Sharing plants with others
Mary Sue Ittner (Sun, 11 Sep 2011 11:01:26 PDT)

All this talk about conserving plants and especially Rodger's last
post about sharing reminds me of the visits we had with Sir Peter
Smithers in Switzerland and Harry Hay in England. Both had amazing
gardens with high levels of diversity and both believed in sharing
with others. Although they never asked for anything in exchange, a
lot of people wanted to give back and searched for special material
to give them. Peter talked of some wonderful plants people brought
him that he never would have had access to. He suggested that we
visit a local Arboretum and when we did and talked to someone there
we learned that a large part of their collection had begun with
cuttings from the Smithers' garden.

Years ago we came up with the idea of the BX as a way to share with
each other. It probably generates a tiny profit to help with other
costs of running the Pacific Bulb Society, but this is not really a
money generating project, but just a way that people can share their
extras. It probably never would have been as successful as it has
been if it were not for the dedication of Dell who has been in charge
since 2002 and helped IBS with the same before then. That's a very
long time to do such a time consuming job. No doubt some of the
offerings go to people who may not live in places where it will be
easy to grow what they order, but I'm sure we have a number of people
with success. When someone offers something they originally got from
the BX and continues the circle of giving it is especially nice.

This list also brings people together who share the same interests
and I'm sure a lot of private trades or gifts result as well.

Thanks to all of you in this group who give (seeds, bulbs, helpful
information, volunteer time for the Bulb Garden, the wiki, the
Pacific Bulb Society).

Mary Sue