Group bulb orders

Adam Fikso adam14113@ameritech.net
Sun, 24 May 2009 16:45:39 PDT
Hi Jane. I'd be interested mainly  in hardy especially Asian bulbs, (Zone 
5-6 or lower) and paying by PayPal (4% cost) because it's easy and on line. 
I hope you can make it work.  I'd then consider some Africans or Agapanthus 
hardy hybrids, etc. to push zones.  I currently grow some Zone 8-10 in my 
area, with no protection other than careful siting, Successfully, e.g., 
Crinum, Eucomis, Zantedeschia albomaculata and hybrids.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jane McGary" <janemcgary@earthlink.net>
To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 1:12 PM
Subject: [pbs] Group bulb orders


> One of the topics discussed at today's Board meeting was the
> possibility of organizing group bulb orders so that U.S. members
> could obtain bulbs from foreign suppliers at wholesale prices and
> with a minimum of expense for CITES and phyto certificates, shipping,
> and other costs. We agreed that this should not be done through the
> BX, whose manager, Dell Sherk, already shoulders a big responsibility.
>
> I'd like to start a discussion on this forum to find out how many
> members would be interested in ordering, what categories of bulbs
> they would like to order (tropical? South African? hardy?), and
> suggested suppliers.
>
> I've done something like this myself, and here is how it worked:
> 1. Somebody (a noble soul) volunteers to be the manager.
> 2. The manager obtains catalog/pricelists from suppliers and sends
> copies of them to any Society member who requests them. (Note that
> we're proposing that this service be available only to PBS membvers.)
> 3. Participants submit their orders by a stated date.
> 4. Manager collates the orders, keeping records of who ordered what
> and how many, and sends the total order to the supplier.
> 5. The supplier ships the total order to the manager, who will
> probably have to walk it through air freight and customs offices.
> 6. The manager notifies the participants by e-mail of how much they
> owe for bulbs and shipping, adding a percentage for handling (this
> handling fee is kept by the manager in return for his or her work).
> 7. Participants IMMEDIATELY pay their bills to the manager, who must
> pay the supplier within 30 days.
> 8. Manager separates and repacks each participant's order and mails
> it (by Priority Mail, for which you can obtain free boxes) as soon as
> participant has paid.
>
> It will look like the tricky part is getting the participants to pay
> immediately. However, in my experience selling bulbs and sending
> invoices with the shipment, almost everyone pays quickly, and nobody
> has ever ripped me off. Gardeners are a pretty honest bunch!
>
> Although this activity is being proposed as a benefit of PBS
> membership, it is not planned that the Society will expend or receive
> any money from it.
>
> The benefits of participating in such a project are as follows:
> 1. You can order retail quantities at wholesale prices if enough
> people want the same item.
> 2. You share the expense of phytosanitary and CITES certification;
> the latter is extremely costly.
> 3. You may be able to order from specialist suppliers who normally
> would not ship small orders overseas.
> 4. You can get the items via air freight, instead of ordering them
> through a domestic retailer who gets them by sea freight and has them
> sitting around going bad for weeks.
>
> It's too late to start a project like this this year, unless orders
> from the Southern Hemisphere were wanted. However, to get orders from
> Europe we would need to have a manager ready by about next March.
> Let's start discussing it now!
>
> Best regards,
> Jane McGary
> President, Pacific Bulb Society
>
> _______________________________________________
> pbs mailing list
> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php
> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ 


More information about the pbs mailing list