We are currently finishing up two swaps. Almost completed is the Wish List Swap and with only a few to go...the Shade Swap.

I received the biggest box of plants I think I have ever gotten in a trade from Jo on Friday. She had me as a partner in the wish list swap and boy did she just about clear my list of plants I wanted.:0)

Here's the list:
spirea blue mist
dutchmans breeches
twinleaf
hellebore babies
hellebore bears claw
tiarella pink skyrocket
yellow corydalis
daylily "Nana's Joy" (in honor of my becoming a new grammy).
feverfew selma star
dwarf jacobs ladder
lespedesia edo shibori
heuchera limericky
heuchera marmalade
perennial foxglove
filipendula/meadowsweet
bearsbreeches
blue fesque grass
yellow rose
pink bleeding heart
garden phlox "David"
penstemon huskers red
rose persian cornflower
crested gentian
heuchera smoky rose
heucherella rosalie
pentstemon electric blue
pulmonaria mrs moon
yellow ratibida
verbena apple blossom
hosta captain kirk
hosta valentine lace
azalea golden lights
and a beautiful garden flag

Jo I loved it all and will not be returning anything (lol) but you sent waaaay too much. You must have been digging and wrapping for days. These plants alone (32 of them) will make a substantial bed by themselves. Thank you sweetie, I love them and you.

I have heard from Melinda's daughter and she came through surgery okay. She is very sore and tired and I'm assuming in quiet a bit of pain. Continue to remember her in your prayers.

Miriam, I hope you are continuing to make daily progress and still getting to spend some time in your garden.

Dawn it was good to hear from you as always. Would you please send me Amanda's business address again. My pc crashed and I lost everything. Rebuilding it as I write.

Paul did you take pics while you were in TN? Aren't the mountains beautiful? Would you consider a trip back if we ever get the trip there scheduled? I think Oct. would be a great time to go to Gatlinburg because that is the month they do the Craftsmen's Fair. Anyone still interested in making a trip to TN? (this is Canna's state)

I'm going to start a new picture thread also so it won't take so long to get our pics to open.

Hugs to all,
Debbie

Debbie - OMG! The package you got from Jo was HUGE and Wonderful! I haven't gotten your package yet, I'm assuming that it's coming today! I can't wait. I hope that the treatments will work for your daughter quickly. They are making a lot of advances in MS. It won't help my mom, but hopefully it will help your daughter.

Jo - your generousity is amazing! All really wonderful plants!

Marea - Bradley Bernard is beautiful - It's got to go on the wish list!

Dawn - sorry to hear about your dog but glad to see you here as always.

Jean - I'm so glad you liked your package! It was so hard to choose what to send you, your list of "haves" is soooo long! I was worried that I didn't have anything good enough to send.

This weekend, we went to a big flea market in New York. We help make ends meet by selling stuff at Flea Markets. I haven't sold any plants at flea markets because there hasn't been a good way to transport them. Well, I finally had room to take a few plants with me. I did't take lots because this was just a way to test the waters. They weren't really optimal for selling either - not all were in bloom, etc but I would say that it was a resounding success! I've sold mostly on ebay in the past and everything you sell there has to be in collectible or it won't sell for enough to really be worth the time to dig up, clean up and pack. The first thing that sold was my shasta daisies - all six of them that I brought were sold in one shot within the first 10 minutes of selling! I sold them at a reasonable price for my taste and it was a good deal for the buyer! Considering it didn't cost me a penny for the plants - the pots were recycled, the potting soil that I used is from the huge mountain or extremely composted horse manure and the daisies were from digging up and moving my existing shasta daisies it was really found money. I will definitely be doing much more of this! Honestly if you calculated profit per square foot of space profit, my plants made by far the most money!

