JUST A DOG SHOW WILL HAVE A DOG THAT SEEMS TO WIN ACROSS THE COUNTRY, SO IT IS WITH SOME PLANTS. THIS IMPRESSIVE SPECIMEN OF ABROMEITIELLA ( OR Deuterocohnia),COMES FROM THE GREENHOUSE OF PLANT COLLECTOR ART SCARPA. IT DIDnT COME IN FIRST AT THIS SHOW, BUT IT HAS AT MOST EVERY OTHER EAST COAST SHOW, FROM NEWPORT TO BOSTON. 

Yesterday we attended the Massachusetts Cactus and Succulent Society show, held at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, MA. I’ve been trying to resist collecting cacti and succulents, but one can stay away only so long. Attending a show like this is very inspiring, we brought along a friend of ours who had never been to a plant society show, and she left with a tray of plants, and I think I can sense that this won’t be the last time she goes to a society show.

DYCKIA and related species have striking leaf forms, and a collection of like-species is sharp!

Plant societies shows often have plant sales, tables where members sell cutting and starts from their own collections, and specialist nurseries who sell plants often not found anywhere else. I left with a tray of Gasteria species and Haworthia species, as well as a large Bulbine caulescens from the rare plant auction which I was trying to avoid, but this caught my eye ( and ear) as I was passing by.

Cacti shows are incredibly broad, and include often more types of plants than you might expect. It’s not all thorns and prickles, since these societies are a collective of many types of members, those who specialize in one genus like Sanseveria or Haworthia, or those who are fascinated by caudiciform plants ( those plants that look like dead roots, but are actually plants that have swollen stems or trunks which hold water. Then there are Agave’s, Dyckia, bromeliads, living stones, bonsai, african bulbs, desert cacti, flowering cacti, euphorbia’s and more. Look for more info online about a cacti or succulent society near you, for this is a group which is younger, more active and one that focuses on a very growable plant type for window sills and city apartments.

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Here is my odd observation:  Glads are one of those plants that for whatever reason, men grow more than women. Probably because in the 1940’s, the Gladiolus was sold in feed and grain and hardware stores, where corms could be purchased in the spring, when one bought their seed potatoes or onion sets. These were not ladies plants, and thus, were banished to the rear of the Asparagus beds or behind tomato plants, as if men were embarrassed to grow such lovely and yet, frivolous flowers.
So if you think ho hum, when someone mentions the Glad, think again. If the Dahlia can have a comeback party, maybe it’s also time for the show Glad to have it’s coming out party. If show choir’s cna make a comeback, so too can the Glad.

This variety, called ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ was particularly eye catching.

Hardly shy, the Gladiolus is pure impressive. Like so many plants which were popular in the 1940’s and 1950’s, the Gladiola have fallen out of fashion. But  a new generation is discovering these pushed aside South African beauties who have suffered a bad PR beating.

I’m sure the reasons are many, for like most plant societies, membership is dropping, and new members are few and far between. Most Gladiolus society members are over 70 years old, if not in their 80’s. Reaching a peak in the post war period when in the late 1940’s and 1950’s it seemed that everyone grew at least one row of Glads in the back of the vegetable garden, today, the idea of cut flower gardens is becoming popular, but the glad is overlooked for many reasons, but mostly I think because of it’s association with cheap, florist flowers. After all, who wants to grow Football mums, Carnations, or white glads?

Judges examine a table of Gladiolus at the Western Massachusetts Gladilus Society show at the Eastfield Mall, in Springfield, MA.

If you decide to grow some gladiolus, go for the best, and order some new varieties from a specialist breeder. Why not look for the same varieties people grow for exhibition, for these are the absolute best. Amazing colors, incredible ruffling, massive stems and flowers, these are hardly your grandpa’s glads.

Really though, there isn’t much subtlety in the world of Glads, check out some of these names from a catalog:  Fire Engine, Astroman, Dynamite, Exclamation, Easy Rider, Imperial Master, Mr. Lincoln, Royal Spice, Starfighter, Spitfire, Smokin, Storm Clouds, Torch, and Violence. ( All  from the 2010 catalog of Pleasant Valley Glads).

