If you wish to take part to this year’s Bank, send an email to bancadelseme@hotmail.it. Sign in with your real name, your nick name and – possibly – indicate your gardening forum. I will provide you with the postal address where you can send your seeds.

You should put in the envelope:

• Your seeds in small envelopes. Put a short amount of seeds in each, write the name (common name AND latin name) over it, whether it is perennial or annual, tree or climber, the colour, and any other useful information.
• An empty, addressed envelope provided with the stamps for the return. Be optimistic, do not use a little one, and include enough stamps – usually you get back more than what you send! Important: do not attach the stamps.
• Your wish list, and further information suck as your climatic conditions (possibly your USDA zone), container garden, perennials or only annuals, tropical… Say also what you don’t want!
• Please sign with your name, nick name and email address.

You dont’ have seeds or have only a few? Don’t feel depressed: the Bank wants to spread a passion for gardening and sowing, so it is not important how much you can give. Let's say it is an investment Bank!!

When I get everything, I mix up and start to send back the seeds (be patient, the process will take some time, at least one month). So, what are you waiting for ?

• How many stamps should I enclose ?

  If possible, use Italian stamps. You can buy them online at Poste italiane, but only in a large amount (min. 20 EU). Note that the suggested cushioned (bubbled) envelopes (preferred, as they do not smash up seeds) are not considered as a standard format.

  To avoid remainders, I will share the surplus among all the participants. If you do not want them, please write "NO REMAINDERS" in your list. However, keep in mind that these extra seeds may have many possible uses: you can either make an exchange with your friends, or give them as a present to your murky-garden neighbour, or use them for some "Guerrilla gardening" incursion.

  If you enclose more stamps than needed, I will send them back – unless you tell me to do otherwise. You may kindly donate the exceeding ones to the Bank, which will use them for the foreigner participants that cannot obtain Italian stamps. You may also donate euros!

  If you don't live in italyyou must enclose an International Reply Coupon, instead of a normal stamp . You can buy it in the post office, one coupon value is like a normal letter stamp.

• What kind of envelopes to use for seeds ?

  Envelopes can be in any shape and material. Plastic ones with zip opening can be found in several dimensions at DIY shops. They are very convenient, and you can put inside a brief paper note on sowing instructions. Otherwise, you can wrap seeds with tin-foil, and then put everything inside paper envelopes (e.g. those used for greeting cards), together with sowing instructions.

  Some old-time participants have developed a triangle-shaped envelope, by folding a square paper and then folding and glueing the sides. The envelope is ok, but it requires some degree of patience to avoid glueing together your fingers, the paper and the seeds. Some others have created artistic envelopes with drawings of the flowers expected from the enclosed seeds!

• How may seeds in an envelope ?

  Each envelope must contain seeds of a single variety. If you have a large number of seeds of the same variety, you should divide them in many small envelopes.

  It basically depends on how many seeds you have gathered: if you have many seeds of a quite ordinary plant, you could prepare rather generous portions. If you have a few seeds, possibly just enough for one person, perhaps it is better to make a single envelope.

  For instance, if you have seeds of Lunaria annua, you may prepare envelopes with ten seeds each; if you have almost-invisible Salvia seeds, try to prepare portions like e.g. 1/8 teaspoon; if you have Ipomea seeds, you can put just a few, since they have a high germination rate; if you have Pandorea seeds, it's better to put many, because germination is quite difficult. So, it all depends on how many seeds you have, and on their quality; if you are not sure about their germination rate, the more the better.

• When should I gather seeds ?

  Seeds must be harvested when they are mature, therefore not green but brown and polished. The shape and colour of a mature seed depend on the variety, just like the right harvesting time. In any doubt, you can ask the forum or search the net – e.g. The Seed Site. Roughly, the right moment is when seeds start falling to the ground.

  Once gathered, the seeds should stay for some days in an open container, to let them dry; otherwise, if you pack them just after it has rained, they could develop mould. When you gather seeds, try to clean them from fragments of the flower, and try to remove the enclosing capsule.

• May I participate without sending seeds ?

  If you do not have seeds but still want to receive some, feel free to participate to the Bank. Usually I receive more seeds than what is needed to fulfill the requests, so there is absolutely no problem. Also, it is a nice way to begin: I am sure that next year you will have many seeds to send back!