Thanks, Jennifer! It was so great to meet everyone, and I am really thrilled about the gorgeous plants that came home with me. I'll try to have more to share at the fall swap too! It was a nice welcome to a very friendly group.

Angel

I 2nd that! What a wonderful day! The variety of plants was great, as was the food and the company.
Thank you Angel and Skybird for all the hard work, time and planning that when into making the Swap such a success!
A special thank you to Skybird and gnnytrcka for earmarking plants for me. It's great to take home those special treasures!

Barb

thank you so much for the plant swap! I really enjoyed it. I just became a member after we got home so you didn't see me with a name tag at the swap. The variety of plants was great! thanks again!

A wonderful event, for sure! Thanks so much, Angel and Dee, for doing all the hosting and coordinating (and for helping me with directions so I didn't miss it!!) - a lot of thought and work went into this! I think the park turned out to be a great place for it, as well. What a great group of fun, knowledgable, helpful and interesting people. :^)

All my plants made it home happy. Can't wait till the next swap to see the varieties that people bring - really amazing and fun.

Thanks to everyone from us as well! I've already put in a few things upon getting home, they all made it beautifully!

4 hours in the car round trip for us, and it was worth every minute of it. :)

Can't wait for fall swap! Fun fun fun!

Oh, forgot to say how much I enjoyed all the wonderful food as well. Such a bounty of choices, and all were really delicious! Provogirl - I'd love to have your recipe for the Japanese dessert you made (was it mochi?) if you wouldn't mind sharing ;^)

And any other recipes anyone else wants to share as well!

Yes, thanks so much everyone. :)

It was really nice to finally match up faces to screen names. What a fun bunch!

Below is a link to some of the photos I took; feel free to copy/share.

Here is a link that might be useful: Slide show of the Swap

This is going to be atypically short for me! I came home and CRASHED! I cant believe how absolutely tired I am! Could it be the "olde" factor! NEVER!

But definitely a fun time like all the swaps have been! I didnÂt even realize I was tired till I got home.

The tops of my feet are sunburned! Eeek! I never expected that! IÂm outside all the time, but IÂm usually sitting on them or crawling around, so the tops of my feet donÂt usually see much sun! Guess I should have spent the day crawling around! Hmmm! Guess that would have looked a little bit strange if I didnÂt have a trowel in my hand! Next time IÂll bring a trowel!

I LOVE everything I got! Thank you so much everybody who brought the things they had earmarked for me!

I was thinking I might need to cut back the big painted daisy I got because it was wilting pretty badly Âbut I didnÂt want to do that since itÂs budding, and I really want to see what color it is! Well, IÂve had it in the shade since I got home, and itÂs perking back up very nicely, so if I baby it a little bit, I think itÂs gonna come around very nicely.

Of course IÂll be posting pics of all these things when they start blooming! And IÂm now keeping better track of what IÂve gotten from whoÂso there will be "credit where itÂs due" when I post the pics. This was our 7th swap, and itÂs amazing how many things I have in my yard by now that were from swaps! Most of them started out tinyÂand are now all grown up and, luckily, not about to leave home! I thinks itÂs really fun to be able to walk around and know who your plants came from, so I highly recommend keeping track, somehow, of what you got from who. And isnÂt it so much nicer to know your plants came from a RMG friend than just "from a store!"

Whoever brought the lily-of-the-valleyÂthankyouthankyouthankyou! ThatÂs one thing I wanted but didnÂt think to put on my "want" list! I got TWO of them during the two "rounds" of picking!

For those of you who didnÂt ask for dibs on my things, but who picked out things that I brought at the swap, if you want to see pictures of what theyÂll look like all grown up and blooming, there are pictures of everything except the sweet violet and the little purple violas on the What do you Want thread!

Buttercup, I apologize again for missing your "order!" I found where I replied to you on the What do you want thread, and I have no idea whatsoever why I didnÂt get around to transferring the things you wanted over to my whoÂs getting what list! IÂm glad I still had two of the things you wanted available, and I have seedlings of the columbine coming up all over the place, so IÂll be sure to pot up a really nice one for you for the Fall Swap. Maybe is was more of that "olde factor" problem! ;-)

ItÂs SO not gonna happen tonite, but IÂll start a picture thread in the next couple daysÂor add my pics if someone else starts it! There were LOTS of pictures taken today, so weÂll have great "documentation!" Thank you so much to all of photographers we had there today! I havenÂt even looked at my pics yet, but I canÂt wait to see the one of us all on the jungle gym! And, wherever it is, from now on we need to remember to get a "group" picture at the swaps!

