I just add this message to respond to the notion of a rose sale or auction. Following the lead of Jeri n Clay, the Ventura County Rose Society put on major rose auctions of rare and unusual roses for about ten years; first, annually, then later every two years. As an educational device, the auction was a great success for those putting it on. As someone who started out as a contributor to the catalog that accompanied the auction and wound up writing most of it, I learned a lot. (Most of it had to do with commercial viability.) As a financial effort, it was also a great success. HOWEVER,it was every bit as labor intensive as the traditional rose show, involved enormous amounts of energy and time (gathering and storing of roses, mailing off winning bids to those out of state, etc.) and engendered some antipathy on the part of rose society members who did not want to be involved in what they regarded as scut work; (unfortunately, a lot of life involves doing scut work.) Eventually, we gave it up with 2011 being the last of the auctions. Over the course of the years we probably distributed over a thousand roses, most of which were OGRs or unusual and rare (Clark roses from Austalia before they became easily available, frix.) The only way for the enterprise to operate was to open up a national audience in order to find buyers for roses not well known--even if said roses were perfectly suited to the Ventura County climate--e.g. chinas, noisettes, and teas. The trouble is that the audience for OGRS and unusual roses tends to be spread out across the country in numbers not large enough to sustain viable commercial operations. I might add that the practices of many rose societies in permitting widespread use of cuttings from rose shows, celebrations and the like cuts down on the potential profit or even transactions. I am reminded that Frank Benardella used to dip his show roses in Round-up so as to discourage people from using his entries as sources for free roses... Jim D

Speaking of which - I haven't been to our society meetings for a few months and didn't renew my membership - no job at the time. Last I knew, "we" had 300+ members and were looking for a larger meeting space. The age spread is weighted toward 40+, but there are a couple of teens and some members in their 20s & 30s. We meet on the 3rd Sat. from 1-3 with an hour of business, including results of the judging, a break with coffee and non-homemade cookies, then often a speaker from the outside who's usually selling their own plants, then plant raffle results. There's no meeting during one of the summer months - forget which. Most members are local, but one hobby Paph breeder and his wife drive 6 hours round trip to be there. Another active member lives at least an hour away. When an outside speaker isn't selling plants, members can sell theirs. Some people join just for inexpensive plants. Dues are about $25. Visitors and new members are introduced during the business part and receive a free copy of AOS's basic orchid handbook. Our current space is the community room in the main store of a local, upscale garden center chain. It has a nice deli, with the eating area out in the indoor plant section. Most people walk through the indoor plant area to get to the meeting room. Before and after the meeting, you see members having coffee in the dining area and browsing and buying indoor/outdoor garden supplies. The store sells orchids, too, although nothing exotic. It's a feast for the senses, esp. in MN winter. If we move to a library, say, it won't be the same. There are 6 main events during the year: - a holiday meal at a local restaurant, and people go home w/ a free plant. This serves as the Dec. meeting, I think. - a big display and AOS judging during the St. Paul Winter Carnival. The display is in a well-known conservatory in St. Paul, and the last few years, we've had vendors there. - an all-day, spring symposium at an arboretum. Experienced society members talk about various aspects of orchid culture. - a display during the State Fair. Society members are generous in their judging, and the numerous ribbons look impressive. Some members who are vendors have their own displays in the same room, but no sales. - the September orchid sale to the public. It's at a garden center on a Sat. Of course, society members who are selling plants get first choice before the show opens. There's a business meeting just before, and this is the Sept. meeting - I think. - the September bus tour during the Chicagoland orchid festival, or whatever it's called. There are a couple of commercial growers between Minneapolis and Chicago, and all the growers roll out the red carpet and offer our members good deals. The trip goes from a Friday afternoon to the following Sunday evening, and people come back loaded with plants to replace those they just sold! I'm not aware of any specific recruiting/marketing efforts. It could be that the 1 million people in the 7-county "Metro area" kind of "yield" a society with about 300 members. But - with the economy what it is, the MN society may be having hard times, too. If there's a current MN society member here, chime in. Whitecat8

