I'm Ray, male, 53 years old.

I've been growing orchids since grad school, so that makes it 30 years at
this point.

I grow anything that catches my eye, but am particularly fond of slippers,
all sorts of vandaceous plants, encyclias and odd-ball species.

I suppose most would say that my greatest accomplishment has been coming up
with semi-hydroponic culture, but to me it's not throwing in the towel after
a heater failure on a seven-degree (F) night that wiped out a 20-year
collection of stuff, including irreplaceable plants I collected while
traveling the world on business. I have another opportunity to test my
desire to go on right now, as my propane supplier was kind enough to run me
out of fuel on a 5° night just last week. Fortunately, it wasn't a total
wipe out (looks like the heat went off right at dawn), but I have a lot of
trimming to do while on Christmas vacation.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!