THE BROMELIAD SOCIETY OF GREATER CHICAGO

THE BSGC NEWS

March, 2002

Note: New Phone Number: Membership Chairman Wally Fox (847) 836-9331

The next meeting is April 14^th at the Chicago Botanic Garden at 2:00 pm in the Classroom Building near the Lake-Cook Road entrance. The next meeting of the McHenry County satellite group is March 12^th at the McHenry Public Library, 809 N. Front (Route 31) in McHenry at 7:00 P.M.

President’s Column

Spring is just around the corner and the Navy Pier Flower and Garden Show is upon us. I would like to thank all of you who volunteered for this fantastic experience. This is one event, you willnever forget. You will experience the mass confusion and get to know wonderful people. I have participated in the Flower Show for over six years. That is why tomorrow, I am leaving for the funny farm. We still need more volunteers so give me a call.

The February 10^th business meeting was presided by President Wally Fox. Stan advised us that our new website is set up and running smoothly. We read the letter from Carol Gard, Vice President, Development and Barbara Whitney Carr, president and CEO of the Chicago Botanic Garden thanking us for our contribution of $1,000 to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Chuck Stickels gave the treasurers report. A sign up sheet for the Navy Pier Flower Show, March 8^th (set up) thru March 17^th was circulated. Martha Goode and Chuck Stickels will be putting fertilizer from the jars into baggies for reselling at the Flower Show. We also discussed having advertising in our newsletter using business cards of nurseries or interested companies. Steve Goode has received the Illinois Road Maps to be handed out at the 2002 World Bromeliad Conference in St. Petersburg in May to promote our 2004 World Bromeliad conference. We discussed having a magnet made with a bromeliad picture and our website to also be given out then. Jack Riley made a motion to order magnets. Martha Goode seconded the motion. It passed. Wally Fox will be meeting with someone to order them. Jack Reilly is checking on our start up money from the BSI to promote the 2004 World Conference.

Our speaker was Virginia Beatty. Wally presented her with an honorary membership plaque. She grew up in Guatemala surrounded by plants. Her mother, a civil engineer, collected plants for the Missouri Botanical Garden and also for the Field Museum. There bromeliads and other plants grew in trees as well as on telegraph wires. She remembers people coming with gunny sacks and stripping all of the plants off. She remembers some bromeliads being used as a fence to keep the pigs out of the vegetable garden.

She started the Bromeliad Society from the offices of the Horticultural Society on Michigan Ave. They were known as the "brown thumb club" because they admitted that they did kill plants. (To acknowledge a mistake is to learn from it.) She gave some ideas on how to improve your chances at a Plant Show. We are grateful to Virginia for speaking to our society and also making a monetary donation.

The winners of the Jamaican Gardens raffle were Wally Fox, Chuck Stickels and Alayne Richards. (No, it wasn’t rigged!)

We would like to thank Alayne Richards and Martha Goode for the delicious food and drink.

We discussed the Navy Pier Flower Show which is coming up March 8(setup)-March 17. Henry and Patsy Schmidt have been our Anchors for many years. This is our main fund raising event. We still need many more people to help. Please call or e-mail one of the officers. We don’t want Henry and Patsy to do all of the work. You get free parking, a free plant and get into the Flower Shower Free if you work at the Society Booth. John McNichols has ordered the plants.

The following are excerpts from the article Micki Ogrosky wrote in March 1999 for our newsletter, "Everything You Wanted to Know About Working A Show (But Were Afraid to Ask.)"

First, remember to dress in layers. If you have a club T-shirt or sweatshirt, this would be a great time to wear it. But the temperature at flower shows tends to be on the nippy side because they want to keep all that plant material fresh.
Second, bring food!! The food sold at flower shows tends to be rather high-priced. And, if you're working on weekends, you may be too busy (or too tired) to take time out to go buy some. So bring a lunch bag with a sandwich and some cookies. And don't forget fluids! You're going to be talking so much, you need something with which to wet your whistle before you start to croak.
Third, don't forget to bring money!! Not only are you probably going to see lots of bromeliads you're going to want to buy, but other vendors are probably going to be selling lots of neat things, too. So bring some cash, but plastic money is also good. And don't forget your checkbook. But the most important thing to remember about money is not to spend it all at the show: remember to save enough to pay for parking on the way out!!
OK, you've got warm clothes, food, drink, and money. You're ready to leave the house now. So get going already! I find it helpful to plan on getting to the show an hour before I'm scheduled to be there. This leaves time to get caught in traffic, make several wrong turns, not be able to find a place to park, et cetera. This is especially important if you've never before been to the place the show is being held. These big show/convention centers can be extremely confusing to get to, to get into, and then to find a place to park, find out how to get into the show and find the bromeliad booth.
Now that you've arrived, find the Show Office, tell them you're a vendor, and get your Show badge. This gets you into the show free. And don't forget to return it to the Show Office before you leave.
If you're the first to arrive in the morning, you'll need to set up the booth, take the covers off the tables, make sure the plants are arranged nicely. This is also a good time to take a look at your merchandise, make sure you know the names of the plants, check out the boxes to see what still needs to be sold, make sure the bags, the information handouts and all the other paraphernalia are laid out conveniently. Make sure you know where the price list is. If you're coming in later in the day, the people you're relieving will fill you in on important details.
At this point, if you've followed my previous helpful hints, you may actually have some time to kill before you start work. This is a great time to walk around and look at the show (especially if it's morning and the show is not open yet). You can avoid the crowds and really get to see some of the more popular exhibits that will have long lines waiting to get in later in the day. (Of course, you won't be able to see everything in one day, so you should volunteer several days if your schedule permits. That way, you can do your duty to your bromeliad society and see all the other wonderful things at the show!!) But don't get so entranced that you forget to get back to the bromeliad booth on time. (Take time for a bathroom [ed.] break, too, in case you get swamped later and can't get away from the booth for awhile.)
On your mark, get ready, get set, SELL!!!! The doors open and the hordes of avid plant enthusiasts sweep in, many of them hopefully heading for your booth. Many of them [this is hard to believe, I know, but I swear it's true] do not have a clue about bromeliads, won't know a neoregelia from a dyckia, and think air plants live on air and never need to be watered. This is your grand opportunity to introduce people to the [sound the trumpets] "Wonderful World of Bromeliads." Educate, convert, and sell. Be genuine, be friendly, be enthusiastic. Even if they don't buy plants this year, they may come back next year. Encourage the ones that seem interested to sign up to get the newsletter and join our club. We're a bunch of great people; they'll love us!

But, before you leave, remember my last tip:

Make sure you give all the money you've collected to the person designated to collect it. Check your pockets thoroughly (yes, that means your backpockets, too). There's nothing more frustrating than discovering when you get home that there was a $20 bill down at the bottom of your pocket that you missed and now have to remember to turn in later. And don't forget to turn in your show badge on the way out.

So follow these few helpful hints and you'll have fun,too!!!!

Also, don’t forget to save your parking receipt to turn in to Chuck Stickels!

Please bring any clean bags you have at home, especially large shopping bags with handles. Steve and Martha Goode have revised the care sheets that we will be handling out with plant purchases. The general Bromeliad and Tillandsia care sheets are white. The Vriesea care sheet is green (Irish maybe??) And the cryptanthus sheet is salmon. The Aechmea sheet is yellow, Guzmania is blue and the Neoregelia sheet is pink. All the Plant caresheets except the general Bromeliad have a black & white photo on them (LaserJet, Chuck!)

The dates for the satellite meetings at the McHenry Public Library are March 12, June 12, Sept 11 and Dec. 4^th.

Keep working on your pin and program cover design for the 2004 World Conference. We will vote on the design at the April 14^th meeting.

March birthday wishes go to Nancy Halverson 3/7, John Halverson 3/9, Carol Kroscher 3/14, Pat Brechel 3/17, Robert Forst 3/23, Yvonne Hart 3/23 and Craig Goldstein 3/26.

Picture of Virginia Beatty by Steve Goode, Neo. Shamrock by Michael Andreas and Neo. Emerald Fire & Emerald Forest by Vic Przetocki (a very fine Irish name if you ask me!) Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you! ___

Please send in your membership renewal as soon as possible. If you do not have an 02 or # (crosshatch or pound sign) after your name (on the address label), then you need to send in $12 for individual or $15 for dual with your address label to : Martha Goode, 826 Buckingham Court, Crystal Lake, IL 60014-7601. Please bear in mind that you might miss our First Annual Swimsuit issue of this Newsletter if you don’t renew!! It is something that we have talked about and argued over for the past two years. It will be a big surprise to all.