This forum has it's own Exchanges/Trades forum so that all the trades don't overwhelm the discussion forum - linked below. I Googled them and found 3 different vendors offering them for sale. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Vegetable Gardening Exchanges forum

Hi, I have found that you can still stagger them a bit by keeping them in the dark and not planting them, but you really do have to keep an eye out for the 'more than the tip' of the bloom showing. If you delay too long, you chance the bud being deformed or aborting. When you see the thicker portion of the bud, you definitely do need to pot it up and give it some water. I have purchased some at discount at the end of the season. Some had deformed blooms, but to my surprise, many of those produced a second bloom. Some had not bloomed at all yet. Those were Minerva and Red Lion. HD had them for $1, so I bought lots. As you can tell by my zone, they grow in the gardens here, but despite a large collection, I still tend to bring most of them into an enclosed porch and patio area and enjoy the ones that decide to bloom during the winter months. I keep them outside as long as possible. Our first frost is often Thanksgiving week, and I'm scrambling to start bringing them inside. Some I cover with a blanket and do not bring in until later. As long as they are protected, the leaves do not totally melt (some are tinged). This tends to prolong the time until they bloom. By Christmas time, we usually have another hard frost/freeze and those that are indoor bound are inside for the rest of the winter. Most bloom inside, except for the Johnsonii which are in the garden. Johnsonii bloom after the last frost which is normally mid March or April 1. I think that you will find that the bloom time is not precise, so you most likely will get staggered blooms. Some blooms will last longer than others. Some will produce a second set of blooms. Good Luck and enjoy! I don't think I have 50 varieties, but I have many. Most are hybrids. Many are doubled. I have just started collecting diploids this past year and hope to purchase more this year.

Last year I was reading a private "divorce support" blog. This was a group of ladies discussing their STRESS problems and some ways they developed to raise money to pay for extras after their bum of a hubby left them etc. I sent one of them some Cardboard and Christmas palm seeds and a few other things from my garden and they let me in to read the blog. They had some good ideas that I used in my own ebay selling account. The story was of a gal selling her handmade craft items on ebay and from a small website. She also sold seeds, plants and bulbs she grew from her garden in Florida. She was doing great and everyone in the blog was cheering her on. One day she was very upset. A seller on ebay stole her pictures and some of the wording from her website... and her sales were falling. The seller took her wording from her ebay listings and turned it around. They were careful not to steal her ebay pictures but they took the pictures from her website and copied her designs etc. They made some changes that sound similar to these ebay sellers in your story. Ebay never replied to this gal. And the nasty seller was very nasty to her. Anyway evidently the blog members are located all over the USA... and around 15 members living outside the state of this victim... all bought one item from this seller... the cheapest items offered. After the purchase, they baited the seller with silly questions and comments... and the seller got upset in an email with each of them... threatening wording and snotty remarks from the seller to these buyers. So each buyer had a good reason to give this seller Negative feedback and ratings of 1 and 2 DSR stars. What do you think happens if a seller gets 15 negatives and 1-2 DRS stars? Ha! Ha! Ebay will protect their MEGA sellers by changing ratings but not any seller under that catagory. If a seller gets that many 1-2 star DSR ratings, then ebay suspends the seller... so simple. I was laughing my head off reading the blog story. It happened over a 45 day period. They all used credit cards in Paypal and all got refunds on a DOA or crushed auction. Several buyers claimed they never received the auction when they saw there was no DC on the package. The blog members spaced out the negative feedback so it would not look obvious and each had a different comment depending on what the seller said to them in the email. The nasty seller probably suspected something was up but there was no way he could complain to ebay. In eBay's eyes, he was now a bad seller. They spotted this same seller under a new ID and 10 more blog members stepped up to the plate with 10 different ebay ID's. This seller was still using their blogmate's pictures and wording. They put this guy down within 30 days this time. It was great mental therapy for all these women too... banding together to protect the economy of one of their own members. The women all thought it was a good deed because the seller was also using the pictures from other websites and other ebay sellers too. I would hate to be the ebay seller that stiffs any of these divorced ladies in the future.

Delina is right about the neglect your post got, I had meant to reply with a few questions, but then it slipped my mind. In particular I wonder if Schizostylis coccinea might actually do better in Oregon and Washington than here in northern California? The plant certainly grows well enough here, and flowers reliably, but almost all plantings seem to develop a nasty case of rust on the older foliage after the first season, and even with regular grooming, it is never a neat looking plant. I wonder if colder winters and more rain are not more to its liking, and result in a better appearance, as I have never heard this problem mentioned by gardeners growing this in England or New Zealand's south island. Does Aristea ecklonii also seed as aggressively around the garden in your conditions? I like this plant, but without deadheading to prevent seeding, it can really take over in a summer irrigated garden here. I am also growing Aristea major at present, but it is not nearly as fast growing or prolific a grower here, and the various dwarf species of Aristea I have tried have always died out after the first year. I am hoping that eventually A. major will clump and bloom for me, as it is beautiful in bloom at Strybing Arboretum in Golden Gate Park, and it seemed to grow under such a wide range of conditions in the mountains surrounding Capetown. Your nutrient poor and summer dry soil is actually quite similar to large areas of the Cape Region, particularly if you have sandy conditions and slightly acidic ph? Combine that with summer fog and constant wind, and you are probably not that different from higher elevation areas near Capetown, which can even get the occasional snow and frost. I remember being surprised to see how much snow was visible on the upper peaks around Capetown when I was there last August/September, as well as along the mountains while driving up towards Namibia. Admittedly at lower elevations near the ocean, the climate was more similar to San Diego/Los Angeles than San Francisco, but with a lot more regular wind! With regards to Melianthus major, I have seen it in habitat in very hot dry situations, but generally think of it as preferring moisture retentive clay loam soils and some late afternoon shade to look its best here in the SF Bay Area, if it is not getting much summer irrigation. The growth can be so rampant here, it may be a blessing that it doesn't get 12 foot tall each season and require regular thinning/pruning to keep it manageable. Some of the succulents you mention aren't much seen here, such as Aloinopsis, Ruschia and Stomatium. Instead we have much more of the brilliantly colored Lampranthus specatabilis and L. aurantiacus, and a few Delospermums. I am enjoying the flowering of Aloe saponaria and A. striata right now, and really like the yellow form of A. saponaria, which unfortunately doesn't seem as vigorous. A. marlothii does well in my garden as well, along with A. glauca, A. 'Blue Elf'(in bloom), and A. plicatilis, also in bloom. Aloe polyphylla also does well here if protected from excessive winter rains, or tilted on its side in winter if kept as a container plant. Have you attempted any of the Leucadendrons or Proteas in your garden? I am not sure whether you get regular frost and generally stay above 25F in your location, or not. I have lost most all of my Leucospermums at 25F, but the Leucadendrons(apart from L. argenteum) have fared better, and Protea 'Pink Ice' has been totally unaffected by freezes down to 20F, if allowed to harden off new growth before a freeze. Much more frost tender, (also lost at 25F), but currently in full bloom here at the moment are the wonderfully fragrant Psoralea pinnata, with sweet pea like flowers that smell like bubble gum and soft foliage that resembles a pine tree, and a Leucospermum 'Tango' with deep orange red flowers. L. conocarpodendron has also done well for me, but is flowering less and less due to too much shade in my garden, the bane of my back yard for the Proteas. One last plant that undoubtedly should also do well in Oregon would be Nerine bowdenii, one of my favorites in bloom in late October. In talking with several growers in Capetown, this seems to flower more reliably here in California than for them, possibly due to clonal differences or our cooler winter weather.