If anybody has any questions about the things you got from me, please let me know. I want them to do well for all of you!

Not short  but short for me!

IÂm gonna veg for the rest of the evening!

Thanks all, for a fun time,
Skybird

P.S. ChocolateDog, who did you "belong" to at the swap. Just curiousÂlike I always am!

Wow! Pictures already! Thank you so much, Laura! They're great!

Thank you, everyone, for the great plants, the great food, the great company, and all of the great organization that made this event a success.

ChcolateDog was with Serpent Moon and me. She is ecstatic about the plants she chose during today's swap. She is already looking forward to the Fall Swap.

We're all going to play in the dirt tomorrow, planting and protecting the outdoor things, and potting up the indoor things.

I hope that the plants that I brought do well in their new homes. If not, let me know, and we can try again in the fall.

Yes, thanks so much everyone. :)

It was really nice to finally match up faces to screen names. What a fun bunch!

Below is a link to some of the photos I took; feel free to copy/share.

We thoroughly enjoyed the swap. It was nice to meet so many new people and fun to sample the different foods. Dee and Angel thank you so much for putting such effort into arranging everything. We are really happy with the new plants we brought home. We already planted the herbs.

I just noticed that my post in this thread was posted twice somehow, with an hour delay. I've no idea how that happened. Huh!

Skybird -- Sorry to hear about your sunburned feet. My husband's face is as red as a beet, poor guy! (didn't wear a hat.)

Thank you all for your hard work and effort that went into today. I had a blast and so did the HB and the 7 year old. I am so I was able to come and meet everyone. A special thanks to everyone who earmarked plants for me.
Mstywoods- I am glad you liked the Butter Mochi. I will post the recipe later this week so watch for it.

ProvoGirl

Thanks for a very fun time! I had so much fun that Bekajoi sent me a link to join you!

Kat

I too wanted to say thank you to all of you for such a great day.

Skybird and Angel- Thanks so much for all of the time and effort you put into organizing the swap to make it run so smoothly! The location was perfect.

Skybird and Sherrie09- Thanks for all of the earmarked plants!

And thanks to everyone for all of the fun plants that were part of the free for all. Who brought the lily-of-the-valley again? And the Vivid Heart daylily? I like Skybird's idea to keep track of who gave us each plant but I don't recall who brought those.

All of the food was delicious, and I second jclepine's thanks for the refreshing lemon water. And I would love to have the recipe for the pasta salad made with the wheel shaped pasta if whomever made that happens to read this and wouldn't mind sharing.

Laura- Thanks for sharing your pictures! I will try to get mine posting sometime this week.

It was great meeting all of you and I hope to see you again at future swaps. I learned a lot from this swap, and hopefully next time I'll be able to label and pot my offerings up a little better ;) Thanks again!

~ Anne (Almond)

Just wanted to add my thanks too!! I had a great time and I'm looking forward to getting the baby plants out (unless of course they need a little "nursery" time). I'm pretty excited about the walking onions too, I just have to figure out where to plant them...

Skybird, my feet are burned too. I was good and applied 45 SPF to my face, ears, neck, & arms but I neglected anything below the knees. I have a mild burn on my calves and I got a good head start on the sandal-tan-lines for the summer.

Laura, great pictures! Thanks for posting (and I might copy a few too).

Jennifer, I might just finish off that pineapple for breakfast tomorrow ;-)

I think sleep is calling to me and it might just be time to answer!

Thank you for the photos, Laura! They look great.

Skybird, sorry to hear about your feet. My husband forgot to put on his sunscreen, and he is magenta from head to feet, poor thing. Thank you again for all the plants you set aside for me.

The lilies of the valley were from my next-door neighbor Lucy, who was there with her sister. I believe that Lucy is on here as LucyRose. She's a fantastic lady.