THE CCRS 14th ANNUAL RARE AND UNUSUAL ROSE PLANT AUCTION IS NEXT WEEKEND. Here are further details: Saturday, Nov. 15th and 16th. The power point presentation of roses featured in the SILENT PORTION of the Auction by our distinguished authorities will begin on Saturday at noon. Our Speakers for Saturday, November 15, 2014, are Ping Lim (Hybridizer Altman Plants) at 12:00 noon; Burling Leong (Hybridizer Burlington Nursery) at 1:00 PM; Jill Perry (Curator San Jose Heritage Rose Garden) at 2:00 PM; Dr Keith Zary (Hydridizer Spring Hill Nursery) at 3:00 PM; Bob Martin (Hybridizer, Author, ARS Master Rosarian) at 4:00 PM and Cliff Orent (Hybridizer, Author, ARS Consulting Rosarian and past owner Euro Desert Nursery) at 6:30 PM (after dinner). Our Speakers include 5 Hybridizers, 2 Nursery owners, 1 Curator of an important public garden rose collection, 1 Master ARS Consulting Rosarian, multiple ARS CRs and multiple prolific Authors. Dinner with the Speakers will be at 5:00 PM. Several seats are left. Make your reservations via the website or email me. Each diner orders just what he/she wishes and will receive his/her own bill. On Sunday we will hold the SILENT AUCTION from 10:00 AM to noon. We will have volunteers with special knowledge of the plants offered on the floor to attempt to offer advice for those who seek it while they are shopping. At noon the Bidders will take a break for the next hour and a half for a leisurely lunch while all available CCRS members will help with sorting. The LIVE AUCTION will take place Sunday from 1:30-3:30 PM. Keep in mind that the minimum bid in all parts of the Auction is $1. Payment is by cash or check. The Auction may be accessed online at CCRSAuction.com. Online bids for both the live and silent auctions are accepted up to 12 noon on Friday, Nov. 14th, and will be acknowledged by a confirmation e-mail. On Sunday, November 16, 2014, our Proxy Bidders will attempt to obtain plants for online participants, as if they were spending their own money -- plants will be sold to the highest bidder, but only at around $1 over the next highest bid, so even if you bid high over the internet, you are protected from overpaying if there are no other bidders. We will mail plants purchased to warm climates within 2 weeks and special arrangements can be made online for those living in areas with a winter for delivery next spring. With the help of many, John Bagnasco has assembled over 300 really wonderful hard to obtain, rare, endangered and sometimes unique plants. I am certain that you will find something to suite your taste. Please take a moment to check the offerings on the website. We have linked the listings in the auction with the HMF page for that variety to assist you in learning about these roses. We have also provided a form for internet bidding at the beginning of each list of roses to be auctioned, that should be e-mailed to us no later than Friday, Nov. 14th at 12 noon (PDT) if you can't make it to the auction in person. I do recommend coming in person, however, since we always have more roses available than bidders, and many bargains will be available, It is up to you to do your research ahead of time so that you know it when you see a bargain! Internet bidders also get their share of bargains, but some of that is ultimately eaten up by shipping costs, which we ask each internet bidder to pay at our actual cost for shipping (no "handling" fees -- we volunteer for that). See you then, Kathy Strong Here is a link that might be useful: video of prior CCRS auction This post was edited by kstrong on Sat, Nov 8, 14 at 10:07

Please join us for our South Metro Orchid Society, monthly meeting, the 4th Monday of each month at the Reynolds Nature Preserve. We are a group of growers with various levels of expereince and have a great time learning about all aspects of growing orchids-they are much easier thatn you might think. I know I once thought they were out of my league. We have several AOS judges and even a professional grower among our members. We welcome all guests and well behaved young people. Each meeting, we have an auction and ususaly plants sales-I promise you will not find better priced plants or a more unusual selection. Please send me an email if you have any questions-it really is a great group.