Frank, I am sorry to hear about the virus. But this raises a question for me. How reliably can we determine the presence of mosaic virus in young leaves? The most unquestionable cases of MV that I have encountered have been in mature leaves in summer when the symptoms seem unmistakable. I know that infected young leaves growing indoors often do not show signs of MV, but I would like to know if young, indoor leaves EVER show unquestionable signs of MV. I am currently dealing with a questionable case for a bulb of Sweet Lilian. I mentioned this bulb in an earlier post because it declined in size over the summer. The new leaves this year appeared to have mosaic virus. The old leaves from last year had absolutely no sign of virus despite spending the summer in the sun, so I could not believe that the virus suddenly appeared during dormancy. In the new leaves the mottling became less apparent as the leaves aged (which seems atypical for MV), and then started to develop red spots and streaks, so I suspected mites. Anyway, I gave it a hot water treatment, and now I am waiting to see what happens. Am I in denial? Incidentally, in less than a week after its hot bath, the bulb started sending up two scapes. I was not expecting to see flowers from it this year, so at least I will get to enjoy one last show if I need to destroy the plant. Bill

I've had a run not too long ago with Hadeco over Gold Medal. I bought the bulb in a local retailer and when it bloomed (it still is), the flowers looked like Orange Souvereing, not like the picture on the name tag or on the web site. I took some pictures and sent them to Hadeco, and they assured me that I indeed, have Gold Medal. They apologized that the name tag was printed too dark, so it shows red instead of the actual dark orange coloration. And that pic also doesn't show the slight, almost invisible white line in the middle of the throat. They assured me they would take new pictures of the cultivar as soon as possible. I plan to send them some of my pictures, since they are high quality professional digital pictures. The same thing happened with Milady. It is not a one-colored flower. It has white stripes all over it. I am a little disappointed with it, because I thought it would be a rich purple-like color. I will send them that picture too and ask their opinion. Here is a pic of the Gold Medal in the mean time while I have it on a chat as avatar.

Well, I've done a bit more research, I think I can agree with Hans that "Tango" and "La Paz" are quite indistinguishable, the two pictures I were comparing weren't properly identified! Hans, your theory seems correct but Ludwig was the exclusive producer for Meyer hybrids as far as I have been informed from a friend of the late Fred Meyer, possibly Ludwig had changed the name of "Tango" to "La Paz" for marketing purpose? Josh

Donna, Thank you for the suggestion. I will write to RC and express my interest and that it seems to be desired by several. I have bought seeds from Australia and they never were delivered ( I assume Customs). I was not aware of how difficult it is to get plant material in and out of Australia, but reading the past threads about Maguire's bulbs gives me some idea. Blanca, Thank you for the information on Spotty. I will write to RC and hopefully that might be something RC will think worthwhile to pursue. Blanca, what do you think of the Maguire Naomi? My dream would be to use Naomi pollen on Spotty, but I know nothing about what is in Naomi's background. I just love those spots. Can you also imagine Spotty and Exotic Star together? I can only dream. :)