He will be sadly missed. I pray God will confort his family. Robert taught me a few things about palms and I am greatful. I have his book and think it is one of the best palm books around. Thank you Robert.

I wonder if Bob knew how beloved he was to so many people. He was a dear friend; my heart is breaking.

Thank you, Christian, for letting this palm board know too.

Wow, that's a bummer to hear. He surely knew his stuff regarding our beloved palms. Thanks for all the hard work and may you rest in peace for eternity. I sure hope some towering coconuts await him in heaven.

Shaun

Bob will truly be missed. He responded to my first post on this forum regarding Griffith Cycads. I have never discussed palms or cycads with a more knowledgable person.He was a very intelligent man and helped a great deal of people,especially myself. He will be missed.

I first received his book last spring. Amazing pictures and information. My thoughts go out to his family.

Cassandra, Bob told me that the two of you emailed on and off. He had nice things to say about you. You can read a lot about him on the IPS Board.

Bob had many friends online and off and enjoyed their love and affection daily.

Diane Laird

Here is a link that might be useful: Bob Riffle Memories From Friends

Dearest Diane, what a pleasure to see you here. I have been reading the Memories of Bob ever since the Ides of August, your stories have been wonderful and have shown the more private side of Bob.

Bob did ask me to join the IPS, but I felt too shy and a bit overwhelmed by all of the knowledgeable pipples, even though I grow about 50 species of palms, I don't know how to talk about how I do it or what advice to give. The special palms that Bob helped me with, or talked me into finding, are watered by tears these last days. How do we go on without him in our lives?

Cassandra, I asked another friend of his the same question today. I think we keep him in our lives by staying in touch with his friends. So it's time for you to become active in the IPS and on that board as well as staying with this one.

I'm glad you're enjoying the stories. He gave up on me a long time ago re. telling his story. Whenever I made a business call for him when he had trouble hearing the other person, I'd tell them about him, his books, his wit and humor, his piano playing, and what a wonderful friend he was. This was to his doctor's office, the cable company, his bank, the moving company... :>

Did you ever talk to him on the phone? He called you once but it was your work number and it was (as usual) after work hours. I don't remember his telling me whether or not he called back. I do remember he liked you.

Be careful, not all those palms like salt water!

D.

Hello Diane, that's true about salt water non-tolerant palms, but it's my garden and I'll try, errrrrrr, I mean, cry if I want to :), hope I made you smile, I'm honing my Agatha Christie skills since GW no longer provides PM options. (I've come up with Lot 49), as I told Bob when I sent him a surprise birthday present ~ you can run, but you can't hide from the tax collector!

I'm so surprised and touched that Bob tried to call me at work, I regret never speaking to him by telephone. He would be so tickled to know that his memory will never fade, and that his friends are becoming friends. He has touched so many people all over the world. I know he is watching over us from a rain forest cloud, planted with every palm and tropical plant imaginable.

You are helping everybody with your memories, as devastated as so many are, this must be even worse for you. It sounds like you knew Bob longer and better than anybody and were such a souce of strength for him.

>> I'll try, errrrrrr, I mean, cry if I want to :),

Hmmm...did you happen to read the article I wrote for Northwest Hort Society? Btw, the IPS forum DOES have PM options and it's time for you to join!

I have a young woman (psych major who recently graduated) who helps me around the house about 3-5 hours a week; weeding, dusting, whatever needs starting so I'll finish it. I asked her today if she could give me a number of days I'd feel like roadkill so I could check them off. She informed me that true depression has no "ups." Well, I still have hearty laughs out loud, half the time through tears, so I guess I'm doing okay. And it is wonderful to be in touch with people who were important to Robert Lee Riffle, because we all have some traits in common. It might take awhile to figure out exactly what they all are, but they're there.

I thought I wouldn't be able to bear going to the IPS board again, but he told me about so many of the people that it's like being in a gathering of his friends.

And I remember him talking about this board -- he tried to post links to his photos and the former owner/manager thought he was trying to promote his book, so whenever anyone clicked on the link they went to Disneyland! After the first consternation, he thought it was pretty funny.

