I think I've told this story once before on this list in one form or another, but with the current postings on virus in Hippeastrum, perhaps it bears repeating. Years ago I spend a wonderful day in the garden of an amateur lily hybridizer. As lily growers are apt to do, we were soon talking about virus. The grower showed me some seedlings which were blooming for the first time, and then we looked at some seedlings which were several years old. In some of the older seedlings there was a subtle difference in size, texture and substance. There were no gross defects in these older plants, and most people looking at them would probably see nothing wrong with them. But they were already beginning to show the symptoms of virus infection. I've heard other growers say that any field grown lily more than a few years old is almost certain to be virused. The best modern hybrids seem to be amazingly tolerant of virus. But I'll bet that there will be very few collections of old, historic lily hybrids: most of the older hybrids were lost to virus long ago. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/