swap day

It made me feel so happy and satisfied to fill my car with plants for the local swap yesterday! I haven't done this in such a long time. I took to give: 

12 tomato plants 

5 fleabane 

1 rudbeckia 

1 St. John's wort 

2 hellebores 

2 large clumps of 'autumn joy' sedum 

1 almond (ha ha )

6 paper lunch bags full of echinacea seed

I came back with (one of each unless noted):

buttonbush

self-heal

rattlesnake master

white wood aster

American aster

ostrich fern

cutleaf coneflower

blue lobelia

narrow leaf blue-eyed grass

baby cedar tree

half a dozen obedient plants

Most of these I have not grown before, or didn't even know what they are- I just picked them up because they looked interesting or sounded familiar. Willing to give new plants a try though it is a learning curve for me now.

I only took a few photos so far- the buttonbush was bare root so that one I was anxious to get in the ground. I put it in a bare low spot back of the yard- where it's often damp and other things have failed- one of my rhodies finally died and the other two in that area look sad. I hope this plant is happy here and fills in the space-

like the spice bush nearby is finally doing- large enough to notice now!

I also put in the obedient plants- alongside the steps on the smaller sideyard, where tore out lots of vinca last week. And then one ostrich fern. The clump of them alongside the house on the larger sideyard, where they get quite a bit of sun, are looking grand. The few I put in around maples on the easement slope have always stayed small and sparse. I used to think it was too dry for them there, now wonder if it's just too dim. So this one I put closer to the edge of the tree shade- next to an iris that never blooms.

I liked the way the overlap looked in that picture, but it's not really that close to the iris-

And just because I like ferns and these are more have unfurled- lady ferns in the shade of japanese holly (the few I had in the back bed with hellebores near the echinacea patch have disappeared).

More photos later, when I put more stuff in the ground.

It's colder today, raining and tonight/tomorrow chance of frost. I am once again bringing plants inside, and shifting others into the greenhouse and coldframe for a bit of protection overnight. For the day, I moved all my 'keeper' tomatoes (they're the largest ones) into the greenhouse, bottom shelf with the middle one above propped up out of the way. 

Summer savory sprouted today! and a few hyssop are up- so tiny. They will start life out under plastic and cages in the window, until warmer in a few days can go out into the greenhouse. They don't like a chill.