I do have a request, if anyone has "Snow in Summer" I would love a clump. It's prolific and spreads wonderfully in rock gardens, but the voles got mine. Will it be too early for this? I know most perennials show up at the fall swaps.

Concerning potluck food I'll be bringing salad from the garden. Leslie will probably make some sort of side dish.

I might also bring some packs of fresh herbs to share such as tarragon, lovage, oregano, and thyme.

Wow, those are some chives, Ginny! Hey, don't forget to message me with your email so I can get you on the list and get you some directions!

Salad from the garden already? Man, you'd have to eat cheatgrass and flixweed if you wanted anything from my garden yet! I could have used the greenhouse I suppose, but it's currently serving as a chicken coop.

Cold season is the best time to grow salad greens.

If anyone wants some nettles (Urtica dioica), let me know ASAP so I can dig and pot them up before they get tall and ouchy. Nettles do require gardening with gloves, and work best in an out-of-the-way corner, but they are fantastic for attracting butterflies, especially Red Admirals. They're also used in herbal tea and make for vitamin-packed spring eating. (Taste like spinach but different. Deee-lish!)

I've got a bunch of stuff I'm going to list when I have a bit more time. Watch this space.

Anyone have an extra orange mango red hot poker? It appears one of mine didn't make it. It is the orange plant in the foreground.

I've been a bit tardy most of this season so far as well, so I don't know exactly what I'll be bringing, but it'll likely be veggies and herbs.

I'm also willing to bring seeds to share if anyone has specific requests from my list. There'll likely be at least one of my favorite tomato (Crnkovic Yugoslavian, heirloom beefsteak), possibly an amaranth, and maybe some peppers and other things. We'll see. :)

If anyone has Shasta Daisies we would love truckloads of them. A vole ate a whole bed of asters. We took home 3 bags of Shasta Daisies last year and loved them. But to replace what the vole ate we would need the equivalent of 12 bulging bags of Shasta Daisies so if anyone has some we have a great home for them!

I'm very slow on getting seedlings transplanted this spring. I'm going to have to step it up this week! I'm not doing earmarking except for Seamus, listed below. What I've up-potted so far and know I'll be bringing:

Eggplant - at least one each of: Listada de Gandia, Rosita, Round Mauve and Ukranian Beauty.

Peppers - at least one each of: Caballero - an Ancho/Poblano hybrid, Big Jim, Chile Verde - an Anaheim/Big Jim type, Marconi Golden, Marconi Red and a Pimento - Round Tomato shaped.

Tomatoes - most sown April 10, so will be tiny and not hardened off. At least one each of: A Chocolate Drop, Amish Paste, Beefsteak, Be My Baby, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Juane Flamme, San Marzano, Sungold and Supersweet 100.

Earmarked for Seamus: 2 ponderosa pine, 2 corkbar fir, 2 Rocky Mountain Junipers, penstemon strictus, lambs ears.

There will be some down to the wire decisions on a few other things, a few annuals, penstemon strictus and baby trees. The weather coming the next few days will determine what I can transplant from the yard by Swap time.

Barb

I'll be bringing veggie/herb starts.

I have some large tomato plants that I started on march 3 as backups for my tomato plants I put out with walls-o-water on April 6. Those plants made it even though we had those two cold days down to 20 at night.

Big tomatoes:

Cherokee Purple

Kellogg's Breakfast

Black Krim

Black from Tula

Thessaloniki

Smaller tomatoes:

Dwarf Wild Fred

Dwarf Yukon Quest

Peppers:

Jimmy Nardello

Giant Marconi

Anaheim

Some herbs and also some Calendula

I would love some calendula. I use it in salves. Does it reseed easily for you?

Since I have so many chives in the garden already, I will bring some of our homemade goat cheese with garlic and chive spread with crackers. I'll bring some plain and some with sweet pineapple habenero sauce, too. I consider the cheese a product of our garden since the main reason we got into goats was for the manure to improve the soil for the garden!

I will be bringing a few flower starts

- purple coneflower

- red bee balm

- purple phlox

and hopefully these will survive the transplant - 2 clematis (no clue of color)

maybe more after the snow/rain

I have extra tomato plants, 2 of each

Red –

1884 Pink RL 10-18 oz. ---------- Grosse Serge RL 10-18 oz.

----------Morado de Fitero RL 16+oz.

Aventuniai RL 10-16 oz. -----------Pervaya Lyubov PL globe 6-8 oz. (First Love)

Biyskaya Roza RL 10-18 oz. -----------Olga Pink Heart 6-8 oz.

