Thank you so very much, lindalana! It was a fabulous event as usual. Same here, stage_rat, I love seeing all of you again. And the weather could not have been better.

Thank you for ALL the plants even though I swore I would not take anything home anymore. I am totally exhausted from digging, moving plants, and moving my cedar barrels to make room for new plants. lol.

Did anyone know that Tellima grandiflora is fragrant? My two clumps from the swap years ago are looking great. I will try winter sowing its seeds this winter. A few more will look great together.

stage_rat, I am looking forward to the locust. My neighbor across the street would not let me plant anything in front of his house, so I will plant it in front of mine instead. And I know just what I will take out to make room for it. We planted the oak and black walnut in front of my friend's one door down across from us. I planted the sumac on the north side of my house. I hope it does not spread too fast. I love its fall colors. Thank you.

Ellen, thank you very much for the nice swap again. Thanks for all the hard work. I got some nice tomato, pepper and eggplants and planted them all. Nice to meet you all.

Thank you so much Annette for horsetail rush and juncus seeds. Can't wait to see horsetail grow.

Moni, thank you so much for miscanthus grass it is a huge clump and Dahlia tubers in generous amount.

Linniea, thanks for alium bulbs. Nice meeting you.

love2gardener, thanks for Muscari and periwinkle. Can't wait to see them growing.

Serena, thank you so much for aster. Love asters.

Missed happygardner23 this year what happened?

Thanks again

Thank you everyone for all the great plants.

Jas, I was very happy to get another asparagus - my favorite vegetable.

Ellen, thank you so much for the Tellima, my original clump died after three years but it was a wonderful perennial.

Stagerat, thank you for the natives, especially the trees.

luv2garden - can't wait to plant the muscari

Linnaea, thank you for parsely, planted it yesterday. Looking forward to making tabouleh and spagetti with it.

Great to see you Mone, I will definately have to stop by to see your garden as well as you, Mickey

Gonativegal, how many sassafrass and/or baby oaks would you like? (my supply isn't unlimited, but I have more than 2)

And Pitimpinai, would you be interested in a sassafrass? I moved the young locust from water to a pot today, I hope it stays perky.

Sassafrass? THAT is one beautiful tree/shrub. Thanks, stage_rat, but I really have no spot for it. I wish I could plant it across the street. There are three empty spots there. But my neighbor said no more than once.

I have everything planted, so am way ahead of past years. Thanks to good rain and cool temps, everything is looking really good. The only things remaining are two I had no ID on. I meant to ask while I was there but got caught up in the heat of the moment and forgot.

So I am posting their pics here in hopes someone can ID these. Thank you in advance. I really appreciate everyone sharing their bounty.

This first one has finely toothed leaves like a peach tree, dark green. Leaves/stems are not hairy, but have a slight sheen. Stem is square in cross-section. Leaves are opposite.

Hmm, I have a feeling it is one of Gonativegal's plants or at least she might know what is it. Lovely specimen.
Speaking on the topic of next year it is really disturbing how few bees are flying around. So am hoping people will grow/ WS/ share a lot of plants attractive to bees. I am planning to grow some borage for sure. What else?

For this second one, there was one label tucked in the middle of several plants. I thought, "Oh, I can use one of those", and picked it up, leaving the label to edify those who followed, thinking I would jot down the name later. And I, uh, promptly forgot. Thanks for your help!

That may be obedient plant, Linnea. Someone brought unlabeled pots of it and it looks about right.

I was just feeling happy that I've planted out my swap finds more quickly than usual, however I'm not done yet so I'd better get to work!

Lindalana, the bees love my agastache and my comfrey (when I see them). Also, basil flowers! All three of these bloom for a really long time.

Comfrey has the problem, like milkweed, of coming back forever after being moved/removed, because of its tap root.

I just discovered Axminster Gold comfrey, which is gorgeous, but everyone is sold out of it :'''(

That first picture, linnea, might it be chelone? I remember some of that floating around.

Linnea, you posted the second picture while I was typing, so I was trying to ID the first one in my post.

The first one is Physostegia - Obedient Plant. It has square stems.

Chelone looks like this. The stem is round and the leaves are broader and lighter green.
{{gwi:382984}}

I don't know what the second one is.

Thanks for the ID on the Physostegia / Obedient Plant. I remember my aunts always talking about theirs (the name must have gotten my attention), but have never had one myself.

Nothing is a better bee magnet in my garden than my catmint (Walker's Low variety). I've seen at least 3 kinds on it. Including some really small ones I never see on anything else. On a sunny day there can be dozens of bees on one plant.

something is going on with the gardenweb email...I just this morning got the message about the Chelone waiting for me.
Linnea, that second plant looks like it might be forget-me-nots. I agree that the first one is physostegia, which can have lavendar flowers or white ones. A great reseeding annual.

