Vol 16 No 1 - June, 2006

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 Beautiful/Bizarre | Supplies | Beginners | Bookshelf | Back Page |  Index
 

A HOBBY GONE BAD…… TROPIFLORA HITS 30!
 

  Once upon a time some forty years ago I was an amateur herpetologist (reptile fancier) who, by accident of fate, met my first bromeliad on a collecting trip to Mexico. I never suspected at the time that this chance encounter would someday change my life. On subsequent trips south, bromeliads became more and more objects of interest, and after an extended trip to Costa Rica in 1968, a place where bromeliads of brilliant hues beckoned like jewels in the verdant jungles, bromeliads started to become a fascination on par with the reptiles. A small collection soon followed and nurtured by Florida sun and rain, slowly grew into….an OBSESSION. Face it, some of you out there reading this can relate. There are never enough new varieties and the plant you like the most is the one you don’t have yet. Taking complete control of all free time, the growing collection required the conversion of a porch to a fiberglass-roofed plant room and then the construction of a small greenhouse before eventually becoming the dominant plant in the landscape.

  To deal with the excess plants that would not fit into the greenhouse or landscape, a small ad was taken out in the Florida Market Bulletin. That ad let to meeting a few others interested in bromeliads, one of the first was the late Jim Elmore. Until that time I thought that I was the only one on earth interested in these plants! Soon enough I found and joined the Florida West Coast Bromeliad Society. The company of other folks of all social and economic levels, all meeting to talk about bromeliads was a heady experience. Heck, for me just trading plants at the meetings was well worth the forty-mile drive to Saint Petersburg. My collection grew exponentially and by 1975 I had found and refurbished a commercial size greenhouse on some nearby property, to house my growing collection. Then in 1976 Tropiflora was officially born.

In the thirty years hence, Tropiflora has grown to a large operation with what is likely the largest selection of bromeliads of any nursery in the world. Of course, this didn’t happen overnight, but the rapid increase in bromeliad varieties on hand was fairly dramatic. I used the knowledge gained reptile collecting in Latin America to rapidly increase the bromeliad collections. Fed by a steady stream of collected plants and those obtained by association with a host of bromeliad fanciers and experts worldwide, we grew rapidly in size and stature in the bromeliad community.

 In the 1970’s there were actually many small but complete bromeliad nurseries around the country, especially in California, Texas and Florida. Now there are only a few. Over the years some closed for personal reasons and others ‘grew up’ to become the first real ‘commercial’ bromeliad nurseries in the U.S. focused on growing and selling bromeliads primarily for decoration, on the wholesale market. The temptation to become a mainstream nursery was great, but we chose to continue down the path of uncertainty with the collector crowd. Call it love over reason if you will, we still remain faithful to variety and shun mass production. 

   Soon after becoming officially Tropiflora, we built three greenhouses with a total of 10,000 square feet on leased land east of Bradenton, Florida and hired our first employee, Patsy Worley. The new space seemed cavernous, but it didn’t take long to fill it up, and soon we had to learn about something really foreign...restraint. We learned that there is simply no such thing as ‘enough’ space. Our collection had exceeded space available and we had to make cuts. We were already producing a thick catalog with over two thousand bromeliad varieties and we noticed that some varieties almost never sold. Why? We didn’t exactly know, but we reasoned that it might be for lack of information. Shortly after that we started producing sales flyers with some descriptions of the plants. Looking back, these were the precursors of the Cargo Report, now in its 16th year.

  With each sales promotion we gained new clients, and one became a frequent, even daily, visitor to the nursery. At the time Linda and Jeff Ross managed Tropiflora. When Wally Berg would come to the nursery he’d bring his lunch, staying most of the day patrolling the isles, adding plants to his own burgeoning collection. When asked what he was doing with all the bromeliads, he would only say “Someday I’ll show you”. As many of you who came to know Wally can attest, show us he did! His private collection was without parallel. Few gardens of any size, public or private could match the beauty of Wally and Dorothy Berg’s paradise built on a quarter acre lot around their house in suburban Sarasota.

  Wally and Dorothy became dear friends and Wally eventually became a nearly constant traveling companion on dozens of collecting trips to many countries. It was just this very thing, meeting wonderful people like Wally and Dorothy, that made Linda and I know that we had made the right decision to stick with collectible plants, rather than go into commercial production. Over the years we’ve met hundreds of people of the very finest kind, as plant fanciers often are. I could not and would not even attempt to list even a portion of the prominent and obscure, reclusive, famous, infamous and wonderful people we met, knew and know that have enriched our lives. We have close friends in over twenty countries and have visited many of their homes all over the world. Tropiflora has become an international crossroads with people from many nations visiting to enjoy plants, and often meeting others from across the globe in the process. This has been perhaps the best benefit of having been blessed with the good fortune to have started Tropiflora those thirty eventful years ago.

  For the past twenty-two years Tropiflora has been located on Tallevast Road in Sarasota, where we live and work everyday. Our first few greenhouses have grown to 21, with a combined area under cover of six acres. One large automated structure covers two acres, and another almost one acre. Our bromeliad collection, always growing and changing contains many thousands of varieties, species and hybrids and we have expanded into succulents, orchids and other rare and unusual, collectible plants. We produce a steady stream of our own hybrid bromeliads and succulents and our once tiny workforce now hovers near twenty. Our clientele is worldwide and the Cargo Report is sent to over 12,000 people. Though many things have remained consistent; our commitment to quality and to serving the collector, hobbyist and scientific communities, change has also been constant as well. We have grown and evolved, always looking to improve, and trying new things. The Cargo Report itself, in its 16^th year, is an innovation. We have opened a retail shop and showroom and have greatly expanded our wholesale operations, especially in landscape bromeliads and succulents.

  Change is necessary to remain fresh, and with that in mind, we are preparing to make one of our biggest changes ever. Though we have had a website and web presence for years now, it remains a minor focus of our sales. The primary vehicle for sales is and has been the Cargo Report. Although successful and popular, it does have limitations. The expense of color printing and mailing aside, it is also extremely time consuming to produce. Anyone who has been receiving the Cargo Report for more than a few years knows that the frequency has fallen off. We used to produce six issues per year and now struggle to do three. The main problem is that I pretty much do all the work myself, and after thirty years in the business, I am slowing down. Linda and I still run all aspects of the nursery operation but are now grandparents and feel the pull to spend more time on personal things and less on just work. Add to this the fact that we have many thousands of varieties of plants, constantly available, that no one really knows about, increases the need to expand our Internet presence. The change will be gradual, but is coming, this year. We plan to launch a new, comprehensive website offering much information and thousands of plant varieties with a choice of sizes and pricing. We intend it to be a Mecca for collectible-plant enthusiasts the world over. That said, you are probably wondering; “What will become of the Cargo Report?” The answer at this time is that we don’t know yet! With certainty, it will change. We know that not all of our clients have computer access and we don’t want to abandon those who depend on print media. But change it will. Frequency, size and other changes will come, that is a given. Meanwhile, we encourage all of our clients to sign up for our VIPP (Very Important Plant Person) list, which is free, and by which we offer bi-weekly email specials and stay in touch with important information. VIPP members receive the online version of the Cargo Report weeks early now, and will be the first to learn details of our new website.

  Change is always scary, especially when it is announced. We want to assure our esteemed clients that Tropiflora is just beginning another new decade and plans to remain a source and force in the plant collector world for years to come. Above all, we know that we owe all to you, our faithful clients, who have helped make us who we are, and are driving the need for changes to bring even better service and supply to your beloved hobby.