What saves me is that years ago, I got over my biggest fear: that all that tropical plant knowledge in his brain would die with him. When I first held The Tropical Look, I was so happy for everyone who would enjoy it. His greatest fear was that he wouldn't be able to get the palm encyclopedia published. That was a rocky road but it's out there. He would have liked to have revised it, but it's there and 90 percent of the information will be timely for years to come.

I'm lucky that my grief is for me and his friends and family because we won't have fresh Riffle-isms, and not because of regrets. There are little things I wish I'd done, but it's not realistic to live every single day trying to tie up every loose end. We do have to have faith that we have a future so we can live part of our lives in our dreams.

Btw, Bob's 81-year-old dynamo neighbor took her digital camera over to his house and took some pictures of his palms. I'm going to forward them to Mike Burnett on the IPS board; he'll tidy them up a bit and we can post them. I think he really only started planting a couple years ago. It's good to see most of them still in good shape.

I thought about our conversations the other night and realized we talked over 10,000 hours. We knew a lot about each other.

Off to the garden. I still have plants in pots that I bought in June! tsk.

Here is a link that might be useful: It's My Garden & I'll Try if I Want To, Page 5

Dear Diane,
I did read your article, I was doing a take on the title and hoped you would catch on to it. Very cleverly written, it appears that we have another WordSmith amongst us. It is clear to see how Bob and you had such a close bond and why it deepened through the years.

A couple of months ago, Bob told me he bought his 80 year old neighbor's car, but he didn't know the model! We shared a lot of car horror stories, me and the tow trucks and he with a harrowing ditch story and various mechanical woes.

And Bob did have some trials and tribulations on GW, I always got upset when somebody would pose a question, Bob would answer it and then be contradicted. I'd wonder, don't they know who he is?

As far as regrets, I had a chance to meet him at Flamingo Gardens about 3 years ago, and chickened out. I was so in awe of him, I got stage fright.

Do you notice that Bob's passing has added a poignancy and 'wrapped in cellophane' feeling to every aspect of your waking and dreaming hours?

Cassandra, don't have regrets about not meeting him at Flamingo Gardens. Bob didn't travel well, hated to be kept to schedules and probably would not have been at his best. I have to tell you that he rarely emailed, and I was surprised when he told me the two of you did. Print those out and stick them in his books.

Recently, he did something that irritated me which caused me to do something that irritated him. I hadn't talked to him for a few days and sent him an email asking him to ID a palm for me. No answer. I waited awhile and sent a To Whom it May Concern email asking if anyone at that address knew what this palm was. Back came the one-word reply: "Yes." (Even now I'm laughing at this.) To say we had some lively discussions is the understatement of the century.

Did he send you my article? I don't think it comes up on Google. I wrote another for the next newsletter (it's not online yet) that tells how to be a good garden visitor. In my local circle of friends, every single one of their gardens has been in books, in the newspapers, on tours, on television or the subject of books. The first time I ever invited them over for dinner was on a December 21, the shortest day of the year and I turned all the outside lights off except the front porch light! They come over during the daylight now, but it's a good thing I'm a good cook.

Bob would always be involved in what stage I was in in getting the garden ready or the house ready or what I was cooking for 12 of us. His comment was the same every time as I huffed through the preparations, a very wry, "Well, as long as you're having fun."

When Bob and I first crossed paths, he had just lost his best friend of many many years. Over the years, I asked him what his feelings were "now." Although their lives were not as intertwined as his and mine were on a daily basis, they were extremely close. At first, he couldn't talk about him without choking up. That subsided over the years. Only a few months ago, I asked him again about this friend and whether or not he still missed him. He said he did but the pain was gone. I, of course, was asking because I always wondered how my life would be without Bob. I still don't know.

So back to the friends with the gardens -- they're always on tours and I've heard stories about these tours over the years. I used the stories for an article entitled something like the Ten Commandments of a Good Garden Visitor. (It will be on the same site in September someetime) I had trouble arranging it and Bob helped with that as I helped him with his business writing. The first commandment is to go to the bathroom before you go to the garden...

D.