That happened sometimes, cottonwood. Yes, a pot of Chelone was waiting for you, but since it was not claimed, I believe it was given to someone at the end of the swap. I will bring it again next year.

Pitimpinai

Thank you. Now the email is working. I have grown Chelone at my old location and loved it. I believe it is the host plant for Baltimore checkerspot butterflies, although I never did see any of them. Saw lots of others, including hawk moths.

I made a post here the other day, where did it go?

Linnea, I think that may be one of the pots of digitalis lutea I brought for you. I never made it to that corner with my labels, sorry. If that's not it, please post a photo from above.

Hello Chicago Plant Swappers, how are your gardens?

I would like to report that everything I received from the swap are growing like gang busters. I will probably harvest tomatos in a couple weeks. I have picked a few peppers already. All the other vegetables are also growing very well.

Jack in the Pulpit that I received a couple years ago are 2 ft. tall. Mayapple were so beautiful I grabbed several more at the swap this year.

My garden is a riot of colors. It is fuller than ever thanks to the amount of rain we have been getting.
Thank you for all the plants you have given me.

I would linke to know what's going on with yours.
gonenative, please come by for Verbena bonariensis before I pull them out from my vegetable patch.

I have white daisies, blue larkspur and Fireball monarda that have been blooming next to each other since Fourth of July. Didn't plan that, just wanted to get them in the ground.

I have flowers on three of four kinds of tomatoes and flowers on three of six kinds of peppers.

I'm interested in Verbena if the other person doesn't show up.

Mine are doing great! I too got them in the ground faster than usual. Tomatoes got tall almost overnight. Just starting to bloom now.

Well, I got a really good amount planted out and the ones not planted out got moved to large containers. I'm on vacation right now so please tell me there's been a good amount of rain since july 3!

I also found a comfrey axminster gold :D

Picked two tomatoes, 1 yellow, 1 greenish squash and 3 Zuchini! Yeah! Been picking beans for weeks I am turning into green beans. :-)

But I got this from the swap thinking it was Liatris. But it turned out to be the strangest looking thing albeit quite interesting. Any idea what this is?
{{gwi:301137}}
{{gwi:301138}}

{{gwi:301139}}

{{gwi:301140}}
{{gwi:301141}}

Hmm, flower looks like delphinium but foliage similar to liatris...well whatever it is it is stunning!
My garden looks quite good this year with no watering and no fertilizing. Some hostas did decrease in size due to that so something to be adjusted though.
Love impatiens glandulifera, quite a bee magnet. Of course it is nearly weed here but still I think more gardens will benefit from growing it in backdrop.

Thank you for the Verbena b, it is thriving!

The mystery plant looks like something I saw at Urhausen Nursery called "elephant feather".

Mary E.

Folks, the mystery is solved. It is Liatris pycnostachya:
{{gwi:301142}}

Beautiful, isn't it? It's a good thing the folks at Name that Plant told me to be patient, because I was about to cut it for a vase while still green.

My garden is especially beautiful this year thanks to the cool weather and all that rain we had. And lindalana, thank you so very much for the vegetables. I am picking so many toms and peppers we can't eat them fast enough. Yummy! My cucumbers are not doing well but the ones I gave my neighbor are spectacular. :-(

That's beautiful, Pitimpinai. I now have a liatris that rode in some Karl Foerster grass you gave me a year or two ago!
What is the allium you have that reseeds for you? I think I'm going to order some bulbs this year. I hope you see this post, and thank you!

Hi stage_rat.

Thank you. That Liatris is the very clump that we tried to split at the swap this spring. I had to plant the entire clump because it was impossible to split.

Allium albopilosum (cristophii) reseeds for me. The conditions must be ideal for it these past couple years because I have a it before without any success. Would you like some A. albopilosum seeds? The flowerheads are lying around in my garden. I can collect some seeds for you.

The locust and juglans that you gave me are doing well. The locust has sprouted new buds. The juglans, I know, grows very slowly, but it is still green. Do you have another locust seedling on your property? I am looking for another one for the front of my house. I saw a few small locusts one someone's lawn in the neighborhood. I may go ask the homeowner for one.

Or I can just plant Ginko biloba instead. I have several ginko seedlings in my garden.

Oh so pretty! Great looking specimen!
My garden looked quite delightful this year as well, thanks to many plants that came to my garden via swaps.
Yes, this was a good year for tomatoes- loved it.
Am hoping putting Bee theme for next year would be something we all could pitch in for. So folks think and plan on growing/ splitting/sharing your best bee magnets.
And if anything else of importance- please share.

