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The GreenDealer Catalog of Exotic Seeds, books, reports and gardening information has been published since 1994, but 1999 marks the first year that the catalog and this newsletter are available online.

Spring seed season is well under way. I have been so busy filling orders that I have missed taking photos of a couple species that have already bloomed and are in full foliage. I did get some photos of the Redbud/Judas Tree and some of the local Dogwood Trees. They are just about ready to scan and place into the section on Trees & Shrubs within this site.

I have been adding more tropical species each week. New to this section are several species of Banana/Musa. They are listed under Houseplants within this site. Some of the other tropical additions are: Heliconias (3 varieties), Bauhhinias including B. alba, or Love Tree, B. Monandra, or Pink Orchid Tree, B. Purpurea, or Purple Orchid Tree and Emerald Green Jacaranda. I have decided to place these species in more than one category, so they may be found under Trees & Shrubs, Rainforest Plants or Houseplants within this site. Heliconias are also in the section on Tropical Greenhouse Plants.

The opportunity for photographs of plants are rather limited during the winter here in the Ohio Valley. So now that it is spring, I decided that since I am adding more of the tropical species, that I would go to the source and take as many photographs there as possible. So I have decided to go to Costa Rica in early June, before the rains get too serious, to photograph tropical plants there in the rainforest. My host will be Joe Azaria of Rainforest Seed Company. He knows the species thoroughly, and between Joe, his assistant myself and my friend Kathy, we should get some good photographs and identification in Spanish, English and Latin. My girlfriend, Kathy will help with recording the roll numbers, frame numbers and cataloging all the information so that when we get all the rolls of film developed we will know what plants we have photographed. Kathy has studied Latin, is just about finished with her first course in Spanish - looks like it will probably be a strong A. My Spanish is decent, at least I can find the food, bathroom and hopefully the rainforest without resorting to English. We did fine with our Spanish when we visited Mexico City last June and took off on our own accross the central part of the country by bus.

Last year we photographed some Cacti specimens at the botanical garden in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I don't have all of them placed within the Cacti section of this site yet. That is something I will need to do on a rainy day when I can find the time. There are quite a few good photo images whithin the Cacti section now, but I should have photographs of nearly all of them within a few more months.

Well that is about it for this edition of the newsletter. I will not produce another issue until I have returned from Costa Rica in June. Hopefully everything will work out fine and I will have a couple hundred more plant photographs to add to this GreenDealer Exotic Seeds web site. Click below to go the Home Page. From there you can enter the main site, at the bottom of the page, which will automatically activate the frameset for easier navigation throughout our 40 something seed lists. I would like to hear from anyone who would have anything of interest to add to this newsletter, such as questions, comments, tips, etc.

Happy gardening!

Michael King

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