I like representations of "blue" flowers in catalogues. I vaguely recall a garden writer making a comment to this effect: "You look at the flower in the picture, and it is pure blue. Then you look at the leaves, and you see that they're blue too." Nothing like a color filter to make things interesting. I have to disagree with Jim's assessment of Lycoris squamigera vs Amaryllis belladonna. I think they are both beautiful in their own way. One reason catalogues can get away with using an Amaryllis picture is that the dried out, rootless Lycoris bulbs they send out will take five years to recover and bloom, if they ever come up at all. By then the customer will have forgotten what the flowers are supposed to look like. Eugene Zielinski Augusta, GA > [Original Message] > From: Jim McKenney <jimmckenney@starpower.net> > To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> > Date: 8/13/04 9:59:14 AM > Subject: [pbs] Deception in the catalogs > > Roger Whitlock, in discussing the promotional materials distributed with > corms of Crocus kotschyanus, touched, tangentially, a topic I would like > to expand. Roger wrote (I've paraphrased a bit) > > >Finally, Crocus kotschyanus comes close to pink...the color cards > >provided with the boxes of bulbs in the fall show it in a deep pink...but > >that's a blatant falsification. > > I sitting here surrounded by piles of catalogs. They are one of the real > pleasures of the gardening life. But sometimes they are also a hoot: they > have their share of petty deceptions and venalities. Here are some of the > real howlers which are repeated each year. Maybe the rest of you can add to > this list. >