Dear members of the Pacific Bulb Society, Through Mary-Sue Ittner I was introduced to this new discussion forum and I would like to briefly introduce myself: Living in northern Germany in the Hannover area, gardening is my spare time occupation, sometimes taking a lot of time and energy, though....... I have a small garden and a 12 square metre frost free greenhouse, the garden has a small pond. The climate is a moderate maritime climate with a certain continental influx with rain at any time of the year. Summer max temp around 35¡C and winter min temp can reach -20¡C, all in all weather is unpredictable and unstable here. My interests are bulbs, climbing plants, Gesneriads, aquatic plants, tender Salvias, and so called "conservatory plants". I always grow small amounts of fruit and vegetable in the garden and greenhouse for my personal use, mostly heirloom varieties. Concerning bulbs, I like the following in particular: Gesneriads (member of the AGGS) Oxalis, Canna and Bananas (well, these are not really bulbs, but....) I also used to have a collection of Hippestrum but gave these away because they were not doing well with my growing conditions. There are different cultivars of Zantedeschia aethiopica and some other Aroids but most of my Aroids are Philodendrons which I grow as house plants. I general I prefer species plants or hybrids that are still close to their parants, but I am not dogmatic. Also I like travelling, time permitting and did two wonderful trips: one to South Africa in 2000 and one to Bolivia in February this year. I like to correspond with people, here again time permitting, and also like to exchange plant material to like-minded people. Looking forward to be with this group, greetings from Germany, Uli