Plant Sharing

Hi All, My folks set me off a few years ago by dividing and donating some perennials.

Its got me thinking - do any plant sharing schemes exist? Could a forum topic be dedicated to dividing and sharing plants with other local gardeners?

Seems a no brainer to me - meet new people, share knowledge, get inspiration, share plants, keep costs down see plants how they will be when mature ect.

 

We have various informal schemes on the go here on this very forum. I think there's the seed parcel, and then some of us volunteer up surplus seeds we sometimes have.

I think that's a bit different to what you have in mind though. I like your idea. Not sure how you would make it work (not saying you can't, just that I don't know how to), but I like the idea.

 

Thanks for reply Clueless, ill have a look for seed parcel :-) In the meantime ill post a hello on the new members introduction.

 

I've seen sites dedicated to plant sharing ... but they all seem to stagnate.

I think the cost of carriage is a killer, and people's expectations of size/etc may not match what the provider sends - so people get miffed that they sent a "really REALLY big plant" and got a "tiny TINY one" in return.

Plants are exchanged informally by folk here, but I suspect it is done largely in private, between people who know each other "electronically" rather than as a general activity.

I built database driven websites for a living, and I would love to use my knowledge of gardening to build a plant-swap website (for example awarding "points" to people who supply plants, and allowing those points to be used to "acquire" other plants - a Batter system if-you-will). But I just don't think it would get enough traction. You also have to deal with failed-deliveries, complains that people were hoodwinked, and so on.

 

If you need a hand, you know there is at least one other experienced software developer present here who might be willing share the workload.

 

The Barter system sounds a great idea Kristen

 

I too would be very interested in theory but think Kristen's observations are very valid! No doubt like many on here I have huge surpluses of some things and would be very happy to acquire things I don't already have.Eg currently throwing away loads of Ligularia Desdemona which grows like a weed here, yet I saw a small example for sale in B&Q a couple of years ago for about £8 from memory. Good god must have thrown away about £1000 worth yesterday!!! Also am struggling to find places to put Winter Aconites which don't already have them.Will also have far too many Meconopsis Lingholm which I successfully grew from seed last season.
Postage is a big issue and the issue of expectations too. I know I've been "had" a few times by internet sites offering "a large specimen in say a 5 ltr pot" only to discover that the "large specimen" had been repotted from about a 1tr pot immediately prior to despatch!!!! so I ended up paying a lot more for extra potting compost and bigger plastic pot! To my amazement those I contacted to create hell with seemed rather "surprised" that I'd noticed and quickly refunded either wholely or in part so that can only suggest to me that far too many gardeners are being had!
I have sold Snowdrops on Ebay in the past and gave the proceeds less postage and a large bottle of whisky to deaden the pain of my back from a lot of digging!!! to a hedgehog santuary which is nearby as didn't really want to profit from what is purely a hobby. That all went very well as the recipients all got dug to order bulbs, a lot more than was specified and a fair bit cheaper than businesses were selling bulbs for. Suppose that was relatively issue free as not a huge amount to argue about with bulbs. The issue of size of something could be overcome by adding a photo of what was being offered as a swap to avoid dashed expectations maybe?. I would certainly be interested in giving a swap shop a go and see how things went. Being a complete disaster with anything to do with computers I'm not the person to set a website up however! I used the barter system when engaging the services of a solicitor recently.He fired off scathing emails/letters on my behalf and got loads of surplus to requirements plants of mine.. both parties happy...simples!

 

A plant swap website sounds great Kristen, I always have surplus plants grown from seed and especially daylilies I do sell on ebay but the more common plants even though fabulous plants don't sell so well unless I sell in collections of 5, collecters are after the newer varieties.
Know what you mean about ligularia I have Britt -marie-crawford and Desdemona omg the seedlings I'm pulling up at the moment .
I did swap a lot of seeds and plants for a long time on www.gardenswapshop.co.uk and had some great swaps but most of the old gang aren't on there anymore and I've had some quite disappointing swaps so haven't used it for a while.
The seed swap on here is great I've loads of seedlings on the go this year

 

Recent tale on another forum of someone who put a small plant on eBay. Photo of the actual small plant, and another of a mature plant (I forget what it was, a tree I think - something "monstrous" anyway). Buyer has demanded money refund / negative feedback / whole-9-yards because it isn't the size of the mature example (and they paid less than a fiver for it ...)

So setting up a system like this you have to deal with all that parC Thus it needs to make money - enough to be able to cover the time & aggro of dealing with a number of sttarP, many-chancers and genuine differences of Expectation issues, plus a few "lost in post". I have a business model in mind that would take care of that ... but it only works if it attracts enough foot-fall, and I am doubt full that it would.

I might knock something up and see how it goes with members-by-invitation-only for a bit, but time is tight for now.

thanks.

The creation of the application / database mechanics is trivial for me. What we have built is an application that builds database applications, so should be trivial to generate this, and as my day-job is eCommerce if a PayPal interface, or whatever, is needed then I have all those "bits" available to me.

What I lack is any sort of web design sense (different department where I work, so not something I have to give a second thought to day-to-day), so any skills in that department would be very welcome.

 

Unfortunately, that's where I'm sadly lacking too. When I was being interviewed my current job, the boss asked if I could show examples of my work. I told him "not really, everything you see is what someone else did. I make stuff that works, someone else makes it look pretty".

Still, if you need a hand, just give me a shout.

 

I pot up self set seeds I find around the garden and usually give them to the local charity shops, or maybe sell on a Boot-Sale, - Here's what I have just now, if any member is local to TS5 they would be most welcome to a couple.



a-a

 

Snap

This is a common theme with gardeners, I find.

Again, apart from the carriage cost, a Plant Swap site could have a "Charity donation" option, so sender is not out of pocket for carriage, but whatever "charge" is made of the buyer goes to charity.

eBay has similar, I suppose, where you can pay an extra Pound when buying in support of whatever charity is offered. Personally I've never ever used that - I give to charity as a separate deal. But if I was buying plants knowing that the "cost" went to charity that would have some appeal.