A Growing Obsession: Rare Seeds By ANNE <http://online.wsj.com/search/search_center.html/… ARTICLESEARCHQUERY_PARSER=bylineAND> MARIE CHAKER Garden catalogs might top 100 pages of flower, vegetable and herb varieties. For some gardeners-where the line between dedication and obsession can sometimes blur-that's not enough. For them, there are seed exchanges. These are groups formed by garden clubs or plant collectors whose members harvest seeds from their own plants and donate them to the exchange. Fellow gardeners in the group can order seeds at little or no cost. The appeal of these exchanges is that they frequently offer unusual varieties of plants not typically found in catalogs, whether it's a species grown by few collectors, or an "heirloom" seed variety passed down for generations. The coming weeks are high season for seed exchanges as many gardeners are preparing to start seedlings indoors to be planted outside once spring breaks. Part of the fun of surfing the seed exchanges is in recognizing names and gardens where donations come from-and the chance to plant seeds from famous gardens. The North American Rock Garden Society exchange lists more than 100 seeds donated by the New York Botanical Garden from its expeditions to the countries of Georgia and China in 2005 and 2007. Janet Draper, horticulturist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington this year donated seeds of a South African foxglove from the Smithsonian's Mary Livingston Ripley garden to the Hardy Plant Society/Mid-Atlantic Group seed exchange, among other seed varieties. Ms. Draper says some of her favorite plants in the Ripley garden came from seeds acquired on the exchange, such as tassel flower. About a dozen volunteers with the Hardy Plant Society group fulfilled requests for seeds one recent morning at the Henry Foundation for Botanical Research in Gladwyne, Pa., for some of its more than 900 varieties from Abelmoschus manihot (ornamental okra) to zephyranthes (rain lily). The group's 850 members range from backyard warriors to rare-plant collectors. And while the number of members has remained stable, they also seem to be getting younger, perhaps a sign of new interest in gardening, says Gene Spurgeon, chairman of the exchange. The North American Rock Garden Society has an exchange listing more than 4,500 different types of seeds from more than 250 donors. The society organizes its listing so that gardeners can look up a seed's donor. "Sometimes that will tell you if it's a good plant or not because you know the gardener. Or, how hardy it is in your area, depending on where the gardener who donated it lives," says Joyce Fingerut, who manages the exchange. She once ordered seed of Mibora minima, whose common name is early sandgrass, which she had never heard of. But because it was a donation from a well-known gardener, she gave it a try. "I figured if he's growing it, it's got to be interesting," she says. She continues to grow it at her home in Stonington, Conn. Some groups that host exchanges cater to gardeners specializing in a particular plant, letting them delve into unusual varieties. The Species Iris Group of North America exchange, for example, includes the snake-bane iris, a native of China believed to repel snakes, and extremely rare in the U.S., says James W. Waddick, the exchange's Kansas City, Mo.-based co-chairman. The exchange isn't just for iris snobs, he says, adding, "there are some people who want to have a 20-foot row and don't want to pay for plants when you can just buy a packet of seed." To take part in a typical exchange, gardeners harvest most flower seeds by allowing blooms to fade and then collect ripened seed. They mail in their seed donations, and the organization publishes a catalog sometime in the winter listing contributions. Members then make their pick. Depending on availability, a packet containing anywhere from a handful to hundreds of seeds might cost as little as 50 cents or less-a fraction of what commercially sold seed packets can cost. Some organizations will set a limit on the number of seeds members can order. Others offer bonus seeds for big contributors. To become a member to take part in exchanges, annual dues can run from as little as $5 to $40. Some gardening Web sites such as blossomswap.com also host seed-trading forums, which don't require membership fees. These homemade listings will lack many of the showy hybrid varieties that commercial catalogs offer and that appeal to many gardeners. While hybrids can be stunning, gardeners looking to propagate them from seed will often find that they won't develop "true," or look like the parent. On the other hand, gardeners interested in species plants-as found in the wild and which reproduce naturally without human interference-will find plenty of variety in these seed-exchange listings. "Heirloom" varieties will also grow true and can be coveted. Charles Cresson's donation of an African lily variety named "Kingston Blue" is the most popular on this year's Hardy Plant exchange, receiving 36 requests (only five could be fulfilled; others got alternates). Mr. Cresson's other popular donation: seeds from a clivia named "Sir John Thouron," an unusual yellow variety that once fetched $2,400 at a rare-plant auction. In Swarthmore, Pa., Mr. Cresson oversees a garden that has been in his family since 1883. "A lot of things that interest me are not run-of-the-mill," he says. "This seed exchange is a great way to make the seed available and be able to say why it is so special." Mr. Cresson has been offering seeds on the exchange for more than 15 years, and most of those years, he doesn't ask for seeds in return. "A good plant should be shared, and a rare plant should be shared," he says. "Its survival depends on it." He ordered an unusual variety of snowdrop-an early flowering bulb-from England 20 years ago, and it recently died on him. He had forgotten that he had shared some bulbs with another gardener, who one day casually mentioned how much he loved the variety. When Mr. Cresson explained that he'd lost his, the following year, "I got a nice big bunch of it back." Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page D1 Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Cheers, Bracey San Jose CA