Mary Sue, One, the NPGS is not trying to compete with nurseries, and two, there are a sum total of two people responsible for preparing distributions. If a request is perceived as not having genuine research interest (i.e., from a breeder, grower, scientist), the request will usually only be filled if the material is unavailable commercially. I know of few requests that have been turned down. Alan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mary Sue Ittner" <msittner@mcn.org> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Sunday, June 13, 2004 1:34 PM Subject: Re: [pbs] National collections programs > Dear Alan & all, > > I looked at the collections page on your web site: > http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/holdings.html > > As expected in an agricultural site it appears a lot of the holdings are > crops. It doesn't look like there are a lot of bulbs. Allium, as a source > of food, makes sense. Would the emphasis be on collecting ones that were > eaten? Looking through some of the species held at Pullman with a quick > browse I saw they they are not holding many of the Pacific northwest > species I grow. > > What do you mean by this statement? > >The distribution system is not sufficiently peopled to handle lot's of > >hobbyist requests, but genuine research requests and grower requests are > >taken seriously. > Does it mean that if someone wants to do research on a particular genus or > species that they can request material and receive it? What is the > difference between a hobbyist and a grower? I'm not planning on requesting > anything. I am just curious. > > We have a number of members of this list who are National Plant Collection > holders in the UK. We visited a couple of them on our trip. Dave Fenwick > holds Crocosmia (including Chasmanthe) and Tulbaghia and he has recently > been approved to add Amaryllis, x Amarygia, x Amarine and x Amarcrinum. I > may be leaving out others he has. It was so interesting to meet him and see > how he grows things. Unfortunately early May is not the time to go to see > his plants as only a couple were in bloom, but as some of you who have been > reading my notes over the years know I really love getting to meet the > people just as much as seeing the plants. One of the things that most > intrigued me at Dave's was the greenhouse he had created on one of his > holdings. He had built and designed it out of mostly recycled materials and > it works really well for him. When he has time maybe he will tells us about > it. Bob took a picture of it from the inside. If people are interested I > could add it to the wiki. > > I think Australia has a collections program too and some of our members may > be holders. > > All this discussion has made me think of a topic of the week that we could > do. Since I am having a little trouble filling the slots you may see it > appear soon one of these weeks. I think it would be very helpful to > identify people who we associated with a particular genus. I know over the > years I have paid attention when someone speaks up about a genus they are > especially interested in and then I know whom to contact if I can't figure > out a question on my own. So in the next couple of weeks be thinking about > whom you associate with a genus and perhaps we can get together a list of > resource people when I announce that topic. > > For instance: Allium -- Mark McDonough > > Mary Sue > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >