I find that being a member of a fraternity such as the galanthophile circuit (for over 35 years) has enabled me to aquire by exchange many wonderful plants! Money is very much to the fore in snowdrops these days. But amongst enthusiasts we find it hard put a price on our offerings. Many plant people are nursery growers who rely on their plants for income. That is fine. But again many of them are more than happy to aquire a good plant in exchange for another one. So far it is only the big companies who are offering only money for new findings. I am sure that there is an orchid fraternity too. Mark > Message du 06/04/13 09:06 > De : Jadeboy48@aol.com > A : pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > Copie à : > Objet : Re: [pbs] Vinegar for weeds > > You obviously have not grown some of the rare orchid species. Look through > some Catalogs and you will see prices in the thousands of dollars for a > single plant. There will always be a demand for the rare and exotic.Growers > spend a lot of money looking for plants their customers want and they are not > in business to give things away. It takes time and money to grow many > plants. Plus there are plant fanatics that will pay anything for something they > want. Some plants can be grown cheaply and those plants will have the > widest distribution. Many plants are slow or poor growers and you will see that > reflected in the price of that plant . It has been that way for a very > long time. > > In a message dated 4/5/2013 6:54:06 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, > othonna@gmail.com writes: > > Russ, > > Obtaining rare plants has little to do with money and everything to do with > intent and perseverance. As an example, there are tens of thousands of > species (and hybrids and cultivars) that do not appear as photos of live > plants in a google search. That could be one arbitrary definition of rare. > If one were to try to obtain any of those plants it might involve > considerable effort and time but that effort and time could be expedited > with money. > > Whether any good is done in preserving or conserving any plant in > cultivation depends on how you look at it. From a human standpoint it is > desirable to grow plants for many reasons, including aesthetic ones. But > with very rare and mostly fleeting exceptions, having endangered or > threatened species in our care has little or no meaning in terms of > *biological > conservation*-- we do not have adequate sampling of any population's gene > pool, nor pollinators, mycorrhizal associates, ecotones, etc. What we have > by way of rare species in our care, especially if they are of known wild > origin and propagated and distributed widely, is decidedly an * > anthropocentric* undertaking. Saving wild areas and the plants in them is > equally important, perhaps more important, but it is something very > different and far removed from horticulture. > > Dylan > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/