Annual Seed and Household Plant Swap—February 2025
Thanks to everyone who came to the Flower City Garden Network’s annual Seed and Houseplant Swap, held on February 1, 2025 at the Penfield Recreation Center. We hope you had as much fun as we did! Thanks to Christine Froehlich; her interesting and informative talk, Loosen Up Your Landscape Style: Melding the Wild and the Tamed with Native Plants presented lots of inspiration for a more satisfying, more relaxed garden—and gardener. (Download Christine’s presentation notes and plant list.) And thank you to Carol Southby for Gardens of Philadelphia, Some Lesser-known Gems – we learned about that (relatively nearby) area’s wealth of varied and fascinating public gardens.
Both talks were illustrated with images of beautiful plants and gardens. Unfortunately, it turned out that this year’s bright day created too much ambient light, washing out the slides. Last year was our first year in the gym, and apparently it was very overcast, so the light wasn’t a problem. This year, when we asked that the blinds be lowered, we learned that this would require a few days advance notice to assemble the equipment needed to do that. Never fear, next year we’ll be prepared for good slide-viewing in the gym even if it’s a brilliant sunny day.
We want to extend many thanks to all of our volunteers, some of whom graciously stepped forward on that day, for all of their necessary and much appreciated help with set-up, coffee making (a marathon effort), refreshments, and cleanup afterwards.
Thanks to all of you who brought seeds and plants to the exchange – what fun to collect those treasures to take home! Special mention to Carolyn and Bob McKee, who for several years now have added so much to the Swap with their donations of boxes of choice plants, and to Michael Hannan, who always contributes an abundance of seeds and plants, and provides his friendly and highly experienced help at the plant tables, in addition to which, this year he brought a huge carton of free tee shirts and several boxes of gardening books. And to speaker Christine Froehlich, who contributed a large collection of brand-new books she has been given as a book reviewer.
Again, thanks to all of you, and to the Penfield Recreation Center, for a fun day of garden talks, coffee, and sharing our friendship and community, as well as lots of seeds, plants, books, tee shirts...
Photos contributed by Nita Beck and Jeff Schuetz
Original announcement
FCGN’s annual Seed and Houseplant Swap, co-sponsored with the Penfield Community Victory Garden, will take place on Saturday, February 1, 2025 at the Penfield Recreational Center gym (behind the Penfield Library), 1985 Baird Road, Penfield 14526.
The swap is free and open to the public. We’d appreciate it if you’d preregister by emailing flowercitygardennetwork@gmail.com (to help us with seating and refreshments). But everyone is welcome even if you don’t preregister. Also, it isn’t necessary to bring seeds or houseplants in order to attend – you are very welcome either way.
Doors will open at 9 am, with time for refreshments and perusing the seeds and houseplants, welcome and introduction at 9:20, then two talks starting at 9:30. There will be a break, with refreshments and time for seeds and etc, visiting with participants, and talking to the presenters. Presentations will end about noon but we will stay till about 1 pm if you’d like to visit with presenters (or others) or have more time with the offerings.
Join us for this fun day of interesting and informative talks, catching up with new and old friends, talking about gardening, dreaming about spring and the return of the garden season – as well as collecting some new seeds and plants. We look forward to seeing you there!
Talk 1 — Loosen Up Your Landscape Style: Melding the Wild and the Tamed with Native Plants, by Christine Froehlich
Many of us aspire to incorporate more native plants into the garden and to cultivate naturalistic landscapes, but aren’t sure how to integrate this into existing or new designs. What do you plant to attract pollinators, how can you manage invasive plants and strike the right balance between cultivated and uncultivated areas without looking unkempt? Native plants can be seamlessly integrated into traditional landscaping design with good plant choices, careful planning, and thoughtful management. In this slide lecture you'll discover ways to loosen up your style, emulate nature, and incorporate native plants into your landscape. Learn about resilient plant species that foster biodiversity, minimize maintenance, and enrich your outdoor environment, providing habitat for birds, butterflies, and other wildlife.
About Christine: Christine owned and operated her own business, Flowers Garden Design and Maintenance, in Kent, CT for 25 years. Her work as a garden designer and consultant inspired the freelance writing career she embarked upon in 2004 when she moved to upstate New York, and her articles have been published in The American Gardener, Country Gardens, American Nurseryman, Fine Gardening, 585 Magazine, Rochester Magazine and The Upstate Gardeners Journal.
For 10 years she served as both the executive director and an instructor at the Rochester Civic Garden Center in Rochester. She continues to share her knowledge by consulting and lecturing to area garden clubs and organizations. You can find out more about Christine, and tune into her monthly blog, classes and lectures at Gardening With What You Have (gwwyh.com).
Talk 2 — Gardens of Philadelphia, Some Lesser-Known Gems, by Carol Southby
In recent years, Carol Southby and her husband Dave set out to visit some of the less well-known gardens near Philadelphia. With over 30 public gardens located within 30 miles of downtown Philadelphia, they had plenty to choose from. There’s Chanticleer, with flamboyant tropical plantings growing right next to a huge pollinator garden, and Tyler Arboretum with massive state champion trees, a rock garden, and a fun vegetable garden. At Stoneleigh natural garden, visitors can stroll along peaceful walkways shaded by huge old trees, where former plantings of Pachysandra are now being replaced with native plants to provide habitat for pollinators. Carol will share highlights from these and the other gardens they have visited so far, along with tips on visiting on your own. Most of the plants that grow near Philadelphia are hardy here in Rochester too, so there are plenty of ideas to use in our own gardens.
Left, Chanticleer, a pleasure garden. Right, Mount Cuba Center, Delaware. Photos by Carol Southby.
About Carol: A founding member of Flower City Garden Network, Carol obtained a Bachelor’s degree in natural sciences in her native Britain, then studied horticulture. She began teaching gardening classes in Britain before moving to Rochester in 1987, where she continued to teach, lecture, and lead field trips on both gardening and nature. She is now retired from her landscape design and consultancy business, where she specialized in perennials, native plants, and plants to attract butterflies and other pollinators.
Carol loves to be outside in the garden she and Dave tend, whether strolling around with her camera to photograph the insects, raising new plants from seed for their vegetable garden, or replanting a section of perennials. She considers weeding to be a creative process where one can leave desirable plants where they chose to spring up, relocate them to other parts of the garden, or pot them up to share with friends. Both Carol and Dave are actively involved with Burroughs Audubon Nature Club, a local group with its own nature sanctuary near Victor. As part of an ongoing restoration project, Carol and Dave grow native plants from seeds and cuttings, ready to plant at the nature preserve. When she is not gardening, Carol is likely to be walking local nature trails looking for wildflowers and butterflies.
Swapping seeds
If you are bringing seeds that you’ve collected, there is no need to split them into small packets ahead of time. Just bring each separate variety in one envelope or other container. We will have small envelopes available that attendees can label and use to take home appropriate portions from the bulk envelopes. Also feel free to bring extra commercial seed packets that you’d like to share.
Label the seed samples you bring with as much of the following information as possible: name (scientific name if you know it), perennial or annual, flower color (if it’s an ornamental), height, preferred growing conditions, days to harvest if it’s a vegetable.
Swapping houseplants
If you have houseplants that could use trimming, cut some good-sized pieces with one or more nodes (places on the stem where leaves are attached), wrap them in slightly damp paper towel, and bring them in a labelled plastic bag. If you have a large overgrown plant, you can bring the whole plant for people to cut pieces from it, and then you can either give away the plant or take it home again.
Swapping gardening magazines and other sundry
We’ll have a table for items that are free to take – bring your extra garden magazines, books and other items you think gardeners might appreciate.