Date: Mon, 20 Jul 98 23:33:50 -0000 From: David <macdwa@hotmail.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2413$foo@default> Subject: '98 Pacific Northwest CP mtg
Just some notes of the July 19 Pacific Northwest CP meet in Richmond,
B.C. Canada.
A big thanks goes out to all CP'ers and visitors to our 1998 show.
Although some of our more esteem local hobbyists couldn't make the show
due to work or illness, we still managed to put on a fairly good show.
Unfortunately many of the best grown specimens never made it to the show
due to mix ups and scheduling (Darn that Murphy!)
The event was quite amazing ... people were lining up outside the
building before the show began and the impressive number of visitors from
out of town (thanks to all the good publicity, Marlena!). The display
that stole the show was a superb terrarium creation by David Cauglan. In
the terrarium were fine specimens of Sarracenia, Drosera and of course,
Dionea. Thank goodness the terrarium was contained so that many little
fingers tempted by the gorgeous Dionea traps were left agape so that
others realized how beautiful the maroon traps were. The favourite plant
in the show was definitely the famous VFT with our audience, but a close
tie was Nepenthes albomarginata and Nep. bicalcarata - both grown by Mike
Fleck.
Geoff Lewis brought in a tub of Darlingtonia that surprised visitors of
our area's natural CP endowment. People were just amazed on how easy it
was to grow CPs year round OUTDOORS in our climate - CPs that include
Sarracenias, Droseras (all the temperate species such as binata and
rotundifolia, and sub-tropical capensis), Cephalotus, and a large number
of Nepenthes outdoors in the summer - including, ampullaria, rafflesiana,
sanguinea, alata, bicalcarata, merriliana and many others.
Doug Fung and the legendary Kevin Snively brought in piles of literature,
including the new Pete D'Amato's "Savage Garden" - a must buy! Also of
fascination was Michael Szesze's CP resource for Educators - great for
the many teachers and instructors.
And for the first time ever, all CP plants put up for display were
snapped up during the first couple of hours. We figure we could have sold
at least three times the amount presented!
A new resource placed on display was multitude of information on CP
available on the Net. Included in the show were pages printed with
permission from Al Bickell - http://webhome.idirect.com and Robert
Cantley of Borneo Exotics - http://www.borneoexotics.com. Everyone loved
the breath taking images from Borneo Exotics and Bickell's Orchids.
Perhaps the most wonderful "thing" in the history of the PNWCP's
existence, is the amount of interest generated from the female population
... yep no kidding... our club has often been queried in the past of "why
aren't there more women in this society?" the jewel-like beauty of the
glistening droseras and stately sarracenias all enchanted many of the
women. Two videos were running during the show - the BBC documentary on
CPs and my half hour home video featuring the CPs of Fullerton State
Arboretum with Leo Song describing the displays. Embarassing to say, we
hadn't thought of providing seats for the viewing audience, but most
visitors just sat on the floor and watched over a gruelling hour's worth
of video! Another hit with the visitors were the many fine photographs
taken by Joseph Yeo of Singapore. At a glance people could appreciate the
many fine nepenthes (eg. rajah and villosa) found in SE Asia.
We had an overwhelming plea to put on another show and had attracted a
lot of new members. There were over 450 visitors in the short 5 hour
show and as a result, we had to postpone our business meeting. We are
planning a club meeting in approximately one month to plan for next
year's event.
At the end of the show (3pm) we had an individual pleading with the PNWCP
club to hold the show for at least another half hour so that his
impromptu gathering of orchid and nature lovers could descend upon our
show! Apparently this kind gentleman was the director of a large society
of retirees from Taiwan that grew orchids and other exotic plants! He had
contacted a phone tree and they were on their way over! Unfortunately we
had to kindly decline and we may just put on a future show for these
folks.
In summary, on behalf of the PNWCP club, we thank the Richmond Nature
Park for their kind permission in providing us a venue for our event, all
the volunteers, our colleagues from Washington state (hi Kevin and
Laurel!), Al Bickell, Robert Cantley and Ineke Pitts for their kind
permission in showing their web resources, and to all visitors who helped
make it happen. See you all again next year!
David Wong
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