Hi PBS-Members, as the welcome mail to the list sugests, I'd like to introduce myself: My name is Martin Bohnet, though in most of my internet activities I use the name Garak or pmmGarak, hence the title.. I've got a degree in chemical engineering and earn my living in the automotive industry, so I'm strictly an amateur in gardening and botanics. I live near Stuttgart in southern Germany. Most maps list the area as zone 7a, though central europe has tricky winters for geophytes, as cold and dry continental spells alternate with mild an wet atlantic ones, and a closed snow cover is a rare thing, so winter hardiness or methods of hibernating is a tricky multidimensional thing for me. in my youth I've loved to experiment with the most unusual bulbs available in local stores - which was rather limited to Tigridia Pavonia, Nerine Bowdenii und Eucomis bicolor back in then 90ies . After finally obtaining a garden of my own, I came across some Tigridia Vanhouttei seeds on Ebay last year. I always thought growing bulbs from seed was too much effort, but those started well, and I think I'm hooked now, even though those T. Vanhouttei will likely need another year to flower. This year I've entered an exploring phase after finding several internet sources of things any local garden center has never dreamed of, and your Wiki was an invaluable source of information. Right now I've got seedlings of several gladiolus and tigridia species, Eucomis pole evansii, Cypella Herbertii, Arum Nigrum, Allium Obliquum... latest thing to sow has been brunsvigia grandiflora. Obviously, this will result in many questions, that's why I've decided to join this list. I'm yet unsure if I should become a paying member of the PBS, as I don't know how much exchange of bulbs or tubers will be possible across the continents, or how many members in the EU exist. Then again, I think that many of the failing experiments (e.g. too many of the African gladiolus, Kniphofia Albescens, Eucomis Vandermerwei...) were a result of too old seeds with these low volume products, so exchanging seeds (which don't need the phytosaniwhatever certificate if I remember correctly) with people who actually care may help a lot. I hope I didn't bore you too much with this lengthy introduction! Greetings from Germany! Martin ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin Bohnet, Göppingen near Stuttgart, Germany, Zone 7a _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/