Next year, try ordering some exhibition Glads ( not the ones you find in your typical bulb catalogs or at the local nursery. Go for the extraordinary. Check out the Gladiolus Society site, and links for more info. Glads are easy to grow, relatively care free, they just want lots of water and warm summers, and they are relatively inexpensive. The really good ones may cost you a couple of dollars each, but then today, so does a good cup of coffee. Save the corms every fall in your cellar, and before long, if you buy a few each year, you will have a collection. Try ordering some to grow and then enter them in a local Gladiolus society show ( check on line for one in your area) or better yet, order a couple dozen and plant them in a large clump in your perennial bed, they make amazing exclamation points when grown en-masse, and cars will stop to ask you what are you growing that can give you such color in August.

 Some color combinations were very showy.

Interested in learning more about the Gladiolus? Look here for a chapter near you. Most clubs will have both shows in the autumn, and bulb sales or auctions in the spring. Some have social dinners, and meetings throughout the winter.

For other websites, try these.
The North American Gladiolus Council

To order corms, try these specialists:

Cates Family Glads

Blooming Prairie Gardens

Pleasant Valley Glads Our local grower, and the guys who were at this show. Amazing selection.

Honker Flats in Minnesota growers

Noweta Gardens Big retail grower

LITHUANIAN GLAD SUPPLIERS ( They say they ship worldwide) ( Hey, I’m Lithianian, so I thought I’d include it)

Geles

Unique Gladioli

 There are many green Gladilous, and are often overlooked by people wanting to grow green flowers.

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Lilium ‘Katinka’, a down-facing pendant Asiatic

A new Trumpet Lily

Last weekend we attended the New England Lily Society Show at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden. I remember both visiting and exhibiting in this Lily show when I was a kid, when the group was called the New England Regional Lily Group, and their shows would be held at the Worcester County Horticultural Society’s Horticultural Hall, a massive space designed in the 19th C. as an exhibition hall for plant enthusiasts. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, the hall would be filled with towering stems of fragrant lilies that exhibitors would groom and enter from all over New England. From early in the morning, exhibitors would start arriving, or even the night before, so that they would have time emptying out their vans and station wagons where the tall stems would be transported so carefully with cotton between their buds, or newspaper taped around their stems.

Carefully sorted and then placed in each Class, the lilies would be judged for perfection. I’m not sure if this is one of those things that one romances about from the perspective of the present, and remembers a grander and larger exhibit, but I think I am pretty certain that this current show included many fewer entries and stems of lilies. The reasons are many, first, all plant societies are losing memberships for many reasons, and second, the lily beetle, which is should be another post in itself, for this lady bug look-alike is an invasive species that is destroying many if not most of our lilies, native and hybrid and is the only insect I use insecticide on, and third, lilies are rarely grown since most people buy their plants in the spring, and fall, and usually in-bloom, so they rarely buy summer blooming bulbs like lilies.


Do try true lilies, at one of the Lily mail order nurseries, or visit your local nursery since many now have potted lilies for sale, that are in-bud, and are not much more than actual hybrid bulbs planted in the autumn. If you choose to order bulbs, order them now, and then when they are shipped in October when dormant, they can be placed in the garden for color next summer. Lilies get better with each year, as the bulbs become larger, which is a fun phenomenon to watch. My favorite are down-facing Asiatics, the turks cap types which are hard to find, except at lily nurseries, and the trumpets, which have an incredible fragrance akin to menthol, jasmine and banana all mixed up, summer for my nose!

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I would be remiss if I did not offer congratulations to Joe, for being voted in as president of the American Primrose Society. The next two years should prove interesting as he attempts to guide a plant society toward modernism and respect for its heritage. He will look upon the society elders and veterans of the job for guidance and support, as well as new muses fromt he modern world to help him navigate a twentieth Century model through a Twenty first Century world of 900 TV channels, instant messaging and disposable media. Any plant society today, who imagines a future of sameness and growth is sadly, blind. The future, if any, for these groups must include careful, yet swift change in understanding their consumer, and in delivering more experiencial value if they ever expect to move forward. I can’t think of one plant society, which I belong to, which is not experiencing a fatal loss of membership ( and I belong to a few societies!), most are blind and are choosing to ignore the trend, but it is inevitable, and those few who are offering new values may succeed in surviving a bit longer. But most are so shocked and angry at their unexplained loss of membership, that they choose to shut their doors, and minds, even more, rather than to merge, or redefine themselves. Today, in a world where even the largest corporations and largest financial institutions are redefining themselves, so too must the simple plant society. Understanding what they provide to members is key, and many may evolve from the world of print and journal, towards an online and digital life.Taking the lead from the world of science and medicine. THe journal NATURE, the botanical research sites for botanists and most of science have moved away from the dusty library and printed journal, to a digital world. Since plant societies are somewhere inbetween the more serious scientist and reasearcher and the common, gardener, a model may be the world of science. After all, Mr. Gore, they did, indeed, invent the internet for just this purpose before we, the masses discovered its dating possibilities.

