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Re: Ideas for plants for the auction

>Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2001 22:33:42 -0400
>From: "Daphne Freeman" <daphne.freeman at home_com>
>Subject: Ideas for plants for the auction
>
>Hey Loh, can you get Tropica stuff?

Hi, Daphne,

I'm not sure what you mean by Tropica stuff.  Can you give me some examples?

I will be running out of Christmas Moss soon (sent off some to the 74th
person this morning) but I spoke to my good friend, Edward, just now and he
said
that if the conference is still more than 2 months away, he will be able to
give me
another bag of moss when the time comes.  He's going to harvest them from
his clients' tanks, you see.  As for the Narrow Leaf Java Ferns, I'm all
out.  What I
have left are the 2 bunches in my main tank and another 3 leafless rhizomes
in my
cube tank.  I had to tear down and re-aquascaped the cube tank after I
uprooted all
the Narrow Leafs inside.  The 3 leafless rhizomes are what I have left
after sending out
all the rest.  But come November, maybe I will be able to harvest another
few feet of
rhizomes.  I'm not sure, really.  Never keep check to see how fast they
grow.  Edward
said he can't get them too as pulling them out from his clients' tanks
would spoil the
aquascape.

I have some Windelov growing in my nursery tanks but there's not much of them.
I have plenty of Ricca Fluitans and Micranthenum micranthemoides but Dave said
they are easily available over where he is, in Georgia.  I also have a nice
bunch
of Didplis diandra which I'm thinking of pulling out anyway.  If they are
rare over
where you are, I can send them over.  If it's a stem plant, it wouldn't
cost me very
much to buy it from my aquatic plant import/exporter friend.  Plants like
Mayaca
fluviatilis, Myriophyllum hippuroides or Rotala wallichii are cheap here.
I probably
will be able to get 50 stalks for Sing $1.  To give you an idea how much is
Sing $1, it
would buy you a bar of Mars chocolate over here.

There's a plant I can get which may be highly desirable over where you are.
I no
longer have it because about 2 years ago, I gave it away to a fish shop
owner.  He planted it
in his display tank and since then, it has grown to become a huge mother
plant, producing
plantlets all the time.  I'm sure when the time comes, I will be able to
get my hands on
maybe 5 or 6 plantlets.  All I have to do is ask him and the owner will cut
off the plantlets
for me. He usually sells a plantlet for about Sing $10 (that's 10 Mars
bars) but he won't
dare charge me anything, I'm sure.

The plant I'm talking about is the Echinodorus Oriental.  It's quite rare
even in Singapore.
If you have never seen it before, it has broad leaves shaped like swords.
Young leaves are
pink in colour.  It's a beautiful plant and would stand out prominently in
any tank.

Other plants which I can get cheap are:

Eleocharis parvulus
Barclaya longfolia (just the seeds)
Cyperus helferi
Sagittaria subulata
Aponogeton crispus

Crypts are out.  They are not cheap in Singapore and I also don't know of
anyone
who grows enough to spare me some.

Daphne, I have never been to a plant auction (no such thing in Singapore)
so I don't know how
it works.  Are plants auctioned off in small packs or is everything stuffed
into one
big bag?  When the time comes, I can send some to you and some to Dave.  I
think it would
be better this way just in case the plants get lost in the mail.  I will
leave it to you 2 to
decide how they should be packed and auctioned off.  As for the question if
they should be labelled
as Defense plants, I'm sure AGA has its good reasons to take a neutral
stand.  If
I were you, I would just go around whispering to everyone before the
auction that the
proceeds from the plants from Singapore will be going to the Defense Fund.
That should
be good enough to get some higher bids, I think.

To all those who are reading this post - It would be of great help to me if
I know which
are the plants you are willing to pay good money for.  It would be
pointless for me to send something
which is cheap and easily available in the States.  The postage alone would
probably cost a
lot more than the plant itself.  But no promises, though.  If the plant you
like is just as rare
and expensive over here, then the costs may be too much for me to bear.
The Christmas Moss
and Narrow Leaf Java Ferns are different.  Although they are expensive here
too, I don't have to
pay for them as I already had plenty of them in my tanks.

Hope I'm not being too long-winded but just a reminder in case I get
swamped with requests - I will send the plants only to Daphne and Dave to
be auctioned off at the Conference in Chattanooga this November.

Wish I could be there but.................

Loh K L