Anne, I'm glad you liked the pasta salad! I think that was from me. It had the flower-shaped pasta (might have looked like wheels too :) - is that right? It was really easy. I used fiore pasta, cooked for 8 minutes. After it was drained, but while it was warm, I mixed it with some Greek salad dressing. I didn't use much - maybe 1/3 of the bottle for half a box of pasta. I added some chopped pea shoots from the farmer's market (maybe a cup or so), 1 diced raw zucchini, 3/4 pint halved orange cherry tomatoes, and a small block of mozzarella, cut into cubes. I also added a few chives from the garden. I think that's it! I'm so glad you liked it.

I would love the mochi recipe too, if that's available - those were so tasty!

Thank you again to everyone for an amazing time, for traveling so far to share the day with us, for bringing such fantastic plants to share. This is a great group of people.

Angel

yes i too LOVED the swap ;^) and i really liked all the different food choices! all the plants were WONDERFUL!!!!! Skybird and Angel, you did a great job of organizing the swap!
thank you for all of your hard work!!!!!!!

and i too would like the recipe for the the Japanese mochi recipe! ;^)

That was a great swap! It's wonderful to come together with other people for everyone's fun and mutual benefit. Food, conversation and wonderful plants was all perfect. Love the slide show, Laura, really captures the experience. Can't wait to get my babies in the ground; I scored fantastic. (Yes, skybird, except for the ones marked "recent," I will wait for those.) And whoever brought the baked fruit in the pumpkin it was great.

Special thanks to skybird aka "born to organize." Man did you give me some nice stuff.

And to Angel without whom we might not have pulled it off.

It was quite a fun day! Even though I dressed for summer and shivered, I managed to get sunburned. I am excited to plant up all my goodies! Thank you all for your contributions to food, plants and fun!
Diane

The pictures are great Laura! And Skybird,I belonged to polygonum and serpent_moon.

chcolatedog

Thank you to everyone for the great plants, food and conversation. I'm sorry I couldn't have stayed longer but enjoyed the time I WAS there immensely. My main goal this time around was to try and put names with faces. Mission accomplished. Thank you all again and will be playing in the dirt shortly : )

Thank you Angel for a hosting,you did a wondeful job. Thank you skybird for you never ending contribution to the cause. It was a lovely event. Laura thanks for the great pictures. I got all my goodies in the ground and as always, greatful for all the gardener friends out there. Who made the fruit salad with the yogurt? It was outstanding. I was so glad to see such wonder healthy food. I had a great time. Thanks again.

Gloria
(gjmancini)

Hello again, and also a big thanks to everyone, especially Angel and Dee for rockin' the location and the organization of what would otherwise have been completely uncontrolled chaos! GREAT location with the park, Angel! Honorable mention to Laura, for getting pics up already! That was fast!

For the record, and for anyone that got things from me: I tried to plant out all my newspaper-potted stuff yesterday when we got home (yes, I'm nuts, I know), and discovered that MY paper pots were a little too good at holding in water--the soil was starting to get fuzzy under the paper just a bit. Since the plants were all pretty well established, I don't think it will be a problem, but for those that got stuff from me, be sure to either remove the paper (or the bottoms, at the very least) when planting out, and if it will be awhile before you plant them out, water less than you think they need in the meantime--the tops can get pretty dry before they will need more water underneath (feel the bottom of the paper pot). I'll have to make thinner pots next year! If you DO leave them in the paper pots when planting out, be sure to bury ALL the paper (or rip off the top part of it so none of it is sticking out of the ground), as this can serve as a wick for the moisture and will quickly dry out the seedling, possibly before the roots have a chance to break through.

Thanks again everyone for the great plants, wonderful food, and ever-welcome company. Hubby came home with red sandal-feet (OW!) and the comment: "What a nice bunch of folks!" Of course, I'm making a list of what I'd like to ask for at the next swap already... He he! It's a sickness, I know!

Blessings!

I also just want to thank everyone! it was a fantastic day and I look forward to the next swap. I am enjoying my plants that are not yet planted, most of my new babies aren't ready for the insane wind i got going on today. I am working on a photobucket with all the pictures husband took yesterday, its taking longer than expected cause there were more pictures than i thought possible.
Becky

Words, especially like thank you, do not seem like enough to express our joy and appreciation for the wonderful day yesterday. It is an amazing demonstration of love when I think about what so many gave so freely to insure the days success. Angel: for making all the arrangements and putting so much thought into what had to be brought and coordinated to insure each of us had a fun and a worry free day!

