I think Mary Sue is correct in her assessment of a potential rescue of such a collection. The now defunct Emerald Chapter of NARGS established a terrific rock garden at a heavily used Eugene, OR city park. That was fine in terms of volunteers until it became crystal clear, repeatedly, that membership was failing and there were no volunteers for board positions, at which point the chapter dissolved and transferred several thousand dollars to the city's parks department specifically for plants and some maintenance of the Sebring Garden. Two gardeners took it on as volunteers but I have long lost touch with them and have not been back to the park in several years. Continuity must be planned for, established and followed through over long periods of time to justify a rescue. One reason why a private non-profit formed to preserve certain gardens in the US, vaguely reminiscent of the UK scheme, was that they have been able to attract ongoing support, financially and with volunteers, thereby so far maintaining structure and continuity. The US is light years behind the UK when it comes to gardening although we're catching up quite steadily, but we are such a large spread-out country that it can be difficult to establish and maintain collections and gardens. Some attempts are being made to establish national collections, with the American Primrose Society, for example, but I haven't heard of any others... Robin Hansen _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/… Unsubscribe: <mailto:pbs-unsubscribe@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net>