rose, I have a baby white oak snake in my greenhouse and it's driving me nuts because of my frogs on the floor, tree frogs on the plants and all the lizards up high in the greenhouse. As soon as I see the snake and turn to get a net to catch it, (it's about 14-16 inches long) it's disappeared! This happens over and over. My husband says I'll have to take a deep breath and just grab it next time. I said, HA!

Bakemom, You started me on this adventure 4 years ago or so. I keep sharing my stash and spreading the word. My problem? Stash is low and my kiddos teacher just asked for seeds. I did share what I had left. (raising hands in universe conquering gesture) I NEED MORE! MORE! MORE!!!! Let me know what to send if you happen to have extra. :)

I might be able to add some perspective here, having run the AHS National Convention plant auctions back in the early auction days, 1984-1992. We raised +$20K at some of those auctions with a lot of effort on everyone's part - with bids often north of $1,000 for the latest and greatest introductions from the early hybridizing efforts. Many people sat in those auctions and just gasped when the bidding went over $100, but others with experience in auctions, the quality of the material offered and the spirit of supporting the AHS would bid within their budget. Was it beyond my budget? Most of the time. Was I serious about generating as much funds for the AHS as possible? You betcha, and we have the AHS still today because of that reason! Membership fees wouldn't cover the Journal and other AHS needs. 1987 Wilmington Delaware AHS National Convention auction story: as AHS auction director back then, supervising the auctioneers and clerks, cash/check flow and plant delivery, if I wanted to bid on a plant, I would properly announce that I was stepping out of my role and would bid from the floor as everyone else, just so they knew. I bid for a gorgeous very large deep blue seiboldiana seedling, can't even remember the name now, but the plant was 3 ft tall, leaves about 2 feet across each and a very thick single division. When the bid crossed $50, I took a deep breath and entered the fray. Recall my mother Pauline Banyai was in charge of the auction clerking: boy, did she throw me a dirty look. My dear wife Lois sitting next to Mom as the record keeper of the auction had gone white with fright at what I was doing! Three small boys to feed at home and this meathead husband is bidding $50 for a blue seiboldiana seedling - he has 100's just like it at home, and his mother even more! What was he thinking....... The bids proceeded by $5 to $75, then some bidders dropped out with just me and one other man (who I didn't know - if I had known him I would have probably deferred to him out of respect!). I finally won the bid at $100 and he was clearly frustrated at not getting it! My mom and wife could barely sit through the AHS Convention Awards dinner and speaker(which directly followed the auctin), they were so mad at me. After that final Convention night dinner and cleanup, I was packing all the AHS Cut Leaf show bottles (we supplied them ourselves back then, and I had to provide 400+ Perrier type bottles!)in my pickup truck, along with that auction plant. As I put the plant in the back of the pickup truck, who should come up but the man who had lost the final bid! He introduced himself, said he would really like to have that plant and would pay me any price to have it! I said he could have it for the same $100: he promptly paid me and was all smiles, as were my mom and dear wife Lois when they finally had a chance to chew me out and hear the rest of the story. I became close friends with that gentleman, who will remain unnamed! He continued for a few years to be a very large AHS auction contributor - that's how we came up with the Big Bucks award to honor both the plant material contributor and the persons buying the most! Bruce

Sara, Much cooler-but I had forgotten just how humid it is out there. And green, it was a jungle! I always laugh when I hear folks here speak of the "humidity". Certainly it is alot more humid than Colorado, Arizon and the rest of the southwest. But it is actually much much drier here than the east coast. It was usually between 68-72 degrees F in the mornings during my trip, yet I was dripping with sweat from the humidity. Oh well, there are weather issues no matter where you are, just got to learn how to deal with it. My tomatos all died while I was gone, yet I was able to start a new crop of squash for the fall, certainly couldn't do that in the northeast. Oh,and I emphasize it was "usually" humid during my trip. The 1st day I was there it was 75, dry, with a slight breeze-of course that was on the coast while wading in the surf at Rye beach. Sigh...