hey bulbophile friends, I recently finished the long, emotional process of an insurance claim we had for a fire earlier this year. Nobody was hurt, luckily! The insurance company didn't end up covering any plants in the house/greenhouse, but I wanted to reach out and see if anyone could help me (re)build my collection. Here's an incomplete list of what was lost; many were acquisitions from the PBS SX and BXs over the last year, several from SIGNA and NARGS seed exchanges, and some from now-defunct nurseries. South African: Agapanthus inapertus, Babiana rubrocyanea, Chasmanthe bicolor, Clivia miniata x gardenii, Crinum bulbispermum 'Jumbo', Gladiolus emiliae, Gladiolus odoratus, Gladiolus vanderwermei, Gloriosa superba, Hesperantha coccinea, Hesperantha culcullata, Ixia viridiflora, Lachenalia viridiflora, Littonia/Gloriosa modesta, Melasphaerula racemosa, Moraea aristata, Moraea huttonii, Moraea spathulata, Nerine bowdenii, Nerine hybrids, Rhodohypoxis baurii, Sparaxis elegans mixed colors, Sandersonia aurantiaca, Spiloxene capensis. Tropical American: Alophia drummondii, Alstroemeria pulchella, Begonia boliviensis, Bomarea salsilla, Cypella herbertii, Gelasine elongata, Herbertia pulchella, xHippeastrelia 'Durga Pradhan', Hymenocallis maximiliani, Griffinia liburniana, Neomarica candida, Rhodophiala bifida, Rhodophiala granatiflora (grandiflora?), Seemannia 'Evita' (maybe - not sure if it was dead or dormant), various Zephyranthes. Misc: Amorphophallus konjac, Blandfordia punicea, Spiranthes sinensis I love neotropical irids, Alstroemerias and Bomareas, gesneriads, and the more unusual amaryllids - my Stenomessons, Phaedranassas and Eustephias all (except some very small P. tunguraguae seedlings) fortunately survived. For South African bulbs, I'm interested in unusual colors & odd color combinations and flowers with black or green patterning, and (former Homoglossum) Gladiolus to cross with G. tristis for new colors/patterns of Homoglad. I'd also be excited for South African & neotropical bulbs that could be tried outdoors here - upper edge of zone 7/lower zone 6 (minimum temperature here last winter was -2°f, but some sheltered spots never went below 12 °f). -joe p.s. for the morbidly curious, I had a much higher survival rate among Amaryllidaceae than Iridaceae or Hyacinthaceae, including some surprises (70% of my seedling Pamianthe started last summer made it through, and 80% of my Clivias). Plants that were dormant fared far better than plants in growth, with the exception of evergreen or nearly-evergreen bulbs (e.g. Veltheimia). I don't know how hot it got, but some plastic plant pots melted and the radiant heat through the windows was enough to scorch a Rhododendron outside. Seeds that were in the fridge at the time are germinating normally as far as I can tell. _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…