Upcoming Ontario Orchid Shows

[Chris in Hamilton]

There are a couple of shows I'll be going to this month. The 1st one is is held by the Southern Ontario Orchid Society (SOOS) on the 11th and 12th in Toronto.

Southern Ontario Orchid Society

On the 25th and the 26th the Orchid Society of the Royal Botanical Gardens OSRBG will be holding our show in Burlington. Its the better one All kidding aside though. Last year we had over 2,200 visitors.

Annual Show | Orchid Society

[ksriramkumar]

Looking fwd to the pictures of the show.

[JDT]

And how many orchids you bought at each show...

[Chris in Hamilton]

And how many orchids you bought at each show...

Shhh

[Dorsetman]

I wonder...? You get the South American dealers, and the US ones, I suppose ? Do you get the ones from Taiwan, Malaysia etc ? Which perhaps comes down to how Canada interprets CITES, and how expensive it is to get permits ? I am interested to try and work out if we in UK have the worst most bureaucratic system in the world... I have been challenged before by US friends, and the Aussie one say theirs is worse still....
The problem I think is that orchidists - growers, and botanists - who in general are not growers, have different priorities. But it is the botanists who get involved in setting the regulations for the growers, rather like asking turkeys to set the menu for christmas. ( how remarkably difficult it is, even when we speak the same language, to discuss things with friends in other countries. Turkeys for our Christmas meal is an English thing, but will our friends in India, malaysia, and canada understand this ?

[Chris in Hamilton]

Only one from South America one from China and one from Taiwan I believe. Usually a couple from the US but most are Canadian. I find that mature plants grown outside of Canada are usually in a totally different period in their growth cycle so don't usually buy those. Last time I checked CITES it wasn't too expensive to get a permit. $80 but it is difficult to get. That permit allowed you to bring in as many plants as you wanted from the same grower. The problem is there is no one qualified to do the inspections at all of the border crossings all the time. Should a border guard at Niagara Falls decide that something is amiss he asks for an inspector and they might be in Vancouver at the time. Might take a week before your plants are looked at. The inspections are stringent. Even flasks have to be guaranteed to be bug free. For me its really not practical to get a permit. Should there be a particular plant I do want I pre order from a visiting grower and avoid the hassle. I think turkey was a North American thing 1st. Some accounts I've read of early settlers (1800 AD) suggest that in the winter it was their staple meat to the point they were sick of eating it.

[Chris in Hamilton]

I remembered something sort of related to the CITES problem. 8 years ago my wife went back to the Philippines for a few weeks to visit family. When she returned one of her souvenir's was a small flag. The flag stick was a piece of reed of some type about 2' long. A few months later I was at a window and saw a small beetle I'd never seen before crawling on the sill. Then realized there were dozen's. It was the middle of winter so I knew they had not come from outside. Tracked them down to the piece of reed. It was riddled with holes and beetles were still crawling out. Funny that sealed orchid flasks are inspected for hitchhikers but that came in without suspicion.

[Dorsetman]

From what I hear, its a good job you are in Canada, not Australia - if they found that there you would be put in clink for ever and a day ! I once got arrested, getting off a cruise ship at Darwin for a stroll around the town, and they found an apple in my pocket. I had to grovel and sit and listen to a lecture for 10 minutes before the apple went into an incinerator, and I was allowed on my way !
And then there was the time when I came home from Thailand with two large boxes of orchids - and I mean large- each was a bit too big for the usual luggage trolley and I had a block of paperwork for the CITES, phytosanitary certificates, you name it, on that zig-zag perforated at the edges paper, about 14 inches wide, and the block was about one and half inches thick ; five copies of everything, and one permit for each orchid perhaps ? Got to customs in the UK airport, walked into the red channel - no-one there. Banged on the desk, banged on the windows, eventually gave up and walked out to find my taxi waiting...... Posted off the pink copies to Kew or whatever it was ( green should have been kept by customs) , yellow went to the Govt department, white for me - can't remember what the fifth was for ... never heard anything more from anyone.
What a bureaucratic nonsense !

[Arne]

I totally agree with Geoff. Sweden was also very bureaucratic. I haven't lived in Sweden for 17 years now but I still have vivid memories how surprised I was each time I tried to bring a plant in and found out that they had changed the rules again. I was always convinced by my grandmother to let her buy plants abroad because she could bring anything through customs without a single paper. But Australia is probably the toughest. There is a lot of common sense in Canada, on the other hand, so you are fine where you are Chris and right now I don't think you want to live in the US either but that will probably change one day.

[Chris in Hamilton]

I totally agree with Geoff. Sweden was also very bureaucratic. I haven't lived in Sweden for 17 years now but I still have vivid memories how surprised I was each time I tried to bring a plant in and found out that they had changed the rules again. I was always convinced by my grandmother to let her buy plants abroad because she could bring anything through customs without a single paper. But Australia is probably the toughest. There is a lot of common sense in Canada, on the other hand, so you are fine where you are Chris and right now I don't think you want to live in the US either but that will probably change one day.

Canadian through and through Arne. I try not to involve myself in politics but there is a news story that came out today about people walking across the border through farm fields in Manitoba. Strange days indeed. Maybe the Philippines one day.