How can you guys just hide in the shadows, occasionally popping up to say "lots is going on in our netherworld you will never know"?
Let's put it this way. In order to prevent undue chaos the community is on a need-to-know basis.
So WHAT? Why cant the public know, when obviously more than one of you so-called-private growers can?
Precisely what I mentioned before. Only a priveledged few are involved BECAUSE of their station in the cp community AND ability to respect the wishes of the victims by staying under cover and not treating their experience like a vehicle for gossip.
If there is evidence, present it!
When the victims feel the time is right they will.
You cannot accuse someone publicly, and hide the details in the shadows. That is damn near hypocritical.
Yes you can and..no it's not. Actually I believe this happens on a day to day basis. People are publicly accused and arrested of crimes all the time, aka "suspects"...but the details governing their guilt/innocence are reserved for the trial. We, the public, are entitled to read only snipets of what's really going on until all evidence has been presented and a verdict has been passed.
Also, we all have heard rumors of your guys' grail neps, female hamatas, floriferous villosas, whatever. While i realize you are timid to post pictures in fear of theft, do you realize what a disservice this is to our community? We could be producing TONS and TONS of very rare, endangered, and desirable plants if you guys wouldn’t mind sharing.
Well now there it is in a nut shell. Here's how that comment makes me feel: "Phil, you have a beautiful collection. I see you've worked DECADES creating it, obtaining it, caring for it. You've done so much for the cp community. But HOW DARE YOU keep these plants in your collection and not share them with everyone else who wants/COVETS them as well. Didn't your mother ever teach you to SHARE? We know you've done a lot to teach people. We know you've done a lot by creating new cp crosses and sharing these with the community. But all that means NOTHING if you don't share your rarest plants with the rest of us. It's not fair!"
There's my rant. You see Frankie I do share my best and rarest plants. Ask anyone who has been on the receiving end. It's called good insurance. Do I ask for anything in return? Pretty much never, unless the product is being sold. In fact...people feel guilty most of the time because I want NOTHING in return. Yup, that's me. I GIVE more away than I keep for myself. Just because you or your circle of friends have never been the recipients of this generosity doesn't mean it has never been done or isn't currently happening.
Like I mentioned previously, It has taken me over 30 years to get to where I am at with my collection. I was the one who put the work into it. I was the one who toiled over the maintenance of it and....footed the expense for everything. But I do NOT respond to demands to share my plants with people who haven't had like experiences or have a healthy respect for all the work I've put into it.
These kinds of comments come off as very greedy. "Gimmie that plant you have. I want it too. Why can't I have it too? If you have it EVERYONE should have it. If you have a really rare nep you need to post pictures of it so everyone can see WHAT YOU'RE GROWING!" Why? Why can't we just accept that only a handfull of folks are growing certain species/hybrids/clones and just move on? You can't have everything. For some of us well-seasoned growers it has taken us many, many years to obtain some of the specimens we have in our collections and I am the strongest believer that photos of every plant do not need to be made public.
Personally I don't like the idea of just handing something over right away. Why should we have to toil over years and years of hard work and searching to just make it easy for everyone else. Shouldn't we, the growers, reserve the right to distribute our rarest specimens to WHOM we feel is qualified or worthy?
I'm not saying this is the approach you are taking...just that I too get tired. Tired of the "entitlement" people feel they have coming.
Buying a few security measures might be a pain, but it is worth it to keep your admittedly astounding plants.
I have plenty of security measures at hand and it has always been the PUBLIC that admits my plants are "astounding", not me. I am loathe to brag about my plants. Other people do that for me just fine. As a dear friend put it recently..."Phil is a silent big player".
Phil, please don’t take this as an attack on you. It’s just a peeve i have. The pics i have seen of yours make me remember why i love our hobby, they are tops. I am not insulting you (directly).
Frankie, I don't feel the least bit insulted. It's all good. No hard feelings here. I think it's good to air your opinions. That's how we all grow together..no pun intended. I appreciate the kudos...but credit always goes to my photographer. You see..there's another reason I don't post pics very often. I don't have the capability to upload photos so I must rely on a private photographer to do this for me and he only visits a few times per year.
Grow on!