This past spring, our local school advertised that it was looking for donations of plants to beautify the school. Of course I donated quite a quantity. While talking to the woman in charge I found out that my son's teacher and her class was in charge of one of the gardens in the center of the school. This teacher is a wonderful teacher who has done a lot for my son who has ADD. Well of course I donated a few more still for her garden. When I found out that they needed some help moving mulch into the garden and spreading it, I volunteered my husband. Can you believe that my non-gardening husband who rarely helps me at home spent almost 2 weeks on that garden. I was very proud of him. He wanted to make sure that the gardens looked nice for the special garden program that my son's class was putting on. He kept running back and forth to Home Depot to get some more top soil to fill in the low spots. I also took off time from work to help with the planting. In the end, the teachers and staff were so grateful that they invited us to lunch with the class, gave us a very nice card with a gift certificate for $75 for Applebees!

Alright, alright, I've rambled enough!

Wow Ellen! You will get Bradley Bernard as a gift from an admirer for that special garden...
Most of the awesome daylily collection you sent me last Summer is blooming now. Yellow Mammoth & Ruby Spider both really impressed me & got put into the Bradley Bernard broodmare band. lol
Way to go on those Shasta daisies! Love it!
I need to do a flea market, maybe a pretty booth with pots of blooming noid daylilies, houseplants & succulents, antique tins & blue willow china would bring in something, but I'm so focused on the daylilies this year & on having to water twice a day in this 100 degree heat that just eBay is too much on my plate.

Debbie, thank you so much for the Melinda update, and the threads.

Jean ~ no, that name isn't on my list, anyhow... Our newest member who hasn't had time to introduce herself yet is Janie.

Jo, that was one flaming incredible box you sent Debbie! Awesome - thank you. You deserve a special prize award,for meeting the secret criteria of incredibly generous, just wish I had postage money for ANY box right now... Have to sell some more plants first.
Do you still have my address for Annie's Iris swap? I will make sure my GW iris list is correct for you right after I get my chores done. Any iris that isn't purple or white is on my wish list & I'd love to have every red TB iris introduced.

Hope to see cottage garden photos SOON, Sharon!
Marea

It's been a loooong time- but hey most of weeds are pulled and my horses get ridden!

Wow, Debbie that's the biggest trade box I've ever heard of. WTG, Jo!

This year I'm growing basil for the first time and I just LOVE pesto! I'm also growing a purple bean that cooks up magically into a green bean!

I've been snapping pics like crazy. I love june and its 130 different flowers the Lord blesses us with.

Well, back to assembling the July bloom album. ( he he he!)

Oh Marea, I have my first scape on the black spot DL seedling from your seeds 2 yrs ago. I'm hoping for something dark and mysterious!

Karen ( cheerpeople)

Got my wonderful Shade Trade from Debbie and she included some great plants. She has literally more than doubled my collection of Heucheras! This is what she included in the swap
Heucheras:
   Venus
   Mars
   Regina
   Snow angel
Hostas
    Patriot
    Morning light
    Night before chrightmas
Polemonium brise d'anjou (I've drooled over this lots of times in the stores thanks!)
I was worried that they sat inside a hot post office over the weekend but all are doing very well! I even got to pot them all up the same day - not always so easy for me and I did do it in the dark!

Karen - I love pesto! IMHO I think it's kind of expensive in the store but it's soo easy to make at home. I can't wait till my basil gets big enough to harvest and make my own.

Marea - I'm so glad you liked what I sent you! I liked selling at the flea market because it seemed so much easier to make quick money than ebay. No cleaning and packaging of plants, no worrying about customer issues. It's really a nice complement to ebay too. Take the stuff that doesn't sell that great on ebay or for which you can't get a decent minimum price for because flea markets are not the place to sell collectible plants, they are really the place for more common plants. Stuff in bloom sells the best but surprisingly my upright sedums, which were not blooming yet, sold very well. My most disappointing seller - my corkscrew willows. This is because 1. they were wind damaged from the ride and 2. nobody knew what they were and would have preferred the more common weeping willow. I suspect that if I had weeping willows, they would have all sold. If I had brough more plants I could easily have made several hundred dollars. The woman selling plants about 20 stands over probably made in the thousands of $$. Now remember that this is a bad economy right now so sales are down even in the flea market business. Two years ago, she could have sold out all of her stock in stead of only 3/4 of her beautiful plants that were are at or just below regular nursery prices. Think of it as complementing ebay, not instead and a quick way to make some money.

