Bacps meeting this saturday!

[Warren]

I'm planning on attending my first Bay Area Carnivoruous Plant Society meeting this Saturday at the UC Botanical Gardens. I'm hoping to see lots of nice CP's and perhaps see some good deals on some affordable ones.

I'd be interested in hearing from those that are planning on going or those that have gone before. Suggestions/comments on parking, etc.

Warren

 

[Spectabilis73]

Another PFT BACPS member!

You picked the best meeting. this meeting is going to be a BIG one (lots and lots o plants) It's not uncommon to find a 2 foot sarracenia for 10 dollars!

Parking is relatively easy. Get enough parking to last you untill 4:30. Meetings have been known to stretch to long periods of time

Last meeting was about 6:00 P.M.!

The gift shop at the Berkely Botanical gardens has some Neps. Dont spend you money there untill the meeting is over... I once spent 50 dollars there, and missed out on A LOT of giant Neps for good prices...

There will be many PFT members at this next meeting. CaptainDrosera, Droseradude, Capslock, Slizarus, Spectabilis73 (me

), I hope Bugweed, and I'm hoping Est and Cephalotus88 will come, too.

 

[Travis]

Do they ever have them in Michigan? That would really be nice to go to one.

 

[droseradude]

Well I'll be in the area so I'll be going

 

[Warren]

All right. Sounds like a good party.
You all seem to know each other (besides here at PFT). Will there be nametags (with PFT aliases on them

so I can recognize you? My nametag would read 'Warren' - the same as it is here at PFT

A 2ft sars for $10 would be great. I'm guessing the better deals would be had at the sale between 12 and 1pm? I'm interested also in the auction, but I wouldn't want to get carried away!

Is it easy to run back to the parking lot, in case, to add more money? Well, I can only stay until about 5pm anyways.

Warren

 

[Jason Wong]

wish I were there...

 

[Spectabilis73]

Quote[/b] (Warren @ May 11 2004,7:12)]All right. Sounds like a good party.
You all seem to know each other (besides here at PFT). Will there be nametags (with PFT aliases on them  

 so I can recognize you? My nametag would read 'Warren' - the same as it is here at PFT

A 2ft sars for $10 would be great. I'm guessing the better deals would be had at the sale between 12 and 1pm? I'm interested also in the auction, but I wouldn't want to get carried away!

Is it easy to run back to the parking lot, in case, to add more money? Well, I can only stay until about 5pm anyways.  

Warren

yes, its pretty easy... but getting there the first time can be a pain! the first time, we got lost, but once you know where it is its easy to get there... also, i know a shortcut that saves about 5 minutes, and in some cases, half an hour!

The hot house is awesome, too... lots of neps!

 

[Warren]

What?! A shortcut? I've been to the UC Botanical Gardens before, but that was a long time ago...maybe when I was a student at Cal, which was really a long time ago. But I didn't have a car then...anyways, I'd like to hear more about this shortcut! I will be pressed for time to get there because I have to take my son to his baseball practice that morning, and it doesn't end until 11. So I expect, I'll be a little late to the meeting. I hope all the good plants aren't sold already!

 

[Spectabilis73]

http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/down/ucbg_map.pdf
thats the regular map, you can see the short cut there on there, but its kinda hard to see from the entrance, so most people take the looong route:

click

The red route indicates the short cut, and black route indicates the regular route i see people take, and the orange indicates the looong route i took the first time, the jumble in the middle is where i got lost

and the blue is a stream you should see on the way there, that will tell you you're on the right track

EDIT: oh, and the red square is the CP greenhouse

 

[Capslock]

Unfortunately, I'll be in Los Angeles for the meeting.

Warren, there's usually good stuff in the raffle. I've never come away disappointed.

Spec, buy me a raffle ticket, and choose something if I win!

You know what I like.

Capslock

 

[Warren]

Thanks Spec! Hopefully, I won't get lost with your map! I will probably be running to get there...

Sorry to hear you are going to miss the meeting, Capslock. I saw earlier on another thread that you are just back from Costa Rica. You are quite a jet-setter!

Warren

 

[Spectabilis73]

Quote[/b] (Capslock @ May 12 2004,1:13)]Unfortunately, I'll be in Los Angeles for the meeting.

Warren, there's usually good stuff in the raffle. I've never come away disappointed.

Spec, buy me a raffle ticket, and choose something if I win!  You know what I like.

