It was a wonderful day..for a newbie..I learn alot about putting up brugs..thanks joe...I got alot of coleus cuttings. thanks doc. I hope a few take.. I will let you know about the agave...To Renee you did an excellent job..I hope you enjoyed it...To Jan thanks for the coffee...and the park..
For all the food..great salads., chilis and deserts..
and of coarse all the rest...YOu guys are great.
carolyn from fairview

Hey all, it was great! I plan to sleep ALLLLL day tomorrow. :-)

Thank you all for such a wondeful day !!! It began very chilly, but warmed to be a pleasant day. Renee thank you for all your hard work, your talk on garden pests and how to combat them will really help me in my gardens. Jan - thank you and Jim once again for your hospitality and all that you do every time you let us come to share your piece of paradise. Joe thank you for the pictures you take ( I think,lol) for us to remember the day. Thank you to everyone else for sharing their plants, their food and their love of gardening with me. I love the camraderie and my plant swap friends!
I hope everyone who was not able to be there in person will try to come in the spring---you were all missed!!!
Marianne

Hey --

Would somebody please send me Jeff's mailing address? I brought him something to the swap (aside from plants!), but of course I couldn't give it to him since he wasn't there. I'd like to mail it. Thanks!

I have to say that it was such a wonderful day for me--my first swap. I was running around enjoying myself the whole time. I can't imagine what it would be like if there were lots more people there trying to arrange swaps and I REALLY can't imagine what this past spring's swap was like (was it a swap??). I enjoyed so many things, but my most favorite was meeting fellow gardeners and putting faces with the names that I have been seeing here on GW for a long time.

What fun it was to talk to fellow gardeners and realize that you are all just as passionate (nutty) about gardening as I am. Of course the food was as good as I had expected it to be. And how can I not mention the great job that Jan and Renee did! I can't imagine the number of hours that went into organizing, researching and preparing. Thanks gals! A big thanks to Joe who appeared immediately as soon as we opened our car doors and helped us unpack and set up our table.

I am already thinking about what I can bring to the spring swap. I really don't want a lot more plants. I think most of us said that yesterday. I just enjoyed being with your guys and I am sure I will have more plants that I need to bring (unload on somebody) by May.

Thanks to all for the warm welcome. Jeff, we missed you!

Ann

I must say this was a much nicer experience than our first swap (last Spring.) Dianne and I had a great time meeting everyone; putting faces to names. Thanks to Renee, Jan & Jim for all your hard work!

Thanks for the tips on the Brug sticks--this will be my first try with those.

Ann, what were the ferny plants I got from you? You had a picture of the flowers (gorgeous) as well their pretty foliage in summer.

Hope to see you all in the Spring,
Linda

Linda, the plant you asked about is amsonia hubrichtii or Arkansas amsonia. I think I put 3 plants in each pot. Space them 18" to 24" apart if you want a really full area or you can plant them individually. It was great meeting you and everyone else. Hope to see you in the spring.

It *was* a great swap. :-) I had many plants to put in the ground on Sunday! And those lovely ginger lilies -- oh my gosh, what great plants! I have one blooming in the house right now. I plan to give one of them to my mom-in-law -- she will love it in her new solarium.

Thanks so much to Renee and Jan for their hard work. I thought the program was excellent and showed a lot of hard work had gone into it. Really great. And to all my Garden web buddies who made it -- thank you for the plants, the great food, and most of all, the fellowship. :-) I'll be back next spring, no doubt trying to unload all the plants I neglected to dig up before the Fall swap.

With that, I would just like to close with a few things:

Pat -- The Chaste tree is Vitex Agnus Castus. :-)

Lessons Learned:

* Not bringing the hubby's new truck == VERY good thing. As it was I looked like a florist driving back to Madison in my poor little Honda :-)

* You can NOT trust Brug fanatics alone with your bundles. When I got home, every bag I unloaded had little sticks tucked in them by the Brug fairy! LOL

* The best part of the swap is the amazing, friendly people (but this wasn't something new I learned -- I already knew that. )

Bless you all! Photos from the UK trip will be coming soon, I promise.

* You can NOT trust Brug fanatics alone with your bundles. When I got home, every bag I unloaded had little sticks tucked in them by the Brug fairy! LOL "

Ohhh, that's TOOO funny. LOL!

""Pat -- The Chaste tree is Vitex Agnus Castus. :-) "

Actually.......there are several species of chaste tree. The ones at the swap were not agnus-castus, which has smooth leaflets that come in sets of 5 or so. I *believe* they were Vitex negundo, possibly var. heterophylla. I bought a similar young plant at a sale this fall, and that's what it was sold to me as. Vitex negundo is supposed to be more cold hardy than agnus-castus, and mine at least has some decent fall color -- which agnus-castus does not. OTOH, agnus-castus has aromatic foliage -- which at least my young possibly-negundo does not appear to.

Just a note!

I am NOT a fanatic.

Nor a fairy!

Just didn't want to carry them back home and I hate to throw them on the compost pile. I was merely looking out for thier well being by seeing to it that they found a good home.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

tngreenthumb:

you crack me up.... I think you need to talk to someone about that brug fairy complex you got ehehehh
So far my brug cuttings are still living and I am about to put the big brug into a bucket like you describe. I am gonna try to dig a hole so that it is ready for it next year. Believe me around here it will take a year to dig a hole that big by hand...Anyone have a back hoe I can borrow..