Crnkovik Yogoslavia RL 8-12 oz. ----------Olive Hill PL 12+oz.

German Red Strawberry RL 12-20 oz. ----------Zena’s Gift RL 12+oz.

Black –

1884 Purple RL 8-20 oz. ----------Margaret Curtain 6-8 oz.

Chocolate Stripes RL 3-8 oz. ----------Not Purple Strawberry RL 4-6 oz.

Dana’s Dusky Rose RL 6+ oz. ----------Owen’s Purple RL 10-14 oz.

Cherry –

Candy Sweet Icicle (teardrop, red w/golden stripes)

Sweet Orange II (round, orange, sweet)

Crovarese (red grape, tangy)

Brad’s Atomic Grape (black)

I also have food grade white buckets, and also lids that may or may not fit the buckets. I use them under my potted peppers.

Jerry - I would love a couple of your dwarf tomatoes as I didn't start any this year.

Ginny,

This is my first year trying Calendula. I had poor success germinating seeds in starting medium, but very good luck in a baggie. so, I have a few extras.

I forgot some tomatoes:

Big ones:

Red Currant (from Oladon seeds)

Cherokee Purple (2)

Small one (still ready to go)

JD's Special C-Tex

Foodwise, I will bring cucumber salad. I will make it myself, so eat at your own risk.

ginnytrcka, got any extra milk? :)

Ginny, I would love some chive plants, thanks!

Mmmm12, I have lots of Shasta daisies, I’ll dig some up and earmark them for you.

I'll be bringing:

Mint

Lilac

Sweet Woodruff

Raspberries

Asters

Johnson’s Geraniums

Russian Sage

Vinca

Plain old orange daylily

Comfrey

California Poppies

Larkspur that I can bring if there's interest, but will leave in place if there isn't. (or seeds, if you'd prefer)

Feel free to put dibs on raspberries or asters, so I can bring extras.

And, I need some advice from the masters... Which of these would be good to bring extras of for Seamus, our Eagle Scout that has his service project up in Empire?

Once again, I had great intentions, and lousy follow through. None of my stuff is potted up yet. :(

Faith, do you still have an abundance of Red Hot Poker? I tried to split the plant you gave me last year so I could share with a friend, and killed half of it.

Skybird, if I dug up and shared some spring bloomers, like tulips or grape hyacinths, would that be a bad idea at this time of year?

Stace, what color is your vinca? Any comments on it that someone should know?

Also what color and how tall are your asters?

Don't feel bad about not digging stuff out. We dug out and potted up a ton of Rasberries. They all look dead after this cold spell.

Faith, thank you, thank you, thank you! I really loved the ones we got last year and they are coming back but our vole toasted a whole bed of asters so there is room for more Shasta Daisies!

We can also bring Chives and Lambs Ear. I know no one took the Lambs Ear last time so we ended up throwing them out but then a day after someone on Nextdoor wanted a Lambs Ear plant so I will offer them on Nextdoor if no one wants them this year.

mmmm12, the vinca is Vinca Major. It just looks like mutantly large periwinkle. Violet blue, evergreen, trailing vine. I noticed it has come up in the grass outside it's designated zone, so I thought I'd offer it to someone else. I only have a plant or two doomed for removal.

The asters are purple. Maybe 18" tall at a guess? They run like crazy. What started as one plant is now covering an area around 2' x 5'. I'm sure they would like some more real estate, but enough is enough. I'm going to pot up all the extras. I'm hoping they would be a good addition to Seamus's service project, but I'm waiting to hear back from some others whether they would be too garden thuggish.

Stace,

Of the things you listed I'd be inclined to recommend Russian Sage and your "plain old orange daylily" for Seamus! Russian sage is VERY xeric and doesn't like water at all (after it's established!) so it could go in a xeric "box" if he decides to plan them that way. The daylilies are said by some people to be xeric, but in my personal experience they do way, way better with regular watering--I don't actually believe they do well at all in a truly xeric setting!

The other things you list, in my opinion, would be too "invasive" to work well in boxes--where space is going to be limited, and after a few years I think they'd tend to "push out" other things in the box! Especially true for mint, sweet woodruff, raspberries, vinca--major or minor, and comfrey. CA poppies reseed insanely! And the perennial asters were invasive beyond my wildest dreams when I got one from somebody at a swap one time! After about three years it was going everywhere, including under landscape fabric and growing up thru it! I decided to get rid of it completely--it was growing in HEAVY clay and still spreading insanely, so I dug it up and took it to a swap--with Fair Warning! It was at least three or four years after I "dug it up" that I was spraying shoots that were still coming up with Weed-B-Gon, trying to get all the way rid of it! Like you said, you now have a patch that's 2 X 5 feet, so in a few years one of his boxes would completely fill up with them--and since they bloom way late there wouldn't be any other color at all in the box during the summer. Just my opinion!

