I think the CO folks have two a year, one in spring and one in fall.

I don't really have much to swap, but I'd probably try to show up if we start a UT swap.

Hey, this would be fun. I always have some cool volunteers I'd like to share, like the Caryopteris shrubs or some Peking Cotoneaster shrubs I've been noticing lately. I've also collected some seeds this year, including a great purple-blue larkspur (I think the parent was 'Rocket', common foxglove, candytuft, and Rocky Mountain Penstemon. I also will soon collect seeds from an awesome perennial Lavatera tauricensis (pink mallow-type flowers but not invasive like some mallows), pink Calif. poppies, regular Calif. poppies, Salvia nemorosa 'East Friesland', Echinacea, and maybe some trees, including Golden Rain and Japanese Maple.

For seeds, it may work best to swap this fall so you can start them indoors or winter sow them. For plants, we should shoot for spring, since it may be getting a little late for transplanting soon.

I have been saving seeds, and I always have extra tomato and pepper plants in the Spring as well as Raspberry starts. I think a Fall swap/share your harvest kind of thing would be neat too.

Tyffanie

ooooh....I think that's a terrific idea! I was getting jealous reading about the CO swap. Glad I decided to check in on this forum! I would definitely be interested in a swap, although being a very new gardener I probably wouldn't have anything to contribute for awhile. But I do think it would be fun just to meet folks and get together a couple times a year anyway. :-)

That sounds fun! We could meet at Conservation Garden Park? It's in West Jordan at about 8200 South and 1300 West- close to I-15.

I may have some starts of my favorite perennial, 'Coral Canyon' diascia which is blooming beautifully right now and should be until sometime in late Novemember.

I think a swap is a great idea. I just don't have a lot to swap. My yard is so small that I don't have much. Maybe I could grab some starts from a few plants. I do have some seeds.

Hey, Conservation Garden Park is a great place. We could also get some garden design ideas from there. I just attended their party last month, announcing their plans for expansion, and it looks like it will become more impressive in the years to come.

Anyway, I'm thinking spring would be best at this point of the year. Is that what you folks are thinking? I often plant more seeds that I can keep when I grow things in the basement just before spring. I could bring some of those young plants. I also have a bunch of divisions of Stella D'Oro daylily that I don't think I have a good home for anymore. They were getting too much shade in the front yard, and I think we're going to redo our long, narrow backyard flowerbed in an analogous color theme with reds, pinks, and purples next spring, so I can't use them there. I'll also be able to dig up some full grown Coreopsis grandiflora 'Mayfield Giant' that are all over in that long flowerbed and give them away. Perhaps some mostly-yellow Gaillardia specimens that I reproduced from cuttings, too. I have a bit of yellow stuff to get rid of!

That Coral Canyon diascia sounds like it may fit my color scheme, too.

Bindersbee, it's nice to have you participating over here. I was starting to give up on this forum -- it got pretty dead here after summer really got underway. I'm sure it will liven up again when winter is fading and spring is coming next year.

If anyone wants lemon balm, I have a lot of it to share, as well as daylilies in the spring.

i am new to the forum, but it sounds like a great idea. swap get together club sort of thing.

winter is a great time for seed swapping before spring. gives the gardener something to do when they cant gardenÂmight be better indoors though. i personally have a ton of seeds from seed exchanges. let me know, i will participate.

I am new to Utah and this forum but I love the idea of a swap! I am a little behind the rest of you--I only recently bought a house and yard--so I don't yet have any plants to contribute. I definitely will in the future though so I hope the swap can be a regular thing.

Cheers from Ogden!

So when would be the best time for a swap? March or April?

I would love a swap too, but like some of you, I'm a relatively new gardener, so I might not have much to contribute. That, and we should be moving (to another house in the SL area) in the next few months, so I have NO idea where I'll be, garden-wise, or if I'll even be able to start anything with moving and trying to sell our house. But if you start it, I will come!

i just found this forum today. i've been on gw for about six months and couldn't find a utah forum. i was jealous of hearing all the swaps going on everywhere else, and was wondering why one wasn't being held here. i also am new to gardening within the last year, but i'm sure that i could find some things to bring.

This would be awesome! I could teach a propagation class to assist in the NEXT garden swap! I manage a nursery myself AND hybridize plants on the SIDE! lol

Ryan

Why don't we try for something in late April or early May? Maybe May 3rd?

Does anyone want to volunteer their home? If we do it at a public place, I think we might get people wandering in and taking stuff when they didn't bring anything.

Hmm... my back yard is still covered in at least two feet of snow, hard to imagine what it will look like in another two to three months. I'd probably focus on asking advice for various spots instead of swapping... but I'll have to check with my wife, the cycling and the soccer schedules (SLC Marathon is April 19th, so that's out).

How does Highland sound as far as a central location?

Late afternoon around 4pm? With daylight savings starting March 11, we'll have more light in the evenings again. Evening at 6 or 7pm?

Quick poll to gauge numbers for interest?

