Propagation and Cultivation info. on wiki

I'm glad to see some discussion of this. A lot of people would like to see
this added to the wiki. The question is how to do it. The logical place is
to add information to each genus page, but experience tells me this is
unlikely to happen. Some history first. Jane started a Reference page.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…
The idea was that everyone would either add or send her a list of their
favorite books with some comments about them and over time we'd add links
to the genus page for the references for that genus. Jane started with a
good list and some of the rest of us have added to it. Rodger was worried
no one would find it as he thought it should have been called Bibliography
instead of References so I added that name in the text for the page and in
the description from the home page so if people were searching they would
find it both ways. Jay added anchors for the books so we could add the
links to the appropriate pages. In some cases the links were added to the
genera pages, but it never got totally implemented.

I had the idea of adding family information, both creating a family page
for each family with the genera in that family on the wiki listed on that
page and being sure each genus had a family listed. I ran out of steam
after about a year of working on it and wondered what in the world had I
been thinking of when I started the project. Nhu finished the family pages
for me. I found it a lot harder than I thought since the taxonomists don't
all agree about which family a genus is in and in some cases there is an
optional family choice. I wondered if the effort had been worthwhile and
then read someone describing how to find a picture for a favorite plant on
our wiki by clicking first on the family page and from there to the genus
page. I had always assumed people would start from the photographs page,
not the family page so at least for that person the family pages had been
useful. We decided in the beginning not to list the wiki pages by families
since we thought a wider audience would be able to find them since it is a
much smaller group that understands the family distinctions.

I have a backlog of pictures and information to add to the wiki that would
keep me busy every day for years. And converting the wiki took me more than
two months working sometimes for several hours a day. So I'm not
volunteering to do the propagation/cultivation pages since it would keep me
from my wiki "to do" list even though I think this information would be a
great addition. I was thrilled when Byron said he'd take on doing something
with my data. And if Jane has something she has already done that we could
add in a pdf file and then link it to a page that would be great in
addition to whatever Byron does. With the wiki we can add information in
several pages and link it to a general page. We already have some good
information from topics of the week that could be linked. (Fertilizers,
Vegetative Propagation, Seed Collection, Breaking dormancy). Ideally
someone would volunteer to read all these posts and create a wiki page with
a summary of this information for each, but short of that, the link would
have to suffice. With a seed propagation page you could have a general
introduction and links to pages on some of the methods people use for
growing from seed: paper towel, flotation, etc. and then specific
information on each genus. As Byron said my very long compilation of
information people have offered included more than one method and that is
because more that one method has worked. But it is something like Tom
suggested, real people telling what worked for them.

I think any or parts of this would be a splendid resource, but it would
take a lot of time to implement. I am always amused when people remark
about things that are missing on the wiki. The wiki has been created by
volunteers who added what they were interested in or had time to add. If
something is not there that should be there, it is just waiting for someone
from this group willing to add it. We have sixteen people out of 470 plus
who have asked how to use the wiki with the new wiki software. Of these
sixteen, I believe only nine have actually either uploaded pictures or
added to the pages. If anyone wants to volunteer to help on this project
you can write to me or Nhu privately and tell us what you'd be willing to
do. If you don't actually want to create a wiki page, but would be willing
to write what could go on a page, that could be done too. For example,
someone could read all the list posts on fertilizing and compile and
summarize the suggestions and that could be made into a wiki page on that
topic.

Mary Sue