And the first day of the meeting was excellent! (I wasn't able to stay for the second day--today, because I had a 6.5 hour drive to get home. But a bunch of people were planning to tour various elevations of Mount Diablo to see the flowers and bulbs today.) The talks and slides were all great. The meeting and greeting (and conversing, for me) was a highlight IMO. We had time to wander all over the garden and see all of it, led and informed by either Jacob Knecht or Paul Licht (director of the gardens). A lot of South African geophytes were in full bloom despite the unusual heat, as were many other unusual plants (including three types of Bomarea). A bunch of us wanted to keep talking over dinner and managed to talk President Nhu into taking us to a Berkeley Vietnamese restaurant where he ordered a wide variety of dishes for us to sample that were all delicious. A few of us got to see Nhu's and Jacob's plant collection before dinner, another treat. And afterwards Mary Sue and Bob showed us a 55-minute slide show that Alan Horstmann (I believe?) of South Africa prepared showing many genera of close-ups of South African bulbs in flower, with additional impromptu commentary from Bob Werra and his wife. Then Nhu showed his research facilities at Berkeley (and a number of additional rare plants growing in all of the windows of his lab!). I don't know about all the others who attended, but I had a great time. Thanks to all who organized and helped put it together. --Lee Poulsen Pasadena, California, USA - USDA Zone 10a Latitude 34°N, Altitude 1150 ft/350 m On Apr 22, 2012, at 3:28 PM, Erin Grace wrote: > ahh....thank you! I would have loved to attend, I must have blocked it > from my memory so that I wouldn't be sad that I'm missing it. > > On Sun, Apr 22, 2012 at 4:08 PM, <pbs@pilling.demon.co.uk> wrote: >> >> >> All at the PBS 2012 Meeting... >> >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/… >> >> David Pilling >> >>