Heyo from Santa Barbara!

[East_to_west]

Hey all! I've recently become pretty obsessed with collecting orchids. While I only have a few species as of now, this will soon change. I collect mainly carnivorous plants (nepenthes in particular) as well as a few bromeliads and tillandsias but am venturing into the world of orchids which have already sprung to the forefront of my interests (a close second only to my beloved carnivores). I've been lurking here for a bit and have learned something new every time I visit this forum and figured it was about time that I contribute. I do have a bunch of questions to ask so I'm thinking of starting my own thread to showcase my (now teeny but not for long) collection. I've discovered that the city of Santa Barbara where I now reside, is home to a bunch of great orchid nurseries and enthusiasts. My favorite so far being the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate with their fantastic collection! So far I'm really into mini's and am in the process of building a vivarium from scratch to showcase them. It's been a real nice change coming from Boston where I grew up, to a place where I can grow bunch of my plants outdoors! I plan on attending two orchid meetings in the next few weeks as well as the santa barbara orchid show coming up next weekend. Perhaps some members of this forum will be at that event. It would be nice to meet some of you as I plan to be pretty involved in this forum. Anyway, I'll spare you any more of the essay that this first post has turned into, but I look forward to mingling with you guys and gaining some much needed knowledge of these awesome plants! Thanks for reading and hello!

-Greg Palena