The South Florida Palm Sale

[PalmGuyWC]

This may not be the proper place to post this, but I've looked everywhere and I can find no mention of the S. Fla. palm sale last weekend, except from myself. Floridians, does it take a Californian to tell the world about the greatest palm sale on earth? Wake up Florida!!

The weather was superb, low humidity, no rain or wind and a perfect day for palm shopping, however I noticed the attendence was way down from past sales. I had a long discussion with Lenny Goldstein about the if's, and's, and but's, of why the attendence was so low. I still feel it's a lack of advertisement, but Lenny said advertising in the news paper had become so expensive, and there is no free ride anymore from the papers or TV.

It was fortunate that rain had made the lowlands so musshy that the sale had to be moved to the area where the sales used to be held and is a much more desirable location. Thank you God for that.

There weren't near as many vendors there as have been in the past, but there were still enough and with a huge selection of plants, so many new palms that I'd never heard of them. There are lots of dypsis showing up in Florida now. I was kind of dissapointed that I didn't see more Chamaedoreas for sale, but I think the smaller growing Dypsis are replacing the Chams. This is a shame since Chams. grow so well in S. Florida. I hope this is not a trend.

I'm wondering if most avid palm collectors don't already have all the palms they want, but there are a lot of other folks out there who aren't collectors who must want some unusual palms for their gardens. I was only there on Saturday morning, so maybe things picked up later in the day and the next day. Maybe, with so many great palm nurserys in S. Fla., and their frequent sales, business is being drawn away from the Palm Societie's sale. A point to ponder.  Maybe some of the nurserymen and vendors have some ideas to share. I was told by several that Fairchild Gardens hasn't been very helpfull in the past few years.

At any rate, from a Californian's point of view, it was a great sale, and in spite of myself, I walked away with a couple of palms, and I swore I wouldn't buy any. The South Florida palm sale is still the greatest palm sale on Earth, and I wish you all the luck in the future. It's not just a sale, it's an event!

Dick

[Jeff Searle]

Dick,

     It was a pleasure to see you at the sale once again. I know you have made this trip many,many times over the years, and have noticed lots of small changes as well. We enjoyed beautiful weather, the gardens has never looked better, the only thing that was missing was customers. It was the slowest sale I think of all times. But, nevertheless it was good to be associated with a great group of palm growers,collectors and hobbiest.

Jeff

[BS Man about Palms]

(Jeff Searle @ Nov. 11 2007,18:15)

QUOTE

Dick,

     It was a pleasure to see you at the sale once again. I know you have made this trip many,many times over the years, and have noticed lots of small changes as well. We enjoyed beautiful weather, the gardens has never looked better, the only thing that was missing was customers. It was the slowest sale I think of all times. But, nevertheless it was good to be associated with a great group of palm growers,collectors and hobbiest.

Jeff

Jeff- It was slow because all your friends who normally are supporting the sale were supporting your 50th! (and the people they know who had to stay and work....the candlemaker for instance.... )  

Who loves ya baby

[Jeff Searle]

(BS, Man about Palms @ Nov. 11 2007,21:43)

QUOTE

(Jeff Searle @ Nov. 11 2007,18:15)

QUOTE

Dick,

     It was a pleasure to see you at the sale once again. I know you have made this trip many,many times over the years, and have noticed lots of small changes as well. We enjoyed beautiful weather, the gardens has never looked better, the only thing that was missing was customers. It was the slowest sale I think of all times. But, nevertheless it was good to be associated with a great group of palm growers,collectors and hobbiest.

Jeff

Jeff- It was slow because all your friends who normally are supporting the sale were supporting your 50th! (and the people they know who had to stay and work....the candlemaker for instance.... )  

Who loves ya baby

Bill,

  IT WAS da Bomb! It would of been nice if you and others could of came. Tents, cots, lanterns, restless night, sore backs, ...........priceless.  I guess I'm going to have to travel west soon.

Jeff

[BS Man about Palms]

(Jeff Searle @ Nov. 11 2007,18:53)

QUOTE

(BS @ Man about Palms,Nov. 11 2007,21:43)

QUOTE

(Jeff Searle @ Nov. 11 2007,18:15)

QUOTE

Dick,

     It was a pleasure to see you at the sale once again. I know you have made this trip many,many times over the years, and have noticed lots of small changes as well. We enjoyed beautiful weather, the gardens has never looked better, the only thing that was missing was customers. It was the slowest sale I think of all times. But, nevertheless it was good to be associated with a great group of palm growers,collectors and hobbiest.