To skybird: It is a miracle that you even slept for the days leading up to our big event. Your plants share your shinning, smiling face.

Special thanks to each of you that planned your trips to come share a few hours with your friends and found the time to bake or prepared fantastic dishes that tasted out of this world.

AND THE PLANTS...thank goodness we have the many photos to help us remember what day was all about. bonnie and terry

What a great day!!! Thank you to everyone. My mom was impressed with me (and all of you) - not bad ladies (and gents) to impress a master gardener. Bonnie (luckybottom), what did you call your onions, was it walking onions?

Well, I did get to play 'watch the redhead burn' - a game the whole family can play. I'm telling you, next time I'm just going to slather on toothpaste because 50+ sunblock applied twice apparently doesn't cut it. Tops of feet not burnt, I'm sure only because they weren't exposed. I think I burnt my eyelids. Grumble grumble. Garden hat is in store for next swap.

It was great to meet all of you.

All my veggies are in, the flowers are half in.
Excited to see recipes and pics!

Thanks again to Angel and Dee for the hosting and expertise. Thanks to everyone for the incredible food. I haven't been that well fed in a while. Looking forward to the fall swap where we can utilize our garden for cooking!

Angel- Thanks so much for sharing the pasta salad recipe- that's the one I was looking for! I loved the overall flavor, and the cheese and orange tomatoes were especially delicious. Thanks again for everything!!

~ Almond

Ok, I know I'm a little late on the Thank You, but it was 7 pm when I got home Sunday, so I pretty much ate dinner, and went straight to bed. Yesterday, I wasn't home, and this morning I've been planting tomatoes. Glad I didn't do them sooner, as the low last night was around the freezing mark, and I know a couple of folks here lost some of their tomatoes. My toms. and peppers were safe in the garage. I just hope that's the end of the frosts this year!

Anyway, like some of you, I forgot spots with the sunscreen, back of the calves, and tops of the feet. Also, forgot my hat, so my scalp was burnt too.

Laura, I think your pictures are awesome! Way better than the ones of everyone's butts that we usually get each year, LOL!!! I think you should be the designated photographer from now on.

It was great seeing some familiar faces, and meeting new ones. I love the picture of the two Bonnie's meeting for the first time : )

Thank you to everyone that earmarked things for me. I realized though that it's not really all about acquiring more plants when we got to the free-for-all part, and I didn't really feel the need to grab everything in sight this year. I just enjoyed the chance to visit with other nuts that share my passion.

Well, I've got to head back out to the garden and start planting peppers, and you know that's gonna take a while! There's still a ton of wintersown seedlings to get in the ground, and the high is forcast to hit 86º by Thursday, and amazingly it's not windy today, so I better get busy!

Looking forward to the next one!

Bonnie

I'm very late in expressing my thanks and joy! Being with all you plant lovers and learning lots about Colorado gardening was so fun! And Skybird, please, no apologies. I thank you for the plants you gave me. And even more, your wanting to make it right. You are a gem!

Cathy

The only things I don't like about the swaps are:

I never get around to talking with and meeting everyone.

I never remember the faces to the names!!!

Although, this time, I did get quite a few new faces and maybe they came with names or I'm remembering them incorrectly. Can't wait till the next swap and I say hello to one person all the while thinking they are another person :D

I just felt like complaining...

J.

Well, I'm terrible with face-name stuff anyway. I'll recognize a person, maybe even know exactly where I know them from and know details about their life, but still forget their name for a while.

So the whole not knowing who is who is a normal thing for my stupid brain. Sigh.

My sunburn is better now! And the little blondie boy in orange is still talking about the ultra cool climbing pyramid thing. :)

Thank you to everyone who gave me plants, and especially to skybird and angel... such work and thoughtfulness went into this event. My sister and I had a great time. I went right home and planted everything that did not need a little more time in their pots! Great group of folks! I'll definitely have some things to contribute to the next swap. See you in the fall!!

I just realized that I never shared the pics I took at the spring swap. Here they are!