Spent our Sept. vacation at Surfside Beach (just south of Myrtle Beach) in S. Carolina. This May while there we started our semi-annual trip to Marriott Orchids. It's quite a hike (4.5 hours each way). Hadley meet us with his usual smile and spent 2 1/2 to 3 hours talking to me. I had used his internet site and went with a list of 2 crosses that I wanted. One he had the 4 that I request and the other he didn't. He did however find plenty of more crosses to meet my wishes. I bought 2 other seedling white complex crosses. Then I bought 2 Psyche that he recently pulled from compot and had in 2" pots. These were made with two awarded parents. The main and only problem with Marriott is that he didn't want to sell anything. He had just gotten back from a show so had the left overs still in bloom and priced. These were available. Hadley blooms out almost every thing before he sells it. While walking around I found a large complex with two growths both in bud. I asked him about it and he told me about the cross and then just laid it back down. Later I walked around and picked a few in flower that I liked. He wouldn't sell any of them. Finally I went back to that 2 growth in bud plant. I must have worn him down because he finally agreed to sell it to me, although under some anxiety. This one is a gamble as it wasn't in bloom. If it had been he may not have sold it to me. All and all a great trip.

Surfside is so nice! Did you eat at Sam's Famous? If you didn't you are missing out. Their hot dogs are great! Hadley is a real nice guy, I only try to buy stuff from him in flower... I will eat his table scraps... I always stay in Muriel's Inlet and beach at Garden City!

That's interesting, but I suppose understandable. Might as well be Hadley getting the awards, right? Glad you had a nice time, and also glad your back with us!

glad you had a good time!!

You're experience is not unusual. I've found that many growers understandably want to keep the finest fruits of their hybridizing for awards and further breeding. They only want to sell the nice, but ordinary plants. Who can blame them? The ideal way for growers like this to go is to sell exclusively wholesale to the pot plant market, shipping plants as they bloom and can be evaluated. The downside is that you only make wholesale prices instead of retail.

The only way to get a real winner out of there is by buying his seedlings. When there in May I asked about getting 4 seedlings of Snow Glory. Hadley explained that he thought that he was sold out of them. Then after talking for a while he managed to find two of them for me. This time I requested the same 4 seedlings of Snow Glory. This time some of the smaller seedlings that he may have been holding back must have grown up a bit as he sold me four this time. Actualy one pot had two seedlings in it, that Hadley threw in. The only way to get a real winner out of there is to buy many of one cross and hope for the best. That is the reason that I ended up buying 16 seedlings. I'll bloom them all out. The one good thing about going there is Hadley did go and get 2 plants from his area and offered to sell them to me. These may not have been awardable but they were above average for that cross. ]I also got him to sell me a two growth plant that had both growths in bud. This was a second bloom plant. The main growth had since died back. Hadley stated that it more then likely was an above average plant that he wanted to see bloom out a second time. He wasn't keen on selling it and it was a complete gamble on my part. He stated I might get lucky and have an great plant. Only time will tell.

Tadd waits patiently for photos.