THE BROMELIAD SOCIETY OF GREATER CHICAGO

THE BSGC NEWS

May, 2002

The next meeting is Saturday, May 11th at the Lincoln Park Conservatory. Steve Mayer of the conservatory will meet us at the front door at 2:00 pm. He will give us a behind the scenes tour of the greenhouse for the conservatory. Plan to come early as parking is hard to find in that area.

President’s Column

Lincoln Park here we come. The 1st meeting we had a flood and the boat sank. I was the only one that made it to the island of seals. Our second venture was dry and sunny.

I thought that we might want to bring some little people this time. I don’t know why . It must be from my trip to California (New Granddaughter) Let everyone come to enjoy the bromeliads, animals and just being alive. See You There!

 

The membership enjoyed the meeting room in the new educational building on April 14th at the Chicago Botanic Garden. We appreciate the refreshments provided to us by Alayne Richards. The program cover, mug and pin ideas were presented and voted on. The two designs will be presented to the BSI. They will decide which to use since they cover that expense for the World Conference. Jack Reilly moved that we join the Cryptanthus Society as an affiliate member since ours has expired. They produce a bimonthly journal. Micki Ogrosky seconded the motion and it passed. Ardie Reilly moved that we make a $250 donation to the 2002 BSI World Conference for awards. Micki Ogrosky seconded the motion and it passed. Jack Reilly said we needed a theme for our August Show. Henry Schmidt suggested "Preview for 2004". It was voted on and passed. The judges will be Charlie Birdsong and Michael Young. Chuck gave the treasurers report. Everyone received some plants from the raffle of Bob Jay’s plants. We appreciate his generous donation.

I didn’t forget to say thank you to anyone who worked at Navy Pier (First Time, Dear!) We are getting better at communicating (Not when we work on the Newsletter!). Patsy Schmidt wanted to say a thank you to Wally Fox for bringing popcorn to share at the show. We need a chef to join our society to make us something besides sandwiches to eat when we work. We are grateful for everyones hard work. We use some of the money for paying for the travel and lodging expenses of our speakers. Mark your calendar for Dennis Cathcart’s visit on June 9th.

We would like to welcome our new member Marcia Becker.

Birthday Wishes this month go to Ruth Podgers 5/16 (Hope you are feeling better, Ruth!) and Ed Littman 5/5.

The Goodes and Reilly’s will be going off to the Beach Party in St. Petersburg for the World Conference which begins May 15th. We will be taking notes and pictures to share with you when we return (We’ll not be going to the Beach Dear?? No Dear, this is a working trip!) You make friends and buy lots of wonderful bromeliads there. (At least the books don’t croak!) It’s a great time with many wonderful people.
This week we received a box of plants from Roger Lane in San Francisco. We met him at the World Bromeliad Conference there in 2000. He was in charge of the tours. (He’s the President and Newsletter Editor of the San Francisco group!) Steve and I won a lovely mounted bromeliad tree in the silent auction. The problem was that it was very heavy. The plants were mounted on a tree branch mounted on a stone. Since we couldn’t carry it on the plane and it was too hard to pack, we took a few of the plants off and gave the stone tree to Roger. He sent us pups from the tree as well as many other plants. One of the plants is Aechmea nudiclis var. aequalis. I found a short article about it in the Caloosatatchee Bromeliad Society Newsletter of May, 1999 written by Larry Giroux. (Picture by Paul Wingert.)

Aechmea nudicaulis has a wide range with interesting forms found from Mexico and Central America, the West Indies to Brazil and Peru. Typically Ae. nudicaulis is an upright, mostly tubular shaped plant that has a ‘thumb print’ or depressed area about half way up the leaf. Epiphytic or occasionally terrestrial, a stoloniferous habit makes this species especially suitable for hanging basket culture or for mounting and growing epiphytically on wood.

Years of exploration and selection have produced many excellent forms. Plants are available as single cuttings or as small clumps in 4 inch pots, all suitable for repotting, mounting or basket culture. Aechmea nudicaulis enjoys a well drained media or can be mounted. Bright filtered light to partial sun is preferred for best color. In all, a satisfying and easy plant to cultivate.

Aechmea nudicaulis var. aequalis A beautiful medium growing plant with an upright flaring shape, The leaves are stiff, reddish green and heavily silvery, banded below, becoming solid silver towards the leaf tips, Excellent plants of a very uncommon variety.

The two pictures of Neo. ‘Lilac Splendor’ show the differences you can get with plants with the same name. (On Roster Sheet so you don’t lose it!) Sometimes the difference is from different growing conditions such as different light conditions. Herb Plever discusses this in his March 2002 Bromeliana Newsletter from New York. He says that even within a species population at the same site in habitat there is variation with respect to size, markings and color and perhaps more so for species growing in different habitats and conditions. When you order a hybrid the genetic makeup of each parent results in seedlings which can be very different from each other.

 

Growing Points

This is the time of year when you get your plants ready to take outside (not downtown??). They enjoy the vacation outdoors. It is more like their natural habitat instead of the dryness of our houses. The air movement, rain and sunshine are what they are used to. Be sure to gradually adjust them to outdoor conditions. Most of the bromeliads do not want to be in the direct sunlight. Start them out under a tree or canopy to acclimate them to the brighter conditions of outdoors. Ananas, Hectia and the Tillandsia genus are listed as being able to take full sun. Guzmania prefers full shade. Canistrum, cryptanthus and Vriesea prefer indirect medium light. The other genera prefer indirect bright light. The February 2002 Newsletter of the Bromeliad Society of Central Florida discusses the light requirements of bromeliads. Many plants will start growing much longer leaves increasing their surface area to compensate when grown in too little light. Too much light can cause the plant’s color to start fading or "bleaching". If brown sunburn spots appear on the upper portions of leaves, it is a clear indication that the plant is getting too much light.