Nista, The Hosta Library Auction is a for-profit auction. The Library doesn't get any money from this, but the vendors are trying to make a profit. Sometimes the prices there are good, sometimes they are the same as other places or more. Often it depends on the time of year. Sometimes you will get rare plants offered by hybridizers, but more often the sellers are the same Hosta retailers you see on the web. I will buy on the auction if it's from a seller I know or if it's a plant I can't get elsewhere. Often late in the season, Naylor Creek will begin to sell off inventory and I often will buy plants at that point. It's a good place to keep tabs on what is being sold and for what price. Steve

Ahem. Yes, Steve, I got AfterGlow. And, I got seeds for Old Bill. Now, that one was a name thing, because I'm not sure that blues will do very good here. Then at the last hour, I discovered there was another auction at the Hosta Library...I mean, who knew!!!...and I had almost no competition there, and that is where I got several more, among them the fabulous fantastic looking Wheee! (I really wanted that unique plant) ...and several others, but my list is at home and I am out of town for a few days. My brother is having an operation. On the First Look, I would love to get CRIMSON TIDE, since it is an Alabama sort of name, and all my friends, who never HEARD of hosta, would come by and bow to it every weekend during football season. But, of course, I could not do that much for ONE plant. I'm content with getting two items without going broke. It was getting my feet wet, and it was fun.

Oh sorry about that, I told you I was new to all this :) Here is a link that might be useful: Canadian Hosta Auction

Interesting that Alan (Russell) has that listed "for sale" (wholesale) when the auction agreement for that plant was that it not be sold without the donor's permission. Alan's regular emails are just as "trippy." He's a really nice guy who has been very good to our local society (and to the AHS in these auctions), but sometimes I think we don't speak the same language. Check out his description for his auction acquisition 'First Blush' (which I doubt is really an OS, even as it is coming from Bob Solberg directly).