Tropicals & Tender Perennials: BWilliams...How was it?, 0 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
Thanks for the personal post. I had an amazing time at the aroid show this year as I do every year. It is one if not the only few places I am usually able to find new aroids and other plants to add to the collection. Over the years I have been getting more and more picky about what to buy. The first few years I was a mad man and bought everything I could. The aroid society is a great society to join it is well worth joining just for the newsletters and Aroideana book they send out each year. So if your interested in or serious about aroids you should join.

As for my trip. It is usually a simple plan drive down to the aroid show hitting ever possible collector or nursery on the way and bring back as many new and unusual plants as possible. In years past I was taking huge truck loads back but this year I was able to squeeze everything in the back of a explorer. My mother was with me she recently retired and was able to join me on the trip. I left at 8:00 on the 9th and drove from Louisville to Tampa a 14 hour drive. The next day I got up and went to Tropiflora were I found a few plants I was interested in. I have grown a taste in odd epiphytic cactus and they have a nice selection of forms I did not have. After the visit there I went to Selby Botanical gardens were I was able to get a lot of nice photos and was allowed in the back collection to take more photos of some really amazing plants rarely seen. The next two days I spent at sanibel island. My mother had not seen the ocean in many years and we got to relax and collect sea shells. After that I was able to go to Miami and visit Enid from Natural Selections a great friend of mine as well as Palm Hammock Which is one of my favorite nurseries to visit. Unfortunatly Tim the owner and friend of mine was out of town so I have to pick from the regular stock plants LOL. The next day I was able to visit Silver Krome nursery owned by Dennis and Bill both amazing growers and good friends unfortunatly my camera batteries went low and I was unable to take as many photos as I would have liked at their amazing place. The rest of the days were spent at the show I had a good time catching up with friends and talking to Leland from Hawaii a appretice to Roberto Burle Marx who has been growing some very interesting aroids. Ron Koffman was their who sells plants for Ecuagenera so I was able to get some new philos and Anthuriums that were collected out of Ecuador. Their were many others their I am sure I left out but everyone their is very friendly and all of them are plantacholics which we all can relate to. After the show I went south and visited LariAnn Gardner's place Aroidia research. Their I was introduced to tons of plants we probably wont be able to see for sometime on the market. She deals with new Alocasia hybrids Philodendron hybrids and Anthurium hybrids and has created some plants most of us grow like Alocasia portora , Alocasia Caliodra. Their I was able to see Sarian crossed with Borneo Giants and many many very odd creations. After that I drove back up to Orlando and stayed the night. The next morning I visited Randy Strode and Ty Strode from Agri starts and got a personal tour of the tissue culture labs and the greenhouses. Many plants we grow are from this place and they had many odd balls pulled out. Even just walking around the place I saw tons of variegated bananas and Alocasias they pulled out and many they over looked. It was very interesting and I learned alot. I figure like me your wanting the photos so I will post a few but of some of the things I saw and got.