Another horticulture society, another auction--

16 years ago

but this time they don't ask you to post a minimum price. This is the more or less local one, which I've belonged to almost as long as I've lived here. They ask for donations, but leave it up to the bidders as to what to bid (maybe they'd let you put on a minimum if you felt it necessary.) They have a long-established tendency to get rivalries going--since it's all for the society--and the bids often get out of my price range. I couldn't stay this year, but brought two chiritas and a begonia. First picked to be bid on was a nice young Chirita 'Betty'--no blooms and a fairly small plant. They didn't seem to know what it was, my reporting friend said, and the bidding was hesitant at first, but somebody said '$20' and somebody else said '25', and she wasn't sure but she thought it finally went for about eighty dollars. Just a nice but young plant. I think 'Aiko' was next--she was only in a four-inch pot and needed to be potted up, but she had I think three stems in bloom and a whole bunch of buds (and if you don't know C. 'Aiko', she is really lovely with bright yellow flowers. I'm partial to yellow.) It went for some ridiculous amount over a hundred dollars! With the little 3" pot of Begonia 'Five and Dime' that went for a hundred dollars, I made the society about 250-260 bucks she said!

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Comments (3)

alenka
16 years ago
Oh, wow. That's a lot of money for three plants, even for very nice ones! I'm sure the horticultural society will be able to do some great stuff with this money you made for them! This is pretty cool of you.

I'm curious if there were a lot of orchids sold at that auction. Somehow orchids make people willing to spend a lot of money :-D . I once saw an orchid seller's booth at a show, and besides orchids, they were selling some very small sinningia leucotricias and a few common haworthias -- for about $50 per plant. Now, I don't think anyone else sold leucotrichas there, so there I could sort of see where the high price was coming from, but the same exact haworthias (I checked the tags, they really were the same!) were sold in a cactus booth for 5-6 dollars! So yeah, my theory is, orchids make people do crazy things. Were there any orchids at your auction? :)

Of course, in reality, most likely people were simply being generous, since they knew they were benefiting the society. But I still like my orchid theory :)

Oh, and 'Five and Dime' is a very pretty begonia, I saw it once and it's on my "I wanna" list :)
bubba62
16 years ago
I often feel guilty after our plant society auctions because of the ridiculous prices some of the things I've donated bring in - they set the beginning bids on the fly as the bidding goes on. Last fall I took some second year seedlings of plain, ordinary Cyclamen hederifolium in 3" pots, and the first went for $35! I guess it's for a good cause, but can be a little embarrassing.
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greenelbows1
Original Author
16 years ago
Yeah, definitely embarrassing, but kinda gratifying too. They do a lot of good things with the money which I think makes everyone go a little crazy (plus the first thing they do is give out boxes of about fifteen or twenty plants of various kinds for people to take home and report on, so you start out feeling generous!) I didn't get a very good look at the other things there--may have been some orchids but I don't remember any as there were lots of people and lots of plants all jammed in, and I was spending most my time greeting old friends. Would kind've liked to stay, but 'too many plants to plant, too few hours'. I remember some camellias. I think your orchid theory is a good one, Alenka!