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?

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

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

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

it works really well for him. When he has time maybe he will tells us

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

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

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