How to Grow and Pot Up Native Plants for Swaps and Sales
- Lauren Landers
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Spring, summer, and fall are all great times to attend and volunteer at local plant swaps and sales. But if you want to swap native plants you’ve grown from seed or divided from plants in your garden, there are a few important guidelines to remember. By following these quick tips, you’ll ensure the plants you bring for swapping are in tiptop shape and are free from uninvited hitchhikers -- like invasive jumping worms!
Check the Rules
Plant swaps and sales often have specific rules about the types of plants to bring, plant pot size, and other considerations. Make sure to check the rules of the swap or sale you’d like to attend before you go so you know how to pot your plants correctly. Some swaps only accept seeds or bare root plants for swapping to avoid jumping worm issues, while other swaps only permit certain types of plants, like flowering perennials.
Timing it Right
Whether you’re growing plants for your own garden or for swapping and resale, it’s important to time your planting and plant division correctly. Planting or dividing plants too early or too late in the season can result in stressed or overgrown plants, or plants that are too small to bring to swaps.
In general, if you’re growing native plants from seed, you’ll want to start the seeds in pots by mid-spring at the latest. However, many perennials are slow growers that can take a year or two to bloom. If the swap you’d like to attend has size limits on swappable plants, you may need to start your plants in fall or even earlier.
When it comes to plant divisions, the later you divide plants, the better. Dividing and potting up plants just before swaps will keep plants from languishing in their pots too long and getting stressed.
Sourcing Pots
If you keep a garden, chances are you likely already have some stray pots lying around in your garage or toolshed. But if you need more pots to hold plant swaps, ask around at local plant nurseries and garden centers, or check Facebook marketplace or Craigslist. These places often have leftover pots available for free!
Growing Plants from Seed
Native plants grow best if they’re planted either in spring or fall. However, many plants that are native to Maine and other cold regions need to be cold stratified to germinate well.
If you’re planting native seeds in fall, you can cold stratify seeds outdoors the easy way. Just fill your pots up with seed starting mix, scatter native seeds on top of the soil, and lightly cover the seeds with seed starting mix. Water the seeds in and set them outside in a protected spot over winter. This will allow the seeds to naturally cold stratify outdoors and help them sprout better when spring finally arrives. It is a good idea to protect your seeds by securing hardware cloth or screening over the tops of the pots to let light and moisture in, but keep squirrels out.
If you’re planting native seeds in spring instead, try starting some asters and milkweeds that typically don’t need any special treatment. Otherwise you’ll need to take a few extra steps to cold stratify seeds indoors. To start, place your seeds on a damp paper towel in a labeled Ziploc baggy and pop the seeds in your fridge for a few weeks to stratify. Then, pot the seeds up into seedling pots or trays. This planting method will result in smaller seedlings for swapping, but it’s a great option if you forgot to plant seeds in autumn!
Potting Up Divided Plants
Many native perennials need to be divided every few years to keep them growing strong. But if you don’t have any room for these plant divisions in your garden, you can always bring them to a local swap or sale.
After dividing your perennials, separate out the extras you don’t have space for and pot them up ASAP into their own pots with fresh potting mix. Water the plants well and keep them in a partially shaded spot until the day of the plant swap. For proper growth, each division should have a healthy clump of roots and at least a few sturdy stems and leaves.
Don’t Forget Labels
Plant swaps and sales often require plants to be labeled. But it’s also helpful for you to label your plants as soon as you pot them up. This can prevent a lot of confusion later on!
Standard plastic plant labels can be used for labeling plants for swapping. But you can also write plant labels on masking tape stuck on plant pots, or use popsicle sticks, old plastic utensils, or other small objects for labelling plants. Keep in mind that pencil is less likely to fade in bright sun and usually works better on labels than markers and pens.
Maintaining Plants
In a perfect world, your plants and divisions would be ready just in time for the swap or sale you want to attend. But if you need to keep potted plants healthy for a while before swapping them, make sure to provide your plants with enough light for their specific needs and water them enough to keep the soil evenly moist. Remember, potted plants dry out faster than plants in the garden, and plant divisions can develop sunburnt leaves if you move them from shade to sun too quickly.
Preventing Pests
Pest problems are a headache in any garden, but they can be particularly devastating at plant swaps and sales. That’s why it’s especially important to make sure any plant you bring for swapping is pest-free.
For starters, check your plants over carefully before you bring them to a swap and, if possible, quarantine them in a protected area to be on the safe side. If you spot any pests, like aphids, remove them with a strong blast from your garden hose or by spraying your plants with an organic insecticidal soap spray. Just make sure that you don’t spray plant flowers as soap sprays and pollinators don’t mix!
If there’s a possibility of jumping worms in your area, swap bare root plants instead of potted ones. Or remove as much of the dirt from your plant roots as possible with your fingers, wash the remaining dirt away, and then pot up the bare rooted plant in fresh potting mix. Jumping worms and their cocoons often spread through contaminated compost, soil, or mulch. However, by removing these contaminants, you can reduce the likelihood of accidentally introducing pests into plant swaps – and someone else’s garden!
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