Plant Swap

 

The other day I noticed that a local brewery was hosting a plant swap. I think there are  a couple groups in the area that gather monthly, usually at a brewery in the city, and they swap plants and have a good time. I'm not a member of the group, but the brewery said when I asked that you don't have to be. Come one, come all. 

I only have a few houseplants, but, I have one very prolific Spider plant. It makes a lot of babies. And I always feel bad that it makes so many. I have three or four plants off of it, and in 2018 I brought a ton of babies to the office. My colleague Lauren took them, and she got a beautiful plant off of the babies. When she moved to Denver one of the reporters in the newsroom adopted the plant. So the babies live on! 

Being that I don't have a lot, I knew I had to bring something and decided to harvest the babies. 

Pictured left is the plant, before the "haircut." 

I managed to get about 35 babies off of this, and bagged up 11 bags, 3 per bag, to bring and give away. And then I repotted a couple more that look like they may not make it, so I'm hoping they'll do okay. And I left a couple babies on the monster momma. 

That's a lot of spider babies. 

And it is such a basic "starter" plant that I was pretty sure that no one would want them. Well, you can't tell not knowing. If I came back with 9 bags, I'm sure I'd find somewhere for them to go on a giveaway site or NextDoor.com or something. 

Doug and I went down, were an hour later than start figuring it was a come and go kind of event. We grabbed a couple of beers and headed into the swapping room. 

The place was hopping and wow, there were some really impressive plant displays! People had their plants in pots and everything, labeled. The whole shebang. And here I am with ziploc bags.

I found a table in the corner where I could just kind of observe how this worked, and lined up my 11 bags of babies on the table in front of me. Humbled.

A very vivacious lady came by and explained to me that the goal is for people to swap plants to get ones that they've been looking for. I was honestly hoping I might get a couple, but understood pretty quickly that no one was going to want to swap something fancy for spider plants. 

"Can I just give mine away with no expectation of anything in return?" 

She told me sure. But probably no one would want them. She did say that at the end of things, there's a free table, and people put the plants they don't feel like bringing home on the free table. I thought okay, why not just give me free plants now. hahahha. But I get it. You schlepped 90 plants to the brewery, gave away 75 and you don't feel like bringing these unwanteds home with you on the metro. 

We didn't stay all the way to the bitter end, Doug had fun talking to the bartender, and a guy who had aquatics, and the lady I was sharing the table with was super nice. We chatted and got to know each other, and watched the others' plants when we wanted to wander and look at the other tables.

In the end, we came home with 2 leftover bags, and I can make homes for them. So all told, better than I expected! 

And I did get a bunch of wee plants that people were very kind and gave me things. I got a couple succulents, a monstera, a jade plant. Some other thing. Doug got some aquarium plants and had a good time talking to people. 

Basically when people stopped at my table, I explained "Let me tell you about my babies. Here is a picture of the plant that I cut them off of this morning. Spider plants are so basic it is ridiculous. You're probably looking for something fancier, but this will make you happy." 

A few people said that they couldn't have them because their cats would eat them. I guess that's a big thing. A couple others said they already have spider plants and I was not kidding. 

When I told people I was giving away without expectation of return, a few people were really touched. A mom came by with her little kid and he had two dollars he tried to give me. I told him that these were free, and I hoped he would grow them, and give his plant a good name. I had a Guster T-shirt on, naturally, so he said he'd name it Guster.  The lady pictured here was so cute and bubbly, that I couldn't resist but ask to take her picture with my babies. She promised to take good care of them. I can tell she will.

We gave the girl that I shared a table with a ride to Union Station. Doug wanted to go to the Fish Pier and get some swordfish or scallops for the grill, so it was on our way. We got to the pier and there was no getting near it, so we ended up taking a weird route out of town to get home. 

I didn't take pictures yet of the plants that I got, and some of them I already forget their names, but I now have a whole new collection of little friends. I need a couple new pots, since the once I bought are accounted for now. I also need to maybe repot the monster momma plant, and split it up into two pots, 

So I'll do that tomorrow. 

Here are some pictures, and digits are below. 

First, after the "haircut" and bagged babies, ready to go. 

on the left, the couple of babies I kept, and my bag all ready to go
(repping Guster with this nice ass canvas bag, yo).

And ... succulents. I've never owned succulents.

I think one of these may be a cactus, and one may not! 

digits

exercise: I really should but .... i'm wiped out!

blood glucose:
9:30am: 164
5pm: 161
10:30pm 181

food:
coffee, water
11:30am: Metformin. Omelet with 2 eggs, 2 slices muenster cheese, diced avocado and tomato, and some of the left over sausage/onion/mushroom from the pizza topping the other night
2pm: 2 beers
5pm: metformin+jardiance
6pm: huge salad, huge piece of steak, slice of cheesecake (with a side of regrets)