Private exchanges

[janemcgary]

I would like to offer a proposal for privately arranged exchanges via this forum. Individuals could post "want lists" in this topic for others to read. Those who have the desired species to spare could reply, offering their own want list of possible trade items, and the individuals could then email each other privately to arrange shipping. I suggest that the want list be limited to no more than ten species, with subsequent revised posts as wants are met. This would not be an official PBS activity, merely an exchange between individuals. Some of us rarely see anything on the BX that fits with our interests and growing facilities, but we may have extensive collections within which others may find long-sought species. Please reply to this post with your opinions on setting up this function on the Forum. Once we've discussed it, I'll be glad to post my own little want list and to peruse those of others for possible exchanges.

[Lee Poulsen]

I think this is a great idea, Jane. I would love to participate. I often have an extra bulb or two of something that might be unusual, that isn't really enough to box it up and send it to the BX. Or as you say, if someone has something I really want, and they might be willing to exchange one bulb of it for something I have that I would be willing to exchange one bulb of, that would be very desirable. Some of the things I have, I have maybe three or four of them, which isn't really enough to repot and send the one or two extras to the BX, especially since I always want to keep 2 or 3 in case one suddenly dies or something else transpires that I lose one of them (like a raccoon digging it up or overturning a pot that then sits out in the sun all day while I'm at work!). But I would be willing to give one of them up if I could get something I've been looking for for a long time. The other case I'm guilty of is having a pot full of something that I'm not sure anyone else wants, that they may have been looking for in vain for a long time.

Anyway, I like the idea.

[Carlos]

Hi, there are fewer of us in the EU, but would it apply as well? 

[janemcgary]

To Carlos's question, would it apply to the EU? I think it should, and also to the UK. Those who already share seeds and bulbs to correspondents in other countries will be aware of the barriers to this, and how to deal with them. Individuals may have resources not available to commercial sellers and plant societies, such as bringing material personally through customs while traveling rather than risking shipped items being held up for months awaiting inspection.

[CG100]

Phyo-sanitary regulations within Europe and N America appear to have been universally tightened and moves made to more stictly enforce them.
That being so, shipping anything outside of your free trade zone, without phyto-sanitary certification, is a considerable risk.

Anything found entering the UK from another country without a cert', will be seized and incinerated.

[Wylie]

I have been wondering how I could arrange an exchange for a certain bulb I have that just produced offsets. It requires a different bulb that it not closely related to to produce seeds, so it would be an exchange with someone that has the same. A place where we could do that would be helpful, especially when there is only 1 bulb we are willing to part with. 

[CG100]

I have been wondering how I could arrange an exchange for a certain bulb I have that just produced offsets. It requires a different bulb that it not closely related to to produce seeds,

Unless you know where your bulb came from and that there are or should be other genetically different bulbs available, it often turns out that the very few plants of a species in cultivation, are the same clone.
Often, the only way to be certain that plants are different clones, is if they are seed-grown and/or seed is available.

I don't believe that the (millions upon millions of) snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) appearing in UK woodlands have ever been checked, but they very seldon set seed and this has been a cause of speculation that all are very closely related, perhaps the same clone, that was introduced hundreds/thousands of years ago.

[Diane Whitehead]

Wylie,

You could just exchange pollen - a lot easier than exchanging a bulb.

[janemcgary]

Some bulb offsets are very small and can be sent as seeds if protected from being smashed. For a long time I had only one clone of Notholirion thomsonianum, so no seed, but several years ago an acquaintance obtained the species' tiny offsets from someone in New Zealand and shared them with me. It's definitely another clone because my original was a seedling via the Scottish RGC. The new one is about a year from flowering size now. Meanwhile, last year viable seed startlingly showed up in the NARGS leftovers, donated by a grower in Oakland, and I obtained good germination from it. Illahe Nursery has some too, so I hope someday this spectacular monocarpic bulb will be common in temperate gardens in the USA. It makes hundreds of offsets.

[Martin Bohnet]

I can see such a trade being set up, maybe as a subforum of the exchange area - or maybe two subforums, as in one for offers and one for requests. That said, we will not allow any public discussion of circumventing legal regulations on the forum. _{Of course, personal messages can not be scanned by the team.}

I'll try to trust in everyone's judgement to only use that for situations where portions are too small for the official exchanges or the timing is off - Obviously as EU exchange coordinator I'm not interested in reducing the attractiveness of it

[Wylie]

Wylie,

You could just exchange pollen - a lot easier than exchanging a bulb.

Normally, that would be a good idea, but my Paramongaia w. blooms in October, earlier than a lot of the others people have. The foliage is starting to die back and I can see how many there are, but I think I have 3 offsets. Donating just 1 bulb to the regular exchange wouldn't be fair to anyone.

[Uli]

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......

[CG100]

I am almost as guilty as the rest, but hobby growers seem almost never to use the traditional methods used for bulking up bulb stocks.

A great deal, almost all in all probability, of increasing of commercial stocks is now done via tissue culture, but traditional methods were scooping, scoring, scaling and various forms of leaf cuttings. The traditional methods are not exactly fast, overall, but they can produce large numbers of small plants, fast.

[janemcgary]

Since there do not seem to be strict objections to this idea, I will post a few species I have grown and no longer have, which I would love to grow again. I would be delighted to show my current inventory to anyone able to exchange these, as bulbs within the USA or as seeds from elsewhere. Several are native to Europe, so perhaps they are more often cultivated there. For reassurance, I formerly grew all these to flowering from seed and lost them when I moved the collection about 12 years ago.
Acis longifolia
Colchicum kesselringii
Erythronium helenae
Fritillaria tubiformis
Iris stenophylla
Ranunculus abnormis

[Uli]

Sorry, Jane, I have none of those. I would have loved to help out, I know the feeling of lost rarieties....