Paula, I'm bringing cookies too because when I was at the store this afternoon (likely while you were posting that you picked up a tray of cookies, lol), I was hungry and cookies sounded good. : ) I'm also bringing a big bowl of mixed fresh fruit. I bought red seedless grapes, green seedless grapes, pineapple, strawberries and 3 kinds of melon. Of course, I'm bringing Tim, door prizes, $$ for the potty and a few plants as well. I won't list every type of plant I'm bringing, but there's 8 flats of plants so far, including: -- about 100 tomato plants (representing virtually all the varieties on my 2014 Grow List) --five kinds of sweet bell peppers---mini bell peppers that mature to yellow or red and full-sized bells that mature to red, orange or yellow --the smallest hot pepper plants y'all ever will see but they are only a month old and fully hardened off---just tiny. They are mostly jalapenos (Early Jalapeno, Gigantea, Grande', Big Guy and probably Biker Billy), There might be an Ancho Gigantea plant or two in the flat of hot peppers. --some herbs, including Smokey Bronze Fennel, Florence Fennel, "Vierling" Dill for sure and some sort of basil, I think...and maybe some parsley --some flowers, including Outhouse Hollyhocks (mixed colors), Rose Mallow, Lion's Tail (tall, mint family, orange flowers) and Balsam. --A flower used more like an herb, specifically as a tea plant. It is Hibiscus sabdariffa and the calyx's from its flowers are used in tea--they put the Zing in Red Zinger tea. I mostly grow it just because it is a beautiful plant. I won't know until we load up the car in the morning if there's room for more flats of plants, but if there is room, I'll cram in some more plants. Looking forward to seeing everyone and so happy the severe weather won't start up until the Spring Fling is over! Dawn

Denise, The Spring Fling usually is held in central Oklahoma. For the last few years, Paula (who posts here as P-Mac) and Ken have very graciously hosted the Spring Fling at their home in Norman, for which we owe them a huge debt of gratitude. It has been held in Tulsa at least once that I can remember and also sometimes at Will Rogers Park in OKC. We do not yet know where the 2017 Spring Fling will be held, but the location usually is firmed up in March and the Spring Fling usually is held near the end of April. Sometimes, plant exchanges and seed swaps do exist as a one-for-one swap, and anyone who participates in our Spring Flings can do it that way if they so desire. There is nothing wrong with that. However, what most of us do is this.....we load up our vehicles with extra veggie, herb and flower seedlings, seed packets, divisions/suckers (often trees, shrubs or vines), rooted cuttings, bulbs, tubers, etc. and take them to the Spring Fling where we pile them up on tables, in buckets and boxes, on the ground, etc. Then we beg everyone to please take as many as they wish because we don't want to haul them all back home again. It truly is the Spirit of Giving in action. There's always tons of stuff leftover as well. We also have a covered dish lunch with everyone bringing something to contribute to the luncheon. There's a rented Port-A-Potty and we all chip in a few bucks to help pay for that. There's an optional door prize activity where everyone who brings a door prize can get a ticket to participate later in the day in the Door Prize Giveaway. The door prize can be anything, new or used, and there's been a fascinating selection of door prizes over the years, including garden tools, decorative garden objects, canned goods (from the garden, of course), garden supplies like hats, watering wands, watering cans, hoops for low tunnels, floating row cover, birdhouses (sometimes made from birdhouse gourds that someone grew in their own garden), gardening books, home-made sugar-soap hand scrubs, rain gauges, planters or pots, etc. Mostly it is just a ton of fun, and I guarantee you that everyone who attends will leave a couple of hours later feeling like they just spent the day with long-lost, far-flung family members who are, if not related by blood, then surely related by kindness, friendship and the love of gardening. It is hard to explain it, but 5 minutes after you meet everyone, even those you've never met a single time before, you feel like you've known them forever. It happens every time. There's just an amazing kinship and no pressure---quiet, shy people can sit in a chair and mostly just watch if they aren't real comfortable talking with strangers, and that is OK too. I look forward to the Spring Fling every year just as much as I look forward to seeing extended family members on birthdays and seasonal holidays. Spouses and family members (and friends too) always are welcome to attend. It is the highlight of our forum's gardening year, and I hope you'll be able to join us. Dawn

Sounds like she is in the east side of Georgetown or down by the river. my guess is that she is Z 8a but barely almost 8b. It is one of those towns devided to the Balcones escarpment. Clay will need some amendment but is richer and will retain water in the summer. That is good. To the west of Georgetown , you get limestone and caliche. One ends up bringing soil in and building up beds if you want certain plants. "Gardening Success With Difficult Soils" by Scott Ogden is also a great book if the dirt needs dealing with. Their choices of plants are good but somewhat un imaginative and dated to what was available in the trade at the time of publication. So much more has happened in the search for conducive plants from Northern Mexico, China , Australia and OUR NATIVES since this book was written. It is still a good book for a gardener new to this area.

Patti, Normally poppies only transplant well if they are very small, so your success might depend on how large they are. Vitexes transplant well. I must have done something wrong. The car is loaded (and all the plants actually fit inside it, even with the canopy in there too), the food is made, the door prizes are sitting on the counter for us to grab as we walk out the door, etc., so we're all ready. This is not normal. I don't know if I can function tomorrow morning without having to run around frantically doing last minute things. Tim did ask me if I was going to run out to the garden first thing tomorrow to dig up one more thing that I just thought of. I told him nope, I'm done. I had to work all week on getting stuff done in case we got the rain they said was coming today. So far, no rain, but all the pre-Spring Fling preparations are complete. See y'all tomorrow! Dawn