I don't remember if Johnson's is one of the geraniums that's invasive or not, but generally the perennial geraniums do better in at least part shade, and it sounds like his project is gonna be in all/mostly sun--and high altitude sun at that--so maybe not!

Bulbs! Digging up your spring blooming bulbs now would be a BAD idea! They need to keep growing--with all the foliage still attached--and NOT braided!--until it dies down completely naturally. That's the period where the bulbs are "building up the strength," and "forming the buds" to bloom the following year. If you mark carefully where they're growing, in late summer you could dig up some of them and bring them to the fall swap--if dug up "too early" they can be kept in the fridge (with some air circulation) until it's time to give them away and/or until it's time to replant them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

As of now I have these things for Seamus/Jon! You all know that my plants are small, so it'll take a year for them to get going! I suspect he'll be able to grab more of these things in the free-for-all if he wants them!

>>> Not xeric:

Ajuga reptans ‘Royalty’

Chrysanthemum maximum ‘Becky’ - shasta daisy

Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ - black-eyed-susan

Solidago canadensis ‘Golden Baby’ - goldenrod

Veronica ‘Royal Candles’ - spike veronica

>>> Xeric:

Delosperma basuticum ‘White Nugget’ - iceplant

Penstemon strictus

Sedum ‘Angelina’

Sedum spurium ‘Dragons Blood’

Sedum hybridum

Sedum ‘Tricolor’

Veronica liwanensis - creeping veronica

And I'm planning to collect some different varieties of hen & chicks for him--unrooted--with complete directions on what to do with them!

Skybird

Stace, I can dig up a red hot poker for you, no problem. And I’d be interested in some asters. I have a hard clay bed that needs a little something along those lines.

Your comment on Vinca made me remember that we have an area behind our garage that’s getting torn out. It has lots of vinca minor, red Valerian, spurge(?), and some very tall grasses. If anyone wants any, let me know and I’ll dig out some extras. There’s lots!

Hi Faith,

Just saw your post about the "spurge," and just in case this is the one you have--here's some info! If what you have is "myrtle spurge" a/k/a "donkey tail spurge," Euphorbia myrsinites, it's on the A List of Noxious Weeds in Colorado--eradication required! Here are a couple links with more info that will help you figure out if this is what you have, and if you're still not sure, google the genus/species for images and you'll find lots of pics.

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/agconservation/myrtle-spurge

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RnaP62PJCsI_Y9OrBNoYTyYnftQWMgeu/view

(If this link doesn't work you can get there directly from the "myrtle spurge fact sheet" link on the first site!)

I thought the Valerian/Centranthus was somewhere on the list too, but I was wrong about that one!

Skybird

Stace_s, I would love raspberries and comfrey. Faith, I'll take red Valerian, too. I have room for the space hogs and a seriously clay area I'd like to try it !

I will also be bringing Euphorbia trigonia house plant splits. They haven't had time to root, but will easily root and grow if kept damp for a couple of weeks. I am seriously abusive to house plants and can only keep a few of the easiest to care for. This is one of those.

Oladon, sorry no milk yet this season. Goats are just starting to kid and won't be harvesting any milk for aaanananoanoanother couple of weeks yet. It's the sweetest milk ever! If I make the fall swap, I can bring some.

Thanks, Faith! I'll bring you some asters, too. Ginny, I'll bring some extra raspberries and comfrey for you.

This weekend I worked it out so someone else can pick up my Girl Scouts and I can come to the spring swap. I'm excited to get to attend!.

Last weekend I had put my tomato plants outside for a little sun, got distracted and forgot about them, killing them all! I was looking at all the tomato plants people are saying they have to share. In my head I starting thinking of a couple I would like to ask for if it's not too late for dibs...

Then this morning I got word that one of my scouts, my second daughter, had a seizure last night and is in Children's hospital potentially fighting for her life. Tomatoes suddenly don't seem so important. We hope to get some answers today and hopefully get her off of the ventilator. I mean to still be at the swap. If anyone wants to set aside a couple of tomato plants for me, I'd appreciate it.

