John Lonsdale wrote, >All results need to be taken in context and not as black and white. It is >amazing how many folks have the 'definitive' method of doing many gardening >activities - looking back to the very early days of the AGS you can see how >many bizarre unique types of compost were the 'only' ways to get many plants >to grow. The fact that I grow everything here in pots using a single >compost type would have those AGS stalwarts turning in their graves. How true! I have a number of English books on growing alpines, and most of them feature half a dozen or more different recipes for composts (American, soil mixes). I started out trying to follow these directions but eventually found it too much trouble and now I also use one mix for almost every kind of seed (with different amounts of topdressing, though), one mix for almost every bulb in the frame, one mix for potted alpines, and one mix for potted border type plants and shrubs. And lately, with a tremendous need for potting soil, I've been scooping it up from the pile of discarded bulb potting soil and mixing it with very old composted fine bark. Give it a little Rapid-Grow and most everything does fine -- at least until I can get it into the ground in the new garden this fall, I hope. As I go around the garden and trowel up this and that, I get less and less particular about just what it gets potted into. The old bulb potting soil is a terrific filler for new rock garden features, and I'm going to have a load of it brought to the new place for my new rock garden. All kinds of nice bulbs pop up between the rocks as a result, and it is a "free" way to find out what will surprise one by flourishing in the open garden despite the endless rain. If a gardener ends up buying my country place, he or she will have plenty of mystery bulbs to identify! Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA