Hi Helen, if you live in Mpls. I'm 4 hrs straight west of you in So.Dakota! I'm new to this forum (mainly read the hosta forum) but I'm considering having a swap with friends next June. got an idea from either birds & Blooms or Garden Gate about a swapping idea. For every plant you bring, you can exchange for that many. Like if I bring 6 1-gal plants, I can chose 6 plants that my friends bring. How are you doing yours?
Peggy

Hi Peggy,

Well I have only been to one swap and it was fun...went like this. Everybody brought in their plants and we walked around and each person gave a brief summary of what they had brought. Then we swapped in rounds. In the first round everyone picked 3 different plants (you have to choose 3 different ones, not three of a kind) In the second round we choose 3 more, and in the third 3 more. Then everyone was free to choose whatever was left. As some gardeners had a lot to bring and some were beginers, we do not require that you take as much as you bring, and there were plenty of plants to go around. We also invite seeds and tubers and bulbs and the like. The only requirement is that you bring home any of your unswapped plants as this can cause problems for the host. Because of the large scale of the swap in the spring (our turnout for fall is abysmal so far) some people (esp. hosta fanatics) set up personal swaps ahead of time...this is absolutly acceptable, a special hosta for another special host sorta thing. I don't get hostas cause I have no shade but I may set up something with my daylilies.

Hope this helps a bit, and good luck with your swap! You will find that the others have way more experience than I do as others respond to your post...there are a lot of good ideas floating about in cyberspace.

Helen.