Idea for July Trade - red white and blue?

Ellen

Jo-I want to post a picture of the bears breeches you sent me 2-3 years ago. It is beautiful and one of my favorite plants in my garden. Have you seen the variegated one? I must have it, just hope I can find one. What an awesome box you sent Ms. Debbie. You must have dug for a week to get that box ready. Your awesome..............

Debbie-Thinking of your DD and hope everything is going well
with her. Prayers for her are being said now.

Melinda-Prayers for you also, hope to see you on here posting and trading away. LOL

Shirley

I got the last of the plants Jo sent me planted last Friday. Whew,it took me two days. Thanks Jo I can't wait until next year to see them blooming.

Shirley and Ellen, thank you for you prayers and words of comfort,

Nancy I got your message about being iris partners just minutes before my pc crashed for the second time. I am looking forward to being your partner, I know you have bunches of iris...I have a few named one but hope you wont be disappointed. Many of mine were ordered last fall but most of them I do have a spare fan/rhizome for you.

Marea I don't know if this idea would be better saved for another time when we don't have plants to trade, but I was thinking a part of patriotism is pride in your state, so I thought we might do something like the swap I participated in back in the winter. Once everyone has signed up, the sponsor assigns partners, and sends individual emails to the partners. Only the sponsor knows who all the partners are Then each person sends the partner that the sponsor sent you things that represent or suggest your state...for example...KY is known for bourbon, horses, bluegrass, plus there are many plants and veggies that have the name KY in them, plus there is the derby...anyway you get the idea. Whatever we swap...sign me up.

Karen, so happy to see you posting and getting to see your beautiful plants and garden.

Hugs,

Debbie

Debbie, are you going to continue with the wine making lesson? I plan to start the process in a few days since I don't have any plans to go out of town anytime soon.

After 3 years of waiting, I finally have some pomegranate fruits... woo hoo!

Thanks,
Paul

That's OK because, I really had a bad day yesterday.
So if you all could wish me a belated "Happy Birthday", it would make me happy.

Thanks,
Miriam

Paul I would love to see pictures.

Shirley

Mary Seehusen July 2
Diane Hardee July 6
Carol Bea July 15
Miriam Green July 15

I am missing the last page of my list and since I lost everything in my pc crashes, I can't print any more. So if I missed you please let us know. Also...if someone would send me a members list, I would greatly appreciate it.

Sorry Nancy...I have a trade with Annie in her named iris swap. For some reason I thought it was you I had the swap with.

I will be back to post info about wine making in the next day or two.

Miriam and Melinda, I hope you are feeling better. I do think of you often even if I don't say anything online.

Debbie

My husband baked me a cake. It was very good.

Thanks for the prayers,

Miriam

Mary you shared my grandfather's birthday so I sure hope it was a special one!

Diane, hope yours was terrific too!

And also Carol, Happy Birthday!

Paul, I'd like to see pics of your trip too.

Debbie, thanks for clearing that up for me. Whoosh! One time it wasn't me forgetting something. lol

Nancy

Oh you ladies, I'm so sorry my own stuff got in the way of giving you any energy!!!
Most happiest of all belated birthdays to you Miriam!
Walk soon, well & painlessly to you, Melinda!

My hubby is suddenly in a wheelchair & my beloved kitty son Chuck died as a result of protecting us from a feral cat.
I am freaked, paid my internet bill instead of the electricity so not long for this forum anyway & grieving ~m#

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAYS ALL :)

Pictures,pictures please,please Paul.

Its raining again,sigh.Last month I was wishing for
rain.Didn't want to have to water the gardens,city water
has gotten way out of hand :(.Well this month its raining,
but it seem to be on my day off..hehe..Oh well,the gardens are loving it.

Melinda thank you for the birthday wish.

Maria - You are not going to be on this forum????

God knew what he was doing when I stumbled on to this forum.

I am glad you all are in my life.