Thanks, Pitimpinai for the allium name. I looked up my previous orders and I did plant 25 of those a few years ago. I have maybe 8 left, and definitely no reseeders! Daffs are the only bulbs that love my yard.

I do have another locust, it's actually 2 I put in a pot a couple of years ago and now i'm not sure they could be separated. How about I pry it out of the ground (I'm sure it has rooted into the ground by now) and see how it recovers, then after you've planted it you can cut it back to one stem?

I can also check a nearby lot to see if there's a black locust seedling, that's the one with the fragrant flowers and bigger leaves.

I also have a sassafrass if you're interested.

Lindalana, as the swap rolls around next year remind us so we can label things specifically for that, or we could even make a table for that.

I just got a plant IDed and it's Hardy Ageratum, blue mistflower. It's supposed to be a pollinator magnet but my agastache and the wild quinine are the winners in my yard (and butterfly bush).

I have no idea how the mistflower got in my yard, is it one that you've seen at the swap? Its location makes no sense for a wsow container being dumped. Very weird, but a welcome plant!

Oh, yes, please. I would love a sassafras instead of a locust. I will plant it in front of my house. I will dig out that clump of Korean Feather Reed grass and plant the sassafras in its place.

The tree across the street was cut down, but my neighbor refused to have a new tree planted in its place. As a result, my front room is baked in afternoon sun. My friend who lives next to him let me plant the locust you gave me in front of her house. It will takes many more years before my frontyard becomes shady again.

lindalana, I will think of bee/butterflies comes spring. I get a lot of bees this year. How do we keep squirrels away from our veg garden? They bite off tomatoes and squash leaving a big mess this year.

I read that they bite tomatoes because they are thirsty. When I remember to put out saucers of water for them, they leave the tomatoes alone.

Yes, I was about to say that about squirrels and tomatoes. Out here in Indiana they leave tomatoes alone, there are lots of birdbaths here plus I do low saucers too. You could also wrap tulle all over the plants.

OK, a sassafrass will come your way pretty soon, Pitimpinai! I'm in Indy for a little while but we'll see if D is coming out and will deliver. How about you take the locust too and keep it in a pot, use it to shade some more plants until you don't need it anymore? If you don't have a large pot to transplant it to (it's currently in a rather small pot with roots into the ground), I do!

Ha, thanks for info on water!
In regards to the previous post on bees my best bee magnet- impatients Glandulifera, reseeding annual, no care plant

and here is fall design where long time ago WS Corydalis ochroleuca var raddeana made itself comfy near BYS

Thank you for the tip on the bushy tail tree rats. Now we have several saucers of water by the vegetable patch.

Yes, please, for sassafras and lucust, stage_rat. I dug out all the Korean Feather Reed grass this weekend and had the front bed ready for a tree.

Current bee magnets in my garden are Solidago, Aster, Sedum, Colchicum and Caryopteris.

My Solidago Golden Fleece is in bloom. Wichita Mountain will bloom next. That is the best bee magnet of all. Fireworks will bloom last.

I have only one Caryopteris left and it is not looking good at that.
I can't give away Colchicum any time soon. :-D
I pulled any Corydalis I could possibly find, lindalana. Those seedlings are everywhere.

Ha, talk about different gardens. I have found while corydalis reseeds it can not outcompete others so they do good for me. Solidago only wild here and am OK with wherever it goes. Colchicum, now that is a rarity...

Indeed, different gardens! I got lots of yellow corydalis from the hinsdale garden I scavenged, plus an orange or two from lindalana. I now have only one, a yellow plant, growing at the base of a composter I need to remove :( i guess that's the only soil in the yard that's moist and rich enough for it.

Yes, the bees do love that impatiens. The hummingbirds like it too!

lindalana, no restrictions on the impatiens (policemens helmet) there? Class B invasive here. I used to grow it, My SIL brought a handful of seedlings from her mothers one year and shared. The next year, driving up to her house, it looked like she was growing an entire field of pink corn from a distance - house with acreage, an old farm site.

We shouldn't have had it when we did have it, it was already listed then but Oregon thru BC to Alaska.

As far as I know no restrictions on impatiens for IL. My garden has a lot of those plants that reseed and spread well and so far we are managing just fine. But again my garden is crammed, very informal, woodland like, with thick leaf mulch year around and plants are allowed to move around LOL
I find Impatiens of this type easy to control- either remove them early enough so not much goes to seed or in the spring break the steam which is very easy as it is hollow. This way you get biomass of the root added to the soil and have it as many as you want. You do want to control things in your garden. But I find Lily of the valley far more invasive and real PITA to remove because it grows deep and every broken piece produces new plant .... and yet every box store sells it... go figure

Morz8, thanks for posting about restrictions though! Maybe for next year I will put some Impatiens and corydalis on "exuberant plants" table just to be on safe side...
Stagerat, speaking of soil, I am getting quite a bit of wood chips to add to my leaf mulch this year after this movie

Here is a link that might be useful: Back to Eden

lindalana, I am going to follow your lead regading adding woodchips to leaf mulch. I need to raise my vegetable bed some more.

