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Tim's seed exchange idea. Was Re:Salvia dombeyi - source?

On Thu, 29 Jan 1998 Tim wrote:

>First, Christine Yeo of Pleasant View indeed doesn't ship beyond the
>EU (if even as far as that) but she did and I think still does offer
>seed of many of her salvia spp. Ask for her separate seed list. (There
>may be details on her web site, which I haven't got round to visiting
>yet.)

I asked them about this some while ago (they are only about  6 miles
'down the road' from here) and they do not appear to be overly fond of
sending outside the UK, but will if necessary (EU countries only).
However, they do grow S. dombeyii, but rarely offer it for sale since:
"It looks terrible in a pot and folk won't buy it".  I'm going to have
to make an order for a plant to be grown especially from a cutting,
which as with most Salvias, is no great difficulty.

>Second, if someone can think their way through a workable version of
>your scheme of plants-in-the-UK/subsequent-seeds-to-US, I'd be happy
>to take part/lend a hand in any way that would be useful - growing on
>some plants/saving seed/whatever. 

I'll second this, I salivate over plants that appear to be so easily
available - particularly on the West coast of the US and conversely,
there must be plants, not easily available in the US/Australia etc,
which could be made more easily obtainable via some form of seed
exchange.

>Anyone care to take this a stage further? Could we work the same idea
>in reverse - irritatingly unexportable US plants grown on in
>US/subsequent seed distributed in UK/Europe/Australia/NZ/wherever? 

Surely it's worth considering.  I've sent several small packets of
seed to various places in the US over the past couple of years without
problems.  It might be a little bit more problematic with
non-commercial supplies (ie home-harvested) being sent to other
countries such as Australia though.  Maybe list members there, could
let us know the likelihood of any drawbacks.  

>The frost is coming, the frost is coming...

So they say, but down in the South West, we've only had one brief
spell with a couple of nights of -1C for very short periods - and that
was back in early December.  Since then its been mostly 5C-10C
minimums, with a couple of  1C or 2C nights thrown in over the past
week,  just to keep us 'on our toes'.    This hasn't stopped Acacias
dealbata and baileyana from giving a wonderful show and there's even a
maverick plant of Callistemon citrinus down on the sea-front,
flowering albeit in a rather sullen fashion.  I was admiring a nice
young plant of Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea' in full flower earlier this
week.  It had been planted against an old brick wall and the contrasts
of purplish foliage with bright yellow against the pale, weathered,
near terra cotta red of the brick, were stunning.  The shrub is a good
2.5 metres high and across and I was told that a pink texensis
Clematis is planted close to the base.  Later in the year, shell pink
bells nod amongst the dusky branches of the Acacia, creating,
according to the owner, a spectacular show which last a full 6-8
weeks.  With my suggestion, he is planting a pale blue, macropetala
Clematis beneath it, to give a different type of contrast when spring
is in full flow.

David Poole
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