PBS Forum

Dear members living in the EU,
This is a last reminder for donations before we will close the second round of the EU exchange. We have so far received only a few items. We are planning the ordering time window over the Easter Weekend. Please send in your donations to Martin now if you have surplus seed or bulbs. Here is the address
Martin Bohnet
Ludwigstr. 1
73035 Göppingen
It would be a good idea to send an email to Martin <garak@code-garak.de> to let him know a donation is under way.
Please do not hesitate to get back to me (Uli) if you have questins
Thank you very much!
Uli and Martin

Dear Members living in the EU,
This is a reminder: There will be a second round of the EU sping Bulb and seed exchange. We do the second round for mainly bulbs to avoid frost damage to bulbs. It is planned for Mid April. If you have spare seed or bulbs please send them now to Martin in Germany.
The EU exchange is open for all fully paid members with a postal address in one of the EU countries. The first round has mainly covered seed and the second one is for bulbs but both is welcome.   Please send only clean and healthy material.
As usual, we suggest prepacking of seed on a voluntary basis, five portions of seed would be fine, if therer is plenty more you can add an extra envelope Martin can use as a reserve. If you need seed envelopes you can get them free of charge from Martin.

His address: Martin Bohnet
                   Ludwigstr. 1
                   73035 Göppingen
                   Germany
                   email: <garak@code-garak.de>

Please label your donation with the name of the plant and your own name so that your donation can be referred to you. You will get a bonus covering the postage.
Closure of the donations and opening of the ordering time window will be announced through the same channels
And please do not hesitate to come back to me(Uli) in case of questions johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de

Uli and Martin

Dear members of the PBS living in the EU,
The ordering for bulbs from the South African Bulb Company will be closing tomorrow at midnight Central European Time. I have not received any more orders or messages from interested members during last week so that I think everybody has placed her or his order. You can still order and send your order form to me until tomorrow. Please remember that this is a service for fully paid members with a postal address in the EU.
Please do not hesitate to come back to me with questions
Bye for now,
Uli

Dear members of the PBS living in the EU,
We have received a brand new  list of interesting bulbs from The South African Bulb Company from which you can order now.
Please..... do read this instruction and the instructions by the South African Bulb Company carefully and completely.
And please.... Do remember that this is a service to EU members of the Pacific Bulb Society. You must have a mailing address in one of the EU countries and you must be a fully paid member. You can join the PBS at any time to participate. The current price list and an order form are attached.
Our learning curve from the previous joint bulb order was steep and we will do certain things differently. The timing of this order is better than the previous one as the winter growing bulbs are still dormant and shortening the growing season of the summer growers does not harm the bulbs. Please do not forget that you have to do a hemisphere swap with the bulbs after their arrival, the seasons in South Africa are opposite to the ones in Europe.
It might be a good idea to opt for the slightly bigger bulbs if there is the choice between very small/small and bigger ones.  From the previous bulb order we learned about some losses which were more related to the delayed delivery and not to the quality of the bulbs, but bigger bulbs in general travel better. In some cases Leigh had advised not to order a certain bulb which was in an unsuitable stage of growth, but this was the exception and will be handled individually.
Please use the order form which you can download or copy. Using this from avoids misunderstandings in names,  number and size of bulbs. For legibility, please type directly into the order form and don't use handwriting. Thank you.
Please send all your orders to me, Uli johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de  and NOT to the Forum and NOT to the email list. I will confirm and forward your order to Leigh and there you will be served on a first come, first served basis. Some of the bulbs will be in short supply.
After all the orders have arrived at Leigh's, an invoice will be sent to me and I will forward the expense. Please calculate for yourself roughly the double price of the bulb value you ordered to cover postage, phytosanitary certificate and a fee for the customs agent on arrival. This time we will use the services of a customs agent at the airport of entry because Martin had a lot of trouble and there was a considerable delay in getting the previous order through customs and plant health service. These costs will be spread according to the individual order value and added to your individual bill. You will receive an invoice together with your bulbs, delivery is planned for April. Please ignore all the other payment instructions given on the SABC price list and please do not pay anything on ordering.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me if you have questions.
Happy browsing!
Uli

