San Francisco Orchids in the Park?

[Hazeldazel]

Has anyone gone to this event held by San Francisco Orchid Society? I was thinking of going and was wondering how big it is, do they have a lot classes/panels or just vendors mostly. Also where’s a good place to park since I’ll be driving.

[estación seca]

You need to go if you can.

It's large. It fills the Hall of Flowers and spills out onto the patio. There are a few talks but it's mostly a show, and a sales area. There are vendors from other continents so you can buy orchids you won't find elsewhere.

There is no good parking. There is parking available on the roads in Golden Gate park and on the nearby streets, but it's first-come, first-served.

Depending on where you live you might consider parking at a BART park and ride, taking BART into San Francisco, then transferring to the N Judah streetcar. It stops a couple of blocks away, very close to the Hall of Flowers.

In the attached screen cap, the irregular tan building in the park is the Hall of Flowers, on 9th Avenue in the park. The westbound N Judah street car stop is the red dot a 6th Avenue. There is another westbound stop, maybe a little closer, on 9th Avenue. The eastbound stop is just west of 8th Avenue, a little closer when you're carrying a lot of plants.

Bring your own sturdy bags.

[Roberta]

Here's the vendor list:
https://ti.to/san-francisco-orchid-s...-the-park-2023 Fewer international vendors than for the POE show in February, but still a very good mix.
Also, San Francisco is well served by Uber and Lyft. So if you are going to end up some place in the city before/after the show where you can park the car, that also works. Weekend parking anywhere in GG park? Not likely, your odds of winning the lottery are better.

[Hazeldazel]

Ugh I’m coming from south of San Jose so not anywhere near BART, I’m near a Caltrain station though. I’m definitely going and finalizing a couple pre-orders. Insert “I’m never going to financially recover from this!” Trying to decide on dragging my husband to this even though green things are not his thing.

Edit: ugh CalTrain doesn’t run south of San Jose on weekends. FML

[Roberta]

You likely can likely find street parking in the nearby neighborhoods at a not-too-great distance (or find a parking lot) then Uber/Lyft to actually get to the venue (and back) Don't know where you'd end up with Caltrain, but again once you get into the city, you can then use the ride-share approach for the last mile or two or three.

[Hazeldazel]

What about parking in the music center garage?

[Roberta]

Possibly... don't know how fast it fills up on weekend. I recall that for POE they start with that, and in years past also arranged parking I think at USF and ran shuttles. Orchids in the Park is smaller, but don't know what the "load" from SF in general is like.

---------- Post added at 05:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:40 PM ----------

You could reach out to the club info@orchidsanfrancisco.org , or president@orchidsanfrancisco.org perhaps someone with truly local knowledge will be able to give you some guidance.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Damn ES- you make it sound awesome, i want to go!!!

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Damn ES- you make it sound awesome, i want to go!!!

And SF in July is nice and cool. (Often chilly, actually) Now, wouldn't THAT be a reason to jump on an airplane?

[estación seca]

I went to school in SF. One of my classmates was of Japanese ancestry. He grew up on a farm in the Central Valley. In June after our first year we went fishing near Sacramento. We had not seen the sun since the previous October. He got a sunburn. He initially didn't know what had happened because he had never had a sunburn before.