2012-2013 Seed Exchange

[Lserowicz]

Hello everyone- I am cross-posting this from the General Alpines>Nothing may be as stark a realization... topic for those who are looking here for information about when the Seed List and online ordering will be available.

Just got a call from Chris Klapwijk, our webmaster and the programmer of the Seed Exchange database and the online ordering. Due to a family emergency he will not be able to get the seed list and online ordering up at 6 p.m. as he hoped but he should to be able to get to it later tonight or by morning (depending on where you are) when he gets back from the hospital. He apologizes profusely for the additional delay.

If anyone wants an email notice sent to them when the list is up rather than staring at the SeedEx page waiting for it to change(sort of like staring at a seed pot waiting for the seeds to sprout) please send me a note (seedintake@mi.rr.com). I will send out emails to everyone who contacts me as soon as the list is up. And as Fermi's experience shows, even if yours is not the first order to arrive you will have a good chance of getting some great seeds. Now there's a dedicated seed lover - getting a computer just so he can order seed!   
Laura

[McDonough]

Moderator note: I have left this version of the on-line seed exchange 2012-2013 posting, because it's in the correct spot and with a meaningful title, and locked the duplicate cross-postings.  The duplicate postings will be removed as soon as the on-line seed exchange goes live.  Feel free to post in this version of the topic.

[Lserowicz]

Hello Everyone -

The seedex is up and running online, at:
http://nargs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=75&Itemid=123
.... so you can now enter your email address on the Ordering Instructions page and receive the automated email reply that will link you to your ordering form. 

We hope you all receive your first choices... and they all germinate.

Please be aware that order fulfillment won't begin until after the first of the new year, and the orders of our Donors are filled before those of non-donors.  Your order can receive this priority in the next seed exchange if not in this one, plus an extra ten packets of your requested seeds, if you donate at least five different taxa of seed by Fall of 2013. 

Thanks for your patience!

Best regards -
The NARGS Seed Exchange Team

[Gene Mirro]

I like the ease of use, and I love the clickable plant names.

[Cockcroft]

I agree with Gene that ordering (and looking up plants whose names are unfamiliar) is really slick.  I like it!

Unfortunately, when I tried to place the order, I was not prompted to pay.  Laura said she'll let me know when that part of the process is corrected.

...Claire
40 degrees and rain, with a strong windstorm and heavy rain predicted for this evening

[Lori S.]

I agree!  What a spectacular effort this year's seedex list is!  The links to Google photos for every species are just amazing - I can't imagine how much work this was to produce.  Sincere thanks to all involved!

[Lserowicz]

Hello again everyone,
 
We discovered the problem after Chris (webmaster) left to go to hospital! We’ll have him look into it as soon as he returns from visiting family member in hospital. Hopefully it will be soon!!
 
We are sure we will come up with a solution so no one will lose their place in the queue! We know our members will be willing to work with us on the payment (or else we will kidnap their first germinating seeds.... )
 
We will contact you once we have a solution! Luckily it is just a problem for our North American members.

Many thanks to the wonderful members who have contacted me!
Laura

[Hoy]

I've just done my duty! Everything worked just fine
Thanks to all involved in making this possible!

Just one thing - I forgot to stick to my wish list, too many exiting species I hadn't previously though of  

[Gene Mirro]

Attention novices:  there are lots of sturdy, vigorous perennials on this list that will be easy to germinate and grow.  You won't need a scree or anything fancy.  Many of them don't have exotic germination requirements.  And you don't need to know a lot of Latin names.  Just click on the links.  There is a world of information at your fingertips.

[Booker]

Absolutely magnificent and faultless exercise ... hearty congratulations and many thanks to everyone involved.

[Gene Mirro]

Is there a list of donors?

[Lori S.]

Gene, if you scroll down to the bottom of the seed ordering instructions page, you can see a link to a pdf of donors.

[McDonough]

Brilliant!  The NARGS Seedex online ordering is flawless.  I love the easy access to a google image search for each species, ended up going for a couple tall Aconitum cultivars and several other plants I wasn't overly familiar with, just by clicking around.  Checkout couldn't have been easier.  Congratulations to Chris, Laura, and everyone involved with the 2012-2013 seed exchange for all your hard work and excellent online ordering experience.

[Broekhuis]

For those (like me) who can use a little extra help digging their way through the massive number of seed listings, an online helper tool that I created a few years ago and have since updated for each round of the exchange may come in handy. In a nutshell, the tool allows you (through cookies stored by your browser) to compile a shortlist of species that look interesting (for me, that's a mixture of plants that I've tried before, different species in genera that I know and love, and totally unfamiliar entries that I feel like exploring), and then work your way through the shortlist with helper links to online resources. With the online ordering system in place, some of the features (such as the google search links) are no longer novel - but I still find it helpful, at least for the way my brain works :-)
You can read about the tool at http://www.robsplants.com/plantlinks/nargs/
Rob

[Howey]

Bravo to the Seedex!  It's quite amazing.  Didn't fully read the instructions but it is so user friendly that I had no trouble with it.  When I think of the years when I needed to make several copies in pencil and still had errors and then had to go out of the lists altogether to find out what things looked like, it just boggles my mind.  I don't think this can be improved on.  Only problem for me is the time of year - juggling all those Christmas duties, hospital visits and a couple of Seed Lists to get done - but of course that can't be helped.  Ya did a great job!  Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b