Dear Members living in the EU,
The first EU  seed exchange this year is now open for donations. We decided to split the spring exchange into two parts: one for seed only and a second one for bulbs and seed. This way we want to make sure that seed is distributed as early as possible. As the weather is unpredictable and frost damage to bulbs can still occur at this time of the year, we do a second part of the spring exchange with bulbs later. The donation for bulbs will be announced separately and the entire donation period will remain open until further notice. So if your seed will not make it for the first part, it will be included in the second part. No need to rush for seed which is not ripe. we will do an autumn exchange for autumn sowing and planting.
Please send all seed donation to the following address:                        Martin Bohnet
                                                                                                      Ludwigstr. 1
                                                                                                        73035 Göppingen
                                                                                                        Germany
                                                                                                <garak@code-garak.de>

Please make sure that the seed is clean and free of pests and disease, nobody wants to introduce anything like that to fellow gardeners
We have asked you in the past to pre-pack your seed donations on a voluntary basis. This reduces the workload for Martin tremendously. You can ask for an appropriate number of free seed envelopes from Martin. We suggest to pack not more than 5 portions of seed of each species, should there be more seed available a larger number of seeds can be included as a reserve in a separate envelope. Bulbs must not be pre-packed.

As a donor, you will get a bonus for your order equalling the postage you paid for your donation or the minimum of  5 US Dollar.
Please remember that you will have to be a fully paid member of the PBS in order to be entitled to order from our seed and bulb exchanges. But you do not need to be a donor to order.
You will find the entire information on the EU Seed and Bulb Exchange on the website of the PBS:

So.. please think of the many fellow bulb enthusiasts when you dig up bulbs or when you harvest seeds. As the EU covers very different climates and many members will have a greenhouse: all bulb and seed material is welcome. The success or failure of this scheme depends on your participation

Please label each bag with the precise name of the plant (scientific name if possible) and your own name so that all donations are clearly identified and can be referred to the donor.

Please do not hesitate to contact me in case of questions  <johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de>
Uli and Martin

Dear members living in the EU,


We are organizing a joint bulb order with Antoine Hoog who runs a small specialist bulb nursery in France. Dispatch of the bulbs would be in late summer.
Unfortunately only members with a mailing address in an EU country can participate and also, everyone must be up to date with their membership status for 2025.
We have set a deadline for orders which is Sunday, January 12th at 24:00h Central European Time. Some items will be in short supply.
If you are interested, please email me privately, not through this forum and I will send you the price list and ordering details. My email: johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de
Martin has again agreed to handle the order which is a non profit service to the membership.

Bye for now

Dear members living in the EU,


We are organizing a joint bulb order with Antoine Hoog who runs a small specialist bulb nursery in France. Dispatch of the bulbs would be in late summer.
Unfortunately only members with a mailing address in an EU country can participate and also, everyone must be up to date with their membership status for 2015.
We have set a deadline for orders which is Sunday, January 12th at 24:00h Central European Time. Some items will be in short supply.
If you are interested, please email me privately, not through this forum and I will send you the price list and ordering details. My email: johannes-ulrich-urban@t-online.de
Martin has again agreed to handle the order which is a non profit service to the membership.

Bye for now 

Uli 

Dear members living in the EU,
The autumn EU seed and bulb exchange will soon close for donations. Please read this email carefully and completely.
We do not set a fixed date  due to the different time span parcels need within the EU.
Martin would like to open the distribution for the second round on the weekend of October 12 and 13th. Which means that your donation should have reached him  by October 10th. The absolute deadline would be October 14th but in this case with a complete packing list sent to him in advance. (garak@code-garak.de) This solution gives us all some flexibility. You will know best how long a parcel will take from your home country to Martin's.
Please inform Martin about your donation.

Please do not stress yourself with seed which might not be ripe by then. If this is the case it is unlikely that your unripe seed is for autumn sowing. (So far we are not able to offer an exchange for the ephemeral seeds of South African autumn flowering bulbs) There will be a spring exchange for summer growing bulbs and seed to be sown in spring.
If you want to send in seed, it would reduce Martin's workload if you would pre-pack five portions. If there is enough seed each portion should give a good potful of seedlings. If seed is scarce or rare the minimum per packet should be 3 seeds. If there is plenty of seed you can add a larger number in an extra envelope as a reserve for Martin in case of greater demand.  Pre-packing is voluntary, of course. Seed envelopes can be ordered free of charge from Martin. Bulbs should arrive in one bag with no pre-packing. Please label everything with the scientific name of the plant and your name so that your contribution can be referred to you.

