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Good Gardening: Plant Sharing

John Fischer

40 plus years ago, while living in Northern California, I brought raspberry plants to my parents in Salem.  Years later, I brought offspring of those plants to my garden in Eugene. 

Credit John Fischer

They have since been re-divided and spread to other gardens across the South Willamette Valley.
  Give a man a raspberry, and he will have juice on his lips for a day.  Give him a raspberry plant, and he will have fruit to eat, and plants to give away for a lifetime- maybe two.
  Sharing plants with friends is one of the most rewarding parts of being a gardener.    It's a longtime tradition that is becoming more popular with seed and plant exchanges.  Almost all berries from straw to black to marrion, are easy to move by transporting runners, or roots.  Grapes, Kiwi, Figs  and others can be started from cuttings
  There are a few cautions of course.  Don't give friends sick plants.  Don't transport plants long distances.  They will stop you at the border in California, and most foreign countries.  But most plant problems are well spread through the neighborhood already, and moving a plant in is unlikely to cause the start of trouble.
  Spring is a great time to thin the herd on your back 40, and get a new herd going elsewhere.  Keep the roots of dug up plants damp in soil or sawdust, and don't leave them in a bucket of water for more than an hour or two.
  Never amend the soil where your new arrivals are going to live.  If they are going to thrive, they will have to do so in the dirt your yard provides.  Water them well after planting- even if it is raining.  It will help settle the soil around the roots.
  And enjoy the raspberries.  At least a few of you likely have starts from my Humboldt county plants of decades ago.
  I'm John Fischer with KLCC's good gardening

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