history/commercial messages on the list

Ellen Hornig hornig@oswego.edu
Tue, 28 Jun 2016 08:04:06 PDT
Thank you, Mary Sue, for coming to my defense.  I was going to stay out of
the whole thing, but in the interests of clarifying why I though
Mr. McMurtrie's communications went well beyond a simple, decorous mention
of availability, I'm including the note sent to our Chapter newsletter
editor, stripped of some specifics:

"It would be great if you could let members know my Reticulata Iris hybrids
are now available.

Malcolm McGregor will be publishing a couple of articles about my work in
future issues of the NARGS Rock Garden Quarterly.

For the moment its a matter of letting members know they can buy them; and
at the same time trying to get wholesalers and retailers interested in
selling them.

If you are interested, you can reprint my article from the March issue of
The Plantsman.  Mike Grant says, "They do need to say it was first
published in The Plantsman, and if they can add a link to our website that
would be great (http://www.rhs.org.uk/plantsman/)."



------------------------------




(deleted) is one of the companies selling my bulbs in the U.S.  They sell:

(4 cultivars, deleted)


The Denver Botanic Garden should have some in their plant sale (via Jacques
Amand)


At the moment there is a big wholesaler in Canada distributing 6 of my
hybrids via a couple of mail order firms and starting to get garden centres
interested.  I am trying to get wholesalers interested in the U.S. but its
quite an uphill battle.

Jacques Amand Intl. ships to the U.S.  They do a bulk shipment to the U.S.
and then individual orders are sent on from within the U.S.  People can
contact: (deleted) for details.

The big advantage people get by buying this way is the best selection of my
hybrids:

 (20 cultivar names deleted)

People can find out more about my work at (deleted)"

I truly bear Mr. McMurtrie no ill-will.  His irises are beautiful.  But, in
my mind, he needs to find more appropriate channels for connecting with
wholesalers, retailers and retail customers, all of which are the targets
of his communications.  I think what he is doing sets a precedent that we
would not want to see followed on this list, because who's to say who's a
meritorious small grower, who's a valid but well-established commercial
grower, and who's a pest?  There are other channels for advertising.

And now, I think he's gotten plenty of the publicity he sought on this list!

Ellen



On Tue, Jun 28, 2016 at 10:42 AM, Mary Sue Ittner <msittner@mcn.org> wrote:

> As a former list administrator of this list, I'd like to come to Ellen's
> defense. This list was started on yahoo and then moved to my server where I
> paid for it. In early 2003 we moved it to ibiblio.org where it and the
> wiki has been hosted for free ever since. The majority of the members of
> this list are not paying members of the Pacific Bulb Society and when the
> list was started we agreed that if it was open to anyone who was interested
> in the subject we would all gain by the information shared. But for a new
> organization with few members and not a lot of money, having the list be
> free was a big help. One of the requirements for being hosted for free was
> not being a commercial organization that posted items for sale. We knew
> people would be interested in what was available so we tried to come up
> with a way of sharing that information without putting losing the list and
> the wiki at risk. We suggested that people who had things to sell could
> announce when their web site was updated and that they had something
> special to sell with a link or an email address to learn more, but
> requested that this not be a frequent posting. Most people were really good
> about following those rules. We experimented with having a place where
> people could sell and trade bulbs when Ellen kindly offered her website
> when she stopped selling bulbs. But it wasn't used enough to justify the
> continued operation. And we allowed sharing information about what someone
> else had available by a short message with a link to learn more. And Mike
> came up with a way to add sources of bulbs to the wiki so people could
> search there (provided someone on the list recommended the source because
> they had a good experience and shared that information with one of the wiki
> volunteers who could add it to the wiki.)
>
> From time to time there has been discussion of moving the list once again,
> especially since ibiblio is concentrating on collections, not lists, and
> not longer offering the latter service to new groups. However, this
> organization has a very limited number of volunteers that do all the work
> and moving involves some time and effort (and expense). Whenever there is
> discussion of changing the nature of things, there are diverse opinions
> about what is best as well with a lot of people liking it the way it is.
>
> If everyone who subscribes to this list was allowed frequently to post
> what they had for sale, I expect you would have a lot of requests from
> people to unsubscribe. It's difficult to find a balance sometimes, but that
> is what this list has attempted to do.
>
> Mary Sue
>
>
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-- 
Ellen Hornig
212 Grafton St
Shrewsbury MA 01545



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