Miriam

Ellen

Hi Debbie, Ellen, Paul, Karen, Dianne, Miriam, Carol, Jo, Sassy, Anita, Nancy,Me linda & Jean. Hope I didn't leave anyone out.

Karen-Thank you so much for those beautiful pictures. Wow your gardens are beautiful. I will look back on those many days during Winter when nothing is blooming and green. If you get seeds from your pink columbine and the calendula I would love to try some. I just love penstemon and also peruvian lilies. Just gorgeous all of them.

Miriam-Hope your day is extra special and you are feeling well. Hugs to you today.

Debbie-Still praying for your DD and hope she is doing well.

My daylilies are almost all gone just a few still hanging on. It has been a great year and we got rain this year so I had beautiful blooms. My selling Season was the best as of yet. God is good all the time.

DH went back to work a week ago so I worried all those months for nothing. His un-employment would have ended in August and he went to work July 20th.

Shirley

Happy VERY belated birthday to Mary, Dianne, Carol and last but not least Miriam. I hope your special day was a good one.

Paul, where are those pictures?

Jean, you are very lucky to be getting rain. It is so hot and dry here. We are in a drought and I don't think there is any rain in the forecast for this week.

Shirley, I am so glad to hear that your hubby has found a job. I know that has to be a big relief.

Melinda, I hope you are recovering well after your surgery.

Debbie, I hope your daughter is doing ok. Prayers go out to her.

Hugs to everyone!

Dianne

Dianne

Hi Shirley. Great to hear your DH is back to work.

Colorado photos are posted on the photo thread :).

Herb is walking again & gaining some strength, has nerve damage in his back so my giant of a man is puny right now, but walking!!

I got a weekend job taking care of cats at a big boarding kennel nearby & actually get paid to pet cats. Healing. God is good.

Paul, I truly loved seeing your photos - awesome, incredible & majestic Colorado tour you gave your boys AND us.
I got to drive through CO once, all I saw was the admittedly fantastic & spiritual views from the interstate & a wonderful diner in Denver where I had the best Denver omelet of my life.

Carol, I know you Washington people are used to cool & wet, but it was 110 degrees here the other day, and it hasn't rained here since the beginning of June, so you are actually lucky...

I've been feeling very lucky with the daylilies this Summer - the heat has given me oodles of rebloom scapes so I'm going to get to enjoy flowers all this month, too, meaning I'm enjoying daylily blooms for 5 full months this year!
AND I got several very promising seedlings, some gorgeous faces that appear to have good branching & bud counts. My favorite has to be an Awesome Blossom x Create Your Dream kid: lavender with purple flames & knobby purple edge. And my 2008 Linda Beck x Bobby Martin seedlings ALL bloomed, just 6 buds each, but they ALL looked like both parents - have high hopes for them.

Melinda, our Sunkissed Temptation's registration is now pending & it is going to be introduced at the 2012 National Convention in Ohio. The fan I kept has increased to 5 fans since I mailed yours, sent up a rebloom scape AND has 3 proliferations growing on the first scape! Hope yours is doing as well.

Hope all of you are well, cool & happy,
Love Marea

I hope Miriam and Melinda are continuing to improve.

I'm going to a family reunion tomorrow so I can't chat long. I have to get photos and genealogy stuff together

I only have one August birthday and that is Dianne Gulley on Aug. 31st. If I've missed anyone please let me know. I am still trying to put all the stuff I lost during the crashes back in the computer

Happy Early Birthday Dianne

Debbie

Thanks Debbie for the birthday wishes. Another year older. Where do these years go anyway?

Paul, I loved your pictures. I bet you had a great time.

Carol, I know you mentioned the 90's was too hot for you but right now for us here in TX that would be considered a cool front!

Shirley, I hope your hubby is enjoying his new job.

I hope everyone has a good rest of the week. I am taking off Thursday and Friday this week and I am sure looking forward to the long weekend.

