The Fair

[Diane]

I shouldn't rub it in - but IT WAS GREAT! We pooped out before we made it over to the 2 open houses! And just to make it really irritating for all you Species Snobs - there were tons of booths with species from OZ, NZ, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Taiwan, China, Thailand, etc., etc. Even Hoa found one or two he hadn't gotten or seen before.

I wound up with 6 new treasures, 3 catts, 1 phal (a really cool hybrid - I hope) and one paph (from Norito) and a neofinetia falcata. I was really tempted by a couple of other paphs, but I'm just plain out of room for a little while. They had Greenteaicecreamandraspberries in bud and a wowza of a Bel Royal ... course I have one of those... and 3 or 4 other of those really, really dark shiny vini paphs.. tons of vandas and a couple of $1000 plants.

[Piper]

Omigod drool, drool, drool I'm flying out next year and driving home with a U-haul van!

Where is Hoa!!!

Julie

[Diane]

Omigod drool, drool, drool I'm flying out next year and driving home with a U-haul van!

Where is Hoa!!!

Julie

He was going back to work to finish an experiment that had not completed last night, then he was going to his house there and then to his other house in Costa Mesa... probably be on later tonight.

[bench72]

oh species... hmm... interesting...

[Hoa Tony Nguyen]

Just a quick note here.
Personally I think this year is better than previous years that I attended before. There are vendors that I have never seen before besides the regulars who offer regular orchids that you already have! Unfortunately, I was too tired (had to work late the night before) to keep on shopping and drooling. The excitement kept me going for a while but after burning a big hole in my wallet, I escaped along with Diane after more than 5 hours of perusing and shopping. I bet she would not mind to keep on going and visiting the other two nurseries having open houses in the areas that I told her we would visit later on.
Julie, I did have you in my mind while I was doing the shopping and drooling. There is a glut of Paph. Bel Royal at the fair, everyone seems to be selling it. There are many very nice paphs but nothing really beat sandy and I did not see any blooming size sandy there. I also thought about buying this amazing phal hybrid for you from a Taiwanese vendor but for $75 a pop, you might as well gun for a sandy. Julie, what do you think? The fair is still going for another day, there is still time ...
More later. Hoa.

[Hoa Tony Nguyen]

One more note before I am done for the weekend ...

The phal plant that Diane got is quite special. It happens that one in a few thousands of the Phal. tetraspis plants has an unique feature - a combination of red and white petals and pattern such that no two flower would be the same even on the same spike on the same plant!!! The Taiwanese found some of these plants and this vendor/breeder from Taiwan made a cross between two plants of this kind. So basically, they are still Phal. tetraspis. He believes that among the progenies of this kind of cross, the occurence of such wonderful feature is highly increased, maybe up to 50% of the children will exhibit this trait. I thought about getting one for Julie, but I know a place where you can get a clone of this plant where you are 100% certain that you will have this trait. Julie, if you want it, we could discuss that or anyone else for that matter ...
Cheers. Hoa.

[Diane]

One more note before I am done for the weekend ...

The phal plant that Diane got is quite special. It happens that one in a few thousands of the Phal. tetraspis plants has an unique feature - a combination of red and white petals and pattern such that no two flower would be the same even on the same spike on the same plant!!! The Taiwanese found some of these plants and this vendor/breeder from Taiwan made a cross between two plants of this kind. So basically, they are still Phal. tetraspis. He believes that among the progenies of this kind of cross, the occurence of such wonderful feature is highly increased, maybe up to 50% of the children will exhibit this trait. I thought about getting one for Julie, but I know a place where you can get a clone of this plant where you are 100% certain that you will have this trait. Julie, if you want it, we could discuss that or anyone else for that matter ...
Cheers. Hoa.

What he means is - Diane is too cheap to pay for the previously bloomed big boys, and bought a seedling...