Glad you did post here Anne_Marie,
I too am enjoying all my new plants but can't say they are in the ground yet. I received a sweet autumn clematis from someone that I am thrilled with and Shimla brought me some sought after plants I had wanted . I am also enjoying your Horticulture magazines.
I missed having the tables for our plants , it seemed easier to "man our stations" ,chat about our plants and get to know folks with the tables.Having said that it was a great day despite the heat and I look forward to the next one. Thanks again one and all. Oh yes and the food was delicious. Kareen

Here is a link that might be useful: Our pond and gardens

Ann Marie I too enjoyed the company but not the heat. I was wiped out also. I also do not have any room to plant even a seedling, kept telling myself I was not bring home even one plant but lo my will power melted just like my over heated body. I hope next year we can find a place where we can all group together =. It was so hard to socialize and get to know each other better it seemed like I walked around aimlessly. Not to say I did not enjoy myself. I an looking forward to next year. I finally did get my babies in the ground. Everyone Keep Growing.
Fondly from Toplady6

Anne-Marie;

YOU were the most hard working one out there. I can't thank you enough. There was no way I could have emptied all those carloads of plants in that heat. I have no idea how you did it. I even had to leave you out there to go sit down for some water. Bless your energy!!!

We are finally getting some tolerable weather and it has been wonderful. I have not gotten everything in the ground yet but I'm almost finished up. I have been desperately trying to eradicate the abundance of weeds which seemed to overtake everything over the past month. I'm finally at a point where I don't just stand there looking around, saying to myself "OMG, where do I begin"!

Since I never seem to have enough to do, LOL, I spent some time totally redoing a little shade bed I had in the back yard. I ripped out some huge hosta and made (I think) what will be a really pretty fern bed. It's always a chore here to redo a bed because what comes out needs to go somewhere else that's already full... It has a snowball effect in the garden.

I also planted about 90% of my WS pots in a holding bed so I could get de-pot my yard at last! I even planted the duds with labels in the ground for one last chance.

I found many pretty things at the swap. I'm very pleased with everything that was shared with me. Thanks, everyone! I have some things I need to go look up on the tags still because they were very new to me (mostly the much needed shade things). My poppy was not looking like it was going to make it but I planted it and sent a prayer it's way! Such a fussy plant. I got a couple of wonderful pink and white phlox which I was excited about. I still have a couple of yellow iris from offtrackbetty to place. Toplady... how did I end up with so many brugs LOL! Too funny!!! I still need to plant a couple but I have places for them!

I wish I knew where everything came from. But like said, with the heat and everyone being so spread out it just didn't happen. There was just no way I could have moved all of my plants from the outside of the fence area and try to corral everyone together better. When I got back around 11:00 with my third load people were already scattered about eating and tagging plants. I enjoyed last year much more having time to visit with everyone and doing things as a group. That was most certainly the intention of the exchange.

Well, Anne-Marie, you've mentioned pictures. Since my digital is up and running I'll take some pics of my jungle this week to share, also! Can't wait for an in-person look at your lovely gardens!

Well you folks weren't kidding when you said not to worry about being a "newbie" and not having that many plants to share.....there certainly were an abundance of plants! I went on vacation right after the swap, but have managed to get all but a handful of plants in the ground in the past few days!

Dawn.....I didn't realize how many of your mums I took! You kept yelling at me to take more so I'd take another look and see a mum and grab it I guess.....but I definitely need some fall color, so all is good!!!

Anne Marie.... I found that Pot of Gold I was looking for! I had packed it in the car already....silly me.

I had sooo much fun....it wasn't perfect, certainly, but a lot of fun.

~Deb

Greetings to everyone who was at the Rotterdam plant swap!

I was so nice to get to meet all of you and trade some plants at the same time.
I thought it was wonderful and look forward to next year now that I know what it is like.
Thank you for being so warm and welcoming to a new comer...you are a great group of people!

Jean

It's so nice to see you back on here Jean.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our pond and gardns

Sounds like you guys had a great time. I'm sorry I didn't make it this year. So much going on in my life right now I just haven't had much time for the gardens and never got any winter sowing done. I definitely will make it for next years.
Cheri