I've probably told this story before, but here is my tale: As a kid of 9 or 10 years, I was only interested in butterflies and moths. Plants were just food for Cecropia moth caterpillars, as far as I was concerned. Then, in junior high school the family decided I was big enough to push a lawn mower so I was appointed the family gardener. If my father bought a few tulip bulbs, I was the one who planted them. When an old lady gave us a bunch of cuttings from her shrub roses, I got to start them under fruit jars. In graduate school I was 2000 miles from home and happy not to have to mow grass, trim shrubs, or plant flowers. Eventually, after a Swiss post-doc stint and back in the USA with a new wife, I re-discovered flowers for our garden apartment in Euclid, Ohio. Apparently about 6 years of vacation from gardening mellowed me somewhat. I planted Narcissus bulbs, a few tulips, and some bearded iris. I actually still grow one of those irises, 'One Desire', 45 years later. After moving to Indianapolis and buying a house, I retrieved some Ostrich Ferns and a Moss Rose from my parents home, both of which I had grown myself during my high school years. I still have plants of both the fern and the rose here, about 60 years later. I became interested in less hardy bulbs almost 40 years ago, starting with Hippeastrum and branching out into other genera and other families. The obsession is currently somewhat out of hand, with three home greenhouses and one commercial greenhouse (2700 sq ft). This summer, we are eliminating the commercial daylily beds. The bulb collection is going to be slowly downsized in the next few years. But I still have most of my butterfly collection. Jim Shields in very hot, very humid Westfield, Indiana USA ************************************************* Jim Shields USDA Zone 5 Shields Gardens, Ltd. P.O. Box 92 WWW: http://www.shieldsgardens.com/ Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA Tel. ++1-317-867-3344 or toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA