I have been growing orchids since I was 15 and 16, starting with Australian Natives in a custom built bush house in my Parents backyard (I must have had pretty cool parents it seems) back then the way to buy orchids was to send a stamped self addressed envelope off to all the nurseries and get a catalogue back in the mail – such excitement. I remember buying Sarcochilus from Simpson orchids, both seedlings and flasks and I am pretty sure I also bought some orchids from Tinonee & Cedarvale as a teenager. Back then many catalogues were multi pages glossy deals. Oh how the world has changed. Since then ebay and online selling has changed the hobby – perhaps permanently. The joy of getting a glossy catalogue in the mail to dream about is for the most part gone, replaced with shiny multi coloured photos on websites. While this has some downsides the acceleration in native hybridisation driven along with the general ease of distribution of orchids facilitated by the internet has had a huge impact on our hobby – taking them to places you could have only dreamt of 20 years ago including some downsides.