Both preservation of the natural ecology of an area and the exclusion of invasive species are

of the utmost importance to us.  We do not sell seeds of endangered species or of species or

populations which would be threatened by seed collecting, and we are careful not to have any

effect on plant communities as a result of our collecting.  This is one of the reasons we don't

sell bulk quantities, nor do we sell bulbs.

Also, following guidelines from the "Symposium on Invasive Plants" at the Chicago Botanical

Garden in 2002, and in accordance with the "Voluntary Codes of Conduct" of the Saint Louis

Declaration of the "Invasive Plant Species Workshop", convened by the Missouri Botanical

Garden and by the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, in 2001, we are taking great care to exclude

noxious weeds, adventive plants, and invasive species from our catalogue.

Drought.  For a long time now we have been in the midst of an extended drought, the likes of which

has never occurred in our memory.  It began in 1999 and proceeded like this:  The average annual

rainfall in Tucson is 12.17 inches.  The actual rainfall has been:  1999--9.68 inches, 2000--12.44",

2001--7.81", 2002--7.84", 2003--10.05", 2004--7.62", 2005--9.58", 2006--11.80",  2007--9.78",

2008--8.67", 2009--5.67", (the fourth lowest annual amount ever recorded), 2010--11.13", and the

total now in for 2011 is 12.23".

Our drought in some parts of southeastern Arizona is in the "exceptional" category, which is even

worse than "extreme", but the total rainfall for 2011 did exceed the average by .06", thanks to a two-

inch-plus cloudburst at the recording station in September that Tucson proper did not even see a drop

of.  From that we can only guess whether or not the drought has "ended", but I have my doubts.  At

any rate it did finally exceed the yearly average, and I am done writing about "the drought".