The full "rules" of the sale tell those who have nothing to exchange to stay away. I think everyone should be able to participate; if someone finds themselves in this situation please contact me and I'll see if I can work something out. I can always find something to give a couple people. Unfortunately I will be out of contact beginning mid-day tomorrow. If there are others who can help that way please post here.

Thanks for posting this. I would love to attend. I wish I had know about this earlier so I can prepare. Do cuttings need to be rooted? Some of my plants have no id but I can give a full description. Do I need to bring only ID plant? I have lots of flowers and bulbs but won't have time to dig up. I'll try to bring some bulbs.

I might drop by. Do I have to take something in exchange or can I just give my stuff to people?
I have some nice trees, like california buckeyes, a monterey cypress (4 feet tall), and a pine tree (4 feet tall). All from seed or dug up from my yard and I do not need these.
Got a salvia puberula cutting. Not sure how available this variety is, but the flowers are pretty unusual.
Since it is a choice of attending this for a couple of hours or expunging swathes of privet seedlings from my yard, I might choose this. You're positive no one wants privet seedlings? Wonder why not (wink).

sjgardengal,

Based on the longer email my friend forwarded me unrooted cuttings are absolutely fine, and descriptions are OK if you don't have an ID. I'll forwarded that email to you privately.

deep___roots,

I'm sure you can donate and not take.

I'm still thinking of taking some extra stuff and somehow making it obvious and available if people show up without things. If I figure something out I'll post it here tomorrow morning. Gotta go.

I did not make it back into town in time for the exchange. My plants are all boxed up and ready to go--perhaps there is a comparable event elsewhere?

Hmm...I wonder if an online plant exchange, on yahoo or whatever, would work. I've been wanting to try oca! I'll probably have extra tomato seedlings in a month. They've been growing very slowly in a cold frame.

I'm always potting up extras to give away, so I took 2.5 flats of various plants to the exchange yesterday and came home with half a flat.

Another place to donate a few plants is the Western Hort meetings. I don't know exactly how it works, but each month (2nd Weds. in Los Altos) they have a speaker followed by a show-and-tell of favorite and interesting plants, then a raffle of a couple dozen plants. The May speaker will be talking about Lester Rowntree, one of the pioneers of native hort in Calif. She lived in Carmel and spent summers motoring around the state collecting seeds.

p.s. After the May 12 meeting, Western Hort's next meeting is in Sept. They take a break in the summer. It looks like anyone is welcome to bring plants for show and tell or to donate for the raffle.