International Airoid Show 2026 Miami

Holy cow, what an amazing and fulfilling trip to Miami. I have always loved Florida, and for almost 10 years had planned a trip around the Miami area. Beautiful architecture, beaches, wildlife and of course gardens and plants. I was so lucky to have been able to go with my plant bestie Lily of @i_always_node_it as well as meet up with the talented grower @koalasplants

While I try to take videos and pictures at events like IAS, I always end up staying in the moment and chatting with peeps. I only snagged a few pics of stuff I nabbed at the hotel. I flew from Seattle with some of my artwork and hand-pressed linocut shirts to sell at the member society shop, and had planned to sell most of my stuff so I could pack the plants I got into that same suitcase. Well... I didn't end up selling much xD So I had to get another luggage at Marshells to fit everything!! I should just learn my lesson that I will always end up getting more (and bigger) plants than intended.

I preordered some Scindapsus from my planty friend Taylor of @stellarmorphs, and also got some really cool endemic species from her. I have found that I am getting into more of the non-variegated Scindapsus that have cool patterns. I got a scindapsus sp. tattoo, exotica gold dust, mahabarata albo, and a few others.

I also grabbed a few pretty alocasia that I have wanted. Dragonscale albo, melo aurea, and I did a fun trade with my friend Lauren of @velvetvineshouseplants for her metallic blue albo and a melo albo. Really excited to see how those turn out. When I got home I upgraded my little alocasia greenhouse to a 20H aquarium that is much taller and nicer for viewing than the ikea greenhouse they were in. I also have a bunch of corms I am growing out, some of these sprout so fast that I don't even realize will the new leaf is hitting the top of the cup!

And finally, the anthurium. I have a pretty solid collection of velvet leafs at this point so I didn't really go into IAS on the hunt for anything specific. I knew I wanted to grab a few variegated anthurium to breed just for fun. I do tend to prefer non-variegated anthurium unless its really high, fancy variegation. I ended up getting two really nice plants, plus picking up a preorder I imported. I got a black venom x red velvet from aroid greenhouse that struck me with its really nice structure and consistent variegation. Then I stopped by Fonstanimals and fell in love with their pap hybrid with absolutely gorgeous sinuses. I think I am up to 5 variegated velvets now at this point. The RVDP I imported I was not impressed with, it seemed to have lost a lot of var from the two months ago I ordered it, idk it looked better in the photo. I will rehab it and see how it does.

I also picked up a few really cool species anthurium. We got anthurium condor, macdanielii, and a sp dressleri mutado mutant little guy. He was not in good shape but I am hoping I can get him back to good health. Lily must have spent like two hours at Rory Antolak's booth alone, I ended up getting a really cute little carlablackiea 1x13 which isn't a cross you see often. It was really cool to chat with Rory and see his collection in person. Also stopped by Scott Cohen's booth and alllllmost got a paradoxum (sp. nov DF) but I knew I was running out of suitcase space lol.

Among IAS I also toured Fairchild Gardens and got to see some nice plants in-situ, it was especially cool to see a wendlingeri and morona, as well as some unusual alocasias. The amount of plants grown outdoors is mind boggling for someone from WA state, it only made me a little jealous. There were plenty of other gardens I would have loved to tour if I had more time, but I also had to pack in the Everglades and a beach day on Key Biscayne. I would love to come back and spend even more time in some gardens.