Hi, A couple of comments about our list. Cathy Craig started in our Yahoo when she founded the Pacific Bulb Society. I agreed to take it over, but only if it would be open to anyone who wanted to participate without a membership requirement. I moved if off Yahoo to my Internet provider, but then searched for a location where we could have archives. A lot of places I emailed never responded or were too expensive and finally someone suggested ibiblio.org which has worked out very well. This is what I wrote on the list information page as the focus: "Although bulbs (defined more broadly to include all geophytes) are the focus, we recognize that people who grow them probably grow other things too and will be talking about them from time to time. " Most of the time we are on topic and usually the off topic discussions don't last too long, although sometimes the off topic discussions last a little longer like the current one on tree peonies. I advise people to use the delete key when this happens and if they aren't interested. Having an accurate subject listed is a big help with this. Except for the couple of years when I did a topic of the week, what gets discussed depends entirely on what people chose to talk about. As with any list there are some members who write a lot, some who post occasionally, and some who never post. There are now 417 email addresses subscribed to our list and there are people who are members of the list from all over the world. The majority of the list members are NOT also members of the Pacific Bulb Society. Early on I approached a couple of regional bulb groups who had their own internet lists to ask if they wanted to join forces with us and change our name to something that would work for all of us, but they wanted to stay separate and since it would have been a lot of trouble to change our name from the pbs list , there didn't seem any point in doing it. Sometimes it seems to me that we are now a hardy bulb list, but that's just because a few of the more frequent posters live in colder climates. It would certainly be fine to talk about bulbs that can be easily grown in Florida if someone from Florida wished to start the topic. When we were doing the topic of the week, we highlighted bulbs that could be grown in different climates. So don't be shy. If there is something you want to be discussed, start the topic. We have a lot of very knowledgeable members of our group and a lot of people who are willing to help and answer questions. Someone said running a list is a little like herding cats. Which brings me to a common request of asking people not to include the whole post you are responding to in your reply. It says this on our list info. page: "Include only enough information from the post you are replying to identify it. DO NOT INCLUDE THE ENTIRE MESSAGE. This is to keep our archives uncluttered and is also a courtesy to the members of the list, especially the digest subscribers. " I understand that several extra digests were sent out today because a number of people included the entire message in their replies. Mary Sue