Are you sure those dates are correct? The 13th all the way to the 25th?

Did anyone go and if you did, what did you buy? Brooke

Brooke - I love Dendrobiums. They're my favorite genus just because of the huge variation, but unfortunately most of them are far too big for my space. There are four more Dens in the case...three moniliformes and an unicum (all sad looking and mostly leafless at the moment). I have four more somewhat larger Dendrobiums outside the case as well. quinnfyre - It's a modified purchase. The case was sold as an acryllic atrium and had a screen top and a section in the front that was also made of screen mesh. I cut out the screen at the top and replaced it with a sheet of glass to which I had siliconed pieces of cork to act as spacers to let air in and allow me to feed in the tube from the fogger. To the screen section at the front I just siliconed another piece of glass without first removing the screen. I also had to silicone the base, as it was not water tight. I'm also finding that the acrylic is warping though hopefully the aluminum frame will keep it from getting too bent out of shape. The plant in the top left corner for the second and third pictures is the Den lawesii that I purchased at the orchid show. Calvin - The Aeranthes is the one with the tag centered in the second to last picture. The one in the last photo was another purchase from the show, but I can't remember which off the top of my head, and I can't check right now (I'm at work). It's likely the articulata or the mystacidii though. There are many things inside the case that are going to get much larger than they are currently. I have six seedling sized phals in the bottom that are eventually going to have to be removed, and I don't even know what I'm going to do with the Ang sesquipedale. It's only about 6" tall right now, but if the ones on display at the show are any indication it's only at about 1/4 of it's final size. Hopefully once some of the other plants can be removed I'll have space for the larger sized Angs to grow. Tyler

Arthur, it's a 2 sided coin. The strength of a large group allows them to do things that we would like to imitate but cannot. They offer 2 programs each evening, one for beginners and one for the more advanced growers. When we have a speaker talking about Draculas, Masdies and Pleuros, I gringe as I know that 90% of our members cannot grow these things. Other than general interest, a talk like that has no practical value. The raffle plants carted home by people have a low survival rate. The San Diego society has a subgroup of species enthusiasts who meet separately. As many as 30 experienced species growers create a stimulating experience. San Diego has the only huge group I am aware off, I suspect most other metropolitan areas follow the LA pattern of several smaller groups. When the large society puts on a show it's a thing of beauty, our shows are nice but amateurish in comparison. I like our intimate medium sized society but I also see the benefits of a strong group. I guess you cannot have both. In my immediate area, 4 societies are spending 4 speaker fees every month. If that could be combined we could afford to go beyond the local talent and import notables from further away. If we could cooperate to the extent were we would rearrange our meetings to be back to back, that would also help but even that is not possible. Each group's specific night is set in granite as they have met that particular evening for 30 years. Nick