Helleborus species seed catalog

[Afloden]

Hello,

 The new http://www.evolution-plants.com/ catalog for 2010 is online today. It has some fabulous species. Experience from last years seed and this springs germination was superb, as it was the first time I got really good fresh seed that germinated. Not sure what I'll do with the excess of plants though.

 Besides the wonderful Helleborus, there are a few other odds and ends that grow with them. And, then there is the catalog which is a keepsake for reference and the travelogue is also superb.

 Aaron Floden

 

[Maggi Young]

Thanks for this note, Aaron.
tom is a charming fellow and I know other Forumists have had seed from him.


Be aware that the hellebore list and travelogue  is 13.97MB in size for 52 pages    and may take ages to download, depending on your connection/broadband!

[Pascal B]

Also be aware that the link for the English order form is under the Japanese catalogue link, the Japanese orderform is non-existent. The English orderform is in PDF format that, unless you have a PDF editor, can not be filled in and send by e-mail so has to be printed out and send by snail mail.

[evolutionplantsman]

I'm very embarrassed by the mixed up links on my website referred to by Pascal, but not as embarrassed as my website designer is going to be when I've finished with him on Monday morning.

I will happily email you an order form on request. Alternatively, you are very welcome just to write a list of what you're interested in on an email and send it to me.

Best wishes,

Tom

[Lesley Cox]

I have a good and fast Broadband connection and found the website very difficult to read, the scrolling being jerky and erratic, so that it was impossible to see the tops or bottoms of pages or at least to know for certain whether the top or bottom was actually on screen or missed altogether. I also found the text difficult and would prefer it in a larger font. I don't have 20/20 vision but can certainly cope with any ordinary book or magazine. The order form came up with large parts of the text in small squares; the letters were small squares I mean.

[evolutionplantsman]

Once again I'm sorry to hear that the website is causing problems!

If anyone else has any difficulty viewing it (no-one else has ever reported to me the same problems Lesley experienced) please do let me know, either directly or via this forum and I'll do my best to resolve them.

The unreadable text that Lesley refers to is the Japanese document, which some English-language computers render as gobbledegook.

Tom

[Maggi Young]

Lesley, Tom,  I wonder if the problems are arising because of the large size of the document? Not only is the size large for downloading but it is a fair old strain to move through if one's computer has restricted capabilities.... might I suggest that the document could have been made smaller and/or that a simple seedlist, containing only the bare minimum of info might be an idea to help out with possible customer difficulties in these matters?   

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks Tom and Maggi. I didn't want you Tom, to think I hated it, just that I found some problems and let's face it, getting old may have a lot to do with most of my problems nowadays. It's always great to have another seed and picture resource for popular plants. Bring them on, in fact.

[evolutionplantsman]

I don't want to abuse the hospitality of the SRGC forum by discussing a 'commercial' venture endlessly here, but I wanted to let anyone still reading know that:

1. The links now all lead to the correct buttons - sorry again for this excruciatingly embarrassing screw-up.

2. I have taken on board the very sensible point about the order form being unhelpful as a pdf. I'll upload a Word version as soon as possible.

3. I accept that the document is huge. The reason is that it's full of high resolution pictures, which many readers seem to enjoy. I'll take Maggi's suggestion next year and produce a summary, text only version (in the meantime, the order form is essentially the same thing - it lists all the species and collections, with no comments).

Best wishes,

Tom

[Maggi Young]

Tom, it is a service to Members to learn of new lists published.

It is heartening that you are reading the comments here and responding to them: they are, as you clearly realise, all meant constructively.

Now I'm hoping for some free time to relax and enjoy reading your "fat" document - though there is a lot of work in the garden calling me......

[arillady]

Tom,
It would be good if the possible clients were able to see the size of the catalogue when you put your curser over the catalogue to download or in the body of the text on the home page.
I was recently caught like this with a pdf file of an old nursery catalogue that you could either buy as a pdf or a printed copy. It was not until I had purchased the pdf I found out it was an enormous file. I was lucky to be able to get a refund and then to buy a printed copy for slightly more - after a number of phone calls and emails. IF the size of the file had been stated I would have just gone for the printed copy.

[cohan]

as someone who at various times has had slow, erratic and/or expensive internet connections, yet still likes to see quality photos in an informative catalog--might i suggest that rather than one giant document, you might consider breaking the catalog up into a number of smaller pieces? that way you can retain the content, yet make it accessible to a greater number of people...

[Paul T]

Just discovered this topic unfortunately (well, unfortunately due to the end of August ordering limit  )..... although I really DON'T need more seed.  I've added myself to the update list, so hopefully will be aware of it next time.    Wild collected species seed is always so interesting.