Kiddo and I are coming! She can’t run yet so we should be good. I’ll try to bring a gardening friend. Thanks for hosting!

This is our first spring in Colorado. I"m looking forward to coming, swapping, and learning.

Welcome to Colorado, Stephanie! Sometime tomorrow afternoon when our "weather" starts just remember that this is what we call Springtime In The Rockies--and SMILE! ;-)

See you at the swap,

Skybird

Yes, welcome, Stephanie! This is a great bunch of folks. I've learned so much from lurking here....

P.S. Zach you've got a (belated) mail message. :)

The two of us are planning on attending. Thanks Zach!

There is no such thing as "spring" in the Rockies, Skybird. It's what I call "second winter." There is also no smiling (at least from me) when we get a 50 degree drop in temperature and 8+ inches of nasty white stuff. The place I worked at in Phoenix called me on Friday and told me I should apply for the position they just opened... very tempting! Alright, I got my whining out of the way...

I think I replied to all of your messages! Thanks everyone! If you didn't get a reply and you sent me a message let me know so I don't skip anyone on accident!

I'll be there, and I'm bringing a friend!

Awesome Stace, see you there!

Wish I could make it, but too much going on with getting the yard ready for my daughters wedding reception and starting a new job. Have a lovely time everyone! See you in the fall.

I cant make that day, Ill be out of state. Bummer.

Zach, is there enough shade around your property for the swap plants and guests? I'm guessing that at this relatively early date that most of the warm season plants (peppers, tomatoes, etc) are not going to hardened off. Might be nice to have some shade for the guests as well. Bringing your own umbrella would be an option also. Then again who knows there might be thundersnow.

That's too bad guys, we will definitely miss you at the swap!

We should have enough places "out of the sun" for plants, and we also have an outbuilding that I can pull the tractor and stuff out of in case of inclement weather as well. However, I do thank a canopy or two if someone wouldn't mind bringing them would be good to have.

Just a week till the swap! As of now it looks like the weather should be just about perfect! Hope they're right!

Skybird

Lets hope they are right! Supposed to snow early this week though...

I will be sending the email with directions out today, so if you don't get it and you gave me an RSVP let me know! If you still want to come and haven't yet sent me a message thats okay just make sure I get it before the swap!

Email has been sent! Let me know if you did not receive it! Barb, I know you didn't because I got an auto reply from your email, so I will just send it over houzz messenger. See you all at the swap!

Camille and Lucy will be there. Looking forward to it.

Zach, did you get my information? Thanks

Hello We need the address to attend. Camille

Zach, please send your address for us through Houzz. Thanks.

Did we ever decide between 11 and 12 for start time?

Hi guys, sorry, I haven't logged in here this week until now. I will send out emails/messages to everyone who has not received them yet tonight when I get home. Thanks!

Alrighty, sent out an email and some messages here on GW for you guys. Let me know if you didn't get them! See you all at the swap!

No we didn't set a start time! Thanks for asking Oladon! Lets plan on BETWEEN 11-12 (show up at 11, show up at 12, I'm not terribly picky). Since I let that slip, some folks might already have a time set in their head so at this point I will leave it open, might be the best solution unless we collectively decide otherwise.

Sounds good!

Hello everyone,

Thank you all for offering to help my son Seamus with his Eagle Scout Project. Unfortunately our schedule today has been turned upside down. I have 3 kids playing in 3 socccer games all at the same time and different locations, including Seamus. I was hoping to be able to sneak out to come to the swap meet but it looks like it just won't work today.

If you would still like to donate some plants for his project, I'm happy to come to the meet, or your home later in the day to pick them. I'm very sorry it didn't work out to be there to meet you all.

I've posted this on the other thread and will also post here in hopes Jon will see it.

Family first, Jon! The swap goes for several hours, I'm guessing we'll still be at Zach's place at 2...or 3pm. If you can make it by then, it'd be better for everyone to do 1 exchange. If you can get there later in the day, maybe Zach wouldn't mind us stashing them in a corner somewhere so you can do 1 pick up. We're spread out from Fort Collins to South Denver. I can't imagine you having to go to everyone's houses to get them. If not, Stace, can you take the plants?

Barb

Thanks for hosting, Zach, and thank you everyone for another awesome swap!

If anyone has any questions about anything you got from me, let me know!

I think someone wanted some currant tomato seeds, so if that's you, message me if you don't mind and we'll figure out how to get them to you. Also, someone asked me to post my "quick pickles" recipe, so I'll get that up in a bit.

Yes, thanks so much again, Zach! You were an awesome host. :)

And super big thanks to everyone who came and shared such yummy food and awesome PLANTS. There were soooo many! Can't wait to get 'em into containers and/or the ground.

If anyone has any questions about taking care of anything you got from me today, please don't hesitate to let me know. As you can guess, houseplants are my groove; I'd be happy to share anything I've learned about keeping them happy in their new homes.

Bestest wishes,

L

Thanks Zach and everyone! Especially Rossnagi for that great gluten free green chili! And the lady who came with her who made the delicious salad.

Tomatoz1, do you have any pictures of the purple phlox in bloom and the clematis in bloom? I was hoping to see the colors so I could decide where to put them. Very thrilled with the opportunity to try both in our yard. Thanks for bringing them!

Thanks to everyone for the shasta daisies and catnohat for the pink yarrow and Jerry for the zucchini!!!

I'm too tired to breath tonite--something about being olde I think!--but I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you to everyone for another very successful swap!

