How long have ya been in the field?

[Gonzer]

Horticulture/botany/collecting? Just realized it's now been 40 years since I was given my first palm, a 4" Hedyscepe canteburyana which then led me down the path to all the corners of the hort world. Just curious.

[Dypsisdean]

For me - I guess it started at about 8 yrs old, when I took a tomato seed from my sandwich and put it in a pot - then the ground - and then ate the tomatoes and started all over again with more tomatoes while expanding my horizons. Then I saw my first house plant - and more exotic plants entered the scene (and my room) - and the rest is history.

[Moose]

I got my first job in 1972 pulling weeds in a nursery for $1.00 an hour. My oldest plant in my garden is a ponytail "palm" acquired in 1976 when I worked at another nursery. It was given to my mother as a bonzai and was later given back to me in the 1980's. The base is huge now, over 15 ft tall and thats after getting topped by Hurricane Wilma.

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

That is kind of like asking if you are outstanding in your field or are you out standing in your field.

I have always been kind of a plant guy but the first time I got paid for doing it was about 1983, or thereabouts. I had a 5 year stint outside of the green world, in the mid '80s, because of a family business obligation and an injury, but have been involved since then.

[kahili]

The first time I ever had anything to do with plants was back in the late 70's when I worked the taro fields in the mornings in a valley on Maui in exchange for rent. It has been plants in some shape, form or fashion ever since.

[DoomsDave]

Whoo-hoo, Gonz, dang

you have the question that cuts down through sinew

Hmm. For me, for palms it's gotta be 45 + years

Watching the Stooges fall down down the steps as the CIDP wave nearby

Dad still don't get it . . . .

[Phoenikakias]

Since 1992, when I was 26 y.o., as far as palms are concerned, but 6 years earlier regarding fruiting temperate trees.

[BS Man about Palms]

Wow.. Dean made me remember a cool early 70's terrarium I had that was a like a 24" clear plastic globe on a white plastic hour glass shape stand.

Man I wish I still had that thing! Think round TV's and radios

[Kim]

Hunh! Bill, and Gonz, if you are trying to get me to lay claim to those creepy-charlies, pothos, and wandering jews in macramé hangers, forget it! I had a terrarium once, but it was not styled after the Jetsons cartoon, just a really big jar with a loose lid, a microcosm of a rainforest, really cool. I continue to blame my brother for the palm obsession and bahia for the bromeliad fascination, dating back a mere 9 and 11 years, respectively. Before that I was more interested in mediterranean gardens, thinking a tropical look was not possible in California. Oh, the years I wasted trying to grow roses, only to get thorny sticks!

[DoomsDave]

On September 2, 1986 I closed escrow on my little house of doom in San Bernardino, California. Actually, what later became the City of Highland, just east of San Berdoo.

On September 3, 1986, I bought and planted some of the most overgrown 5-gallon Queen palms you ever saw. Drove by there a few months ago (going on 27 years later!) and the palms are still there. The guy who bought the place from me in 1989 concreted the whole yard ( ), but preserved the palms!

That was some of the most fertile soil I've ever seen, deep, dark river bottom silt, from the Santa Ana River to the south.

[LauraAnu]

I have been into growing plants ever since I can remember. I am from a farming family. I got seriously into palms after seeing JungleGal FLA's garden on Garden Web forums a number of years ago and she spoke of Palm Talk as a great place to learn about palms. I have been here and hooked on palms ever since.

Laura

[Gonzer]

Hunh! Bill, and Gonz, if you are trying to get me to lay claim to those creepy-charlies, pothos, and wandering jews in macramé hangers, forget it! I had a terrarium once, but it was not styled after the Jetsons cartoon, just a really big jar with a loose lid, a microcosm of a rainforest, really cool. I continue to blame my brother for the palm obsession and bahia for the bromeliad fascination, dating back a mere 9 and 11 years, respectively. Before that I was more interested in mediterranean gardens, thinking a tropical look was not possible in California. Oh, the years I wasted trying to grow roses, only to get thorny sticks!

Too much Kim!!! I remember all those "gotta have" plants from working in a plant store (remember those) in San Clemente in the mid 70's. Had to have the macramé hangers, very in-vogue. The Sherman Foundation used to have greenhouses above Dana Point harbor and south of Salt Creek where as high school ROPers we'd learn every facet of the industry. I'd go around to the local High Schools and do talks on ferns and palms. I never realized how many insects were associated with horticulture; cactus bug, bromeliad bug, palm bug, etc. Lotta eggs, many baskets.

[DoomsDave]

In Ohio in 1975, I saw the Liliums grown by an elderly gentleman who was a retired lawyer. "Splendid grows the lily!" I said, and he laughed and invited me in to look at his garden, and I saw, smelled, and got totally hooked on Liliums. I ended up with dozens. (He had hundreds.) Oh, they were splendid, all right. "Oriental Hybrids" with blossoms 12" (30 cm) across, and so fragrant! (But not for Cali; they need to be chilled in the fridge.)

One year, I ordered a whole bunch of seed from the Geo. W. Park Seed Co. and started hundreds of petunias, pansies, violas, impatiens, hollyhocks, aquilegia, and planted them in the garden after the spring bulbs were finished. PLUS tomatoes in about six varieties, green peppers, and much more. The following year, the girls noticed me and I noticed them back. . . . .

[Darold Petty]

I grew houseplants in my apartment from 1973 to 1980. I confess, there may have been a macrame hanger! I went through all the common houseplants,... eventually recognizing that Howea forsteriana was the premier houseplant.

1978 I saw an unusual palm (Rhopalostylis sapida) growing outdoors at the SF Botanical Garden. My interest piqued, I joined the International Palm Society

.(by mail, no internet, )

I became obsessed with palms, and began planting in the ground in 1983.