Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 17:51:09 EDT From: k4zd@juno.com (Robert L Hanrahan) To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1366$foo@default> Subject: Re: Introduction-Bob Hanrahan
Hi CP'ers
I am a fairly new subscriber to the list and guess that I have been
rather negligent by not posting the customary "introduction statement" to
the group. Due to the large number of new CP hobbyist, probably less
than a fourth
of you are familiar with me and ny CP background. In a nutshell, I've
propagated a few million plants and have grown over 250 varieties of CP
during a 25+ year period. The majority of the species,varieties, and
forms that I have raised have been made available to collectors through
World Insectivorous Plants (WIP), a mail order company I started in 1976.
WIP had a fun 15 year run and eventually developed into a wholesale only
operation with a different name. Actually, but indirectly, WIP and
Hungry Plants (operated by Ron Gagliardo) formed a loose open partnership
a few years ago to dabble in selling and exporting tissue cultured and
field grown plants to foreign CP companies. Both Ron and I are game
fully employed (Ron with the Atlanta Botanical Garden, and I as an
engineer with Lockheed Martin), affording us the luxury of operating on a
limited basis and on our own schedules.
Living in the Atlanta area allows me to grow plants directly outdoors in
beds or under plastic with minimal difficulties. We average about 50
inches of rainfall each year and that solves the majority of my watering
concerns. When I must resort to city water, it comes out of the tap with
a total dissolved solids content of 50 or less. BTW, distilled quality
use to be considered 10 ppm or less. I am sure our water makes many of
you who live in hard water locations envious. I basically only raise
native S.E. U.S.A. varieties now and a few of my favorite foreign Drosera
that can tolerate our highly variable winters.
However, I use to grow Nepenthes before they became the genera of choice.
In the early 80's when we (wife and three kids) lived in the Melbourne
area of Florida, we had over 75 varieties of Nepenthes spread over two
greenhouse ranges and had a difficult time selling them. Even with
wholesale prices of $1.00 per plant and offering cuttings for a buck to
our retail mail order customers, we could not generate enough sales to
sustain the operation. Boy, have times changed! Anyway, I could easily
write a nice article on the early days of modern CP firms and I am sure
it would really bore most of you, so on to the present.
My CP interest have always been rooted in conservation issues and I have
evolved into bog management and natural plant propagation studies. I own
a little natural bog in lower Alabama (LA as we call it in here in the
South) and have a few hundred thousand mature Sarracenia and scads of
other CP growing there. The bog produces millions of Sarracenia seed
each year and I annually collect a few hundred thousand seed and grow
them to or past seedling size each year here in GA. I select out
interesting plants and typically transplant 10K to 15K to the property
each year. I've used my engineering background to simplify growing
techniques, so it's not as hard or as labor intensive as it may seem to
you. I look for sports, mutants, and hybridization results and note them
for information study purposes. I'm sure not too many of you have the
room (but I bet you have the desire!) to raise vast quantities of
seedlings. Believe me, it's fun, but a real challenge when you select
out who gets to go to the farm. I hope to write a comprehensive analysis
on the process for the ICPS, but don't look for it next year.
Whoops, I think this introduction is getting a tad too long. I'll add
some more to it in the future...
BCNU Guys-Bob Hanrahan in Powder Springs, GA
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