# New Hampshire OS Special Auction



## Gcroz (Mar 5, 2013)

Here is the list of plants from Martin Epstein's collection that will be auctioned off at the NHOS meeting this Saturday.

This is for Pre-bidding only. When pre-bidding ends, it will not necessarily mean that you will have won the auction as the plants will still go up for bidding on Saturday. 

Please feel free to ask any questions here.

https://www.charityauctionorganizer.com/auction/nhos


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## Heather (Mar 5, 2013)

Marty has some great plants! Sad to see him have to let them go but here's to a great outcome! Thanks George for posting!


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## NYEric (Mar 5, 2013)

OMG I'm getting sucked into another bidding war!


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## Bob in Albany N.Y. (Mar 5, 2013)

Are we to assume that the flower photos are of that actual plant?


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## rangiku (Mar 5, 2013)

Bob in Albany said:


> Are we to assume that the flower photos are of that actual plant?


I believe only if it the listing says it is currently in bloom, but I will double check for you, Bob. George and I have seen many of these plants in person and can attest to their quality.

Eric, will we get to see you in person?


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## Gcroz (Mar 6, 2013)

Bob in Albany said:


> Are we to assume that the flower photos are of that actual plant?



No, do not make that assumption. Flowers that belong to the actual plants listed are labeled as "in bloom" or some such phrasing. 

However, I can attest to the quality of these plants as I have seen most over the years at the various meetings. Marty Epstein is an incredible grower and his plants are fantastic!


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## cnycharles (Mar 6, 2013)

hmmmmm, interesting things


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## Heather (Mar 6, 2013)

I too have seen many of Marty's plants in bloom on the NHOS show table and in the show. He is a great grower. I was really sad to hear of his wife's passing and the necessity of the sale. 

Hehe, we always got annoyed with Marty at the show because he would come late on the day of set up with his plants - including his two ever-blooming Psychopsis Mendenhalls - and we'd already be almost done with the Society display. The last time I was there for pre set-up discussions we pleaded with him to come early! Do you know how hard it is to deal with those wires that need to be towards the top after the display is in place?


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## NYEric (Mar 6, 2013)

I am doing the pre-bidding thing and hopefully will bid high enough to survive the in person auction. 
BTW, some of the photos (not in bloom) are taken from other websites.


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## rangiku (Mar 6, 2013)

NYEric said:


> I am doing the pre-bidding thing and hopefully will bid high enough to survive the in person auction.


So you won't be at the auction, Eric?



NYEric said:


> BTW, some of the photos (not in bloom) are taken from other websites.


Yes, putting photos of the orchid in flower helps people who aren't familiar with the plant. The site will come down after the auction. If anyone has an issue with the use of their photo, it's immediately deleted.


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## cnycharles (Mar 6, 2013)

so who is bidding on the druryi? (and the henryanum)


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## rangiku (Mar 6, 2013)

I could tell you, Charles, but then I'd have to kill you...


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## Gcroz (Mar 6, 2013)

cnycharles said:


> so who is bidding on the druryi? (and the henryanum)



Come on up to the auction, then we'll tell you!


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## gonewild (Mar 6, 2013)

cnycharles said:


> so who is bidding on the druryi? (and the henryanum)



Now for sure all of your rivals are.


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## eggshells (Mar 6, 2013)

Damn so many good things, I think Eric is eyeing the kovachii x dalessandroi and the tolumnia variegata.

P.S Just saw the henry and druyi. My jaw dropped especially on the druyi.


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## cnycharles (Mar 6, 2013)

rangiku said:


> I could tell you, Charles, but then I'd have to kill you...



:rollhappy: guess I'd better make a quick bid of $100 on the druryi before i'm dead!


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## rangiku (Mar 7, 2013)

eggshells said:


> P.S Just saw the henry and druyi. My jaw dropped especially on the druyi.


The druyi is a beautiful plant. I repotted it recently under Marty's watchful eyes.


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## cnycharles (Mar 7, 2013)

gonewild said:


> Now for sure all of your rivals are.



 actually that would be good. i'm good at stirring up bidding at auctions. I would never be able to afford the winning bids of either of those, anyhow and since still unemployed shouldn't be bidding on anything, but if I can get others to bid up then it'll help out the nh club


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## jjkOC (Mar 7, 2013)

It's hard to judge the size of the plant/ how many growths for some of these plants... Anyone have more info on this?


