Fall 2016 croton meeting/auction

I will be bringing over for auction,

Black leaf Thai Hybrid
Princess Eugenia
Dr Alix
BH #3
Henry's Favorite( although I just spoke to Chris and he rather call it after his aunt's first name...."favorite").

And a few for sale too.
Anna....looking forward to seeing the garden!!
Jeff
Thanks Jeff,
This makes it even more exciting having an idea of some of the plants I will be bidding on. The only one of those I have is Princess Eugenia, so new and exciting plants to possibly add to the gardens.
 
A big thank-you to everyone who came- especially those who made the effort to come such a long way! Bert and I had a great time spending the day with all you lovely people. Plant people are the best! Lots and lots of great crotons at auction and sale. Thanks to our lively auctioneer, Jeff Searle, who always does a fabulous job and makes it fun for all of us to hang in there for two or more hours, and thanks to Tim O'Donnel, the auctioneer assistant, who kept things flowing smoothly! As always, great food to be had, so thanks to everyone for bringing your delectable treats! Bert and I will be eating some of them for a while yet!
 
Anna and Bert, Thank you again for hosting today's meeting. Your yard is spectacular and reflects your knowledge,care, and attention. The new dog, Pete the Poodle, is a fine addition.
Attached are some slightly out-of-focus pics starting with arrival of for sale plants and moving on up to the auction. Great seeing all the crotons heads that traveled lover and hope you made it back safely.
 

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...and a few more... ...and nice to see a wide variety of plant material in the yard including some cycads like the coning Encephalartos ferox.
 

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...last batch.
 

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A big thank-you to everyone who came- especially those who made the effort to come such a long way! Bert and I had a great time spending the day with all you lovely people. Plant people are the best! Lots and lots of great crotons at auction and sale. Thanks to our lively auctioneer, Jeff Searle, who always does a fabulous job and makes it fun for all of us to hang in there for two or more hours, and thanks to Tim O'Donnel, the auctioneer assistant, who kept things flowing smoothly! As always, great food to be had, so thanks to everyone for bringing your delectable treats! Bert and I will be eating some of them for a while yet!

Anna,
A huge thanks to you and Bert for opening up your home and gardens to us. What a spectacular place! All of that hard work really has paid off. It was so nice to catch up with people that I had not seen in a year or so and make some new friends. I ended up with 20 new crotons (did not know how many I had gotten until I got home) and I am so excited to be adding them to my gardens. My hope is to actually propagate my own in the spring so I may finally be able to be more than just a buyer. My mom really enjoyed it and was so impressed with how friendly everyone was. I will try to continue to add photos to the Vero thread, but I would have a hard time topping the appearance of your beautiful collection. Karl
 
What a wonderful croton gathering today at Ana and Bert's lovely Sarasota home. Many, many thanks to Ana and Bert for welcoming us and sharing your magnificent garden of CROTONS, palms, butterfly/bird attracting plants, and all things tropical. And the beautiful and peaceful pond. Oh my! The loving and patient effort which obviously goes into the design and care of this sanctuary is evident. The auction was lots of fun with Jeff Searle at the helm as the best auctioneer. It's so nice to get together with all of you, re-acquaint with some and make new friends with others. I hope anyone reading this who has never attended an auction gathering will be encouraged to do so soon. I'm grateful to all of the croton friends who brought such wonderful cultivars for the auction and for sale. I came away with many beauties, and of course great anticipation for the next gathering.
:)Leslie
 
Anna & Bert, want a wonderful day, Thank You very much for sharing your beautiful garden. The Crotons heads moved in and immediately lost our minds, your work and excellent choices in material made for a very pleasing visit.
 
Anna and Bert, Thanks so much for hosting the meeting today. What a beautiful garden you have. It was nice to see old friends and meet new ones. [ Karl and mom ] I wish we could have these meetings more often. Thanks Jeff and Tim for all the work you do at these meetings.
 
Many, many thanks to Ana and Bert for sharing your beautiful home and spectacular garden. It was certainly a treat. Ana and I really enjoyed seeing everyone there and the auction was a lot of fun!
 

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...and many, many thanks again to Ana and Bert for hosting such a wonderful gathering! Your garden is just stunning, the food was delicious (I wish I took some recepies), and the auction was hilarious, thanks to Jeff :)
I am especially greatful to you guys (and Phil) that the croton parties started coming to our coast! What a treat for me, a beginner!
 
...also, I would like to say special thank you to all the lovely people I met, and the generosity of some that I will never forget. I agree that the plant people are the best!
 
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...more
 

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...and some more...
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Thank you for looking. My husband was wandering around. Not being a gardener he did a good job catching a beauty, I think.
 

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A massive thank you to Ana and Bert for being such gracious hostesses. I was blown away by the setting of your property. I felt like I was on a movie set! Beautiful home, impeccable garden with tremendous diversity and beautiful, healthy plants, and a great dog in Pete. As always, it was a great pleasure to see all of the usual suspects at this event. I really am impressed with how much effort we put in to attending these fun events. Way to go Croton Heads!
 
Anna and Bert,
Thank you so much for opening up your garden, house and your hospitality. I expected to see a nice garden, no it was so much more. It was a beautiful setting, your hard work really shows as I take great notice in details, and it showed. I was in awe!
It was great to see all that showed up, the food was beyond good and I for one really appreciated it all.

