They don't get offered that big because the price would be too high. They cut them up and sell the pieces. 3 years ago, the Grandi I described earlier was in full bloom with 14 spikes, won 'Best Dendrobium of Show' at our modest little spring show and had 14 fewer canes than today. Someone offered me $1,000 which I declined in a nanosecond. If I wanted to sell it today however, I would be hard pressed to find someone with the ready cash, I'd be better off selling $100 pieces. I harp at our society sessions and at lectures I sometimes give at our shows about taking the plunge and paying way too much for what seems like a young plant with 3 to 5 canes. 4 to 6 years from, you'll be glad you did when you look at the spectacular display these guys put on. At every major show there are a few for sale, seemingly way overpriced in relation to what you pay for beautiful Cattleya types etc. If you take the plunge you'll probably wait a few years for first bloom. You can admire them at the spring shows only. Off the 'small' varieties I have a v capricornum with 18 to 20 fat canes which has yet to bloom and a v pedunculatum of equal size which finally bloomed last year. I heard that one of the two has a reputation for being a slow starter. Does someone know which one it is so Sue can be forewarned in case she jumps into the deep end. I sense she is tottering and needs just a little nudge. If and when you are ready contact 'Down Under Native Orchids' and order up exactly the type and size you want. He may go to a show in Canada all though I don't think so. I could pick it up for you in Santa Barbara next spring and mail it to you at a point of your choosing this side of the border. Check on the import requirements, I believe you can bring a bare-root house plant in without difficulty. I see Canadians in Santa Barbara every July who combine a summer vacation with orchid buying, who seem to have no problem bringing them over. You could always hide it in your bra. As you can tell by now its my favorite plant. One Aussie enthusiast wrote once that if they hybridize orchids for another 50 years, they may come up with something as beautiful and grand as a well grown D speciosum. Maybe a little exageraton there, but a point well taken. If you get one, it will be with you for the rest of your life or until you need to get rid of it because of size. My family of descendants is made up of 6 children, 5 and 8/9th grandchildren at last count, the D spec v grandiflorum , a 130 lbs Sulcata tortoise named 'Big Bob' and a mutt named 'Whiskey'. None are for sale. Nick

They're having another Open Day at The Olive Branch Brom Nursery! I stuck my name on their mailing list at their last one, and got a flier in the mail today for their next one, so just passing the info on for anyone else who may be interested. 6th & 7th of October, 9am - 4pm 234 Canvey Rd, Ferny Grove. Also, while I'm here, I may as well mention the Bromeliad Bonanza at Mt Coot-tha Gardens Auditorium, being put on by the Brom Soc of QLD. Sat 10th Nov: 8am - 4pm Sunday 11th Nov: 9am - 3pm Admission: Adults $3, kids under 14 free. I'd been planning on saving myself for a little bit of a spending spree at that one in Nov, so haven't even been looking at what's on offer on ebay recently, but now along comes Olive to tempt me with another sale as well! LOL She had great plants at great prices last time, so hopefully I'll be able to make it along.

here are some more pix, sorry, i'm not very good at taking photo's. i lost my original garden two years ago when cyclone larry took it away. i had been putting in a replacement garden then i stumbled upon broms at the beginning of this year (started rescuing them from the rubbish dump), now the plan is to put them in everywhere! cyclone larry new garden

Thanks for the reply. Greg. So I suppose that means that Trigonia carbonaria is on the long list Australian natives due for extinction, together with all those plants which refuse to be germinated by anything else but their specific little bee. With the push to introduce bumblebees into mainland Australia (so we can buy cheaper tomatoes. They'll never escape from the greenhouses, will they - even though they've done it already in Tasmania!) we do urgently need government money spent on research into insect pollination of natives. The pollinators of the vast majority of our plants are just not known. Wooroonooran, your comment that "To do the right thing, everyone must plant only what occurs/ed in the Regional Ecosystem/s that occur/s on their property, otherwise they are introducing a plant to a new location where it shouldnt be" is very much to the point. My comments are: First - if we knew more about our local natives, we might find that there are more gardenworthy plants among them than we had realised, and choose them more where we're happy to have any old plant so long as it has the characteristics we want - feature tree, good screen, and so on. The difficulty, in such a large country, is finding the information as to what is locally native. One needs to be quite proactive to get hold of it, especially outside the capital cities. General books on growing Australian natives can leave us with a false impression. People who have picked pretty plants out of such books in the belief that they are doing the right thing by the environment, and then find themselves copping heaps from those with higher knowledge, are understandably cheesed off. Second, we all like to grow introduced plants. There is really no difference, in a ecological sense, between growing roses and poinsettias, Norfolk Island pines, Lord Howe Daisies, and Kangaroo paws in Queensland, or even in growing plants that ocur naturally just a few hundred kilometres away. We all try (I'm sure) not to grow the obvious weeds from other parts of Australia. It is more environmentally correct to grow exotic plants that we feel are not going to escape into the bush. However, as long as gardeners garden, there are going to be some apparently "safe" plants that will turn round and bite us on the bum 20 years later. We can only do what seems right at the time, keep an ear to the ground for new discoveries re weed potential, and be prepared to remove garden favourites when their dark side is first glimpsed, rather than insist on complete proof. Thirdly, much of what gardening is, is to plant things from elsewhere. I don't mind this where people can choose a Australian plant because they really want that plant. What gives me trouble is the "natives" that are planted in good faith by so many Austalians including me, because we are restricted to the easily available plants in nurseries. In the case of Eucalypts, a local native gumtree might do the job just as well, AND be...