I love heirloom tomatoes, and would be interested in trading with you. I have the following seeds available. Hawaiian Cherry, Mule Team, Juliette, Nepal, Aztec, Sweet Pea, Yellow Stuffer, Red Stuffer, Carolina Gold, Green Zebra, Ukrainiun. Thanks, Lynn

to my knowledge, nobody in the U.S. has attemnpted this. They have, but in a different way. And thanks for the link. SSE started out farming out varieties but it was dismal failure based on many reasons. As the SSE currently exists, re veggies, grains, fruit trees, it seems to work, most of the time and varieties are being maintained and new ones entering all the time. But there is no indovodual assignment of varieties. Folks look and see which varieties have the least listings and then try to fill in. And there are other smaller groups attemptiong to do the same thing. As far as perennials go, there are the various associations that do promote preservation and do have seed/tuber/rhizone swaps. But not nationally organized; you join the ones you want, not unlike the National Collections. What the US has that England doesn 't, is the USDA maintined national seed preservation/storage system, which is invaluable, but only for veggies, grains, etc. And there are numerous organizations for preservation and maintenance of heirloom fruit tree varieties. So yes, in terms of the separate rock garden, c chrysanthemum, Hemerocallis, rose societies and those commercial folks also involved I do think we have the equivalent. I do think that more folks in England will take on a personal project than here in the US where so many folks want instant this and that. But actually the HDRA section dealing with this exact same concept that the National Collections have, folded due to lack of committment and follow thru on the part of individuals. Carolyn

I've placed an order with them from reading this article. I ordered oxblood lilies, red spider lily, and some jonquils. I'm all for supporting Texas companies. Too many of them are way north, and their stuff struggles to survive down here in Texas.

Hi, Jeri, life is good. Last year and this I was so busy my garden was really neglected, but everything survived the neglect and deer browsing. I've gone back to reading here sometimes; nice to hear about everyone's gardens. Its been so sunny here this summer even Lady Hillingdon has bloomed. Gentle Annie was a present from Kim and bloomed well for the first time. I just ran down to check and the last bloom is dropping its petals. I'll have to check to see if I have a pic or not. I'm pretty sure I have one of Gilda, Marie pavie is no problem, it's a steady prolific bloomer, of course. I still think about the parent plant of your General Gallieni from my Alabama garden, what a great rose. So glad yours is doing well! Gean