I have been asked to provide rarities on various occasions. If, as so frequently happens from certain parts of the world, the person requesting plants from me tries to pick and chose the rarest items with the phrase "I'll take (x, y, z)" without any "May I have", "please", "thank you", and a complete failure to answer any questions I might ask, - I send such people little or nothing. I wish I had more time to deal with politer and more deserving requests, when I try to help people who email me, ( for example looking for sources), and they do not even reply to thank me, again I feel insulted. However a network of personal contacts, such as the PBS facilitates, is a very effective method of keeping plant material circulating. While each transaction may be random, the net effect is to preserve a wide range of plants in the hands of many people. Peter (UK) On Wed, Jan 15, 2014 at 11:10 PM, Robert Pries <robertpries@embarqmail.com>wrote: They were not interested in working with private plantsmen. I believe this is partly due to a vocal scam artist who was milking plantsman at the time for plants he could sell in his nursery by claiming to run a National Collection System. When I originally contacted him about a world class collection I had of Dwarf Irises he said send me a list and I will pick what I want. I knew that response was terribly wrong. But even though He is still out there speaking on