Mark, I didn't take the comments as ridicule. To me it was more of a "you say to-may-to; I say to-mah-to" kind of a back-and-forth set of emails. I would hope no one is sneering at anyone else's favorite bulb. To most of my close friends, my obsession with my favorite bulbs is something on the order of a nice, but slightly eccentric, uncle. They ooh and aah whenever I show them some particularly interesting or amazing bloom, but I know they don't quite get why I grow so *many*. I'm sure many of us have similar relations with our friends or family. So it seems a little like the pot calling the kettle black for one bulbophile to accuse some other bulbophile of being too obsessed with his or her favorite species, IMHO. I don't know if I can even grow snowdrops, so I really don't have a position on what the attraction is. But I realize that different people have different tastes. And I'm glad they do, or I might never have been introduced to some of the species I now count as my favorites but I'm sure others don't quite get what the attraction is all about. And I've met John Grimshaw and read many extremely interesting and well-informed posts from him in times past about an amazing array of unusual, rare, and beautiful (to me) species, and he's written an entire book about snowdrops. So I'm certain there is something to them. Maybe if I lived in a region where they grew well and tried a bunch of them, I'd see. I like daffodils/narcissus a lot and try to grow a whole bunch of different kinds especially to see what will grow here. And yet, I've been sent images of the latest greatest cultivars and sometimes I wonder why they are so magnificent to the people who sent them to me. I've also collected a number of the bulbocodium type species and subspecies from various BX offerings over the years. I'm starting to get blooms from a number of them now. And other than possible slight differences in shade anywhere from pure white to butter yellow and gradations in between, I don't see great differences in them. So I must not be looking at the correct things about them. Live and learn... I hope you'll reconsider submitting your article. Some of us would like to read why Galanthophiles love their bulbs so much and how someone like John Grimshaw can write an entire book on the subject! --Lee Poulsen Pasadena area, California, USDA Zone 9-10 On Jan 21, 2004, at 11:48 AM, Mark Smyth wrote: > I would like to point out that before the recent chat about snowdrops > started I had prepared an article on this subject for your > newsletter/magazine 'The Bulb Garden' complete with my photos but > minus the > copyright. I have now informed the Editor that I will no longer be > offering > it to the group due to the attitudes of PBS members. I have never felt > so > ridiculed when talking about the bulbs I grow. Can you imagine what it > would > be like for everyone to sneer at each members favourite bulb? > > Mark > N Ireland > 35 Galanthus species and cultivars in bloom today >