Bravo-- Bob! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Pries" <robertpries@embarqmail.com> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 9:50 AM Subject: Re: [pbs] MBAs and Small Specialty Nurseries -addendum > While it is sad to see nurseries close or change, I believe what we really > morn us the loss of cultivars and species to the trade. People and > nurseries have a life span. They can act as guardians of our plant > diversity by disseminating it. But sadly this never lasts forever. The > hope is that the plant wealth has been distributed such that it can be > recovered by younger people and new nurseries. > > My belief is that this can only happen with education. For someone to want > to save something they must know about it. Plant Societies play an > important role here as well as botanical gardens. Sadly it never seems to > be adequate and much is continually being lost. I have spent the last 30 > years trying to encourage this information for the Genus Iris. I realize > that in many ways I have failed and many species and cultivars of species > have disappeared from the trade. I have no idea if my efforts have had any > effect whatsoever. Yet I keep trying. > > PBS has performed a great service in this regard with its wiki. Inspired > by this I convinced the Iris Society to create a wiki also, called the > Iris Encyclopedia. It has taken a couple years just to find the computer > techs who could set it up, and in then in the last 7 months I have > enlisted 150 workers who added 20,000 pages and 19,000 images. On August > 5th the infant wiki appeared on the American Iris Society website. The new > baby is far from complete. There are possibly 80,000 pages needed and > perhaps a million images. I understand that there is a mindset against > hybrids, but this encyclopedia attempts to be a complete reference, > including all species and their variations along with the hybrids that > came from them. We hope to cover the genus Iris as thoroughly as possible. > There are many pages that are still crude and lacking pictures, but you > are invited to visit. It will only become a really comprehensive reference > if we can enlist the aid of hundreds of more individuals > . Adding pictures is very easy. Come visit and let me know what you think. > > Bob Pries, wiki manager and Public Relations chair for AIS > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ellen Hornig" <hornig@earthlink.net> > To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> > Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 10:23:26 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern > Subject: Re: [pbs] MBAs and Small Specialty Nurseries -addendum > > In my last message, I think I stated my income rather confusingly (so > someone might have thought: wow! She made that much! In that case, I'm > going to start a nursery now!) What I meant was that after I quit > academics > and devoted myself full-time to the nursery, I made under 10K in my first > year, and the net crept upward over the next 12 years to around 72K last > year. > > Like Robin, I happen to own and live on the land where the nurery is, > water > is cheap here, and (don't know Robin's situation here) my husband's job > gives us health insurance. If I had to pay for the land and the > insurance, > I'd be netting a whole lot less. > > Ellen > > Ellen Hornig > Seneca Hill Perennials > 3712 County Route 57 > Oswego NY 13126 USA > http://www.senecahillperennials.com/ > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ellen Hornig" <hornig@earthlink.net> > To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> > Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 9:13 AM > Subject: Re: [pbs] MBAs and Small Specialty Nurseries > > > >> In the last couple of years, I've cleared around $70K - probably better >> than I would have done if I'd stuck with teaching economics in a small >> state college. However, I built up to that with years where I made in >> the >> low, then the middle, tens of thousands, so overall I'm quite sure my >> career as a nuyrseryperson has been less remunerative than continuing my >> career as a professor of economics would have been. > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/