<x-flowed>Dear All, The topic of the week this week is memory bulbs. This was a suggestion from Judy Glattstein. She can elaborate more on what she means by this, but my understanding is that this is an opportunity to talk about bulbs that are special to you because of the memory associated with them. Maybe they came from a friend or were acquired or associated with a trip or a famous person or some event in your life. You are all lucky that this is a busy week for me because this is a subject that I could really run with as so many of the bulbs I grow have such associations. I shall try to restrain myself and limit myself to a post a day. I hope a lot of you will participate in this topic even if just to tell us about one or two such bulbs. I'll start out with the Michael Vassar Oxalis. Michael collected these bulbs in South Africa and then gave them an accession number, MV#... He grew them in an ever expanding collection in Southern California and one year gave a lot of them to IBS to be sold as a fund raiser. You could purchase a whole collection for more than $100. Mike Mace's wife bought him one of the collections as a present. Some of us who thought of Oxalis as a potential pest began to have second thoughts when Mike, Andrew Wilson, Diana Chapman, and Gary Buckley started raving about these wonderful plants. In later years when Mike had extras he shared some with the IBS BX and with me and I have tried to follow his lead in sharing mine. I was lucky enough to hear Michael Vassar lecture on Oxalis twice so in addition to loving these plants for their own sake I have the memory of this gentle quiet man who became so enthusiastic when talking about his favorites, Oxalis and Pelargonium. Of all the ones I grow I think the obtusas are my favorites for their long bloom and bright colors, but there is a MV luteola that I especially like and a MV Oxalis comosa that I acquired at the IBS auction in 2002 donated by Mike that was gorgeous last winter when it was in bloom. So Oxalis MVs get my vote for today and the memory goes beyond Michael Vassar to include Mike Mace who generously shared his collection and to Diana, Andrew, and Gary for providing the extra enthusiasm that made me want to try these. Oxalis now brings me pleasure for much of the year. Mary Sue _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php </x-flowed>