Hi Jane. I'd be interested mainly in hardy especially Asian bulbs, (Zone 5-6 or lower) and paying by PayPal (4% cost) because it's easy and on line. I hope you can make it work. I'd then consider some Africans or Agapanthus hardy hybrids, etc. to push zones. I currently grow some Zone 8-10 in my area, with no protection other than careful siting, Successfully, e.g., Crinum, Eucomis, Zantedeschia albomaculata and hybrids. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jane McGary" <janemcgary@earthlink.net> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 1:12 PM Subject: [pbs] Group bulb orders > One of the topics discussed at today's Board meeting was the > possibility of organizing group bulb orders so that U.S. members > could obtain bulbs from foreign suppliers at wholesale prices and > with a minimum of expense for CITES and phyto certificates, shipping, > and other costs. We agreed that this should not be done through the > BX, whose manager, Dell Sherk, already shoulders a big responsibility. > > I'd like to start a discussion on this forum to find out how many > members would be interested in ordering, what categories of bulbs > they would like to order (tropical? South African? hardy?), and > suggested suppliers. > > I've done something like this myself, and here is how it worked: > 1. Somebody (a noble soul) volunteers to be the manager. > 2. The manager obtains catalog/pricelists from suppliers and sends > copies of them to any Society member who requests them. (Note that > we're proposing that this service be available only to PBS membvers.) > 3. Participants submit their orders by a stated date. > 4. Manager collates the orders, keeping records of who ordered what > and how many, and sends the total order to the supplier. > 5. The supplier ships the total order to the manager, who will > probably have to walk it through air freight and customs offices. > 6. The manager notifies the participants by e-mail of how much they > owe for bulbs and shipping, adding a percentage for handling (this > handling fee is kept by the manager in return for his or her work). > 7. Participants IMMEDIATELY pay their bills to the manager, who must > pay the supplier within 30 days. > 8. Manager separates and repacks each participant's order and mails > it (by Priority Mail, for which you can obtain free boxes) as soon as > participant has paid. > > It will look like the tricky part is getting the participants to pay > immediately. However, in my experience selling bulbs and sending > invoices with the shipment, almost everyone pays quickly, and nobody > has ever ripped me off. Gardeners are a pretty honest bunch! > > Although this activity is being proposed as a benefit of PBS > membership, it is not planned that the Society will expend or receive > any money from it. > > The benefits of participating in such a project are as follows: > 1. You can order retail quantities at wholesale prices if enough > people want the same item. > 2. You share the expense of phytosanitary and CITES certification; > the latter is extremely costly. > 3. You may be able to order from specialist suppliers who normally > would not ship small orders overseas. > 4. You can get the items via air freight, instead of ordering them > through a domestic retailer who gets them by sea freight and has them > sitting around going bad for weeks. > > It's too late to start a project like this this year, unless orders > from the Southern Hemisphere were wanted. However, to get orders from > Europe we would need to have a manager ready by about next March. > Let's start discussing it now! > > Best regards, > Jane McGary > President, Pacific Bulb Society > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/