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## cnycharles (Mar 7, 2013)

say, if someone from out of town makes a winning pre-bid and nobody else bids higher in the auction, is there a way to have the plants shipped to the winning bidder?


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## NYEric (Mar 7, 2013)

Road trip!


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## Gcroz (Mar 7, 2013)

cnycharles said:


> say, if someone from out of town makes a winning pre-bid and nobody else bids higher in the auction, is there a way to have the plants shipped to the winning bidder?




This is a good point!

Finding someone to ship to you, or having a proxy bidder for the live auction, is the responsibility of the bidder. We are not offering shipping on any of these plants! 

If anyone has pre-bid and would like to retract their bid based on not being able to find someone to ship, please PM and your bid will be withdrawn.


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## Gcroz (Mar 7, 2013)

NYEric said:


> Road trip!



If you come up... the best part will be the privilege of meeting me in person! :rollhappy:


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## cnycharles (Mar 7, 2013)

Gcroz said:


> If you come up... the best part will be the privilege of meeting me in person! :rollhappy:



um, there will be food; right? :wink:

looks like another blizzard on the way; could be some cheap plants with no bidders


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## NYEric (Mar 7, 2013)

SHHHHHH!!!! :ninja:


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## Gcroz (Mar 7, 2013)

cnycharles said:


> um, there will be food; right? :wink:
> 
> looks like another blizzard on the way; could be some cheap plants with no bidders



There will be food and the weather forcast is for full sun and 45 degrees.

Sorry eric!


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## SlipperKing (Mar 7, 2013)

Gcroz said:


> This is a good point!
> 
> Finding someone to ship to you, or having a proxy bidder for the live auction, is the responsibility of the bidder. We are not offering shipping on any of these plants!
> 
> If anyone has pre-bid and would like to retract their bid based on not being able to find someone to ship, please PM and your bid will be withdrawn.



Hey George, If I win and I pay, you surely will ship the plant out to me, right?


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## cnycharles (Mar 7, 2013)

just so that you know, that was one of my tries at internet humore  would be glad to meet everyone there


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## Gcroz (Mar 7, 2013)

SlipperKing said:


> Hey George, If I win and I pay, you surely will ship the plant out to me, right?



Well, I might... depends on how much you are willing to make it worth my while! 

That being said, if you are willing to pay for shipping, and accept the potential results, please contact me. I'm sure that something can be worked out.


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## cnycharles (Mar 8, 2013)

Hey Eric and Rick, I most likely will be going to the auction. I need to get out of town for a day; if either of you or anyone else seriously wants to bid on any plants in the auction just pm me and let me know what you're interested in and all that. I can ship things on monday, and anyone could send me the money through paypal (plus a small transportation fee/gas money)


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## NYEric (Mar 9, 2013)

OK. Just had one of the worst days ever. Lost my cell phone and was with broken car, now fixed, all day. Then on top of that I didn't win anything!


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## Gcroz (Mar 10, 2013)

Charles, post the pics you took!

Sorry Eric, there was stiff competition on plants


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## cnycharles (Mar 10, 2013)

just getting online after getting up late, after driving back late last night (probably spent 11 hours in car yesterday), checking in! 

Eric, there were tons of tolumnias and such that weren't on the first list that were auctioned off first; I thought about trying to bid on some but didn't know what you already had or might want, and most of them went for decent amounts of money(!). I didn't think there was as much money in all of new hampshire that everyone bid on all those plants! ... we may need to hire a bus and bring some of those people to our cnyos orchid society auctions 

I met George/gcroz at the auction and st member rangiku, talked with Rick/Tx slipperking and Brian Leib likespaphs on the phone, so met a bunch of slippertalkers yesterday! I was about to take a picture of rangiku at the auction, when a funny feeling came over me when I thought I heard the words "Jedi Mind Trick", and for some reason my memory of ..... ? funny, can't remember what I was going to do  (some people are online-shy so no images have been uploaded  )


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## cnycharles (Mar 10, 2013)

*pics of auction*

I'm sorry to say most of the pics I took with my little digital camera are ugh, ugh ugly! It was dark and ... so lots of blurry pics. You can get the idea with a little description though. There were long tables full of plants, and also some amazing flowering plants from the NHOS's show table.
















