68th SRGC Seed Exchange 2014-2015

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Mel, welcome to the forum! So pleased  we got your hiccup ironed out and you have got your order made.
Thanks for your seed donation and support of the Club. Mind you, we'd expect nothing less from someone originally from Montrose!

[François Lambert]

I was a bit surprised not to find back in the list one of the plants (bulbills) I'm sending to the seedex, but I see It's listed under another name - i assume most recently changed - botanical name.  Just need to relabel my Oxalis Deppei to Oxalis tetraphylla I guess.
As for the other seeds i'm sending, this year's harvest is better than last year 

[Maggi Young]

Oxalis deppei Lodd. ex Sweet is an accepted name
This name is the accepted name of a species in the genus Oxalis (family Oxalidaceae).
The record derives from WCSP (in review) (data supplied on 2012-03-23) which reports it as an accepted name with original publication details: Brit. Fl. Gard. II, 1: t. 96 1831.

Oxalis deppei Lodd. is a synonym of Oxalis tetraphylla Cav.
The record derives from Tropicos (data supplied on 2012-04-18) which reports it as a synonym (record 23700454) with original publication details: Bot. Cab. 15: , t. 1500 1828. This has Acetosella deppei (Lodd. ex Sweet) Kuntze    and  Ionoxalis deppei (Lodd. ex Sweet) Small as synonyms

The above is from the Kew Plant list - so it depends which authority one is citing  as to which name one uses -  Stuart Pawley has decided on the second version it seems. 

Thank you for your support of the seed exchange, François ! And thanks to all the other people who have so generously given seed. 

[Maggi Young]

Thursday evening  - I have been having terrible problems with my  email today - it seems that BT are failing to provide an acceptable service to a great many of their customers today - if the comments around the internet are anything to go by!  As you might imagine, this is proving very disruptive to my efforts to assist those of you getting in touch to check your membership numbers for the seed exchange - please be patient. I expect to receive all your messages eventually and  I will reply!

Maggi Y.

[fermi de Sousa]

Thanks for your help (yet again!), Maggi
All done and paid for but a lot easier from the lap-top or the PC than the tablet - maybe just because I'm not "a digital native"!
The links to the search-engine made it easier to decide but I'm sure I missed a few "must haves" in the race to complete the requests!
cheers
fermi

[Maggi Young]

As I know fermi acknowledges, it is not possible to have a system that is individually tailored to the desires of each member - it is a case of "one size must fit all"!

He mentions "rush"  and I do think that taking a measured  attitude to the process is key to simplicity - many members seem to regard it as a sprint and that is not really the case.



 

[Maggi Young]

SRGC Seed Exchange : Please remember that main allocation and surplus seed requests must be made and paid for at the same time  - the SRGC does not operate a second ordering tier. Main allocation and surplus seeds may be delivered some weeks apart - but the orders must be made at the same time as the initial allocation is made.

[Maggi Young]

All done and paid for but a lot easier from the lap-top or the PC than the tablet - maybe just because I'm not "a digital native"!

Ian tells me that tablets , i-pads, smart phones etc are not able to do all the things that are accessible /available from a desktop or laptop computer. For business purposes, of course, it is possible to obtain "apps" to make some such things easier.  Not something  a charitable club can compete with, I'm afraid!

[Maggi Young]

I am continuing to have major email problems and also some broadband problems with my BT provider - if you are trying to get in touch about the Seed Exchange I apologise for any delay there may be in accessing your email and making a reply.

[admin]

There have been several incidents where members have not been able to log in due to careless typing of member number and password. If you have issues double check, triple check, quadruple check the credentials you are entering  before contacting  the seed exchange who are busy enough without this.

Anyone can make a typing error and type in 132 instead of 123, what is not excusable is offloading the problem onto already very busy  people without making the effort to check your own work. Maggi has enough  to do without having this added burden.

If you have trouble remembering them, write your credentials down and keep them in a safe place.

Thanks.

[Claire Cockcroft]

I finally received my seed list by mail yesterday (Nov. 24).  This is a full week after the online notice went out, yes?  (A friend told me the seed exchange was open 4 days after the fact.)  It's too bad the club doesn't send out email like the Alpine Garden Club of British Columbia does.  This is just a suggestion.  The SRGC seed exchange is a great benefit to membership.

As it is, I'm not ordering, but not pouting!    I "inherited" a friend's seed bank of mostly wild-collected seeds and even with sending seeds out to a dozen fellow seed-aholics have more than enough to keep me busy.

...Claire

[Maggi Young]

All suggestions are welcome, Claire.
Usually there is a good reason already for action taken, or otherwise, by the Club.
The SRGC doesn't hold email addresses for all the members
Even if it did, organising an email send of that size of our membership of thousands would be a nightmare at a time when we are dealing  with membership renewals.
 Given the number of members who change their postal addresses and forget to tell us, you can just imagine how many email addresses would be out of date, supposing we had them    Then there would be the complaints from those who can access the seed ex. online but who have never provided an email address in advance - they would be furious that they were being  sidelined because no-one was contacting them. .... it goes on.

A notice was posted both on the main site and in the forum when the online seed ordering went "live".  Overseas printed lists are sent out before the UK ones, but of course, we have no way of knowing how long the postal services in all the countries we send to will take to make delivery.

The online ordering system goes live  pretty much as soon as we know that the printed lists are arriving  - otherwise we have to deal with a mass of people who are,  often, nearly hysterical ( yes, truly )  because they cannot order online immediately.

 In fact, the actual numbers of seed orders made right  at the start of the seed ordering season is much smaller than folks seem to imagine. The desperate rush to order within minutes of the system going live, demonstrated by a few members, is not supported by evidence that their hurry makes a difference- there is plenty evidence to show, from previous year's reports from members that those who felt they were "late" in making their orders ( and some who were indeed tardy in so doing!) still got lots of their first choice seeds.

[Rick R.]

there is plenty evidence to show, from previous year's reports from members that those who felt they were "late" in making their orders ( and some who were indeed tardy in so doing!) still got lots of their first choice seeds.

That would be me!  Even with my first time ordering from the seed ex (and of course, a non-donor), and being quite late (New Year's Day), and sending my order in by post, I was VERY pleased with the seed choices I received. 

[Lori S.]

The process was slick as a whistle once again this year!  Many thanks to all those who make the SRGC seed exchange possible!   

[Giles]

I'm not sure if I'm being stupid, but I can't find 'Phlox' in any form in either the SRGC or AGS seed exchanges. Has it changed names?