hi I completely relandscaped my area after the hurricanes and the trees are just now getting lage enough for epi's Will be sharply divided between deep shade and western sun. plus the border tree schizolobium defoliates during cold spells . I have planted an epicatt and several ferns . The crown screams for some type of epi!! lol Will have to be a tough one as during the year will go from deep shade to full sun but for short periods of time not seasonally lol Also due to the structure of the crown will be either very wet or very dry . And since it is around 20 feet from the ground will not only be hard to see will be difficult to tend . I know epiphyllums to be very tough and of course there are a gazillion varieties and there are no more spectacular flowers.. I'm using conjoined queeen palms for a bed for Vandaceous orchids (have 8 kinds ) Have spectacular growth but limited flowering . I blame that on the low crown of the palm but are maturing so in the summer this year will be in almost full sun. I'm going to quit maintaining my shadehouse so the orchids will be from these Mostly epicatts hybrid catts and Brassidiums. The main planting will be on some Cassia roxburghii and some plumeria. wasn't sure about the very smooth bark of the plumeria and of course they seasonally defoliate but is still shaded by the cassia. To the east end I've started a bed of Tree ferns and have no idea how they will be at supporting epis. Thinking terete vandas and epidendrums the tree ferns are located under the neighbors areca palms so probably too shady but feel certain they will grow Anyway you've given me a lot to think about but I recently located some "oddball" epiphytes with some odd habits . They donot fit into my plan but couldn't pass them up lol Won't be doing any serios palnting until winter passes . I'm putting in some hardscape as well as revamping my water gardens lol Thanks for the info!!! gary

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

I vote podagrica. It looks a lot like mine. Maybe when it flowers, it will be more certain.

bennyg19, To include a photo in your post, use the following code: <img src="http://www.your_photo_host.com/yourphoto.jpg"> Replace the Web address above with the URL of your image. NOTE: If you use an image hosting service such as Photobucket, Flickr, etc, copy the image URL by right-clicking on the image, not by selecting the text in your browser's address bar. The image URL should end with .jpg or .gif Don't copy the Web page URL. Betsy