Dear All: I am surprised no one has mentioned, in regard to virus in Hippeastrum and, for that matter, other plants, tissue culture. Vast numbers of growers use this method to get rid of virus in plants. Hadeco, as an example, use this method to clean a stock. Those of you who have visited the labs on the farm just outside Johannesburg, will no doubt recall the great number of plants being propagated this way. After the initial treatment, the new plants are grown on in, more of less, sterile conditions in a special greenhouse. Hadeco perform this work, under contract, for many growers in Europe. To say that all stocks are infected I feel is not only not true but unfair. Growers in the Netherlands are very conscious of the need to sell only the best possible stock. Cheers, John E. Bryan