My vegetable bed is on my old garage site, so it is a bit lower than its surroundings. I have been adding top soil, compost and buring kitchen scaps & shreded leaves in it in winter, but it is still flooded after a heavy rain like right now.

BTW, did you know that you can get horse manure mixed with woodchips that is used as horse bedding at the forest preserve stable about 3 1/2 miles from your house? It's on Central Ave just south of Golf road in NilMorton Grove.

This post was edited by pitimpinai on Fri, Oct 3, 14 at 11:39

For those in the NW suburbs, there is plenty of mulch, woodchips and compost at the Palatine recycling center located on Smith Road just west of NW highway next to the blue water tower.

There is also a huge pile of horse manure mixed with mulch on Dundee Road east of NW Highway. There is a large sign on the fence that says "Free Fertilizer" anytime. You can go get it anytime indeed. All you need to do is lift the stable gate, pull your car in, close the gate behind you to prevent horses from leaving the stable and load your car with manure to your heart content. It is available 24/7. Go to the back of the pile for aged manure.

I have been hauling mulch and manure from those two sites for several years and have created a system that fits my built and capacity.

Equipment:

1. 5 gallon buckets (25 can fit in my Toyota Prius, 34 in my Plymouth Voyager)
2. a 4 prong garden rake
3. a shovel
4. Tarps to line the interior of your car
5. Gloves
6. Face mask

Make sure you close the gate behind you.
Happy manure hauling.

lindalana,
I watched the video on Back to Eden. It appears that when the gardener was talking about mulch, he meant well composted woodchips and leaves & other organic matters rather than fresh mulch. His "mulch" is not the same as what I call mulch.

Pitipimai, you should be getting a delivery sometime tomorrow!

Lindalana, I haven't had a chance to watch that yet (data limit) but I can say that you definitely want to age those wood chips over the winter before putting them around plants--or maybe once the plants are dormant it will work fine. (I learned the hard way that fresh wood chips around plants make them unhappy, even kept pulled away from the plant).

Wood chips that have rotted awhile become delicious mulch though.

Yeah! Thank you, stage_rat. And please thank Daniel for dropping off the trees. Whoa! There are 2 locust trees in the pot...and they are larger than the first one you gave me.

My friend and I are conspiring to plant one in front of another neighbor's house. Hope he will let us do it.

I will plant the sassafras in front of my house this weekend. I will have to think very hard where to plant the other locust. Thank you very, very much.

I was thinking you could keep the locusts in a big pot to help keep your own garden from burning, but without actually planting a bunch of small trees. But I bet your garden will do better next year when it's not shocked with sudden sun. My hostas do fine now but when I first had trees removed they crisped.

When you first mentioned trees this spring I had already dug up the other one and I just went with keeping it simple!

Pitimpinai, yes, the movie does not emphasize as well as it should this point of not planting into the fresh wood chips. One needs to compost them first. Stage rat, so far I got hot wood chips, the ones with mycelia on it so they are partially cooked. Hmm, am planning to apply them lightly over the leaves as I only want to speed up leaf decomposing...

stage_rat, Thank you so very much for the trees. There were 3 locusts in the pot!

I planted a big locust in front of a neighbor's house, the sassafras and a big locust in front of my house. I know they are too close to each other but I cannot talk another neighbor into letting me plant a tree in front of his house. And I don't want to waste any tree. I will have to decide in future years what to do with one of them.

I planted the smallest locust in a barrel on my porch, but I think I will move it to the barrel in the back instead.

Planting trees gives so much such joy I cannot imagine what I was thinking when I first moved into the house and wanted to remove that tree next door.

Thank you again.

You're welcome! I'm so happy to find homes for the trees. I will have more trees for the next swap, there's a short sassafrass in a flower bed and some tiny oaks.

Like you I love trees, but now that a few had to come down and I have good sun in my yard, I find I cannot make myself plant a tree that will get tall! Although I have planted a dogwood and a very small Stewartia koreana.

The deer recently shredded the bark all around my 6-foot sumac and it looks dead, but at CBG this weekend I read their sign by their sumacs; they cut them to the ground to prevent them from running. So my tree will probably be fine come spring, and now I know how to keep it from trying to take over the yard!