Dianne

Marea,
I am so sorry to hear about Herb, but so glad he is up and around now. *hugs,hugs, hugs* Will keep you in my prayers.
We have 2 new additions to our critter family (thought of you, lol) someone dropped 2 little black(extremly thin) female kittens. So, the little terrors are busy destroying my house, hehe They are litter trained, and growing now, but still thin. Looking at their little faces, I think they may have some abbysinian in them, so may never put on much weight. But, they look healthy now, so that is what counts. We have never had to go looking for a cat/kitten, they always seem to find us. lol my old kitty was a little bent, but is now beginning to accept them. She still wont let them get close, but she isnt going after them to smack them now.

Marea,
I will get your box packed and mailed as soon as I get your addy again.

Hugs to all,
Jo

Dianne-DH says it's a job. I laugh and say it pays the bills. Hopefully he can retire in a couple of years. I guess there will be no retiring for me once he retires. I will have to work to keep our insurance. Dianne Happy Birthday coming up for you. Hopefully I will remember closer to the 31st. I can't believe August is almost gone.

Sure miss the ones who are so busy they can't post. I am usually the one who can't find time to post.

Shirley

Happy Birthday Dianne.

Debbie

Hope you ALL are feeling good and harvesting lots of fat daylily seeds on this beautiful National Dianne Day...

~ Marea

Annette Barrett

Hi to everyone...waving madly......I've started cleaning up flower beds already. Hope I finish before Christmas. LOL

Shirley

Marea, thank you so much for the e-card my friend. Hope all is well with you.

Shirley, I got outside this weekend and did some cleaning up in the flower beds. It was in the 60's here in the morning. Loved it.

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week.

Dianne

Man of Sorrows
Moses in the Bulrushes
Robed in Majesty
Woman at the Well
Hats off to Tracy
Jewel in a Crown
Party Popper
Stargate Portal
Arms to Heaven
Flip Flop
Cardigan Bay

Shirley

Shirley, I have Jewel In A Crown for you. Will be able to send it along with your surprise next weekend.

Dianne, hope you got to party wildly to celebrate anyway!

Sharon, hope all is well! I have larkspur seeds ready for you & will get them into the mail on Monday so you can do Fall planting.

If anyone else wants some ultraviolet rocket larkspur seeds, just send me an email..

Happy garden cleanup all, LOL! Marea

Marea, my birthday was very uneventful. I came down with a stomach bug the day before and ending up eating cereal and toast for my birthday dinner. LOL..

Shirley, I do have Woman At the Well but the fans are pretty small right now due to our drought this year. If you would still be interested, let me know.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their holiday weekend.

Dianne

Dianne-A small fan is ok with me. I can sure relate with the drought as we had it two years in a row. This year was great with all the rain. Daylilies sure do like adequate rainfall. LMK which daylilies you are looking for.

Where is Ms. Sharon? Sure miss her posts and hope she is ok.

I'm off tomorrow and hope to get more flower beds cleaned up. I did sign up to attend our Garden Club meeting. I think we need to take time off sometimes and do things we enjoy.

Shirley

Dianne

I'm so proud. Our parish had our new church dedication on Friday. My daughter served mass with our Cardinal Mahony. For those of you not familiar with the Catholic hierarchy, Cardinal is one step away from Pope :). Anyways, she even made the local newspaper. You can see her in the photo with the Cardinal (second from left). She says no big deal, but her parents can't be more proud.

Hope everyone's well... they finally have the fires under control it seems.
Paul

I hope everyone enjoys their Labor Day Monday and is free from too much laboring. :O)

Dianne

I don't think I mentioned earlier that deer demolished my gardens this year. This is the first time in 15 years that we have seen deer behind the houses. People were saying it's because so many of us put in vegetable gardens this year. I only saw a Doe a couple of times, but the neighbor saw a Doe with 2 babies and one time an Eight point Buck.

I found out that deer just love Daylily blooms .... cry.
So i only have a few seeds ... and I mean just a few. So sorry everyone, I won't be sending any to those that had asked earlier.

Also, I sprayed that Liquid Fence after we discovered what was doing the damage. Can you believe it killed half of my Hydrangea!!!!!