I have a few things potted up to share. A couple pots of flax, a blue fresca grass, and pink yarrow. If anyone is interested I could dig up oregano, Shasta daisies, Skybirds never-say-die purple asters, chicks and hens or honeysuckle.

I just want to re-iterate Skybird's message about the myrtle spurge. PLEASE, please, do not grow or share myrtle spurge. It is absolutely a List A invasive species in Colorado. While you are unlikely to receive a house call from your county weed coordinator about it, you are required to eradicate it and I HIGHLY recommend that you do.

Myrtle spurge was introduced as a fantastic xeric landscape plant by the Denver Botanic Gardens and well suited to our area it is... A Little too well. It has escaped from cultivation and is now taking up residence in our natural areas where it out-competes our native plant communities and it is a TOUGH plant to kill. We have a small population of it out at Rocky Flats NWR that we discovered a few years ago and even though it is small, we have not been successful in fully eradicating it despite our best efforts. Every year it keeps coming back. We are making progress, but slowly.

Cypress spurge is also a List A invasive, but I don't see it nearly as much being grown in landscapes ans myrtle spurge. However, the same rules apply. Leafy spurge is a List B invasive, but I don't know that it ever is, or was, grown as an ornamental.

Myrtle spurge (Euphorbia myrsinites)

Have any kudzu to bring to the swap, Zach! LOL!

This has NOTHING to do with the swap, but I just ran into this site recently, and thought the folks here--especially you!--might be interested in looking at it! It's a timeline of invasive species that were "introduced" into this country--going back to the 1500s!--and how/why they got here or were brought here! It lists both flora and fauna! Dandelions are the Pilgrim's fault!!!

http://eattheinvaders.org/we-came-over-on-the-mayflower-too/

Very interesting about DBG introducing the donkey tail spurge! I had no idea!

Gee, I seem to be "running out" of cheatgrass! Maybe I should bring some of yours home with me to "get it going again!"

Since noxious weeds have come up, I might as well post this link too for anyone who might want to check to see if something is a noxious weed in Colorado. This is a good site because it tells which "list" each plant is on--and explains what the different "lists" are--and it also has pics of the different plants for quick ID. The "problem" with this site is that they're alphabetical by COMMON name, so, for me at least, it's more time consuming to see if something is on the list!

https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/agconservation/noxious-weed-species

Skybird

Oladon, wow, just wow, what an impressive list! I'm in awe of your organization! Not sure if I read it correctly, but I could give a good home to any extra dianthus or nasturtiums. I have about 300' of rock garden I'm filling in the spaces. Do you have horehound? That sounds interesting since I like to grow medicinals.

catnohat,

Would love some of your Shasta Daisies and also pink yarrow. Do you want catnip this year?

Thanking about the never say die asters. Mine never spread when I planted them and then this year the vole ate a ton. Trying to decide if I should put the more invasive type in. Apparently mine were the never move from your spot under any circumstances type.

We are bringing chives, catnip, maybe raspberries (some seem to show some life), a dwarf purple lilac that suckers slightly but has been a good 20+ yr performer for us, an unknown bush that gets very large and does sucker. This is a good screening plant if you want a fast growing attractive bush, doesn't take too long to get over 6 ft tall and then seems to stop, but it does spread itself out over time.

Still wondering if anyone wants the lambs ear (apparently it does have medicinal value so someone may want it but it does spread everywhere).

mmmm12, I will have a couple of yellow zuke starts for you

Jerry

Thank you Jerry!!! I looked to buy the seeds you said you bought last year but they were all sold out. As I've raved before, they were the best zucchini I've every had because I got one per week all summer long, like clock work! I put them in everything last summer, pancakes, chocolate cake, on nachos, burgers, with chicken etc. I didn't know how to cook this summer with out them. :-)

Ginny, if you bring some thing to stick it in, you can dig up all the horehound you want while you are here. I don't have time to dig it up for the swap, but we have it all over the place.

Aaagh, I've had a crazy busy week and haven't been able to write down all the plants I'm bringing. The Urtica dioica (common nettles) aren't looking too perky after the last cold snap up here in Fort Collins, but I can attempt to bring some fresh cuttings in water that have popped up. Same goes for Nepeta cataria (true catnip).

Seeing as most of my garden plants are slow to get going this year, I'm mostly bringing houseplants, such as:

Aloe barbadensis (a.k.a. Aloe Vera/medicinal aloe)

Chlorophytum comosum (The original spider plant. Solid green.)