Jeff

Jeff- It was slow because all your friends who normally are supporting the sale were supporting your 50th! (and the people they know who had to stay and work....the candlemaker for instance.... )  

Who loves ya baby

Bill,

  IT WAS da Bomb! It would of been nice if you and others could of came. Tents, cots, lanterns, restless night, sore backs, ...........priceless.  I guess I'm going to have to travel west soon.

Jeff

Please do, my friend!

[Ken Johnson]

I have avoided this post to see if my fellow SFPS members would jump in. I guess the palm bug bite is off down here. The meetings are lightly attended, the field trips are so so, sales are off and interest in building it back up seems to have dwindled. I am one of the few in Miami Dade County that even posts here. We used to call 1300 people our members but since we initiated PAID mambership things have fallen off and I think we have less than 100 people we call members.

No doubt that what started as the greatest sale in the world is no longer. Jeff, dont you gross about 3 times what the SFPS did this year?

It is still a fun time and lots of vendors have super rare stuff but so many vendors have lured coustomers to their nurseries that it is hard to compeat. With the 22% mark up and the $20 fee to get into FTBG the smart shopper goes to Jeffs and gets free lunch too!

Oh well the old days cant last forever. Sorry Dick.

[Okie]

The people up my way are not to happy about having to pay $20.00 just for the opportunity to spend more money.  They also have to consider the price of gas for the 360 mile round trip.  Add the society mark up and what do you get...............

Well, I certainly get more visits.

[waykoolplantz]

as a garden member....my entrance was n/c.

I found a number of excellent palms and spent too much.

I chose not to acknowledge the rude & glaring staff member ....maybe they can use some of their Chihuly or wedding receipts for some charm school for her.

[PalmGuyWC]

Mike,

I must have spoken to the same staff member, or maybe she was a volunteer for the sale. She's beyond charm school....time for that "lady" to be dissmised.

Otherwise, the sale was great, and I enjoyed myself.

Ken, thanks for your nice letter which I responded to, but my computer froze up and I lost all my text. I'll try again tomorrow.

Dick

[TikiRick]

Everytime I have visited a palm sale of recent years, it just appears that there are fewer and fewer customers. As a customer myself, and only an "amateur" collector at best, I think there are numerous reasons why the palm enthusiasm is waining.

1. As mentioned before, many vendors are now opening up their nurseries for special occasion sales.

2. You have access to any palm via your desktop. Many people prefer shopping online and having it shipped directly to their doorstep. Seedlings or not, it is a matter of convenience for many.

3. Many of the palms that were once rare and/or unusual are now fruiting and the seedlings are being given away by the palm's owner.

4. The nation's housing market is in a serious slump, and many people are not purchasing "landscape material" to attempt to flip homes.

5. The economy appears to be in a deeper hole and with some forecasts calling for an even deeper recession.

6. Many are just plain cutting back on 'luxury expenses' like that of plant material.

IMO......just some personal observations....

[Jeff Searle]

TikiRick,

       Every reason you mentioned is a true and valid one. The old days(15 + years ago) are gone, where everyone waited until the sale to get their palms. I don't ever see it going back either.

Jeff

[waykoolplantz]

Good points Rick..it seemed a little thin in both choices & folks.

My biggest dissapontment once again is one of the vendors who claims to have palms but not brought to the sale."but we got the top 10 palms"...so does Home Depot

[Ken Johnson]

SFPS did sell around $100,000 between the two sales this year. Not a bad number. They will be back at Montgomery in the spring and that will attract more people (no admission too). The sale is run by volunteers so the "service" can be akward.

I still like the fact that all the main suppliers are in one place at one time. The competition keeps the prices down and I can do "one stop shopping". Plus I alway like the fact that I am supporting SFPS. Over the years they have had great lectures which even have freedinner, the field trips have been fun (more fun sometimes when deep in the bushes ), and the Holliday party is the best of any local plant society!  

Rick, I think you may be right though. The WWW has allowed us to get all the info we need right at home. Even this forum has become a kind of world wide meeting place. Chat, photos, news. seed and plants for sale. I love it but I wonder where the rest of the IPS members are. I predict that this place will grow as local events wane. As the world turns!

[Ken Johnson]

For those of you that may want to know more about the SFPS Sale I will post a few stories about the event. Fell free to ask questions and to add infomatiom. Maybe you have a great story and a picture of a palm bought there long ago.

Not many palm sales start their history in the parking lot of a church but the SFPS did!

[Mark@PalmBeach]

I too am guilty of spending all my discretionary palm dollars at nursery sales so I didn't bother going to the Fairchild one, plus it is a little far for me. I think the selection at Jeff's sale and the one at Loxahatchee (Design Source?) were great.

