On 1 Jan 90, at 0:21, John Bryan wrote: > ...Growers in the Netherlands are very conscious of the need to > sell only the best possible stock. I nearly choked on my morning bagel when I read that. Maybe they're *conscious* of this need, but Dutch growers don't seem to act on that consciousness. The Dutch bulb trade is notorious for mislabelling what they send out, and it's well known that some types of bulbs from Dutch sources are virtually always virused, lilies being the classic example. I could mention the horrible virused form of Crocus kotschyanus, but I won't. The mislabelling is insidious because they are generally careful to substitute something with approximately the same look. Out of some bluish Crocus biflorus cultivar? Just grab a bunch of C. tommasinianus; no one will ever notice the difference. It is no accident and esp. now when the bulbs are all prepackaged, it isn't due to customers mixing the contents of the bins. That's the excuse I used to get when I complained about misnamed bulbs! And some of the other "bulbs" one buys are diseased in other ways: one friend with access to the necessary equipment determined that a dahlia from Dutch sources was loaded with nematodes. It may be that you are distinguishing "growers" from "wholesalers" and "distributors", but a man is known by the company he keeps. The entire Dutch bulb trade is, I am sorry to say, unreliable and has known for its failings since at least 1950 when E. B. Anderson inveighed against mislabelled Dutch bulbs. Simply put, it appears that the Dutch bulb industry is long on profit motive at the expense of ordinary everyday ethics and honesty. Their long history of selling wild-collected bulbs, with the end result of near extinction of many species, is just another example. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island