Neighborhood Plant Swap

I’m in a book group with the women on my block. It gives us a chance to get together and read and have a snack and visit each others’ homes. At our last book group meeting, we realized that we were all were gardeners, too. So, we decided to have a plant swap. We included gardeners from other blocks in our neighborhood, too!


We picked a Saturday afternoon so we’d have time to dig things up in the morning (or just sleep in) and then plant later in the day (or plant on Sunday). And, of course, we had snacks. We set it up in my driveway and we had the garage ready in case of bad weather.

The weather was as fabulous. The plants people brought were equally as fabulous. They came in pots, boxes, bags, and buckets!

We had iris (bearded and Siberian), day lilies, sedum (upright and creeping), turtlehead, ligularia desdemona, anise hyssop, lemon balm, liatris, Lamb's Ear, rudbeckia, primroses, baptisia, summer phlox, artemesia, hosta lancifolia, sedge, Karl Foerster grass, wild geraniums, Tiger sumac, and a few more. I put out some “shelves” and tables so some of the plants could be closer to eye level for easier viewing.

Everyone was excited about the selection. Being Minnesotans, however, the swap part of the day was slow to get going—nobody wanted to be the first to take something! But, after a few snacks, we got over it, and started making piles or trips home with our goodies.

I had a shovel and some extra pots in case people wanted to dig stuff out of the garden that I hadn’t potted. Only the big pot is left! I hooked up a hose to the rain barrel so we could water in the things we’d potted.

At the end of the afternoon, even the “common” things found a home. (Day lilies, anyone?!) We decided that all the “leftovers” will go to the community garden addition next week. And, everyone agreed it was a GREAT way to spend a sunny September afternoon. Maybe we’ll do it again next year!

New Kids on the Block

One of the things I like about working with the Shady Sisters is that I get to know about plants I don’t have in my own garden—and see them in a garden setting, so I know how big something’s going to get. I’ve got mostly yellows and golds in the gardens now, but Gail and Linda had a rainbow of color, so, this weekend, I picked up a few new additions that will give me a variety of color in late summer and early fall.

Pink Turtlehead (chelone) is the first newbie of the group. It does well in both sun and shade. Linda’s are almost 4 feet tall. The ones I took home are young, so they’re a little shorter. I can really see, too, the resemblance between the flower and its namesake. (And, oddly, it doesn’t creep me out like the foxglove does.)



This snapshot shows three more additions – two of which are not yellow. From left to right, they are the shrub/herbaceous clematis, meadow rue, and ligularia Desdemona. Des is the yellow one of the bunch, but I like her red stems and interesting foliage. Unlike “Rocket,” which sends up a tall spike of yellow flowers, Desdemona has a more daisy like bloom. She likes a shady spot.

The meadow rue (Thalictrum rochebruneanum) will get between 6 and 10 feet tall but is so delicate, I’m confident it will work in my small space. I like the tiny leaves and the spray of tiny pink/lavender flowers on purple/wine colored stems. This one can go in either sun or shade.

The shrub clematis has a blue flower, which you don’t see a lot of this time of year in our zone – even in annuals. This clematis doesn’t vine, it clumps – reaching heights of between 3 and 7 feet depending on the particular variety. Mine will be at the shorter end of the spectrum.

It’s too hot to plant today, but tomorrow is supposed to be cooler, so they’ll just rest in their pots another day.