My daughter got me interested in growing orchids. She's 20. She bought a phal at the grocery store and loved it so much that she got one for me for my birthday and that started the whole darned thing.

I don't attend OS meetings. Our OS is nice enough when you talk to the folks that are the club officers, but everyone else is just not very welcoming. I've tried going to meetings a couple of times and I just can't get into it. The other issue is really, for me anyway, I want to hear about what other club members are growing and how they're doing it where I live. Our OS doesn't really afford an opportunity for those kinds of open discussions. I really want to be SOCIAL and interact with other orchid growers in a way that going to OS meetings does not allow me to do. The OS meetings are mostly lectures and the auction. Folks don't sit down and talk to each other. Isn't that kind of the point of being a member of a society?

OB fills in that gap for me though. No one here seems to be local to me, but I can still learn from everyone's experiences with indoor growing and the information I've gathered here is why I'm still growing orchids a year later and it's why I am still enthusiastic about this hobby. You guys are the best.

I am not that young (39), but I am a new orchid grower. It really never occurred to me to join an orchid society. It occurred to me to join an orchid board. That's where I get my information. I've tried on the past to make friends through interests and have found that a single shared interest really isn't enough for me. As an introvert and a university lecturer trying to find a faculty job with an assistant professor spouse, driving a half hour to hang with a bunch of strangers who also like orchids doesn't really appeal to me. If I need help,I can get it here. If I need information, I can get it here without even bothering anyone. If membership were free,I might consider checking out a meeting now and again, but I'm not going to pay to join such a group.

On the other hand, I * have* sought out and met up with out of town friends that I've made on common interest boards. I've even taken one camping. The boards allow me to identify people I really like as friends, and when those people are in my town and vice versa, I make an effort to see them in person. I have several friends like that from a corn snake board, and I've run into real life friends on a tarantula board and ran into my favorite high school teacher on this board! But none of these people live in my town and would be at my local meetings of any societies.

We're the same age. :D

As we've been discussing societies and their efforts (or lack there of), I want to commend Carrie and Nikki (others, too. Names just aren't coming to mind right now) for announcing their society activities here. They've had speakers I would have gone to see (if local) and announced them here.

Internet competition for sales is insane and forces some to sell at below cost jus to make a sale. Even a large greenhouse located in the USA cant compete with the pricing of items being imported from overseas in bulk. So I can say again the internet has just robbed our lives and livelihoods.
You have to specialize in orchids like the cym growers do. They dont do anything else. A general Orchid retailer who sells everything IMO was and is doomed, just a matter of time till you see more people like "****"sell from stock they dont hold or have. They are just being a middleman again for the overseas sellers.
Parkside been sold
Golden Gate been sold
Orchid Babies done
Oak Hill done the list will go on

The problem is with the orchids being generally ugly plants when they arent blooming and no one wants them around but an orchid lover. You cant make the general public love ugly plants. You cant landscape with them you cant eat em. Orchids are pretty much a worthless endeavor. think about it some.........

cant make any money on them damn plants and all a retailer can hope for is he sells a lot of mix and fertilizer or sells a novel way of growing them :biggrin:

and OS's societes problems deserves its own thread so I wont elaborate

and I dont facebook either in fact I dont even have a computer or internet at home :)

I completely understand. I pay dues to belong to professional organizations and pay fees to go to the meetings they host. I'm just not interested in paying for information if I can get it for free. I'd pay dues here before my local orchid society because here I have access to many more people and their expertise.


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Of course, I could be spoiled. As an academic at a institution with a good library I can get almost any printed literature I want without paying for it, and I can ask colleagues to edify me without expecting to pay them. Sometimes we get one or a couple hundred dollars honorarium for a guest lecture, but often not. We get to put an invited lecture on our CVs, is all. And you're right--if a far-away citizen primatology club asked me to travel to them to give a guest lecture, I'd be hard-pressed to do so for free.


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But then again, don't think I didn't pay for this luxury in student loans. I did. Still am! ;)


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