible gardens, and drought tolerant gardens. Perhaps you could add a volunteer speaker and have the plant swap follow.

Thanks Fun2BHere, that is a great idea ! I will work that into the next event. I really appreciate your input. Yes it is autumn here, but oh so hot, 30 degrees celcius, every day. It has been like this for 3 weeks, and is really oppressive.

I wonder if 5 consecutive Saturdays when coming to the end of the season aren't a bit too much. Could you make it more of a weekend event, something for which gardeners would want to mark their calendars.

The way they are done here is with quite a bit of lead, often asking for volunteers to bring cookies, treats. A chance to meet like-minded people - A day, or weekend, to meet and trade. Here, end of the season, focus is often more on garden cleanup, and how many more family activities can be fit in that didn't get accomplished over summer, before kiddos are heading back to school and life gets even busier. By the end of summer, I'm in a panic considering all I haven't finished that I'd meant to do, and can become almost resentful of impositions on my time (clearly I'm not a Fall/Autumn personality ;))

Thanks morz8, good ideas - more planning for next month, for me.

We do spring and fall swaps and it's a fun get together. I actually love the fellowship and food. The plants are the dessert :-)

I would point out that due to Australia's different climate, autumn is a really good time to plant because the ground is still warm while the plant is getting established, then it gets a lot of reliable water as our winters are rainy as opposed to snowy, so they get well settled in before having to cope with a blistering hot summer.

I wonder if these days there are more people that want plants than have them to share. Maybe interested parties stayed away because they had nothing to contribute? I once did a bedding plant swap with a few friends. I brought marigolds (my favourite). I ended up with a lot of petunias and all my marigolds because apparently I am the only one that likes them LOL. I was hoping for a more interesting mix.

I organize a plant swap every spring here, but it is only for a volunteer group that plants flowers in our city. I find it hard to draw in "new" people every year, but the same die hard ones still love to attend. I can't understand why people don't want new plants - for free!

Even though fall is a prime time for dividing some plants, it seems that spring is when people are most enthusiastic about planting and attending this type of event.

Sounds like a great idea and your enthusiasm is obvious. Is it possible the event needs to be moved to a different location or is the advertising missing the mark? Decide who you think would benefit and/or be interested in plant swapping and target them. I garden in a community garden and we have a table for give-a ways. I can put something there and it will be gone ASAP!!! I recently put 6 pots of raspberry plants on the table and they were gone in 10 minutes. I look there every time I go into the garden and I know I'm not the only one. People in the community outside the garden also leave plants and pots and tools, all sorts of stuff outside the gates which is nice but can be messy. Let me emphasize this community garden is in a fairly wealthy neighborhood and most people can purchase plants if they want but there is something about rescuing a plant and you can try growing something you might not try if you had to buy it.... Good luck with your project.

I wanted to add that I think dances-in-garden had a good point about people staying away because they feel they have nothing to give. I don't know how you could overcome that but perhaps charge a nominal fee for entrance to people who come empty handed or perhaps except other gardening items like tools ( I LOVE old garden tools) or pots...

Start by "assembling" some participants, & then find a venue in which people can park their cars, haul out their plants, sit in the shade, & take time to visit.

Years ago I posted a message on the Texas Forum asking if there was interest in a swap, & we've been doing it twice a year for maybe 15 years now.

The opportunity to chat back & forth online before the swap (long enough for them to plant seeds or separate plants or paint containers) helps;

if people have put it on their calendars & have picked some things to take & are looking forward to it, the swap will be more lively.

We post 2 threads, one giving directions to the location & going over the "rules" & a separate one for people to list what they have & what they want.

On the "rules" (in quotes because, really, you can swap anything you want as long as everybody is happy), we list/suggest some items you can offer, & these days we include books, magazines, garden art/junk/crafts, deli or grocery items (I once traded a bunch of crinum lilies for a can of coffee!).

People have brought homemade breads & cookies, & I once traded 3 nylon net petticoats to someone who uses them in her art work. This same woman always likes to get old rusty pieces of iron & old enamel dishpans & such.

We encourage newbies to come to the swap even if they have only token items to offer; gardeners being the way we are, they will not go home empty-handed.

We do not allow it!

(If you come to the swap, you must go home with lemon mint!)

We have the swaps on a Saturday morning, since people often have Saturday afternoon plans, but there's another group that has its swaps on Sunday afternoon, since Sundays are pretty laid-back after church.

Our Ft Worth Swap is held at Trinity Park, across the street from the Ft Worth Botanic Garden; after the swap, people can visit the gardens or visit whatever event is taking place in the Conservatory (herb society sale, iris show, iris/daylily sale, garden club flower arranging show, water-wise presentation, organic gardening presentation etc).

For ideas, you might look at the swap threads on the Texas Gardening Forum, on the gardening side of the forums.

