PBS BX - experience
Mary Sue Ittner (Wed, 25 Apr 2007 07:06:40 PDT)

Hi,

Over the years I have donated many seeds and bulbs to the BX. It takes a
lot of time to clean and sort and means that my house is not as tidy as I'd
like with little cups of drying uncleaned seed everywhere. Every year I
think that I'm not going to do it any more as it just takes too much time.
It really makes my day if someone writes me a note of thanks when something
does well for them so I think Jim's suggestion is a good one. My experience
is that it is rare that people write me privately about what I have
donated. Last year I donated quite a lot of "Mystery Bulbs", bulbs that
appeared in pots and I did not want to go to the trouble to figure out. I
grow three or four deep pots of these every year and have fun with them as
there is always months of bloom with different things coming on at
different times. I wonder how they did for others. Was it worth my time or
did they all die in the wrong climate?

At this point the main benefit I have from donating is that I have had such
a large postage credit that it's been a long time since I had to pay for
any of the items I've wanted from the BX.

The majority of our list members are not members of the Pacific Bulb
Society so that is probably the reason they are not donating material as
they would assume that they could not participate in the BX. Also I suspect
we all are members of other groups that have seed exchanges and many people
share their donations with more than one group.

Mary Sue