Mislabeled bulbs are one thing... that is the fault of whomever is responsible for tagging them. Usually, tagging is done at the grower level, and during busy season it's reasonably logical to expect that some bulbs will be tagged wrong. But rotting bulbs and late orders from other countries appear to be the fault of the USDA! Perhaps our letter should be addressed to their main office, instead! I can live with a few mislabels, but I'm not about to give bulbs I paid for to some corrupt gardening government agent that happens to know who the bulb companies are, knows which boxes to look for, and wants to "confiscate" them for their own personal use! This entire thing is just preposterous! My main bulb orders have come from Royal Colors, and not once did I receive soil or pests in my orders! The USDA claim that there were soil and pests in the box is outrageous, and must be an outright lie! They did not destroy the shipment... some corrupt agent is now planting and enjoying hippeastrum bulbs at your expense! I wonder what else they "confiscate and destroy" at our borders? I, for one, would be more than willing to pay higher shipping rates for a more express way of shipping... our USPS has Global Priority, and my guess is that those boxes never even get looked at twice. They pass right through Customs because they have a shipping deadline. It is unfortunate, but a lot of other countries don't have very many Postal options open to them. Not only would I be contacting the USDA office, I would also be writing a business letter of complaint to the Director in charge of the USDA... with carbon copies sent to the bulb company in question, file, your local Governor's Office, State Senators, and anyone else of importance you can think to add. The more government officials that learn about this problem, the higher the chance they will look into it. And make sure a copy of the "Mail Interception Notice" is firmly stapled to each letter sent out, with the original document staying with you, filed away for safe-keeping. While email can be a wonderful, quick mode of contact, in this case I would be using actual paper, envelopes and stamps to send out the letters; they get much more notice from government offices. Ever since 9-11, and the passing of the new laws afterward, Customs has license to do whatever they want. Hidden under the guise of "protecting US citizens", government agencies now have the power, and "we the people" have lost more of our precious freedoms. This is only one confiscated box, but it's proof that our governing system is quite corrupt and not exactly working "for the people"! Whomever stole those bulbs should be ashamed to wear the uniform of our government...

Frank, I also place 2-3 orders each year with Royal Colors. Since all the US distributors are either totally out of stock, or what you get is in bad shape, I just thought I would mention to the USA listers that RC still has great bulbs (they look freshly dug) and they are still shipping. It only took a week to get them here, so they didn't sit for long anywhere. Frank, do you think I would go to The Netherlands for an amaryllis show (the whole point of the trip) and then not attempt to buy bulbs at either the Flower Market in Amsterdam or in and aroound Lisse?? I packed an extra EMPTY carry on bag and budgeted hundreds of dollars to bring bulbs back! I carried my import certificate so wasn't limited to 12, only limited to $800 for handcarrying bulbs! If you live in Europe, you can pick up a dozen bulbs and take them home; traveling back to the USA, we aren't so lucky that way! None of the bulb sellers at Keukenhof would ship until the autumn. No one was selling for shipments to the USA now and none of the bulbs were packaged with the phytocertificate that is necessary to bring them back to the USA. Those are the main reasons I didn't bring home a suitcase full! Also, I had arrangements to meet with a few people, but things happen (one was a sudden change of plans and the other happened a month or so back). So...now I have more contacts and sources for great bulbs (I've been in close contact with Ludwig staff for the last 3 years and they have promised a driving tour of The Netherland's amaryllis growers next time I visit). It actually worked out fine. Since I have nearly 100 named varieties, I only saw a few at the show that really struck me and they will be available in the USA next year. I have my "pre-orders" in with a distributor here. They have my "wish list" too in case others are available on a limited basis...I have been told they will grab some for me. It all worked out very well Frank and I honestly was just barely disappointed that I couldn't bring so many bulbs home. I had a RC bulb that I was really wanting hand delivered to my hotel...so I wasn't totally empty handed! It was a great trip for so many other reasons, this didn't dampen it at all. Kristi

I just sent an e-mail to Paul and asked if we bought in lots of 20 would he be willing to ship. If not...I asked him to please specify the minimum order that he would require. At least that way...we hopefully won't lose our source. Fingers crossed. Did I say that I emailed APHIS yesterday and told them that we were really disappointed that they had made it so hard for our favorite supplier to ship!! K

Kitty Have you decided on your colors yet? You have some of the same colors I do wrt the cabinet, travertine, etc. Initially, I started out with restrained gold, but found it very hard to work with my other colors. It just wasn't clicking. Then I discovered Serwin Williams Ivorie and Blonde. I am using both of those colors in and around my kitchen. The blonde is just slightly darker than the ivorie. I have even painted my kitchen ceiling with this color. After the first coat application, everything was so yellow, I thought I had made a mistake, then, once the second coat was applied, it turned into this beautiful golden tan and I love it. all of my other woods and colors of my furniture, accessories just seem to click. It's just a thought, I feel your pain, I couldn't get past the Restrained gold, but once I let it go and moved on to the blonde and ivorie colors, the rest was easy. This is the color shown next to my cherry stained door: Kitchen with cabinets recently installed: and then, the fireplace (mantle is not stained yet), but ivorie goes well with the limestone: Hope this helps, V