But back to some photos from our weekend at the national primrose show.

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It’s Friday, and people are arriving at the Double Tree Hotel here in Portland Oregon, and rushing out to the parking lot where there are in impressive about of plant vendors with tables of the most incredible plant material that any hortiphyle can imagine. Gosseler Farms, with rare shrubs, magnolias and perennials, Cherry Creek Daffodils with amazing miniature daff’s all in bloom, Bovees Nursery with Vyreya and Rhody’s, Siskiyou Rare Plant Nursery, Mt. Tahoma Nursery, Hedgerows Nursery, basically every catalog I have sitting on my coffee table at home, has a table out there…..what was I ever thinking bringing myself to a west coast plant conference, and believing that I would leave empty handed! Actually, I did bring an empty suitcase, just in case. It’s full, now!

A potted Fritillaria bithynica in the plant show.

Fritillaria eastwoodiae

I am so impressed with the growers here in the N.W. Of course, thisis Frit country, but the members of the host chapter of NARGS, the Columbia-Willamette Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society really have their, um…Frits together on this weekend. The speakers, the plant vendors, the location, even though I keep being told that the best NARGS chapter in the world in apparently the Rocky Mountain Chapter ( someone still needs to prove this to me!), this host chapter has really raised the bar on how to kick off a weekend for us crazy plant people. I can’t wait to see what’s next. The plant show looks like an AGS show, in England. Very impressive.

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A Walk at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Boylston, Massachusetts

Spring weekends in May are busy enough, with all of the transplanting, dividing, seed sowing, rototilling, garden clean-up, pruning, raking, and garden center cruising, when you throw in two major flower shows – it can really get crazy. But we would not do it if we didn’t love it, right? This past weekend hosted the New England Primrose Society show at Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, MA, a show we annually host at this weekend, a date which we share with the Seven States Daffodil Show.

If you have never been to a flower show, it’s a routine that enthusiasts eagerly and grudgingly await for, the highlight of the year for many who love, collect and grow a particular genus. Moreover, it is a social event, a time where one can do more than meet, and compete, since these weekends are more about early breakfasts in the cold, lunchmeat luncheons with coffee and pastry, but since people drive and fly in with thier precious cargo, it is also a time of party’s and cocktail events in the evening at local members’ homes ( like ours), which is fun. All in all, it’s a quite like a holiday, for ‘family’ members who connect over a passion ( plants) who exchange with thier long lost friends, gifts of highly desired plants, a cutting or a seedling, a glass of wine, and a time to catch up with gardening stories. Here, a group of like-minded people can leave spouses at home, and sit in a room of total strangers, and all have a conversation and glass or two of wine with new friends, all who have an immediate connection with a plant that they love – instant friends.

The gardens at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, a public horticultural center in the middle of Massachusetts formed twenty years ago when the Worcester Horticultural Society sold it’s exhibition hall ( Horticultural Hall) in downtown Worcester, and purchased a farm high on a hill in nearby Boylston, MA) with the ultimate goal of creating a major botanic garden. Currently in Phase 2 of a long-term strategic plan, the gardens are beginning to grow into a magnificent space.

A view of the Daffodil hall where tidy rows of Narcissus species and hybrids are displayed and judged against each other, at the Daffodil Society’s Seven State Daffodil Show.

Aurucula expert, Susan Schnare exhibited many of her auricla primroses, and many won blue ribbons.

A stunning auricula grown by Susan Schnare, took top honors at the New England Primula Show.

An impressive pan of Primula marginata grown by Kris Fenderson of New Hampshire.

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Jet lag from the Orient is a nasty thing to recover from, but I did want to recap my trip with some images of the best orchids which I viewed wile visiting the International Orchid Grand Prix in Tokyo.
Even though I was on a business trip which was non-plant related, I was fortunate to be able to squeeze in a Saturday afternoon at this largest of orchid shows. This was my second Grand Prix in Tokyo, and although it felt smaller, it still motivated me to go buy some orchids. Here are some of the highlights…

A Cattleya with lots of blooms. This is a show, where the specimens have an incredible number of blossoms.

A Dracula species that I did not happen to get the name of.

Amazing Cat’s

This is a show where the whirr and buzz of digital cameras and cell phones add to the experience.

