|
waroqueanum:
<< Yes, Anth. waroq. is an expensive plant, but...
The most expensive tie I ever purchased is a Ralph Lauren with Anthurium
waroqueanum all over it. I selected it from the locked glass case in one
of our high-priced department stores, and when I got home and pulled it
out of the box, I found that the plant is hanging upside-down!
It needs no watering, and survives Pittsburgh winters unprotected, but
perhaps I would have done better to spend the money on the real thing.>>
In response to Walter's comments:
Ah, what a disappointment -- one that you would surely never have had with the
real thing!
Speaking of upside down plants, has anyone seen the new book: "The Orchid
Thief" by Susan Orlean? The book is about the passions [and obsessions] that
plague all lovers of plants. Orlean writes about various thefts of plant
materials in Florida, and about John Laroche, "a renegade plant dealer who, in
1994, was arrested with 3 Seminole Indians with rare orchids they had stolen
from a wild swamp in south Florida that is filled with some of the world's
most extraordinary plants and trees." [Query: Is there a "tame swamp"?] It
seems that Laroche had planned to make a fortune by cloning the "ghost orchid"
-- Polyrrhiza lindenii -- and selling it to those collectors of orchids whose
passion overwhelms the intellect -- often. One critic noted, correctly and in
a huff, that the illustration on the book jacket, a Phalaenopsis, is upside
down. Why wouldn't the natural illustration have been the ghost orchid? But
humorous, indeed, is the lack of research and knowledge that permitted the
book designed to put the single blossom upside down. Well, perhaps it's
artistic license.
DEWEY FISK is mentioned on pages 267 through 270, and Julius' name comes up at
page 269 --- I'm sure many of you Floridians will recognize many other names
of noted orchid growers and growers of other plants in South Florida.
Anyway, all of us with uncontrollable passions for plants of one or more
family or genus will relate to the reportage of Orlean. She, by the way,
writes for the New Yorker, and found this story interesting enough to research
it in Florida, and through the Miami Herald, and other sources [like court
records].
Thought some of you might find it interesting.
Jeanne Hannah
17623 Whispering Trail
Traverse City MI 49686-8714
(616) 223-7864
USDA Zone 5b
-
| 
IAS on Facebook
IAS on Instagram
