What do you do with your excess plants

[maddie]

Wow! It seems I have been missing out here. Maddie, I started some new plants after prun.ing a couple and not wanting to just throw out the branches. They successfully rooted and started making new leaves and I gave three of them away. I have several young lavender plants I started from seed, but I will probably keep most of those to help with natural pest control.

I do this all the time. I have a few lovely poinsettias and each time I prune it the branches go into grow bags and are gifted at Christmas time to my friends in a good looking container with a nice red and gold ribbon packaging. My friends love it. I wish I had a lavender plant , I so love lavender.. but what we have here does not flower at all :/

@Dziomek, I wish I had a good friend like that .. I would like some exotic plants I would mind volunteering at her place if she was my friend

 

[claudine]

Zigs, wow, you definitely can't be bored there...but it seems very dangerous
Maddie, this exchange system sounds so lovely! Unfortunately I don't have anything like that in my area. When I have excess plants, I just give them to my friends

 

[taskeinc]

I'm not aware of an exchange system either, for my area. However, I don't believe in any "excess plants" because I can always find room for more plants. It's probably a good thing that there is no facility close to me that provides a place for excess plants, because I would spend a great deal of time there trying to find an affordable plant.

 

[ChanellG]

I do this all the time. I have a few lovely poinsettias and each time I prune it the branches go into grow bags and are gifted at Christmas time to my friends in a good looking container with a nice red and god ribbon packaging. My friends love it. I wish I had a lavender plant , I so love lavender.. but what we have here does not flower at all :/

Maddie, if I could I would send you some lavender

You've given me an idea; I rescued some poinsettia from the side of the road (yes! someone had set them at the curb!) a few weeks ago. The wind, rain and cold weather have beat them up to the point of barely having any leaves left, but if they bounce back I will definitely try my hand at propagating them.

and you thought it was a quiet little village

LOL, Zigs. It must be because you always make it seem as such.

 

[maddie]

Maddie, if I could I would send you some lavender

That would have been wonderful if I didn't live halfway across the globe. I love to swap plants and seeds.. that we we could all have what we want, without having to spend too much money.
Yesterday as I was taking my usual walk I found a badly battered ficus benjamina thrown on the curb. I brought it home with me and planted it in a container.. I hope it survives the ordeal.. I am hoping to gift it to my friend if it does.

 

[ChanellG]

That would have been wonderful if I didn't live halfway across the globe. I love to swap plants and seeds.. that we we could all have what we want, without having to spend too much money.
Yesterday as I was taking my usual walk I found a badly battered ficus benjamina thrown on the curb. I brought it home with me and planted it in a container.. I hope it survives the ordeal.. I am hoping to gift it to my friend if it does.

I could easily send you lavender seeds as long as there is no kind of restriction on it. The seeds I planted I obtained for free! It takes a while for lavender to mature and produce flowers so I won't be seeing any seeds from my plants any time soon, but if I happen across some more I'd be happy to send them. It wouldn't cost much more than sending a letter.

 

[claudine]

Maddie, I always save abandoned plants too, it's just such a good feeling to help them. I also sometimes buy plants that nobody wants - they look so vulnerable, sad and lonely at the shop...I just feel sorry for them and I know they'll grow beautifully if I'll take care of them

 

[ACSAPA]

I don't really have excess plants because I mostly grow herbs and ginger.
With herbs you usually end up eating them and whatever I don't eat, I dry out and use as a seasoning. If I ever had the wonderful problem of having too many herbs, I think they would make an adorable gift, either alive or dried in a jar.

 

[ACSAPA]

Maddie, I always save abandoned plants too, it's just such a good feeling to help them. I also sometimes buy plants that nobody wants - they look so vulnerable, sad and lonely at the shop...I just feel sorry for them and I know they'll grow beautifully if I'll take care of them

I once rescued a nearly dead Pothos hanging plant from next to a Goodwill dumpster. It was lazy of them to abandon it there because Goodwill doesn't accept live plants and a dying plant like this would have been thrown away.
If you find an abandoned plant that at least has a few green leaves left, you can usually trim off all the dead leaves and nurse the green part back to health. I too have a soft spot for neglected plants that I find on the curb at trash day.

 

[loopyloo]

I try to find a spot for my extras. I add pots on my stairs and dig out grass or I give them to some one I know will plant them. I do everything I can think of to keep them alive.

 

[TheCrazyPlantLady]

This worked well for me until a drunk driver decided he didn't like plants, garden walls, his car or his driving licence.

Oh good lord - what a mess! Thank goodness it was plants and not kids or pets!

 

[ChanellG]

Funny, but since this thread was started I have received more excess plants than I have had some to do something with. I divided my ginger (non-edible) recently and shared that, I have a bunch of lilies coming up from seeds that were in a pod I harvested from outside an empty house - just about all the seeds germinated and started growing without any assistance from me.

I have been planting them as they sprouted and have had an abundance of lily plants. I've shared those and today I brought home excess salvia plants from my mom. (Recently it was okra plants from my dad.)

 

[LindaKay]

I think an exchange system is pretty awesome. I wish we had that here, although I'm sure I would run out of things to trade before you guys would.

 

[ChanellG]

I just joined a Facebook group of local gardeners that shares saved seeds and excess plants from thinning out the overgrowth and self seeders in their yards. My mom swapped an extra African daisy I had for a yellow one she had a few days ago. You just have to make friends with other gardeners.

 

[Rosyrain]

There are community gardens around my place that you can donate plants you don't want and the volunteers plant them in the garden for others to enjoy. It is a really neat project and you never know what you are going to find there.