I've never been nor would I ever do it. Unfortunately, I would assume the workers taking first pick is a common occurrence at those types of swaps.

Hope you got something for all your trouble.

Julia

I have only been twice, 2 different ones, both were run the same. Everyone brought their plants to swap & set up "booths". Then you just checked other people's booths & offered swaps. One in TN was quite large, & could be a bit confusing, but was a lot of fun. I met some wonderful people, got lots of great plants. The only problem was that you really needed someone to stay with your booth while you went around & checked other people's booths. Or like one person did, they brought their garden cart & carried plants around with them from booth to booth. Still, nothing like your swap.

I got 8 'tickets' for the things I brought and it was so crazy-the best you could really do was glance and hope. lol I did luck into Exquisitely Subversive, Maria Callas, a buttercup, a ferny type flower that wasn't tagged (leaves look a little like Queen Annes Lace)and a few daylilies that I hadn't heard of and will need to see what I think of them when they bloom. Point of View, Marmalade Skies, Kate Carpenter, Utopia (historic?) They had a lot of bags of daylilies just marked 'daylily' and a few daylilies marked 'tiger lily'-I mainly went as I knew that one of the local garden parks had divided some flowers and had taken them to the swap -which is how they had the extra plants for people who didn't bring any. That is where the named daylilies came from. The one plant alone was worth it, but I know one of the men who ran it and was just wondering if there were suggestions I could give him to make it a little less crazy if there is a next time. This was the first attempt at a plant swap they had.

What you describe is on a much bigger scale than anything I've ever been associated with. Sorry but it sounds unethical for the workers to put plants aside if all people involved are doing a plant exchange.IMHO, under those circumstances, everyone should be on an equal footing. I was in charge of a "perennial swap" which my daylily club tried last spring at my suggestion. We had done this years ago, but this was the first time in about 10 years. We only had about 30 people participate. But all we did was set up about 4 tables and when people came in, they put their plants on the table ( we had requested in advance that all plants be labelled since we did the exchange last spring before some things were blooming.) Then everyone who had brought perennials got to draw a number and whoever drew number 1 got to have first selection. Everyone followed the rules, and we called out the numbers and everyone's anticipation built!It was fun, and club members liked it so well that we did it again at this year's April meeting also.

For our club plant SALES, sometimes members bring in non daylily plants (perennials,daffodil bulbs, iris corms,etc.) to donate. Those of us who are working will sometimes buy something-everyone is asked to price the items before they bring them in and put the price on the tag - and set it aside since we are there at least an hour setting up before we open to the general public. We don't look at that the same way, since it is a sale and all the money goes back to the club coffers and most of us have donated hundreds of dollars worth of plants. Last year one of our members brought some very nice potted hostas. I did buy( and paid for in advance) two of the potted hostas and set those against the wall BEHIND where our treasurer was sitting and collecting the money. When we opened the doors last year, we were inundated and sold out everything in about 2 hours. When we'd cleaned up and and I got ready to go, lo and behold, one of the hostas I'd paid $10.00 for had been taken. The club had to refund my money. Bummer! Treasurer was upset that someone had apparently walked right up behind her and taken the plant without her noticing but there was a huge crowd.

Floota-to me it seemed unfair for the workers to get first pick also-and not all of them did so. I had taken my plants after picking them out and put them under the table (out of the plant swap section) of the booth we had there promoting the garden club we are in as well as the AHS and Dad's gardens (and daylilies in general). Then I went back in to help others find plants/explain what the unlabeled plants were (if I knew) and Dad manned the booth. He said someone walked up and tried to walk off with one of my plants. I think part of the reason that there were so many people there is that the did news advertising promising free plants if you just showed up, a 5 K run was going on at the same start point, and also some kind of child fair-so Moms would wander over.

Our club's garden sale is the third Sat in May every year. At least for the amount of time that I have been with the club, nothing has been taken from there. Before I had joined they had established a perimeter and had a few members act as 'security' along the edge as there had been some thefts. As they do it in a grocery parking lot, they also hire an off duty police officer to help out near the cash box. As part of their pay is also free flowers, we got the same officer several years in a row-she loves it. For the most part though-I think plant people are non violent. :) They also have a roped off holding area for members that want to buy and they are assigned a paper number. You have to turn in your number to buy your plants about 1/2 before the sale ends, by then, things are slowing down and it's easier to keep an eye on things.