We're a pretty "talkative bunch", so you can get a real feel for the atmosphere of the swaps.

In the Alabama swap, participants are welcome to bring plants, cuttings, seeds, pots and containers, potting mix, gardening books, tools, and even homemade baked goodies!

Wow, thanks everyone for your fantastic comments. I have lots to think about now ! Sylvia, your swap sounds wonderful, what fun.

What happens if, when the swap is finished, you end up with a lot of stuff that hasn't been swapped ?

At our swaps, we let everyone take their first choice plant. Once that is done, we just let everyone take what they want. Occasionally there are a few that no one really wants but someone usually takes them anyhow. I always tell people they can come without any plants to swap because we always have more than we need. Some people have huge gardens and divide up dozens of plants to share.

Everyone brings their own items and takes them home if they haven't been swapped.

Participants are expected to bring their own bags and boxes for transport.

Toward the end of the swap, people go "door to door", or table to table, or blanket to blanket, with their leftovers & try to find them homes. Sometimes someone will volunteer to take the leftovers to another swap, & sometimes we have to take them back home & foist them off on neighbors or put them on craigslist or freecycle or compost them.

One good thing about having the swap on the same day as the herb society sale is that they can be prevailed upon to take leftovers, as long as you insist that you don't care if they get more than 10 cents for each item!

My post just disappeared.

popi, whereabouts in NSW are you? If not hugely, whoppingly far from me, I will certainly be at your next plant swap.

In fact, I'll plant some wattle seeds today. Have had them soaking for a while now and they are about to germinate.

Yes it is autumn here, but oh so hot, 30 degrees celcius, every day. It
has been like this for 3 weeks, and is really oppressive

Wouldn't that be the problem right there?

Apart from the oppressive weather that we have been having, I wonder if a part of the problem, popi, is the venue. When you say you hold the plant swap at a local community nursery, do you mean a retail nursery/garden centre?

If so, if I were to spring upon a plant swap when I was visitting a nursery or garden centre, I would feel very awkward about just walking into the 'plant swap'.

OTOH, if I knew that a plant swap was being held at a certain time and place (preferably giving me enough time to organise something to take), then I wouldn't feel awkward.

Was there enough shade at the place?

Anyhow, I look forward to hearing about the next swap. I love the idea of plant swaps, especially when other things might be there (books, tools etc and yummy things). It's a lovely idea and it would give me a buzz to contribute to it.

And as someone said, Autumn is the best time for gardening here in Australia. Plants can be put into the soil in a lovely mild climate (when this weather gets its act together). They adjust themselves during that time and then buckle down the hatches for Winter. No snow, only frosts sometimes, and even they are becoming less both in number and strength. After a frost, we will often have a cloudless sky of blue, and it can be relatively warm. Especially if there is no wind.

Nurserymen here do their biggest, most profitable bit of selling during the long weekend of Easter.

Spring, on the other hand (my hobby is typing), is most trying. Windy, changable. Leading into a dry, desperate sort of summer with everyone moaning about the lack of rain. Then moaning about the rain when it finally comes. (Some of them.)

Yes, Tete, I think you are right. I was trying to think like a customer, and I do think there would be confusion about the nursery/plant swap in the same spot. I have to rethink that idea, as well. I am having a working lunch with my supervisor and I intend to bring up all of the wonderful points in this post.

You have all helped me a lot with your fabulous ideas .

I must say, during the swap there were some standout people, who embraced the idea with enthusiasm. One lady came about 4 times, and stayed and chatted, and brought so many gorgeous succulents in, she was lovely. She also took my brightly coloured pots, that I had upcycled and later came back with pictures of them in her garden ! So this was really the sort of contact I was trying to foster, in holding the event.

I want to motivate people into discovering the joys, of plants and where that can lead you. One lovely girl, who spoke very limited English, brought along some tiny basil seedlings from her little garden, took away some other plants. She was very lovely. At that point, I thought "another benefit is for people to practice English", if they are new to the country.

Lots of benefits with this type of event.

I'm in upstate NY and with a GW friend, attended a local plant swap around 2004. I had a bare yard, so instead, went to the $$ store and bought garden doo dads to swap, and some garden related books and magazines. All were well accepted. I wound up being given all of the leftover plants, which filled my car and got me started on my gardens! Then, off and on, I was gifted with more plants and this is what evolved.

Wow, that's a lovely story wantoretire_did. I spent 10 years doing my garden, growing plants from seeds, beautiful ferns, palms and ground covers.

The person that bought my house, pulled it all out - I was devastated, but wasn't my house any more ! It's all good life experience, I guess.

Thanks for your pics.

Yes, I had 2 close friends/neighbors, so I drove by often. DH told me to take another route so I didn't have to see it. Friends have since moved, so I'm not in the area often.