At a IBS Symposium many years ago (I think it was 2002) Harold Koopowitz took some of us for a tour of the bulbs at the UC Irvine garden. At that point they had planted out a lot of them in the garden. The bulb room had a lot of neglected pots of bulbs no one was caring for at all so they were not going to be viable. Harold was no longer in charge and after he left apparently there was no one interested in taking over. He had acquired bulbs from many sources with provenance information and he was clearly distressed to see all that hard work be lost. And the ones in the ground were left to hybridize and the weedy ones spread. That was a long time ago and things may have changed in the subsequent years. I've been aware of other gardens that start with bulb collections and with changes in staff they are lost. Sometimes the repotting gets to be a chore. Sometimes the critters get the bulbs and to protect them they have to be caged so it's like they are in a zoo. Before Harold took us on the tour I once stopped to see the collection at Irvine when I was in the area and wasn't allowed as it wasn't to be viewed by the public at the time. No amount of persuasion got me in. I think IBS tried to rescue a collection and take care of it, but that also was something that got to be problematic and I believe was finally auctioned off. PBS is a small membership organization with not a lot of active volunteers and I can't imagine a way to take on a rescue operation that would be feasible if there was a need for that. Mary Sue _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>