Oh, I sure wish I could go, Ming! You don't have to register to go to the show or the plant sale. I think you probably have to join AGGS, and I know you have to register, to go to the various meetings. There's been lots about it on the gesneriad list--you can sign up for that and get lots of great information there about gesneriads as well as about the convention. I highly recommend it! Jon Dixon, who I'm sure you know from his regular postings here, has said he has been propagating lots of plants for the sale. Can't think of anyone else who posts regularly who has said they're going. I'll go check the list and see if I can find the contact person (there are a LOT of posts on there!)
Nancy

Well darn. I went through every one of the messages I haven't deleted, but I guess that information was more lists ago. I have to grit my teeth and get rid of them fairly often there are so many. I should have said 'gesneriphiles', by the way. But I know you can just go for the show and sale, and you'll have your mind properly blown. I remember my first one, and I was growing what I thought was quite a nice Sinningia leucotricha (which at that time we were calling S. canescens) but there was one there I'm betting was Jon's, and it was truly incredible. There will be plants there you haven't even imagined. Wish everybody could go.

i'm going for sure!

i talked to jon and figured out which sale i get to go to. i think i'm going to set myself a budget...hard to do so soon after my paycheck, though! i have sinningia leucotricha but it's not doing anything spectacular. i wonder if i have it underpotted...

i'll let you know how it goes, and maybe take some pictures.

-ming

Your sinningia is just doing what they do in summer. Their best season is in the spring when they put up their new foliage. Then the foliage grows older and the leaves grow larger over summer. They really like cool humid conditions to really thrive. If the foliage looks ratty you can cut it off and it will send up a new pretty shoot. But, sometimes they sit and wait for a few months before putting up the new stem. Other times a new growth will come up very quickly. Otherwise, just grow it, feed it, and let it invisably build up strength in its tuber. Then next year (as early as January or as late as April) the new shoots will be especially nice and large, hopefully with flower buds in with the emerging silvery leaves. I'm bringing a lot of non-gesneriads for the sale. Look for variegated monstera, sansevierias, and whatever else I can find around here.

Jon

Good luck Ming! I'll be enviously thinking of you and hoping a convention comes to my nearest big town (Morgantown). Ha! Never happen...

Pick up a strep while you're at it.

-Mo (WV)

Who's on the committee that selects locations? I think I should send them information on the convention scene in Minneapolis/St. Paul. It's a nice place to be in July :)

It turns out this wouldn't have been a bad year to go, but it's always difficult for me to know ahead of time when I'll be able to get away. Farming is like that.

I hope I'll hear lots of stories from those of you who do make it there. *sigh*

I'm so sad and disappointed. I found that I just couldn't take the time off from school to go, especially since I have to miss the last week of my 8-week course. And I had already paid for registration and the plane ticket and everything. Oh, I'm so envious! Please give us details of the convention and post lots of pics.

Hi everyone, I'm back. This year I drove to the convention. That was one long days drive but worth it. It took about 11 hours door to door, and that was with very little stopping. I took up a carload of plants--mostly sale plants plus show plants and came home with a carload of plants--my show plants, unsold sales plants and lots of new plants (!!). It was another great convention; and, I love Portland--my first visit (what a beautiful city). I hear it rains alot there but we saw only some scattered sprinkles.

As usual I was totally busy from the time I arrived till the time I left. There is never enough time to do all the things one wants to do, attend all the activities of the convention and visit with all the people. I did manage to get barely enough sleep, and I managed to eat very well too! There is very good food to be found in downtown Portland.

Our hotel was great--the best of all the various hotels I have stayed in over the years since I started going to AGGS conventions. The rooms were all suites with sitting rooms with a pull out sleeper sofa and a bedroom with two queen sized beds. So, three of us split the cost of the room, which came with breakfast as well as a cocktail hour each day. We made good use of both. We were right downtown with lots of interesting things to walk to, including chinatown, Powell's Books (world's largest), museums, shops, and great restaurants.

The convention plant sale came off really well. I met Ming (!) there and we had a nice chat, during which I talked her into buying at least one plant she hadn't considered. Ming, I really hope you join the local chapter--you would enjoy it and they would love to have you join.

They are a small chapter and yet they did an outstanding job of hosting. What we have learned over the years is that we can help local chapters that are quite small, so that they can host a convention without burning out. Many of the tough jobs were handled by people from out of town, so that the chapter members were not overwhelmed. The plant sales chairman was from my local chapter, the speakers chair from Tennessee, the show chair from Seattle, etc. Next year we are going to have the very tough job of registration handled by Bob, our wonderful and talented Membership chairman. Maggie, you did a great job doing that this year.

The show was very very nice this year. We were treated to some fantastic plants that came down from Vancouver and Seattle. I wish you could all have seen it. It is both inspiring and shocking to see what others can do that I never seem to achieve. The best in show was a perfect Sinningia 'Amazade', a small growing hybrid of two species. It beat out a spectacular new hybrid Florist Gloxinia, grown by the same person and hybridized in Vancouver ('Peridot's Darth Vader'). Its been many years since a Glox won a trophy. Third place went to a huge tall Kohleria tubiflora, covered with bright orange flowers from head to toe. It was my personal favorite. All three were brought down from Vancouver (Oh, those Canadians :)). Arleen won the two top honors while Bill won the sweepstakes for most overall blue ribbons. There is also a very large section of arrangements and crafts. One craft that really stood out was a beaded necklace of a cluster of branches and flowers of columnea. It was unbelievable. It wasn't made to be worn, I think, but it as a display piece. That came from Tucson.