Thank you, Zach, for being a great host! Loved seeing your place up there--and love your huge veggie garden! Oh, how I wish I had that much room!

It's always a surprise how many plants "appear" at the swap, but this time it was incredible how much stuff was there!

Thank you all for coming! Thank you all for all the great food! And thank you all for the great conversation!

Let's do it all over again in fall! I'm pretty sure I'll be recovered by then!

Happy planting everyone,

Skybird

Ohhh, wish I could have made it! Anyone take pics?

Many, many thanks to everyone for their beautiful plants, wonderful food, and conversation. And thanks to Zach for hosting us and having a shaded area for the plants.

mmmm12, I will have to check out my pics to see if I have any of the phlox. The clematis is a “wild one” since the plants were nowhere near the original plants.

All the best for a wonderful harvest of veggies and flowers. No hail.

It was great to see all of you again! I love spring and seeing great people. Thanks for those of you that helped out with Briar. I hope she joins us for years to come and learns how awesome gardening is.

Thanks for hosting Zach! That’s never easy. I’m getting closer to being able to return the favor and host. I can’t wait!

I’m glad you had something to eat mmmm12. It’s always nice to try dishes from others. Hopefully I’ll be able to plant soon and can come visit again.

Speaking of visiting. Can you send me a note or an email Tomatoz? It won’t let me message you. I really need some more ideas for working on a hill and would love to drop by and see all your hard work.

Thanks again for everything Skybird. I remembered everything and it’s safely planted or found a spot ;) Hope you have a great trip.

Who‘d I miss? You guys and ladies are the best!

Greg,

Thanks for the delicious greens! I had some with my lunch salad. They really made it great. I added the lovage, which I had never tried before, and the tarragon which is a personal favorite. Really appreciate your bringing such a tasty treat!

Thanks to Zach and everyone else.

Lovage and tarragon are both really easy to grow though they do start taking a fair amount of space.

It was great to catch up with everyone! Thank you Zach for hosting, you have a great space for it.

Barb

I'm very late in adding my thanks to Zach and the organizers. Fun time and I managed to NOT bring home more plants than I have space for. Great food as well.

Thanks for hosting Zach! Thanks to all for the great plants, yummy food, and a fun day! Skybird and TreeBarb, Jon and Seamus came over yesterday and picked up all the great plants you provided for them. They were very grateful for the plants as well as the information you provided.

Leslie,

I was at O'Tooles yesterday and saw the bush we brought. On our original plant list it is shown as a Black Chokeberry, Aronia Melnanocarpa. I should have trusted the info and put that on the tag. I took pictures of the O'Tooles plant and the tags, shown below. Turns out you can use the berries for jams and jellies! Who knew? I don't actually remember the berries, but we have so many different bushes that berry I simply may not have noticed.

Our plant list shows 2 were originally planted in the area we are taking them out. Given that it pretty much stayed in place. We controlled it by cutting down the suckers but they generally stayed within a few feet of the plant and it did not spread itself all over or into the yard. Also pretty much stayed out of the rock bed nearby so I consider it pretty well behaved. Ours did get about 6 ft tall but stayed a pretty shallow clump of a couple of feet deep while it spread width wise. But then it started as two plants that grew together.

Zach -- Ooooh, I love evening primroses!! I'll never forget the first time I came across a large amount of them lining a trail on a backcountry yurt trip. They almost seemed to glow.

And mmmm12 and Leslie -- chokecherry jam is simply delicious. Just get them before the birds do! lol. ;)

Thanks Laura,

If anyone else wants one I will have two much smaller sucker areas and potentially one as big as or a bit larger than the one we brought to the swap. The bigger one is embedded in the sprinkler system so may get halved in the take out process. Just let me know if you are interested.

We also have about 4 more chives the size of the ones we brought to the swap. If you or your friends/family want one let us know. We simply ran out of big pots to bring more to the swap.

Mmmmm,

If you can use "gallon size" pots--if you're going to be at the fall swap--and if I'M gonna be at the fall swap! (depends on my fall trip!)--remind me then and I can bring you a whole stack of gallons! If you don't remind me on the fall swap thread, I will not remember!

Skybird

Thanks Skybird! Is there any way I can do a "porch pickup" now? I didn't hear back from the other person offering pots and we need to start getting our extra chives dug out soon. If you want to do a porch pick up send me a direct msg with your address.

I'm insanely busy trying to get ready to leave on my trip and don't have a CLUE how I'm gonna get everything done in time, but if you'll PM me your email address, I'll copy the directions to my house onto an email and send them to you--and put a "stack" of them outside on the left side of my garage, back by the "people gate" in front of the recycling dumpster. I'll watch for your PM. I'll put them out there before noon tomorrow.

Skybird

Check's in the mail, Mmmmmmmm!

Again, thank you all for making the swap such a great time and special thanks to Skybird, Treebarb and everyone else who are really the brains behind the whole operation! I couldn't have done it without your guys help!

Mmmm12, I apologize for not answering sooner, but I knew I was not feeling well at Saturday’s swap and have been confined to the house. To answer your question - I could not find a picture of the purple phlox, just a medium purple, closer to medium/light.

i have 2 kinds of clematis, either a darker purple Jackmanii, or 2 tone striped pink.

Clematis like heavier mulch in the summer to stay hydrated. They also climb our wire fencing quite well. Hopefully they will do well for you. We planted them in 1992 so some have come and gone with the weather.

Thanks! I love them both and am hoping I got one one each. I'm still working out where to put them. I will keep your advice for heavy mulch in mind. Sorry to hear you weren't feeling well.