Aloha from California

I am new to this forum, and have perused it just a little bit. I like the polite tone, beautiful pictures, good advice and clean interface here.

I have been growing orchids since I was 11 ( I am 30) and just moved to Berkeley, California from Honolulu, Hawai'i to be with my partner. I'll be here for a few years so I brought most of my small orchid collection with me and I just completed a large indoor vivarium for warm/intermediate growers and I am almost done with one outdoors for cool growers. Since I am in the cold Bay Area I'm excited to take advantage of the weather and have fun growing PNG Dendrobiums and Pleurothallids!

Mr. Breeze will be pleased to know that Angraecoids have been my favourite group since I began. I used to get on the typewriter when I was in my early teens and correspond with Fred Hillerman. I also love Neofinetia. I have a flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/morabeza79/) but it doesn't have many orchid photos (yet).

I am a botanist in training with a horticulture/landscape career background. I am passionate about conservation but also love growing things that inspire me. Besides orchids, I also love palms, bulbs, cycads and Hawaiian natives, among others.

Looking forward to getting to know you all better.

 

Thank you all for the warm welcome.

Glad you liked the palm pictures Harry. LOL @Mary Jane and Jon.

I understand you Alexis, cool growing PNG Dendrobium are so charismatic but also won't grow in most of Honolulu (low elevations) either. I bought some from Andy's when I arrived here as a treat now that I am in a climate where I don't have to hook up an air conditioning unit and many other things just to grow them. Looking forward to growing some Masdevllia and Dracula too... It's a new orchid adventure.

 

Hi breezy! (may I call you thus?)

Anglican? No I am not am not religious, but I guess you could call me an 'Angrae-can'.

Congratulations on meeting Joyce Stewart and picking up some new angraecoids. To answer your request, I'd need to dig through some boxes to see what my correspondence was with Fred. It's probably nothing terribly interesting. I was filled with exuberant enthusiasm for his beautiful plants and so aside from gushing I also peppered him with questions about how to grow them. He always took time to write me back.

I left some of the very large species with my friend David Orr at Waimea Valley Botanical Garden because it didn't make sense for me to bring them here. He's going to mount them out on the trees so visitors can enjoy them. The rest of the jewels came with me and are really enjoying their new home indoors. Maybe in a few weeks I'll get some pictures of my new growing setup and I'll share them on this board.