A little while ago a lady in Australia messaged the
OSSC facebook page. She asked about a source for some Thunias for her friend in California. The topic broadened a bit and I suggested that she join flickr to share some of her photos. And that's exactly what she did!
MangoPie70's Photostream on Flickr
Check out that Stanhopea! And that Koi pond!
Flickr's kind of a big place so I decided to send her a private message with a list of people that she might be interested in "following".
I scrolled down my main flickr page and compiled a lengthy, but by no means comprehensive, list of some really great orchid/epiphyte growers.
After I sent her the list...I figured why not share it with other people? It sure doesn't make sense to hide a candle under a bushel!
So here's the list that I sent her (in no particular order)...
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Carlos my good friend in Brazil. He's usually pretty great at replying to questions...definitely a lot better than I am!
Fuzzy, a plant enthusiast in your neck of the woods. Gotta warn you though that some of his non-plant photos are...a bit...errrrr...PG-13? Sometimes I get a little surprised but it's worth it to see his plant photos!
Maurice, in New Zealand. He has a tree which he's covered in epiphytes. It was even featured in one of those home and garden magazines! But he likes to upload mainly bug photos.
Maurice started
an excellent website for epiphyte enthusiasts. You should check it out!
Alfred lives in my neck of the woods. One of the best orchid growers I know! And really lovely photographs as well!
Don is another really outstanding orchid grower. He lives in Santa Barbara (1 1/2 hours north of me). Don grows all? his plants outside year around. I think his conditions might be pretty darn close to your own.
Ken lives in Columbia. His property is teaming with epiphytes everywhere!
Tomas is my good friend in Rome, Italy. He has a famous photo of
a Vanda covered in snow.
Peter is in my neck of the woods. Really really nice collection of perfectly grown orchids!
Charles is an outstanding outdoor orchid grower in my neck of the woods. Really beautiful orchid photos! I included one of his photos in
my gallery of orchids on trees.
Albert is another outstanding outdoor grower in my neck of the woods. A really nicely diverse collection of interesting and lovely orchids.
Jacob is an expert orchid grower up in Northern California. Lots and lots of rare orchids and other unusual plants!
Puerto Rico Paradise. One of the best private collections of tropical plants! Check out this beauty...
Huperzia goebelii
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Heh, kinda reminds me of that one 80s New Wave song.
If an orchid grower that you know just joined flickr...which fantastic flickr stars would you point out to them?
Woah, I just realized that my list is really sexist! But is it my fault that
Marni and
Cynthia, two orchid growers who I really admire, don't share their photos on flickr? *scratches head*
I wasn't going to mention it but I do get all the credit for Alfred and Charles sharing their photos on flickr.
I cajoled the heck out of them mercilessly! Heck, I even bought Charles a one year flickr subscription* to try and pry him away from his previous website.
Unfortunately, unlike Alfred and Charles, Marni and Cynthia live way too far away to be members of the OSSC. So I didn't get to see them once a month to drop not so subtle hints.
Anyways, now it sounds like I'm protesting too much! Well...if anybody else does decide to share their list of fantastic flickr stars....we'll see how many other people don't have any ladies in their list.
Oops, I just remembered that I might have persuaded Tomas to share his photos on flickr...and he lives all the way in Italy. And, obviously, I managed to persuade Valerie and she lives on the other side of the world. So that doesn't do much for my proximity excuse!
*Now you get 1 terabyte of free space