Oops, too bad you can't edit. Wife wasn't too crazy about the idea at first glance. How about Wheeler Farm in Murray? Conservation Garden Park in West Jordan? Summer hours are from 8-8 starting May 1. Could we reserve a section of the park, or parking lot, or something?

i don't think a public place would be too bad. we may even get some people interested in coming to future swaps.
if we don't want it to be too public, there's a neighborhood park down the street from my house in west jordan. there's hardly ever anyone there.
i think end april beginning may would be a good time.

Early in the season the Conservation Garden Park isn't too busy and it's located near the freeway so it's easy in-out for everyone. We could always go to the very south end of the parking lot where no one else would be parked. There is construction going on for the garden expansion (yipee!) but it doesn't have much impact on the existing garden and parking situation.

anyone thought about calling red butte garden or have any connections there. they might host it. i have heard about them hosting other similar club events for gardening groups, but don't know if the groups paid or not. sugarhouse park has a building on the north east side by the rose gardens that is for this specific purpose, well not seeds swapping, but garden group meetings. it is called the garden center. i know the bonsai club uses it as does the iris society. being a city park it should be cheap. i have a call in to find out more and will post when i have more info. if it there was a cost, would people be opposed to pitching in a few bucks for a shelter, windless venue? if say it was $50 and 25 participants, that would be a mere $2 each to be out of any inclement weather which does not mix with small seeds. another idea would be for all to bring rare or unusual plants and seeds to sell auction or raffle off to cover the cost. hell i spend more than $50 on a single plant or $1.49 for a single packet of seeds. spending a few bucks for a whole seeds swap and a few plants would be a bargain. i have hundreds of packets of seeds i need to trade.

let's do this!

another possibility would be memory grove which tends to be pretty quiet and sheltered.

a seed swap would also be a way to bring more people to the forum. advertise the seed swap at your local gardening haunts and to friends as sponsored by the utah gardening forum on gardenweb.

sorry, i work in advertising and it is my job capture customers so i can't help myself.

if somebody gets a location, i will make flyers and post or email a pdf for anyone interested to had out or post. the local NPR stations will also post it on their website as a community event as well as on air community calendar mention. i can handle publicity if people really want to make this happen, but spring is coming and now is the perfect time.

another idea for a venue is the downtown SLC library. i believe their meeting rooms are free and on a first come first served basis.

anybody?

a lot of talking, not a lot of acting. i am hole it is just that nobody has read this forum post rather than general disinterest.

we can use the downtown library. it is free. the 4th floor conference room will hold about 100 people. i am applying for it. looking for a saturday morning-early afternoon.

i really am too busy to do this right now, so if anybody wants to step in and help or take over please speak up.

i will post the date as soon as i know.

I don't think it's necessarily a lack of interest. I'm guessing a lack of time.

I'd be interested in coming and meeting others, but don't really have anything to swap. I could put some of my native grass seed in packets, but they'd be small packets that people could plant in pots or something to see how the grasses would look, not enough to plant real test plots.

I also don't know whether I'd be able to make it. I've been traveling more often lately and some ot the schedules aren't all that great.

Sorry, Kliddle, I've been so busy lately that I haven't been on the forum much. Thanks for pulling together the seed swap I see in the other thread. I'll check the calendar at home to see if I can make it.

I was hoping more for a live plant swap than a seed swap, since late March is a little late for planting perennial seeds if you want a jump on the growing season. It would be good for vegetable seeds, but I don't grow a lot of veggies and probably already have the seeds I need.

Any way we can move this outdoors and do a live plant swap where we won't make the library dirty? If we were swapping plants, I'd probably have some seedlings or small specimens of larkspur, daylilies, gaillardia, nepeta, and anthemis that I could dig up and share. I even have a few Japanese maple seedlings, but only for a really sweet trade! :-)

the cleaning fee is $25 if we just want to chip in and pay it. if people are careful and bring small or bagged plants i think we will be ok. the hard thing with seeds is wind and rain spoils everything.

maybe we could have a plant swap a in late april or early may. closer to outdoor planting season. actually that would be a great idea. two events are better than one.

it is always a bad time for something. a lot of people are talking about swapping iris. iris should be divided in july-august after the bloom when they start to go dormant.

i don't think we should change this as i have already had it listed on a few community calendars and begged for the venue. hate for somebody to show up and nobody is there.

i start my seeds late. i don't have a greenhouse and anything started indoors more than 3 weeks before it goes out will usually be too leggy and likely die. lately i have been doing a lot of direct sowing and with little difference if any by the end of the season. i hope people come regardless of the timing�"seeds keep for a good while in the fridge. good time to trade the half-used packet from this years indoor planting for a second wave of different plants.

it is more social than anything in my opinion and it's free. my main hope is to bring more people to the forum�"more reason to do another a month or so later with bigger messier things. i have hundreds of seed packets to trade, and will bring fig cuttings as well if they get delivered in time from UC Davis, but nothing with dirt.

February would have been better timing�"hint hint for who ever takes command next year.

hope you can make it. spread the word.