Principally the Pacific Bulb Society encourages members getting in touch with each other, that is one of the purposes of the membership directory. And why should this not include swapping seed or bulbs..... It certainly is a good idea to actively ask for specific plants if you are looking for something not easily available. This might motivate the grower of a particular plant to share some material which he or she might not consider worthwhile for the BX. Personally I was treated extremely generously when I asked for seed of Amaryllis belladonna hybrids a few years ago when I started my new garden in Portugal. But...... as Martin pointed out, this private swapping should not undermine the public BX and SX. We receive many questions if this or that item is good or plentiful enough to be sent to the exchange and we always do encourage to send. As we have adopted the random distribution after the closure of donations, everyone has the same chance to get the rarities in short supply. I very strongly recommend to send in even a single bulb of a rare plant. For ordering these rare items I would appeal to the potential grower to consider "can I grow it successfully?" rather than being guided by the "must have" impulse. Not every bulb is suitable for every growing condition. Bridget, Lisa and Martin do a hell of a good job to distribute the rare items in short supply as equally as possible amongst the hoard of orders...... _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net https://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net> PBS Forum https://…