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Plant Exchange

© Marge Talt

Gardeners are, by and large, generous souls. We delight in sharing our plants with each other. I have seldom visited a garden and not come away with some treasure.

While sharing on an individual basis is fun, group sharing is even more enjoyable. You can find homes for your excess plants, acquire new plants (that you have no idea where you'll put) and enjoy the company of lots of like-minded people - see old friends and make new ones.

If you belong to a gardening group or society who do not have annual or semi-annual exchanges (spring and fall are prime times), now's the time to start thinking about organizing one for next spring. If you don't belong to a plant-oriented group, you can start one. It doesn't have to be a formal affair - it can just be gardeners who gather once or twice a year to exchange plants. What better excuse do you need?

Organization of these affairs ranges from none to high. Too many restrictions can discourage participation, but a certain number of 'rules and regs' generates considerably less mayhem.

Plant Exchanges are held rain or shine. A little rain never discouraged a true plant nut. To make sure that things move along, a specific amount of time needs to be allotted for arriving and setting out plants - at least an hour is best for this, depending on the size of your group. Savvy exchangers know to get there early so there's plenty of time for examining the offerings. If your exchange is held in the morning, having coffee, tea and some kind of snack on hand is a nice touch - everybody can kick in a few dollars toward the treats.

Identify

As people arrive with plants, they are set out, usually on the ground, but I've been to exchanges held in garages when the weather was really bad, with everything displayed on trestle tables.

Having bits of paper with a letter of the alphabet (written large and dark enough to see from a distance) spread out in the display area is a real boon when it comes time to race in and select your plant. When everything is just set out as it comes in, as shown in this image, trying to sort the treasures out of the trash - and no matter what your rules are, there will be trash - can be frustrating.

Plants should be placed at the letter corresponding to the first letter of the genus name. This does mean that your group needs to be familiar with botanical names, which may be a tough sell for a gang of garden novices. If your crowd can not deal with botanical names, then (hopefully) there will be agreement as to common names and you can use those. This is, however, an excellent opportunity to learn botanical names…after all; plants are entitled to be called by their own names, just like people.