Now.....for all of you that were hoping to come but couldn't, you really missed a gem. Next year we plan on having more garden tours, so please come out and support these gardens, and folks like Anna and Burt, you won't be disappointed. We are a small group, made up of mostly croton enthusiast, collectors, nurserymen, and just good ole plant people of all levels for the love of crotons. So please support our group, try to bring a neighbor or plant friend next year for the next garden tour. These are fun, and you might just come home with a new, beautiful croton!
 
Ana and Bert, thank you so much for sharing your slice of paradise with us. Yours is one of the most beautiful private gardens I've ever seen. You were great hosts to us all. I'm so glad Jose captured your Doris on film; it's the best I've seen! Jeff and Tim, thanks again for making spending money so much fun! And thanks to everyone for the great plants and food! It was great to come together again.

We just got back to Miami a couple of hours ago. Spent some time in Rob Branch's garden and then this morning at Keith Hanks' place. Keith has a number of fabulous seedlings coming along!
 
Ana and Bert someone told me that coconuts would only grow south of Punta Gorda. Yesterday we had to blink a couple of times. I know that we were in Sarasota some sixty miles north of Fort Myers. At times we felt that we were on the big island. Coconuts, veitchiis, and carpoxylons and worlds of awesome crotons. Your gardens are fantastic. We all know that beautiful gardens just don't fall from the sky. They are a product of vision and lots of hard work. Thank you for sharing your slice of paradise with us. The day was magical and could have graced the pages of Southern Living. It was beyond fun. All we can say is that Pete is one lucky dog. For those who missed this event, the pictures don't do it justice. Thanks again to Bert and Ana, to Jeff and Tim, and to all who attended. We all share a special bond of beautiful people and gardens. May we all stay healthy and do this again.
Jim & Judy
 
Thanks so much, everyone, Bert and I just read all your nice comments and you are all so kind. We're so glad everyone had a nice time and that everyone made it home safely and with a bunch of new crotons to plant! I already can't wait for the next event. I am so happy to know all of you and to call you my friends.
 
Dear Ana & Bert, I can't thank you enough for the wonderful time Gerry & I had at your home. Yours is by far the most beautiful garden we have ever visited and you two are the perfect hosts. I have to say we are totally in love with Pete and will now be looking at the standard poodle. Jeff & Tim were terrific and Jeff really did squeeze every dollar at the auction. I brought 2 for auction and came home with four beauties. It was a great day filled with good friends and good food, surrounded by beautiful crotons, not to mention those magnificent oak trees and your entire collection. We are looking forward to the next one where we will reconnect with our croton friends and add a few more beauties to our own collections. Thanks also to Rob Branch and Keith Hanks for the tours of their gardens. Most enjoyable. Marnie
 
Here is what I came home with after the auction. What an amazing collection of beautifully grown plants. I have planted 11 of them, so 9 more to go. Thanks for the generosity, I am now close to the 150 mark. A few more auctions like this and I will hit 200 different crotons. I would love to see photos of the parent plants for some of the crotons that I bought that are not yet on the wiki. If the names become official it would be nice to have them make their way onto the wiki in the future. Some of the unnamed plants seem so special that they really deserve a name. Thanks again to everyone involved. I am looking forward to our next gathering, but will probably end up visiting with Jeff, Marie, David, etc. to feed the addiction before the next auction.

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Ana, Bert & Pete, Thanks so much for allowing all of us to trample & drool all over your home & garden. Also so sorry the photo shoot with the Architectural Digest photographers was delayed because of us! Shoshanna, KC & I had a spectacular time & for once I came home with less plants the I bought. Thanks to all who attended (& brought food & gorgeous plants) & to Jeff & Tim for the always entertaining auction!
 
Marnie, you guys are always a pleasure! I am so pleased you'll be considering a standard poodle. I wish you could have met Bruce, our last one. She was a true member of the family. So loving toward the four of us, extremely smart and easy to train in every way. I'm so glad our kids got to grow up with her! We left food out for her all day, but she only ate when we sat down to eat. She understood an incredible amount of what we said. It would catch us off guard when we'd be talking to each other, and next thing we knew, she had understood us and acted accordingly. Not just key words, either. All her life she paid close attention to what we said and talked about. Really spooky. Pete is a scatterbrained, nonfocused and mischievious pup in comparison, but extremely loving and weird with a good sense of humor! Recently, our son told us a story. He says when he sees friends he hasn't seen in years, the first thing they say is "How's Bruce?." Next comes: "And how's your parents?" That's the impression our Bruce made on people. Absolutely everyone who met her fell in love with her caring personality. I hope you find a keeper!

Randy, it was so nice to meet Shoshanna and get to chat with her for a couple of minutes! She seems like a gem. It's wonderful you'll be sharing the hobby together. Now, all you need is a piece of land to create your new amazing garden! KC was a love and a perfect gentleman despite the heat. Glad he survived Pete!
 
Ana , Bert and Pete,
I was overwhelmed by the beauty of your grounds.Such an amazing sacred space , so obviously created and cared for by equally beautiful hands. Thank you for an incredible afternoon and luncheon. I pray one day, very soon to walk outside my door and become lost in the beauty of my own garden! Hope to see you in the very near future!
Shoshanna
 
Randy, thanks for your kind words. I'm so glad you enjoyed our garden, and can't wait to see your next creation! It will be fun to watch it evolve. I have loved all the plants I've gotten from you. I hope you noticed them here and there in the garden! Pink Lei is looking good!
 
That's a peach hun. The first time Nell and I went the Charleston for the Ladies Tennis Tounament we saw group plantings of Collard Greens. They were all over the place and you could see where some had been picked.
 
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