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I have a new idea for a quasi coop/swap sort of deal for a Cottage Garden Secret Christmas.
It will cost $11.00 or maybe $12.00 a person and would be limited to 15 people. Let's say $12.00 because there is a lot that can be done with that extra dollar x 15 people!
I was going to have people go through the Stokes seed catalog or website and pick out 2 or 3 varieties flower/ornamental seeds they'd like to have if they didn't have to pay the per pack price and the $6.50 minimum shipping and handling. Give me the verbal description and the order number. It can be anything from a certain kind or color of Petunia to Electric Blue Penstemon to Bellis English Daisy Habanera Red with White Tips. Even something really, really expensive like the Trailing Ivy Geraniums would be possible, I think, as long as people would be happy with a few seeds. The things we don't want are the gigantic things like Hibiscus where 50 or 100 plants would take up an acre. Or mixed Marigolds or Rudbeckia 'Goldsturm' or other things that show up in our very own swap. LOL!
Everybody does this and dmails me with what they would order and I tally them all up and see where we are on money. I already know we can't afford to get all of your choices, and it will be whittled down, but I am expecting some people to actually want the same things, so I believe it will all work out.
I would be ordering the next size up for the single package, or even the one up from that if it's cheap enough. If there is money left over, I would add something(s) splittable, and then place the order with Stokes. I am spending ALL the money on seeds, and only reserving $2.00 (85c for inbound postage and $1.15 back to you for postage) which should be plenty for postage, but maybe some discussion the 75c delivery confirmation would be a good idea.
When they come, I would split all the packs 15 ways and mail them out to you. I will use my own envies (the small ones from the CG Swap LOL) and the whole thing could be paid for with Paypal or by sending me a check using just a regular envie. I would need people to be sort of agreeable in their general nature and have generally sunny dispositions, because if you get 1,400 seeds in a $9.00/ pack, I am not counting out 93.33 seeds for each person! It will be close, very close, and I do have a scale if it would work for this kind of operation. Not sure. The one thing I will promise you is that I will take pot luck on the seed packsike everybody else, and not pad one with a few extra seeds for myself.
If you only have a blue & pink garden, then you might not be happy with this swap because any one of the 15 people might order brown and orange or something. If $12.00 sounds like a whole lot of money, you also might not be happy. BUT for somebody who would like to get a nice little Christmas package for themselves, a Stocking Stuffer if you will, it would be sort of fun, and Stokes carries a lot of single colors of annuals and perennials, so it is stuff you can't pick up just anywhere.
I am a little hesitant to suggest it, but if you want to order F1 hybrids, you would really be getting your money's worth, BUT the resultant seeds those plants throw wouldn't be as good as other ones (for swapping next year). I guess you just have to think about it.
I'm going to give everybody who still has this thread on 'watch status' a heads up and an extra few days to look at their catalog or their website or even order a catalog before starting anew thread for it :)) That's because I LOVE YOU!
Ho ho ho!
Suzy
and then this was added:,/i>
I look at it this way -- on a round robin swap you get everybody's leftovers -- Rudbeckia fulgida, Hollyhocks, Four O'Clocks and have to pay $4.95 plus 75c del confirmation to get rid of it to the next person. If you're lucky, you get 5 packs of seeds you maybe sorta wanted.
For 2x that money, you can get cool, named things and a lot of seed that you know will germinate and come true.
My kids will both be home after Christmas and I think I can con them into doing some dividing with me as we chat about the things they're doing at school that I don't want to hear about. LOL!
Maybe a Martin Luther King, Jr. delievery would be more likey, tho.
Here's the link [HYPERLINK@www.stokeseeds.com] We already have 5 people signed up and they are thinking about their choices.
Suzy
edited to change President's day to MLK Day. Ooops!
This message was edited Dec 10, 2007 1:59 PM
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