On Friday we had our annual Awards banquet where the winners were announced. It is a great tradition as the people are called up, one by one, to hear of their wins and receive their awards. I didn't win any, but I did have a nice time, as I was the Master of Ceremonies. I started out the program with a little speech; and I surprised myself with how well it came out--it was impromptu, but with notes. Afterwards about twenty people came up and shook my hand--wow, talk about a swelled head... I basically talked about the history of the society, gesneriad growing and the banquet, putting everything into a context, contrasting how the first convention in the early 50's compared with today. I also made a point of welcoming all the first time attendees and reminding everyone that that night was really a special tradition that goes way back. After my talk the awards presentation was made and then the banquet was over--but then the show opened for everyone to see the plants once again with the winners now placed with their special ribbons. The show stayed open to nearly Mid-night. So, it was a typical 7:30 AM to Midnight convention day for me.

Jen, I have wanted to have a convention in Minneapolis for many years. They did host in the 80's and still have some of the same members who worked on the convention then. They have expressed interest but are a small chapter and no local members came this year. The convention sites are basically picked when a local chapter offers. Last week we got two new offers; so, now we have convention sites for the next three years--Rochester, followed by Miami and then Denver. We would love to add Minneapolis to the list. Our new convention chairman is Paul Susi--send him an email and get him on it. Sometimes the local chapters just need a little prodding. I know that if the Twin Cities chapter hosted, that much of the work would be shared by others in the Midwest, plus all over. Meanwhile, ahem, someone needs to join the local chapter, even if visits to distant meetings might be only now and then. I am certain that the chapter would also love to come to visit you!

Nikki, I am really sorry you couldn't make it. I knew you had registered and hadn't canceled, so, each day I hoped you would make it.

Vincent, thanks for all your hospitality --I wish we could have talked more.

John, sorry we missed you this year. We all know why you didn't make it--you devil, you changed the name on Gloxinia lindenii and some others. By the way, the program on new taxonomic discoveries in the rhizomatous gesneriads was wonderful and very well presented. (It looks like we have Seemania back again after all these years...). First thing today, I went around and changed my labels--Gloxinella lindenii, Seemania....perennis, latifolia??? um, oh well, just kidding about the relabeling, but it will happen when the dust settles and you tell us what to do.

Oh yeah, I should also tell all what's new. Our new president is Carol Ann Bonner from Nashville, my friend and a great plant grower, plant collector, propagator as well as T shirt and pin designer and Society officer. And, after a mail-in vote by the society we changed the names of both the society and the journal. We are now "The Gesneriad Society" and the journal is "Gesneriads". It passed with the 2/3's requirement. So now you all know; and I need to unpack and water.

Jon

the show WAS great!

this was the first plant convention of any sort i'd ever attended and i'm pretty excited to join more societies now. i only went to the public sale/auction and the plant show, but everyone i met was extremely friendly and excited to talk about their gessies. i picked up lots of growing tips, some plants, and met jon! i also remember a lady from florida who commiserated with me about root mealies, and who was nice enough to recommend 'Suomi' to me at the episcia table.
my score: Petrocosmea minor, 4 Episcias, AV 'Teeny Bopper' and some nice cuttings. i hope they do all right--i spent the night in town with a friend of mine and we made the mistake of riding our bikes downtown to the convention. oregon IS rainy, and while summer should be warm and clear, it POURED and the plants got squished in my bike bag. 'Teeny Bopper' is teetering on the brink of life and death.
Jon: glad you like Portland, and you should come up for some non-convention visiting some time! you haven't seen the half of it... too bad the weather was out of sorts for your visit.

i wish i could say more about the show other than i looked at a lot of beautiful, well-groomed plants i didn't know existed. one guy got a comment on his card about his choice of container...i heard him say it was the ice bucket from his suite!

i don't have any pictures, but hopefully somebody else will post some!

-ming

Someone always posts pics on the AGGS web site. It usually takes a few days though. If you subscribe now to gesneriphiles you may see photos as they are posted there. Julie was posting photos on that group during convention week. I saw them last night when I downloaded all my email. To subscribe, just go to the AGGS site and find the page with links to the gesneriphiles page. Its a free email forum. I don't know how to access past posts so I can only comment that you will see any future pictures posted there. Meanwhile you can look at photos of previous years on the AGGS site. Follow the convention link to find those pages.

Ming, I missed the rain, except when we went to see Mt. Hood. I thought the cool weather was great. Pleasant cool days and perfect nights. Down here it gets cooler at night since we are closer to the coast, despite being 660 miles to the south. But it never rains here in summer (maybe one day of rain every three years or so, mid June to early Sept.) I hope your Teenybopper makes it. I grew it some years ago and stupidly lost it, so I also bought one. It isn't often seen in sales. Put it in a ziplock bag. I recommend putting up a light stand too. They are great.

Jon

Here is a link that might be useful: AGGS web site

Jon, I'm sorry I wasn't able to go this year--I just have too many other travel commitments this summer.

I hope you'll post your report to Gesneriphiles! There has been a notable absence of chatter about the convention.

II feel like the kid standing outside with her nose pressed up against the window of the candy store. I would have loved to be there, but the vicarious peek is fun, too.
I'll be checking out the site for the pictures!