some amazing show table plants





a phal pallens or venosa just busting out all over the place (typical)





an amazing sedirea japonica that also was just busting out all over the place! it was said
that the previous owner had received an aos award on this plant, which had I think
five flower spikes, at least 80 flowers and was smelling up that whole part of the room
(directly behind where I was sitting ahhhhhh  ) The winning bid for this plant was $105 I think,
and I would have loved to have bid on it as well





closeup of show table lycastes





more show table plants; picture doesn't do justice, colors and flowers were amazing





more amazing show table plants; s. coccinea plant/flowers that were perfect. the 
pink flowers seen here were just as amazing, but my pic of them was way too blurry 





auctioneers (George gcroz was taking a break)





stack of plants up front ready to be auctioned

more in reply thread


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## cnycharles (Mar 10, 2013)

*pics 2*

there were a ton of chinese phal species, and most of them were amazing but went for prices far higher than I wanted to go. there were flowering phal braceana, multiple phal wilsonii's, a few honghenensis, a number of phal chibae's including a multi-spike one in flower, and early on there was a massive mounted phal celebensis that I would have loved to have bid on.....






one bidder with her stash of treasure





a beatiful polystachya concreta and below asco curvifolium





gentleman in blue shirt midground is Tom Mirenda the speaker from the 
Smithsonian Institute. 
He won quite a few very unusual plants and was heard to say 'you just can't find these anywhere' a few times





George Crozier (gcroz on slipptertalk!) 





yours truly with a very small stash of plants, for Rick/Slipperking from Tx, Dot and myself
(I was so good.. there were so many things I could have jumped in and bid on, but....)


There was a big list of plants that I was keeping track of for Dot, Rick/Tx and myself. It was funny how bidding would go... I bid early on a plant that wasn't on the pre-bid list so nobody was looking for it. I got an adult, pre-flowered and in-bud phal modesta for $25. Later on a tiny modesta was up for bid that had been on the list, and someone bid $40 for it! Rick pre-bid on the paph druryi at $75 and nobody challenged the bid. The flower pic on the screen showing representative flowers was cut off for the druryi, so nobody knew what it was or was interested in it. there were tons of phal species, and duplicates of phal species and everyone was bidding over $35-40 on all of them. There was even a blooming phal micholitzii, that only received a bid of $35! I would have bid on it, but had already expended my limit (d'oh!)






stack of our plants at home (with my good camera). large plant on left is a paph druryi that
is mostly Rick's; he also prebid on a paph roebelinii and got it after a little extra bidding on my 
part for him ($26), and I got a late bid on a phal lowii that most people didn't know what it was 
($27) that was a pretty good deal and also got a seedling phal doweryensis that nobody knew what it was, and couldn't let the bid go at $15 to someone else (a steal!)





top view of the phal druryi. I did a quick count, and including new shoots it has at least 20 growths! rick and I are going to divide it; likely 70/30 or however it splits





side view of druryi, fitting nicely inside a 6" net pot. it also has flowered at least three times before, 
and the tag stated that it had been divided at least once every year since 2008

just an amazing variety and collection of instant culture award plants for anyone who could get some flowers on gigantic plants. there was even a neofinetia falcata that was in probably an 8" net pot, and looked like it had between 80-100 growths! I've never seen a neo that large either in person or in print...


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## SlipperFan (Mar 10, 2013)

Where's the "like" button!


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## Gcroz (Mar 10, 2013)

Charles, glad you made it up! We were so fortunate to have such esteemed company for the auction, Tom Mirenda and you included. The funny thing about New Hampshire is we have no income tax, so all the money saved on taxes seems to go to orchid purchases! lol! We also have a lot of people interested in cool growing species, go figure with our winters, and not too many interested in Phals. I'm a Cattleya, Phrag, Paph, and Oberonia guy, so when auctions like this happen I have very little cash for plants... most of the cash goes to paying for propane for the gh.

As a little add on, I was in a bidding war with a couple of ladies over a Gongora maculata var. lactea, jungle collected many years ago, and I bowed out at $130. Fortunately, I have a division of that plant already, but I'm still stinging for letting the mother plant go. For those that do not know, it is exceptionally beautiful and exceptionally rare! Many Gongora people go through life never seeing one in person!


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## Gcroz (Mar 10, 2013)

And Charles, I know it's a bit of a drive, but I hope we see you again in New Hampshire. I'm sure you got a taste of our Society and our growing skills and now know we are serious about our orchids!


