Steve and I, along with Jacki, Mike and one of our salesmen, attended a foliage trade show in Ft Lauderdale last week. While this show is mainly intended for foliage growers to market their products to buyers, many of the allied trades attend also to market our products to the growers. The amount of plants showcased at these events is just overwhelming!This is a display by the Dept of Agriculture in Thailand, filled with every variety of orchid possible. They were giving away miniature orchid corsages to all the ladies.

Many vendors that sell fountains and outdoor sculptures exhibit there also. I thought this one was particularly pretty, although I could have done without the frog! The plants are a type of bromeliad

This is called a "bat plant". It is in the same family as a peace lily. This is a new variety and in high demand. At the end of the show, many vendors sell their plants to individuals, rather than spend the money to haul them home. This grower is one of our customers, and he let me take the plant early, rather than get caught up in the near riot at the end of the show. Everyone wanted a bat plant, and they were the only grower there that had them. I bought two of these, plus two small orchids, a bromeliad/air plant attached to a volcanic rock from Hawaii, and two ceramic orchid pots.