Hi guys:
Went to the Santa Barbara International Orchid Show last weekend.
I had ordered a Paphinia herrarae from Ecugenara to be picked up there, mainly to force me to attend and maybe buy a few more plants. I say 'force me to attend' because the drive is about 140 miles one way and can be (and was) absolutely hellacious as it goes straight through Los Angeles. I spent nearly four hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic both ways!
But while I was there it was great! Fantastic representation of growers from all over the world.
After I picked up my Paphinia, I bought three other plants.
First, a Dendrobium speciosum. Not quite sure what I'm getting into here as these guys can get huge! Here's a photo of one in the back of a pickup at the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate - yes, that's just ONE plant!
The other two are a bit more normal, but both have interesting names: Bc Golf Green 'Hair Pig' and Rlc. Village Chief Headache 'Golden Baby'. As these were both marketed by a grower from southeast Asia, I think something may have been lost in translation. Like maybe the 'Hair Pig' was something like 'Fuzzy Bear' in the original language, but was poorly translated. No clue what the 'Chief Headache' might have been originally.
There was also a bit of a funny incident while I was buying the 'Hair pig' and 'Chief Headache'. The proprietor only spoke broken English and was obviously having a bit of difficulty communicating. A lady came up to him and started asking questions. As I overheard, she was plainly not at all knowledgeable about orchids - probably had just come to the show to see the pretty flowers. She asked the proprietor what kind of orchids he specialized in. His answer was a heavily accented "Cat-ter-ray-ya." The lady said , "Oh, Cateraya - thank you" and walked away saying to her friend how beautiful the Caterayas were and how she'd maybe like to own a Cateraya one day. She had taken the pronunciation literally !!! I had to stifle my laugh so hard my eyes watered!
Priceless! Made the whole drive worth it.