Capslock

Yea, but I KNOW that you like little nepenthes cuttings... If your ticket wins, im gonna choose THE GIANT CUTTING WITH A 12 INCH PITCHER ON IT THAT YOU REFUSED TO TAKE AT THE LAST MEETING!

 

 

 

 

 

 

That one was really rare too! Only a few of those in the US! : ANGRY :

I know you like the rare ones that you dont have, and I KNOW you want one of those pots of cephalotus follicularis "hummers giant".

Maybe I'll just use your ticket for the school kids!

J/K (inside joke)

<span id='ME'><center>Spectabilis73 is invisioning all those plants for the school kids on windowsils, burned to a crisp and dead dry, all wilty and DEAD</center></span>

 

[Est]

Must... Push... Someone into... Driving me...

 

[Spectabilis73]

Quote[/b] (Est @ May 13 2004,10:29)]Must... Push... Someone into... Driving me...  

Whats your addy? I'll mapquest it and see if it isn't too much of a detour

 

[Est]

Hmm, I have today off of school, so ?I'll see if I can intrest (bully) anyone in to driving me...

 

[Warren]

It's today! And my son's baseball practice is cancelled, so I should be there on time....unless I get lost and take the route Spec took his first time

See you there!

 

[Est]

Ah well, I hope you guys (and gals) all have fun. I'll be able to go to meetings in the future though. Thanks anyway for the offer, Spec.

 

[Slizarus]

Who was there? I made it at 2:30 I would have been there at 1 but our tire blew out and it took an hour and 20 minutes before the came and switched our tire..Thankfully I got there before the show and the raffle, I bought 12 tickets..one guy bought around 30 and won two items..he would have won more but after he got the ones he wanted he handed the tickets to me and I got 2 items from those tickets

The trip was fun and I saw Droseradude and Spec..

I picked myself up a pump sprayer and a S.Oreophila from raffle and a pot of D.Scorpiodes and a pot with a S.Flava and a D.Capensis..

I spent 27 though only 17 of that was from the plants I bought..I think I walked away with about $40 worth of plants so I'm happy

 

[Bugweed]

Stephen Davis invited me to join a panel on soil mixes, but asked me on Thursday night. Not enough time to put other things aside to be a part of the panel. I suppose Peter D. and Joe Mazrimas were there. I will try to get to the next meeting, but that depends on what is going on in the bog here at home. I like my plants more than the Society anyway. And they don't give me any trouble.

 

[Warren]

I had a very good time at this meeting, and am already looking forward to my next one.

As a newbie to CP's the panel discussion on soils was quite interesting, although I would have liked to have heard more about soils for bogs. This pretty much focused on container-based cp's. It was quite enlightening for me, but as with many things, the more you learn, the more questions you have. There was definitely alot of food for thought for me.

I also got some plants as I had hoped for. (Too bad - I would like to post a photo of what I got, but it seems that the forum gallery is down...or has it gone away completely? I read somewhere that it might happen)  In any case, I purchased a couple of plants from Don Elkins, who I found to be a really nice laid back guy. Had a real good time talking to him to learn about how to care for the plants I bought from him. So I got a Capensis red ($8) and a Nepenthes ventricosa (was $20...he let me have it for $13 at the end of the show). I also won a Sarracenia in the raffle, even though I only purchased 2 tickets ($2). So all told, I spent $23 plus $3 for parking - for 3 really nice plants, alot of learning, and seeing some really cool plants displayed - pretty darn good day.

There are a couple of things I regret. One is that I missed out on a great Saracenia from Don. He was asking $15 for it...it is such a beautiful plant. Someone bought it from right under my nose. I got to the meeting at around 12:30...later than what I wanted. If only I'd gotten there 2 minutes sooner...shucks. Well, I will ask Don to bring me one next time he comes  

Also, I talked to a number of people there, but didn't get any names (except Don). It would have been nice to meet Spec, and others from this forum (based on Slizarus' post, I think I know who he is). Well, I guess that will come with time.
Were any of the panelists or people that spoke members of this forum?

The only real bad part was coming home, some idiot lady cut in front of me with her car. I had to slam on the brakes and my plants in front all tipped over (I had them on the floor)  

 

 

Although the Sarrs and Capensis stayed in their pots, Nepenthes fell out along with a bunch of soil  

 

 

I still can't believe I bought a Nepenthes. I hope I havn't got myself in over my head... I just couldn't resist.

Warren