I was out there as well, popmama! Got some cleanup done that I skipped in the fall and started fertilizing the peonies, got the biggest bed about 2/3 of the way done before the clouds started rolling in. I'm up for a spring trade, thought we normally did it in early May, though.

Liz, I looked through some old posts in the forum and it looks like it was done in April or May. May is probably safer for weather.

I guess it's time to fertilize the peonies since you are! I'll do that soon along with the hostas.

Leslie and I would be interested in a spring swap possibly even hosting depending on the date. I'd prefer near the average last frost date.

Last frost date is May 7-10 or something like that. If you are considering hosting, I'd say you pick the date.

Hi guys!

Here are the dates of all the past spring swaps! I still remember the very first swap!

05.18.07

05.17.08

05.09.09

05.23.10

05.22.11

05.12.12

05.11.13

05.24.14

05.30.15

05.29.16

05.20.17

I'll be there if I can! I could come any time during the first two weeks of May--presumably it will be on a weekend again, so that would be SA/SU May 5/6 or SA/SU May 12/13. After that I wouldn't be able to come until the second weekend in June!

Thanks, Popmama, for getting the thread started this time!

Skybird

Either weekend should work though probably best to not have it on Mother's Day the 13th as many people might have other plans.

My vote is for May 5th as I’ll be in Hong Kong the following weekend. Gjcore, thanks for offering to host! If it doesn’t work out for any reason we could use my place as a back-up (I hosted last year), but I love seeing other people’s gardens so I’m definitely willing to drive down to Aurora for that.

The first weekend in May works for me as well! Looking forward to seeing your garden, Gjcore!

I've been thinking about the swap, and am excited to see that others have been too!

I think I'll have some better-looking items this year... last year my sad little orphans were quite pathetic.

I just saw this thread. Chloe can't wait to go to the swap. We will be super excited to see everyone!!

I'll sure try to be there, Gjcore - would love to see your garden, too! Not sure if I'll have much to bring, but will start looking/planning. Thanks for hosting!!

I'm looking forward to Spring and the May swap. Thanks for offering to host us, gjcore. Right now I will definitely be bringing peppers - hot and not - to the swap. I get too attached to the sprouts!

If we are trying to push past the last frost date and avoid Mother's day, would that make the next weekend May 19 or 20?

The following weekend is Memorial Day!

Leslie and I can host May 5th. It will be in Westminster. The gardens there aren't as extensive as in Aurora but I'm working on them often.

Hi Greg,

Is that date certain at this point? Just asking because I'm starting to put things in pots to give away this year and I don't want to be potting up too much "extra" stuff if I'm not gonna have somebody to give them to or somewhere to give them away!

If it is the For Sure date you might want to do an ALL CAPS post with the date and time so it's quick and easy to spot.

At this point I'll definitely have some black eyed Susans, some 'Becky' Shasta daisies, maybe a German Iris or two (probably a dwarf one that's yellow and brown--and maybe another dwarf that's dark purple), probably some 'White Nugget' iceplant, and maybe some 'Waterperry' creeping Veronica. More too, but those are the only "almost definitely" things at this point!

Skybird

If others are okay with that date then I will make another post.

I also like the May 5th date although I've never been to a swap, I would love to come. Skybird, can I put my name on some White Nugget Iceplant?

I will definitively bring chives. Maybe Asters (pink or purple, might be white), I can't tell what they are when they first come up. I have a bed that is mostly Asters and they just don't do that great there. They always flower but the leaves turn brown on the bottom during the summer and they look scraggly.

In terms of wish list:

Any iceplants

Any rock rose

Prairie wine cups

Chocolate flower

Avalanche White Sun Daisy

Thanks!

I can't seem to keep ice plants alive, though I'd love to try again...

I'll be bringing veggies.

I have rock rose (helianthemum). I am going to give it a trim, so I will try to figure out how to propagate the cuttings. It's a beautiful plant but gets very "leggy". I will have some seeds (hollyhock and I have a few extra patty-pan squash seeds). I may also have some sedums.

Oladon, a couple pointers about ice plants. They prefer lean soils preferably sandy, gravelly or a loam. Clay is difficult soil for them. Also they don't like to be wet all winter so an area where snow doesn't accumulate would be best.

I should have some ice plants to bring to the swap.

I’ll bring:

-Kniphofia (red hot poker),

-some bright, deep pink dianthus

-mature Shasta daisies

-Black-eyed Susans

Thanks, Greg! I'm not sure I have a good outdoor spot for them, if those are their preferred conditions... but maybe they'd like my rosemary-lavender box* if I ever end up making it. :)

I do love dianthus, Faith... it's sounding like a good swap!

*On the topic of rosemary, I'm doing an experiment this year in growing it from seed, and so far the one that's potted in pure vermiculite is doing the best.

May 5th works for me. Thanks for offering to host, Greg!

I'm not sure what I'll be bringing yet. Probably peppers, tomatoes and tree seedlings, maybe a few perennials. This weekend should be good for scouting out what's swap worthy in the garden.

May 5th sounds great. I will be there. I like to meet before mothers day. I often spend half of mothers day in the garden!

Hi all,

I just counted you all and it looks like we're up to a dozen people already!