Speaking of low attendance at meetings. One thing I always wondered about is the frequency and location of the Palm Beach meeting. When I lived in Northern Cal we had maybe 3 meetings that took place during the spring and summer months. They always took place at someones garden. It was a great way to meet fellow members and see an interesting garden at the same time. I can rarely make a weekday evening meeting and it is always at Mounts Botanical Garden.

Why don't they use the "fieldtrip" forum for meetings here? I am pretty sure other chapters (like SoCal) also have gatherings at members homes. There is certainly enough fantastic gardens around for many, many years worth of meetings. And remember most private Californian palm gardens are considerably smaller that those in Florida.

Someone enlighten me.

[Jeff Searle]

Mark,

      I agree with you. An occassional garden tour/meeting at someones yard can be really interesting and fun. And there are certainly enough gardens to go around. I also think that meetings are neccessary as well at the Mounts too. These kinds of meetings are a good way for someone that maybe took a trip , can come back and show the many palms that were seen in a habitat situation. I feel like a mix of the two could benefit all.

Jeff

[www.dadluvsu.com]

I've only been to one meeting at Mounts...  It was great!  I happened to be having a hardcore scale issue at the time and the speaker was Catherine Mannion of UF/IFAS.  Her topic was "Pest of Palms and Cycads"  Perfect!!!  There was a decent sized room and a projector hooked up to her computer.  Good learning experience...  The facility was great as a classroom environment.  AS much as I enjoyed it, I was never much of a bookworm kinda student (who woulda thunk it? )  I think a good mixture of meetings in the field and classroom seeting would be a great equation for a growing society...  But then again, I'm the new kid on the block and am just happy to be a part of things!  

[PalmGuyWC]

Thanks to all of you guys for pitching in and adding your comments. I guess I've been out of touch, as I'm shocked that the Palm Society membership has dwindled so much in S. Florida. What a shame. I can remember a time when the S. Fla. chapter had almost as much money in their coffers as the IPS, from revenue made from the palm sales.  I remember many good things  were done, like palming the Zoo, and then re-palming it again after hurricane Andrew, and many other public sprited things.

From what I gather, it seems S. Fla is charging a $20 surcharge for membership, and that may have turned off quite a few people. From past experience from serving in various official positions with the PS, I know it does take money to send out notices and publications, postage, etc. for meetings, and other projects. In N. Calif. we have always tried to meet those financial needs from the money made at our palm auctions at our chapter meetings.

S. Cal. charges  $35 a year, but then they publish a very slick publication with nice color photographs and great articles, and I'm sure that costs a good bit. We are lucky now, as technology has brought down the costs of publications. 25 years ago, it was much more expensive and with a lesser product. If all chapter notices and other news were sent on this web site, that would drastically cut down on postage costs, etc. Maybe the Palm Society is going through a technological transition right now and the world of computers scares some members.

I've always found the Palm Society is a rather affluent society compaired to most other plant societys, and most interested people in palms are not transient members. Most of us are "hard core," and will be around no matter what, and computers are about as common place as TV's are now.

Maybe some of us are going through a "hick-up" now as we transition more and more to instant worldwide communications, instant news, and pictures flashed all over the globe 5 minutes from our gardens. I think it's wonderfull, and we all have to adjust to this wonderful new medium of the WWW. It's damn reveloutionary!!

I think we all have to promote this wonderfull web site, Discussing Palm Trees World Wide, and Palmtalk at our local chapter meetings. I know a lot of local computer savy members who don't participate or even know about it, and I tell them what they are missing. We are a truly a global community now and I hope it grows, and I'm sure it will. Maybe the Palm Society has to reinvent its self, as so many global companies have done. I'm sure we will grow and prosper.

Wow!  Did I get off topic and carried away? Sorry, but I hope we can build up our local memberships and participation.

Dick

[TikiRick]

I must say that I was asked to host the Croton Society meeting last August. As a croton newbie, I didn't think I was worthy, but did nonetheless. Since the Croton Society is actually home to Tampa (about 250 miles north and west), many of their meetings were on the Gulf side. This was one of the first meetings held at a garden on the Atlantic side. We had a great turn out and from what I have been told, it was a success because plant (palm, croton, orchid, whatever...) always enjoy going to other gardens...it is inspiring!

Do I think that as many would have shown up on a weekday evening in a classroom? Probably not. I find it difficult to attend in the evenings as well.

More money was raised at this one meeting through the auction than some of the others combined.

So I do agree that combining a field trip and a meeting are always attractive and productive at the same time.