Dear All,
I live in SE Pennsylvania in Bucks County, Zone 6?. (Cold, wet winters
usually not lower than O F; hot, humid summers >90 F) I have been interested
in bulbs since I smelled Amaryllis belladonna blooming in my grandfather's
garden in Pasadena, California when I was 10 yrs old. For nearly 40 yrs I
searched to find out what that bulb was, in the process acquiring and
learning how to grow Lycoris squamigera and Crinums in the vain hope that
they might be IT. Finally, I got a hold of xAmarcrinum and knew I had found
something close from its unforgettable smell. A few years later, I
discovered the IBS on the internet and went hog-wild.
Now I grow (but don't always bloom) nearly 400 species of geophytes:
mostly amaryllids from everywhere - especially South America and South
Africa (indoors in winter/ outdoors in summer/ always in pots), and many
hardy bulbs with a recently indulged special interest in Crocus and
Colchicum. Besides bulbs, I grow a few gesneriads, many vegetables and
herbs, and annuals for cutting.
I am a school teacher (LD/English) and manage some of the school's
gardens. My fourth wife, Mitzi, is a two-yr-old Shih-tzu.
Besides the PBS, I belong to the IBS and the American Gloxinia and
Gesneriad Society. I have volunteered to run the seed and bulb exchanges for
the PBS since I used to do that for the IBS. Please send clean, labeled
donations to: Dell Sherk, PO Box 224, Holicong, PA 18928, USA.
Welcome to all of you who I knew from other places and previous lives!!
I'm particularly glad to hear from Shayne Willis who I lost track of many
months ago.
Happy, healthy gardening,
Dell
--
Dell Sherk, SE PA Zone 6. Amaryllids, South Americans, Cyrtanthus, Nerine,
Hardy bulbs.