GREG, If you're gonna start a new swap post I recommend doing it as soon as you have time before this thread gets much longer and it becomes hard to keep track of what's on which thread. If you start a new one I'll watch for it and try to make the "second" post the Swap FAQs, so they'll be right up near the top!

SOMEBODY, if you don't have time to do it, Greg, might also want to start a "What are you bringing" thread. Over the years we've found it's SO much easier to keep "the plants" separated out from all the other Stuff!

MMMM..., I don't do dibs anymore--explanation in the FAQs when that gets posted, but knowing at least a couple people want some I'll be sure to bring at least 5 or 6 of them so the people who REALLY want it can be sure to get one! (Might even get them in pots today!)

OLADON, don't give up on the iceplants! Mine are planted in clay--some of them in HEAVY clay, and they do fine. Whatever kind of soil you have them in you just need to be sure they don't stay WET all the time. Some of them are more persnickety than others, but the 'White Nugget' is a really easy one to grow, so get one at the swap and give it a try! At least if it doesn't make if for some reason--the price was right!!!

I'll have more than the things I posted above to bring, but I'm gonna wait for a "plants" thread to post any more!

Skybird

Thanks, Skybird. I'll plan on trying them again. :) Incidentally, Wikipedia claims they're edible! Has anyone here eaten them?

I pruned my thornless blackberries today and went ahead and made up a few pots of cuttings, so I'll be bringing those.

Thanks Skybird, Did not know about the rules as I have never been. Looking forward to ending that. :-)

Skybird I tried to set up the spring swap plants thread, but I'm not sure it's under Rocky Mountain Gardeners. I miss Gardenweb! Let me know if you see it please.

I don't see if catnohat, so must have gone to another group. I think you should see your post in your 'Your Houzz' and probably click on it and maybe delete it from where it posted - or at least comment on it so that group knows it's not for them.

Cat, I don't see it, but I think it might take a "little bit" for it to "show up" now! I haven't started a thread since they made the most "recent (@#&%$) change," so I tried it to see what happens!

I typed a "subject" and a "message" and clicked NEXT. Then it looked to me like I needed to scroll all the way down to RMG to check that box, but when I got there it was already checked! Then I noticed that there were two boxes "shown checked" at the very top--they were "RMG" AND "Before and After," whatever the ... that is! I unchecked the B&A box and left the RMG box checked. Next would be "post," but I didn't do that since everything I typed in was all xxxxxxxxx! I THINK that would have gotten it posted to RMG!

I just refreshed the main RMG page and I still don't see your new thread! It's been 21 minutes, and it's hard to imagine there's more of a "delay" than that--if there is any delay at all!

I don't know what happened to your post. Try searching for the subject you put in and see if you can find it that way! But I don't see why it didn't post to RMG if you left that box "checked!"

I miss GW too! And from everything I've seen in the last "year," I, sadly, think the whole thing might be Slowly Dying!

I'll be offline for a while today, but if you figure out what happened, let me/us know!

Skybird

I found it! I did what Misty suggested! It's in a forum called OTHER--whatever that is!!! Looks like it's mostly houzzzzz stuff!!!

Don't know if you still can, but if you can I'd delete it out of there and try again on RMG! How on earth did it get THERE???

When you're posting, after you click NEXT, be sure the RMG box is checked--and nothing else!

Never thought I'd wish to have iVillage back!!!

Skybird

OTHER >>>> https://www.houzz.com/discussions/other-dsbr0-bd~t_28566

OLADON--real quick while I'm signed in here!

I was curious about your "eating" question, so I looked to see what I could see! As near as I can tell it's CALIFORNIA iceplant that edible! COMPLETELY different thing--completely different genus/species! And, if you've never seen them, the "leaves" are HUGE--compared to OUR ice plants! Having said that! I don't think I’D ever want to eat it! One time I brought a "piece" of it back to Denver with me and tried to grow it in a pot--it's a tropical! The "leaves" are kind of sqooshy-gooshy, similar to OUR ice plant and it seems to me it would be kind of gross to bite into one! But! To each his own!!! The one I brought home with me did grow "ok" in a pot, but it never really looked very good and I threw it out and decided to concentrate on OUR wide variety of ice plants!

The California one was introduced intentionally--ALL over CA--to, presumably, "stabilize" sandy slopes and along the banks of highways. It proved to do just the opposite, DEstabilizing the slopes, especially along the coast! One more Bright Idea of Mankind--kind of like kudzu--or hundreds of others! It's now a toxic weed in CA and they're TRYING to get rid of it again!

If you ever get out there cut a piece off for yourself--you'll need something SHARP to do it!--and bring it back and have a bite! I'd be curious to see what you think!!! Don't need to worry about it becoming invasive here since it is tropical and would FREEZE the first time it got COLD out!

OUR iceplant, Delosperma, as near as I can tell is NOT toxic--but I don't have any plans of nibbling on any of mine! ;-D

Skybird

P.S. I wouldn't be hijacking this thread with all of that--except I know there's gonna be a new thread started anyway!

Skybird, thank you for that post and all the information! I hadn't even realized that they were two different plants... remind me to take you along if I ever go for an "edible" plant walk! :)

I found the thread I made. I can't find a way to delete it. Oops