£be (Barfceners of flUontaomen) ant) Delaware 
Counties 
A Neighborhood Plant Exchange 
For several years the gardeners held a spring plant exchange 
among the club members; but year before last we felt that it would be 
far more useful if it were made a neighborhood work. We decided to 
hold two exchanges simultaneously and obtained permission to hold 
them on a Saturday in May outside the Ardmore Public School and 
the Bryn Mawr Business Women's Club, central locations about two 
miles apart. Trestles were loaned by the members, boards to form the 
tables were loaned by lumber dealers, advertising was done without 
expense in local papers and by home-made posters. The invitations 
urged all to join in a neighborhood interest, to give what they had to 
spare whether roots or a few seeds in the bottom of a package, and to 
bring their baskets, even though they had nothing to offer in exchange. 
One or two of the club members advertised the project by visiting some 
of the neighbors owning small yards. 
On the day of the exchange many came with definite wishes for 
special plants. One man wanted lilies-of-the-valley, and though there 
were none in the early part of the afternoon, he secured some later on; 
a woman wanted any vines that would shade her porch; another asked 
for bright flowers to make a cheery outlook for an invalid mother who 
sat all day long by a window; and many of the club members needed 
plants to bloom at some special seasons when their gardens were dull. 
But it was equally interesting to see the plants and seeds contributed — 
from the fine young fig tree given by an Italian laborer that he had 
grown as a cutting from one he had brought from Italy, to the young 
tomato and cabbage seedlings raised in quantities in green houses or hot 
beds and that would otherwise have been thrown away. 
Last year the Citizens' Association, the School Gardens' Asso- 
ciation, the Weeders and the Gardeners co-operated in the work, hold- 
ing exchanges at four centers, and offering prizes of money in each 
district for the neatest front and back yards, and for improvement over 
the condition of the yards since similar prizes had been offered by the 
Citizens' Association the previous year. 
A few capable people can accomplish the work with little effort 
and no expense except the prizes. But the true success of such a neigh- 
borhood work lies in the attitude of the workers; in their ability to lay 
aside all sense of the Lady Bountiful, and with gracious tact and cour- 
tesy to receive as well as to give. 
Mary R. G. Williams. 