As usual, you will get a bonus which covers your postage or 5 US$ minimum, only if this is the second donation for this same autumn exchange, your bonus will be slightly less.
Please send your donation to:
Martin Bohnet
Ludwigstr. 1
73035 Goeppingen
Germany
The opening of the ordering time window will be announced separately through the same channels. We can already say that this second round has a lot of good stuff to look forward to.....

Don't hesitate to get in touch with me (Uli) if you have questions
Uli

Dear members living in the EU,

The first round of the EU autumn Seed and Bulb Exchange is now closed.
Martin will send your orders in the next time to come. The donations remain open until further notice, some interesting material has already been announced.
Please wait with payments until you receive your order which will include a payment slip.

Happy growing 

Uli 

Dear Members living in the EU,

The autumn Bulb and Seed exchange is now open for donations until further notice. This is the announcement for the EU only, please do not confuse it with the open donation for the USA. Unfortunately we cannot serve members outside the EU.

Please send your donation to:

Martin Bohnet

Ludwigstr. 1

73035 Göppingen    (you can also write Goeppingen)

Germany

You can send seed as well as bulbs. Please do only send clean and healthy material and label your donation with the botanical name of the plant/seed and your name as a donor so that your donations can be referred to you.

Every donor will receive credit to cover postage. But please do not use unnecessarily expensive forms of postage.

As we have done before, we ask you again to pre-pack your seed donation into 5 portions, enough to raise a good potful of seedlings. For very rare seed or those in short supply there should not be less than 3 to 5 seeds per packet. If you have plenty and you think that there may be high demand, you can add a larger portion as a reserve for Martin to fill more envelopes if necessary. Pre packing is voluntary, of course, but it helps considerably to reduce Martin's workload. Seed envelopes are available free of charge from Martin.

Bulbs should not be pre-packed but sent in one well labelled bag, preferably paper and not plastic.

You will be informed through the same channels once the donation time window will close and ordering starts.

Please make up your mind if you want Martin to send your future order trackable. This will increase your expense for postage by 3 US $ on top of the postage. We are asking because with the joint bulb order from South Africa there was some headache with delayed parcels  from Martin to southern Europe. Tracking does not really speed up delivery (I wish it did....) but this way at least you know the whereabouts of your parcel. I will repeat this question once the ordering will start. We always try to keep expenses as low as possible so it is your choice.

As we have received this question with every EU BX so far: Please do not hesitate to donate material of plants you might not find worth donating. As long as you enjoy a particular plant yourself, someone else will as well. A common plant in one country may be a rarity in another one. So far we have never turned down a donation.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me, Uli, in case of questions

Uli and Martin

Dear All,

The first box of two of the EU joint bulb oder from South Africa is in Martin's hands now and the individual packets will be posted.
The second box is still at customs, we have no influence on the timing but as the first box was cleared after some correspondence we think the second one should go through as well.
We are sorry for the delay for part of the orders.
There was and is a tremendous amount of bureaucracy and correspondence involved with these joint orders and there are some hiccups.

We keep you posted

Uli and Martin

Dear members living in the EU,
Having received several orders after sending out the reminder, I will close the ordering time window today at 24:00h Central European Time. No more orders will be accepted after that.
Bye for now
Uli

Dear members living in the EU,
The EU joint bulb order from the SA Bulb Company will be closing soon. If you still want to order, please send me an email with your order as soon as possible. This joint order is only open to fully paid members who have a mailing address in one of the EU countries.
Bye for now
Uli

Dear members living in the EU,
The EU joint bulb order from the SA Bulb Company will be closing soon. If you still want to order, please send me an email with your order as soon as possible. This joint order is only open to fully paid members who have a mailing address in one of the EU countries.
Bye for now
Uli

Dear members living in the EU,


After a successful joint book order from the South African Bulb Company and very pleasant and efficient correspondence with the owner, we decided to do a joint bulb order as well. You have to be a fully paid member to participate, if not yet, you can join the PBS at any time. The shipment of the bulbs will go to Martin in Germany via DHL, the cost of a phytosanitary certificate, shipment and a customs agent at the point of entry in Germany will be divided between the ordering members and a final cost of postage to your mailing address will be added, too.