Chlorophytum comosum 'Hawaiian' (cultivar that is sometimes hard to find)

Chlorophytum comosum ‘Variegatum’ (Stripey cultivar that everyone had in the 1970s. Cream white with green stripes and edges)

Chlorophytum comosum ‘Reverse Variegatum’ (The reverse of the above. Green with cream white edges)

Saintpaulia (a.k.a. African violets. I've got some no-ID heirlooms with ruffled white flowers, and also some with simple deep violet ones.)

Crassula ovuta (a.k.a. regular 'ol Jade Plant/Money plant)

Kalanchoe daigremontiana (a.k.a. Mother of Thousands, a.k.a. This-Weirdly-Awesome-Plant-Will-Colonize-All-The-Pots-In-Your-House-You-Have-Been-Forewarned)

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana ( a.k.a. Florist's kalanchoe. Simple yellow flowers.)

Saintpaulia (a.k.a. African violets. I've got some no-ID heirlooms with ruffled white flowers, and also some with simple deep violet ones)

Y. guatamalensis, formerly Y. elephantipes (a.k.a. stick yucca or indoor yucca)

If I remember, I'll also try to bring some cuttings of Tradescantia Zebrina (purple/iridescent Wandering Jew cultivar) and Philodendron hederaceum/scandens (heart leaf philodendron) as well as a few short snippets of the variegated philo cultivar P. hederacaum 'Brasil'. Oh, and maybe a 'Heritage' raspberry plant or two.

Whew! Now off to make some labels....

I forgot to add I'll be happy to take home any purple coneflower or rudbeckia that shows up, as well as anything that grows well in rock crevices. Thanks!!

I’m running to the grocery store to figure out what to bring as far as food goes. I don’t have a ton of plants not listed. Most of the ones I have came from Skybird and all of you. I have basic hen and chicks, raspberries, oregano or Shasta daisy Becky (came from one of you). Not sure if I should bother bringing any of them or not? My ice plants didn’t make it :(

I have a mountain of CRW tomato cages that were left behind by the previous resident. I would really appriciate if some of you would take some so the wind quits blowing them hither and yon all around the property as well.

Oh heck ya! Haha. Anything else you need us to bring? I have chairs, sunscreen, a toddler, and a neighbor. Still figuring out food if you need anything specific.

I would be absolutely thrilled to take a few tomato cages off your hands "for you", Zach!

Ginny, I think I can manage some dianthus and/or nasturtium seeds!

Looks like it's going to be a great swap (as always)!

Nothing specific for food I don't think, just whatever you want to bring!

Yes, please take some! These damn things have been driving me crazy for months. I use a trellis/weave system to support tomatoes so they are nothing more than a headache that I have to go chasing all over the place every time the wind blows (which is a lot).

Skybird, feel free to pick as much cheatgrass as you want. Course you can just plant it right into the dumpster before you leave, ought to save you the effort of hauling it home.

I won't be able to make it this year. If anyone has any of Skybird's well-behaved shasta daisy to share, let me know.

I will have some hosta seedlings to share very soon if anyone is looking for shade-lovers.

Zach, do you want some knapweed for your noxious weed collection?

I don't have any, but I'm sure I could "dig some up"...

Diffuse, spotted, or Russian Oladon? No matter aminopyralid (Milestone) should make quick work of them regardless of species. But no, I don't want them. I have enough weed problems as it is. Leafy spurge, hoary cress, Canada thistle. Never understood why we call it Canada thistle in this country, it's from Eurasia and everyone else calls it creeping thistle...

Because blaming Canada is fun?

Rossnagi, I will take any Shasta Daisy that you can bring! I have a large bed that I'm trying to back fill after a vole cleaned it out this winter.

Ginny, I’ll get some Red Valerian for you.

Zach, it looks like the plant behind my garage is, in fact, myrtle spurge. I didn’t plant it there (it came with the house) and I didn’t realize it was on the “A” list of noxious weeds—in fact, it has been slowly getting crowded out by grass and thistles over the past four years. Two other invasives, perhaps? But you’ll be glad to hear that the whole area will be getting dug up by excavating equipment in a couple of months, so there will be one fewer patch of invasives in Colorado soon.

> so there will be one fewer patch of invasives in Colorado soon

Unless you dig it up after it's gone to seed, that is... :)

Also, this might be too late notice, but I just thought of it -- I'm preparing a big package of seeds to send to Val for the "Newbie Seed Project", so if anyone has any seeds you don't want, feel free to bring them and they'll go to a good cause!