Dell has sent out messages to this list of 121 offerings of bulbs and seed since July 2002. I find that rather incredible. The BX was an inspiration of Jim Waddick and I think it has served us very well. It allows seeds and bulbs to be distributed when they are available, not waiting for a once or twice a year date. I routinely share excess material with friends and people I have corresponded with who share my interest in a particular plant, but I have to confess that I really appreciate that I can send things in bulk to Dell to distribute for me. It is very time consuming to clean seed and bulbs. Some seed is especially challenging. The need to do this happen when I have many other garden chores and am repotting and checking on dormant bulbs. Finding packaging material, dividing seed into packets for anyone who might request what I had, and getting to the post office to mail them always takes considerable time when I don't have it. Knowing I can send it to Dell who is an absolute saint for doing this part of the job is often the difference between the seed and bulbs I don't want going in the trash and getting to someone else. Since I get a postage credit for what it costs to send materials to him, I can then request something someone else has given and not have to pay for it. There is a charge since it costs money to send things and for packaging materials. There is no extra charge to send out materials to international members. I am sure that sometimes if bulbs are heavy and to mail to international members it costs more to distribute than the handling charges and there are other times there is a small profit to balance it out. Dell includes information in the BX offerings he gets from donors. If I have time I send more detailed information that I do if I am swamped. I am sure this is true of everyone who contributes. Since the donor is almost always mentioned, it's easy to contact them for more information about what they have given. People occasionally contact me, but usually I have no idea who has asked for what I donate and whether they had any success. As with all seed exchanges it is helpful to validate that what you have is what the donor said it was supposed to be. Even those people who are knowledgeable are not infallible. Many of us in this group are keen gardeners with limited botanical knowledge so even if we want to know what are plants really are, we may not have the resources to figure them out. Each time I tackle an unknown I know it could take me a couple of hours to pour through my books, look up the words I don't know and then I still may end up with not being sure because my material doesn't quite fit the key. One of the reasons why I've started adding pictures of bulbs and corms of certain species is because I get so confused trying to figure out what some descriptions are actually saying. And those descriptions are written in English! Heaven help me if they were written in a foreign language for me too. There are things I grow that the corm can be the defining characteristic so understanding the words is necessary. John Manning wrote a very provocative article for IBSA a number of years ago. In it he spoke of how quickly material is hybridized and his belief that very little of the material that most of us grow is pure. Even wild collected seed could be hybrid if there are several species growing in the same area that bloom at the same time. He suggested that most of us could just garden for pleasure and perhaps set aside a few things to grow that we wanted to protect that we are extremely careful to protect . Many of us in this group are passionate about our plants and grow huge quantities of things. (Note I'm going for the positive spin instead of saying we are addicted to growing more and more.) I hate to admit besides having a garden with all kinds of bulbs in the ground I also have more than 1200 pots and there are others who have more than I do. To hand pollinate all of those things and make sure I did it before all the insects and birds in my garden got to them first would be impossible. So instead of feeling guilty that I am not protecting the identity of my plants, I have decided just to enjoy them. So seed I give is mostly of garden origin and probably is not pure. Every year I end up with additional bulbs and corms that have ended up in pots that are mystery bulbs. Perhaps they came from errant seed or tiny offsets missed when repotting. Each year I have three or four community large pots I plant them in and then I enjoy seeing what they turn out to be when they bloom. This year I'm thinking of sending these things to the BX, but all I could say about them is winter growing mix. They could be something really special or not. If I did this, I'd assume that the people who asked for them would find it fun and not complain about not knowing in advance what they might get. Having said all that I too love to have information about what I grow so appreciate it when people take the time when they have it to include information about what they are donating. But I also know that sometimes there just isn't a lot of time to write very much and I think Dell would rather people donate with limited information than not donate at all. Mary Sue