Spring Swap

This past Sunday was the annual Spring Swap for members of the Rocky Mountain Gardening Forum. The RMG folks have done a swap in the spring and fall for the past few years. This is my third swap (spring, fall, spring). This year, we met in Longmont. (about a 2 hour drive for me). We had a potluck lunch and time to visit for a while (finally getting to match faces to the screen-names we already know), then we started the plant picking.

The "rules" allow members to post offers and requests beforehand and to have items earmarked for them in advance. After we've found the earmark recipients, we draw numbers to decide the order of the draw. Each member who brought plants gives a brief description of what they brought, then, in the order of the numbers, each person gets to choose a plant. We do two rounds of picking by the numbers, then it's a free-for-all. I tried to copy/paste a few pictures from the swap (with permission by the taker, Laura_42) but I can't figure out how to make that work (I suspect Flickr doesn't allow it) so if you're interested, click THIS LINK

These are the goodies I came home with this year. Since most of the plants are small, it doesn't really look like a whole lot in the pictures there's really a lot of stuff in there (click the links to see what they should look like grown up).

This first picture shows the many May Night Salvia (which were sulking a little when I took the picture but look great now), I think I have 8. There's also a Pasque Flower, Balloon Flower, Clematis (Radar Love), Dianthus (Arctic Fire), and an Oriental Lily (specifics unknown).

Then there is a Chocolate Mint, Chives, Agastache Desert Sunrise, Viola, 2 Blue Fescue (Elijah Blue), a Gazania, 6 little Cosmos, a Zauschneria (Hummingbird Flower), a Rudbeckia Fulgida, 2 Anemone Sylvestris (Snowdrop Anemone), an Ajuga Replens 'Chocolate Chip', Black Cherry Tomato, and a start of Dianthus Simulans that I hope will take root.

Finally there's 2 Lamb's Ear starts, a few packets of seeds (cukes, beans & peas), and quite possibly what I'm most excited about, Egyptian Walking Onions. I got to be the third person to pick and they were my first choice. They didn't last long and those who didn't get any really hope there will be more at the Fall Swap.

All in all, it was a great day!!