Rather than reinvent the wheel I am sending on the report of our Saturday,
March 8, bus trip from another member (Gene Howell). The trip had a smaller
response this year with only about 30 participants. We left Ft. Pierce, FL
at 7 AM and returned a little after 7 PM. The bus driver, not a bonsai
person, could not believe what he was seeing. (BTW, Ft. Pierce is about 100
south of me, so I started out before 5 AM.)

Well, the annual bus trip to Miami/Homestead is history. * We had a great
time, as usual, and had two very pleasant surprises. * When we got to Mary's
(Mary Madison, the Buttonwood Queen) we found she had reworked her benches so
that everything was neat and easy to see and get to. * She had also done some
collecting during the past three months, so there were lots of great
buttonwood and bald cypress. When we left her place, about 50 trees departed
with us. (Mary also fed us lunch.)*

Our biggest surprise was our next stop, the bonsai pot importer's warehouse.*
He had several hundred different shapes, sizes, colors, and types of pots and
when we he began to quote prices, we couldn't believe our ears.* We had to
ask him several times the price of things because they were so low (about 30%
of what we are used to paying).* Once we grasped the reality of his prices I
witnessed (and took part in) a
"feeding frenzy".* It sure was fun!!!* When we left there about 100 of his
pots went with us.

The last stop was the wholesale tropical plant nursery.* There we were able
to see thousands of pre-bonsai plants of many different varieties for sale
and a number of them also joined our trip.

All-in-all it was one of the most fun trips to the South that we have had.



Billy on the Florida Space Coast

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In a message dated 3/9/2003 9:38:30 AM Eastern Standard Time,
writes:

Our biggest surprise was our next stop, the bonsai pot importer's warehouse.

He had several hundred different shapes, sizes, colors, and types of pots
and
when we he began to quote prices, we couldn't believe our ears. We had to
ask him several times the price of things because they were so low (about
30%
of what we are used to paying). Once we grasped the reality of his prices
I
witnessed (and took part in) a
"feeding frenzy". It sure was fun!!! When we left there about 100 of his
pots went with us.


Hi Billy,
It sounds as if the trip was a roaring success.

What kind of quality were these pots? Where were they made? Where is this
place, can you provide an address or phone number?

Regards,
Luis Fontanills
Miami, Florida USA


************************************************** ******************************
++++Sponsored, in part, by Evergreen Gardenworks++++
************************************************** ******************************
-- The IBC HOME PAGE & FAQ: http://www.internetbonsaiclub.org/ --
+++++ Questions? Help? e-mail +++++