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## cnycharles (Mar 10, 2013)

Gcroz said:


> And Charles, I know it's a bit of a drive, but I hope we see you again in New Hampshire. I'm sure you got a taste of our Society and our growing skills and now know we are serious about our orchids!



that is for sure, both growing and buying! I would be happy to visit again when opportunities are available

... and I don't understand that earlier part about new hampshire not having income taxes? i'm from ny; everything has taxes; even the taxes are taxed 

oh, and one thing that I wanted to point out to people checking out the pictures, was that it was explained to me that the gentleman who grew all of these amazing orchids did so under light, in his basement. so, those of you who think you 'can't grow it under lights', it just isn't so. maybe some of the lights were hid lights up high over tall plants, but still they weren't grown in a greenhouse


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## NYEric (Mar 11, 2013)

WOW! Thanks a lot for the photos. I pre-bid on the Tolumnai heneckii in bloom, those things are impossible to find, and a couple of others. No wins at all, I cannot believe Rick's pre-bid won!  Talk about Jedi mind-meld!  I hope we can find out to the winning bids aon all the items.


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## eggshells (Mar 11, 2013)

That was a steal on the druyi. :clap:


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## rangiku (Mar 11, 2013)

Charles, you are very kind and I greatly appreciate what you did. George and I were really happy to meet you and have you at the auction. Will have to meet Eric another time. Heather, I told Marty you said hi and he lit up.

Was able to get some hard to find Phals species at excellent prices as I primarily grow and hybridize Phals. Was surprised when an acquaintance walked up and handed to me a tiny Paph glanduliferum he won, increasing my Paph population to 6. It will increase when Holger Perner visits in October. :clap:

Hope to see everyone's plants in bloom posted here and if you could email Marty a copy of the photo, he will greatly appreciate it. You can pm me for his address. Thanks.

P.S. That druryi is gorgeous. You got a great deal.


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## SlipperKing (Mar 11, 2013)

Sorry Eric. I guess I had the right karma for the win! Actually, it was Charles that came through in the last hour to save the day! A BIG thank you hi Five Charles!


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## cnycharles (Mar 12, 2013)

yw

btw rangiku, if you happen to have an extra phal fimbriata, penangirl here was asking me if I had any but my plant had died. I tried bidding on the one at the auction but everyone was bidding everything up.


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## NYEric (Mar 12, 2013)

I'm sorry I missed meeting all of you New England STF'rs this time. is there a list of the winning bids?


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## Gcroz (Mar 12, 2013)

NYEric said:


> I'm sorry I missed meeting all of you New England STF'rs this time. is there a list of the winning bids?



Maybe the list will happen in the future, but at the moment, no. Sorry.


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## NYEric (Mar 12, 2013)

OK, I was curious to see how close I was.


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## cnycharles (Mar 12, 2013)

I divided the druryi and sent the larger piece of it and the paph roebelinii to rick. The d had about 18 growths including new sprouts and had already flowered about six times! I guess it liked Marty's company quite well! 




NYEric said:


> OK, I was curious to see how close I was.



though this isn't an exact number for each plant, most things even like the tolumnias were receiving bids of $35-40 and up... even seedlings were getting bid up there. anything that had nice color on pictures, like the phrag besseae and other slippers were getting big bids even if they weren't big plants. oddly, though there was a kovachii hybrid that hardly received attention at first, but think even that received a bid of at least 35-40 (after some coaxing from the auctioneer)


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## NYEric (Mar 12, 2013)

Oh well, I hope it was a success.


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## SlipperKing (Mar 15, 2013)

Got the druryi and roebelinii yesterday!

P.S. Charles the check is in the mail, thanks!


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## cnycharles (Mar 15, 2013)

glad they arrived, hope the roebelinii wasn't a disappointment, thank you and you're welcome!


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## Heather (Apr 11, 2013)

Wow, I missed the continuation of this thread completely! 

I do believe I've seen that druryi bloom. Nice choice Rick! 

I miss the NH Society. Great group of people and growers. I'm sure this was a tough decision for Marty - I think he's got an article about growing under lights in the NHOS newsletter; I'll have to look for it. 

Sacramento isn't bad, but I wish they met on the weekend like NH does. Show coming up!


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## SlipperKing (Apr 11, 2013)

Thanks Heather. I beleive I feel a bud coming up in one on that druryi!


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## NYEric (Apr 11, 2013)

Stop feeling up your plants!


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