First on my wish list, the Australian, Dendrobium speciosum.

Second on my wish list, Dendrobium hancockii, a branchy, deciduous Dendro that was massive in width. I HAVE to get this one!

Lycaste are perhaps the most impressive at this show. I think the cool winters in Japan provide the perfect conditions for this orchid.

Lycaste ‘Spring Bouquet”

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A courtesy guide attempts to control the crowds at the worlds’ largest orchid show.

Perhaps my collegue, Jessica summed it up best, ” I wish I had a hobby that could fill a stadium”. I felt bad for her, after spending long hours working, attending focus groups with screaming kids, walking and walking and walking for hours and shopping for trends during our stay in Tokyo, I then convinced her to spend a few hours on Saturday afternoon at what is essentially the Orchid world Olympics for orchid enthusiasts – the Japan Orchid Grand Prix International Orchid show, held annually in the Tokyo Dome Baseball stadium.

Imagine, baseball during the summer, and in February, orchids.

This is my second business trip to Tokyo that happened to coincide with the Grand Prix, so I was incredibly lucky, for the show is amazingly enourmous, and there are things to be seen at this show that are not seen at any other orchid show around the world, mainly the native Japanese orchids the Calanthe, Neofinetia and dendrobium moniliforme, that should be familiar to anyone who reads this blog, since I happen to have some remnant of a Japanese gene in me, that makes me pine for these tiny unpretentious orchids which Jess said, looked like dead plants. I will show more of these in the next posting, since there were far too many to incude here.

This massive 6 foot or more wide specimen of Coelogyne crista fma. hololeuca ‘Pure White’ is  a plant that I have seen here three times. This year, it is larger than ever. I must try to remember to try growing one like this – on a portable shingled roof section.

Coelogyne cristata fma. hololeuca ‘Pure White’
Growing on a very interesting and somewhat rustic wooden structure which looks a bit like a piece of a roof, this massive Coelogyne cristata, reportedly an easy-to-bloom species for a cold greenhouse, reminded me that mine has never yet bloomed. this plant, however, what about 6 feet in diameter and
literally covered in fowers. I do know that I must let the plant become cold, near freezing in the winter, and allow it to dry out for the winter, but although it is full and lush, I never get any flowers. So if anyone out there has any advice, please let me know. Perhaps it is a fertilizer issue?

Only Japan could host such as show, since no where else is there such a passion for specific plants. As flower shows around the world (and especially in the United States) experience lower attendance numbers, this flower show fills the largest stadium in the worlds’ largest city, and keeps it packed for an entire week and with long que lines, makes a clear statement of the level of horticultural passion that exists in this amazing country. Plant enthusiasts are everywhere in Japan, but it seems no one is as enthusiastic as the orchid enthusiasts are. As Jess said, “after flying halfway around the world without hassle, it took an orchid show guard to search and frisk me. I mean, come on, this is just a flower show! What we’re they thinking..that I was going to smuggle in my purse? A vial of aphids or a bomb?”

Orchid cookies for sale.

Imagine seeing these Phalaenopsis at your local Home store! I could not get over the length of the stems and the bumber of flowers. The Japanese have a specific way in which they train their phalaenopsis.I could have done without the foil though.

Incredible Dendrobiums, which remind me of when I lived in Hawaii and we grew them on our clothes line, of course, they never loked like these. New hyrbids, grex’s and crosses are selections that look nothing like their parents.

An award winning dendrochillum species specimen plant which I forgot to identify. Spectacular.

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There have been no postings for the past four days, since I was busy with the National Primrose Show, which was hosted, once again, by our New England Chapter, and held at Tower Hill Botanic Garden, in Boylston Massachusetts. What I like about primula, is that it is a genus that is more challenging, and one that few people see reresented well since few see beyond the silly little acaulis primroses that one finds in supermarkets for 99 cents in January.

Show primula are some of the most beautiful flowers favored by botanical artists
After hosting a party at the house on Thursday evening, we tours local gardens on Friday, and the exhibition and events, such as speakers and the banquet which occured over the weekend. Now, late on Sunday night, exhaustion has fianlly caught up with us, and it is time to rest, and think about next years Nationals, which be held in Juneau, Alaska.

Another National winner grown by Susan Schnare
Before I go to bed, here are a few shots of some winning show auricula, these are the winners and could be considered the best primroses in America, grown by Susan Schnare of New Hampshire, who also won best in show.

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