Please read the instructions at the beginning of the price list carefully, however, the bureaucratic hassle is taken over by us.

The price list contains many tempting bulbs. Please bear in mind, that they come from the Southern Hemisphere with inverted seasons, which means that it is autumn/beginning winter in South Africa now. It might be a good idea to stick to summer growing plants which will be shipped in a dormant state at this time of the year. Some of the winter growers may still be dormant, I do not know which ones. There is always a certain risk of loss when doing hemisphere swaps and it needs a certain experience in growing bulbs to do so. Personally I will stick to summer growers or evergreen bulbs.

Please do also bear in mind that flowering size bulbs can be very big (Crinum, Brunsvigia, Boophone) and heavy and therefore cause expensive postage. We will divide the postage between the members reflecting their order.

When ordering: please follow these instructions very carefully:

Deadline for orders is May 20th, but I advise you to order as soon as possible. Your order will be immediately sent on to Leigh from the South African Bulb Company as bulbs need to be reserved. Which means that you cannot change your order after posting it to me. I will confirm the reception of your order, if not, please come back to me.

The invoice for the joint order will be sent to me only after the entire order is complete. I will forward the expenditure.

Shipment will be in June as a soil test in South Africa has to be awaited before shipping. Again, please keep in mind that it might be late for winter growing bulbs.

You will receive an invoice with your bulbs.

Please do not hesitate to get back to me, Uli,  if you have questions

Please refer to the attached price list

Uli and Martin

Dear members living in the EU,
The spring seed and bulb exchange is now closed for orders. Please wait with any payments until you receive your order together with a payment slip from Martin.
The next EU exchange will take place in autumn and will be announced through all the channels. Please do not send any material to Martin in the meantime.
We wish you happy growing and a good summer!
Uli and Martin

Following a question after my donation of Achimenes and other rhizomatous Gesneriads to the EU BX, here is how I get them through the winter.
In autumn I try to keep the vegetation going as long as possible after flowering. This ensures good and healthy rhizomes. I keep fertilizing with a general fertilizer rich in potassium to build up the scaly rhizomes. Once the plant goes dormant I stop watering immediately and move the pot into a room with about 12-15 degrees centigrade. The rhizomes remain in their pots in the substrate which should be completely dry. A trap to avoid is residual moisture in larger plastic pots which might lead to rot during dormancy. Overwintering the dormant pots in a cold but frost free greenhouse has led to almost total loss, it was too cold. Repotting takes place around this time of the year and the rhizomes are started with gentle bottom heat until shoots are visible. I do not store dormant rhizomes in bags: in paper bags they dry up too much and in plastic bags they might rot. Storage in the dry substrate has proven to be best.
The same procedure applies to Caladiom tubers, they are even more sensitive to too cold storage condition.
Attached is a picture of X Smithicodonia 'Heartland's Joy', a reliable hybrid

Dear Members living in the EU,
The second round of the EU Exchange will soon go online. The donation is still open but will close in due course, closure will be announced through the same channels. If you still have something to donate to your fellow gardeners, please get in touch with Martin directly to let him know. <garak@code-garak.de>
Once all the donations have arrived, Martin will put the list online and you will be informed through the same channels.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me if you have questions

Happy gardening
Uli

Dear All,
The time window for ordering the Amaryllidaceae Book for Europe is now closed.
Uli

Dear All,
We have had sufficient response in order to start the bulk order for Europe of the Book Amaryllidaceae of Southern Africa. As we need a definite number to calculate postage and to finally place the order, this is an announcement that the ordering time window will close on March 31st at midnight Central European Time.
The large hard cover book costs half price (45US$) plus shared postage from South Africa plus individual postage from Germany to you. Please come back to me if you have questions.
Thank you for your interest.