I think it's the economy. Lots of people looking for free plants but not many with new plants to trade. Remember when we'd buy a big pot of something new just to have half to trade?

I pretty much stopped plant trading because of what folks would offer. I would say that I had caryopteris 'Sunshine Blue' to trade and get 10 people respond with 'I have some kind of marrigold do you want to trade' or 'can I send butterbean seeds?' or my favorite 'I would be HAPPY TO SEND POSTAGE'.
Thanks to speaking with you via email a couple of days ago I have been putting some items on my tradelist again. Perhaps I will get back into plant trading.

Yes, I have had a few people offer me roadside weeds. I stopped trading seeds altogether. I think the seeds get passed around so much they are really too old. I winter sowed container after container and nothing germinated.

I think also life just gets in the way lol we all have our ups n downs.. sometimes its hard getting up from the down..
or they couda had a good up n got a new baby or grandbaby n just dont have the time or a full time job . (bla thats me)
they will be back when they can :)
I have not traded in a few years but sometimes still lurk :)
keeping a updated conversation in here might make n post a hi n hellow. cause most people think you only post to trade.

Pam I just realized we ARE really oldies lol..we've both been members of GW for 10 years.
Alot have just left Chrizty...and aren't coming back from what I've heard, which is really sad. Great bunch of people/traders

lol - yes, we are Cheryl! Lately, it seems like only a few have good plants to offer for trade, and what they are being offered in return are very common, or un-named plants. Very lope-sided trades.

Lol, I was a little bored this evening (it's cold and damp outside which killed my garden plans) and I came across this thread.... Out of curiosity I checked my join date and saw I'm just a couple days away from joining the 10 year club too! I would have never guessed that much time flew by... Yuck.
I used to get a lot of fun from lurking around on the swap forums, what people wanted always surprised me.... Considering how many ROS I've weeded out over the years! I agree that there used to be much better conversations going on, people seem to be much more in a rush today and posting all over the Internet. I guess there wasn't as much going on back then and other options didn't exist... So we all tiptoed our way around spike and tried to get along.
Never was much of a trader, only really a couple trades each year, most between friends, but it's always fun.... Which I can thankfully say since I've never been stiffed (yet?) so I guess thanks to the long time traders and you never know who will drift back to gw.

see having a updated conversation worked! :)

my garden was filled with flowers from the older group..I can walk through it now and I see hostas from RaggedyAnn and bearded iris from Red...Pam, of course I have some of your sedums.

Yes, I still have some of yours, too, Cheryl. Seems like the gardens are pretty busy this spring, but plants are more expensive than ever.

wow, what a day and what a rude person we've run into. He's changed some post, and they are still rude, but what he deleted was worst. And what he wrote to Cheryl and me off GW is bad.

yeah, the worst I've seen in 10 years :(. Why people have to be so rude, so crude, and just so mean to somebody they have never even met, I will never understand, but that seems to be the way of the world now.

I had to go take a look.... Weird. Joined 4-17, offended everyone by 4-19. Sorry about the bad experience.
Woodthrush, I think I saw you ask about the blue knuckle bamboo. Never heard of it but the picture looks like it might be miscanthus gigantus. I don't think it's a real bamboo judging by the new growth coming up and the dead looking older stalks.
Frank
I miss raggedyanne too! So nice.

Has anyone heard from Annie ? I used to have her on my facebook but she kind of just dissapeared. Frank, you missed it, most of the really bad stuff was edited out.

Poor kid has never grown up and I don't think he ever will. Shame he had to pick on the Grand Dames of Garden Web. I was going to tell him, that his bamboo was really Giant Reed grass when I started reading his smart mouth statements. You two ladies think of all the people who like and care for you and try to forget the one J. Maybe he will fade away.

Thanks for id'ing the Giant Reed Grass., Plantman. I really wanted to check to for hardiness. And then he said it was hardy to -20 in Cincinnati, is Cincinnati really zone 4?
rofl - Grand Dames !
Pam

hehehe

I haven't checked how hardy the Giant Reed grass is. but if you want to try it. I have plenty.
Tony

Age does not make a Great or Grand Dame. Action does. When I first started you two were real nice to me. Told me how to pack and ship plants and one of you was my first trader. I haven't seen anything but good from both of you.
I have been on Garden Web just about as long as you two.
Tony

Thanks, Tony. I'd like to give it a try. I wonder if deer will eat it.
Here's my problem. I've had a fence around the yard for years, but last fall, a doe persistently broken through the fence, and more followed her. My husband's health is failing and he
just can't keep up with mending the broken fence. I'm thinking/hoping that some kind of thick grass will help block the areas where
they break through.

Woodthrush
I have white pampas grass and sometimes in the fall the deer try to make beds in them.
What about bushes? like forsythia? they root so easy.
last fall I cut a few branches off mine and just stuck them in the ground and this spring I have lil sticks covered in yellow flowers across my back yard . in about 3-4 years they will be good size bushes :) Im trying to make a living fence back there :) caught my neighbor peeping toming us :0
I have to agree with the trading. its not as fun. I had a trade and the person wasn't very corespondent. no chit chat. not even a Hi or hello, just a please send me or addy. No response to any e-mails I sent. not even when I let them know I sent there box out. and No letting me know they sent theirs. If it wasn't for me ordering from Edelweiss perennials who's box came same day as my trade's, I wouldn't of known it was here.
And so far No letting me know they got my box. I dont think they have. I keep checking the tracking number and its been at there PO April 24 waiting for pick up. I sent another e-mail letting them know but no response...guess Ill just keep checking the tracking number. hope they pick it up before the plants die :( or the website is behind? an yea they have internet cause there still trading..
I cant complain to much. they did send nice plants :) but the no communication thing is a bit frustrating .......

Yes, we have planted a lot of forsythia cuttings. We were out today and saw so many really deep hedges of them, I guess I plant more. And I've planted more cuttings from the wild multifora rose. We are very shaded so they aren't growing as fast as they should.
lol - sometimes, I'm not too chatty either with trades. But I do acknowledge boxes and when they go out.

A few years ago I stuck forsythia cuttings along my front yard and there doing good. thinking of mixing rose of sharsons in with them. ?? So this year Im starting in the back yard ..
what Ive been thinking about is making a living trellis with forsythia and quince.That goes up along my driveway in my yard. I have a few starters growing around the quince I could dig up.. Id have to trim/ shape them. and when they get tall enough twine the tops together..

I have been a trader here for several years but due to health reasons I was unable to trade until recently. I worked for over 20 years to plant my back yard and because I was unable to keep up with it instead of helping with it my son chopped everything down. People can be mean and why we can never tell. Things are getting overgrown again I feel like spraying the whole place with Round-up. Even if I don't post or trade I enjoy reading the posts.

Gunnysack

Gunnysack thats so sad.
When I get to the point I can't garden anymore and if my kids don't want to, I plan on putting trees everywhere and making my yard into a little forest and letting everything grow wild! :)