Marea, go a head and send the Larkspur, but Fall planting ... What is that? lol
No fall planting going on here. I'll wait till spring.
Blue eyed baby daylily did not bloom this year. Still only 1 fan.

sharon

.

Sincere congratulations, Paul! That is quite the honor for you & your DD ~ very cool!

Shirley, you won the surprise in the last swap for meeting the secret criteria for recipients, I've just been dragging my heels in getting it mailed to you...

Labor Day was nice & chilly here - loved getting to feel goosebumps again after months of blasting heat, lol!

Hope you ALL are doing well & enjoying some September flowers, Marea

The weather here has turned cooler and Fall is in the air. Today starts our annual Fair and I hope to enter some flowers. I love this time of year.

Dianne-Your daylily is going in the mail today. Thank you so very much for my new daylily.

Paul-You have a very interesting life..thank you for sharing it with our group. I know you must be so proud of your DD, she is beautiful.

Shirley

Sharon, I'm sorry the deer munched on your garden. We have them too but they usually eat the leaves off mine early, before anything much is out and then leave them alone. This year I have a mole tunneling under my new lilies that I've planted and something also ate the buds off some of them, probably the deer. It could have been much worse around here.

Shirley, congratulations on winning the prize!

Right now I have perennial sunflowers blooming and black and blue salvia is still holding up lots of blooms and the big flash is the Spider Lilies that Joey sent me. I wonder how he's doing? Has anyone heard anything from him?

Hello to everyone else. I hope you're all getting a little reprieve from the heat that we are. Right now it's raining just the right way, not hard and not just sprinkling. We're loving it!

Have a great evening,

Nancy

Carol, I love your cat. I thought his head was going to turn all the way around. lol And the turtle's name is hilarious. I have Jeremiah the snake. He left us when it got hot but I saw him again the first of the week. I guess he comes home to roost for the winter.

I hope everyone is doing well and have lots of nuts stored for the winter ahead. It's beginning to cool off here.

Take care and hugs to all,
Nancy

Shirley

Hello friends,

Looks like everyone is busy getting their gardens/yards cleaned up. Mine will have to wait a bit longer. I have been really lazy about doing anything in the yard this year.

I have kept up with reading the posts here but I am still babysitting and helping out when I can. My son is hoping to move closer to us so their won't be so long to travel for us to get Gunner. Our daughter is still going to the fertility clinic but no luck so far. Money is getting really tight as her husband has never found a job and with her supporting the 3 of them, they are having a hard time with finances but we are hopeful that Pete will get a job soon and that Andi will have the baby she wants so much.

Now that I have filled you in, let me know what is going on with you and your loved ones.

I don't have a list of b-days....who has an Oct. birthday to tell us about? How about an anniversary or other special occasion? Post and let us know.

Hugs to all,

Debbie

The retarded kitten and devil cat ones are cute too.

I don't have a cool graphic here so I'm a party pooper!

We did a dude ranch in CO for a family reunion in Aug. It was a christian dude ranch and very nice. We got to ride horses every day several times a day if we wanted and the scenery was mountains and streams. It was a good time for all ages and personalities in our extended family. I even saw my first hummingbird nest. With mama and 2 babies! Did you know they make them from spider webs!?
I also went on my highest rock climb. 85 feet. I hired a guide to set the line and rapel me back down. I hurt my knee.
I don't think I will attempt a climb like that again as my knee is still whiney- but I went out with style. My highest climb!

My garden has had several frosts. It waaaas beautiful.

The kids have survived the first quarter of school. It always gets better after that.

I ordered an Ambient Fire DVD off ebay so I can see and hear a nice fire coming from my TV hearth!

I ride horses when I can (usually 2-3 times/wk) I'm still working, and I volunteer with two prison ministries and teach sunday school.

Lately, I've become a fan of Iron chef america ( youtube) and have learned how to flip food over in the pan with a flipping action ( no spatula). Yeehaw!

I have an occasional blog entry over at daves ( same member name)

Pics are parked at photobucket ( same member name)

I wish everyone here a lovely fall.
Karen/cheerpeople

Nancy

Shirley