Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Wonderful NEW EE'S from LARI ANN at AROIDIA RESEARCH, 1 by bwilliams

bwilliams wrote:
I think I was breed for the purpose of growing and breeding plants LOL. My father collected plants when he was very young getting seeds out of books from far away tropical places. He has always been into palm trees and has a thing for cold hardy tropicals. My mother is into aquatics and is one that always has a beautiful yard with far to many plants and hardly any weeds ever. All my aunts and uncles have ornamental ponds and small tropical displays in their back yards. One uncle is into cannas and another into bamboo. The only other one that is as bad as me is my uncle in Arizona. He runs a nursery and collects cactus. He has one of the largest collections I have ever seen. I am sure he has possibly one of the largest personal collections on the planet.

I don't know about everyone but it seems many plant people have similar traits specially if they are into it bad. When I was very young it started with dinosaurs and looking for fossils then collecting rocks I then moved on to chemistry AKA explosions. After that I had a interest in coins, baseball cards, reptiles when I was into reptiles I found a interest in carnivorous plants and aquatic plants. At that time a pond full of turtles did not look very prehistoric with out some interesting plants. This is about the time I saw a plant that made me crazy. Cytrosperma Johnstonii. By that time I was about 16 years old and I called every place I could about finding this plant. I bugged a few people to death I am sure. After about 3 to 4 years of searching I found the plant. I am still grow it to this day. While looking for that plant I found that aroids were my plant of choice they were exotic and prehistoric looking. A few years back I found myself getting bored with plant much like many of the other things I have collected it seemed I had found the end to all the searching I needed. Their was just no giant pie in the sky to reach for. That was about the time a good friend introduced me to breeding plants. After that its the thrill and challenge is breeding new things and seeing things for the first time. I seem to have a thing for new and exciting that pushes me to keep going.

This photo is my uncles place. The one thing in his yard is dont fall or your dead.