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In 1998 or 1999 there was an Aroid Conference in St. Louis at MOBOT, a great, fantastic affair- my first introduction to any other Aroiders. Imagine a newbie such as I was at the time showing up, not knowing anything! Dewey Fisk and Julius Boos took me under their wings, as it were, introduced me to folks, and made sure I didn't hide in the corner too much (I was very, very shy).
It was my first introduction to Dr. Croat, Dr. Mansell, Dr. Gunghua Zhu (what a sweet man), Tony Avent ("look at this plant, who would like that? There's something really, really wrong with us!"), Scott Hyndman, Dr. Nicholson, poor Dr. Buzgo and his banished from the Aroids Acorus, Tito Wu, and many others. Was Deni Bown there? I faintly remember gushing at her, and her looking frantically for escape... hee hee, I blame the organizers- that cocktail hour at the end of the day was a killer!
Anyhow, the highlight towards the end of the conference was the plant sale- naturally I snapped up all I could, not even knowing what some plants were. Some of the plants I bought were Sauromatum guttatum, our old favorite weed.
Flash forward a few years to the Aroid Show and Sale in Miami, I brought extras of my Sauromatum guttatum, which had recently be changed to S. venosum (if memory serves me right). Dr. Croat was very interested in my bulbs, eagerly poking through the pile of them. He just could not be persuaded that my bulbs originally came from HIM! and took home several in his pocket, muttering something about "maybe they're a different variety".
Yes, back then I might have been the only Aroider from Wisconsin, or as Craig Allen called it, "Alaska".
Ah, getting old and reminisencing- good times, good times..
Albert, I envy you attending the Conference in Nancy. Thank you for sharing your photos, I really enjoyed them, especially seeing how happy all the attendees looked (except for that cow)- it was easy to see everyone was having a good time.
Susan
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