THE BROMELIAD SOCIETY OF GREATER CHICAGO

THE BSGC NEWS

July, 2002
The next meeting is July 14th at 2:00 P.M. in classroom #3 at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The Reilly’s will be showing us how to "Prepare Our Plants" for the August 24&25th Bromeliad Show. The theme is "Preview of 2004-Chicago is your Kind of Town". The judges are Michael Young and Charlie Birdsong from Louisiana. All horticultural entries need to be in the possession of the exhibitor for at least 6 months prior to the show. (Except for Artistic and Educational displays) Besides a plant entry, you can also do an educational or art entry. We would like to see a novice entry this year. A novice is a member who has never won a blue ribbon in a Standard Bromeliad Show. We will also have a sign up sheet at the meeting. We will need people to set up on the 23rd, two clerks to assist the judges on the morning of the 24th, and workers to sell plants on Saturday and Sunday. If you can work any day, Friday, Saturday or Sunday but aren’t coming to the meeting please call the Goodes at (815) 459-1623. Someone from the "Chicagoland Gardening" magazine will be coming to take pictures and do an article on Bromeliads.

The June 9th program by Dennis Cathcart was enjoyed by all. He gave us a 2 for 1 deal. He presented two slide shows, one on collecting Tillandsias and one on Wally Berg. We enjoyed his raffle donations. (Steve! You aren’t supposed to buy so many tickets. You should let everyone else have an equal chance!)

President’s Column

Our last meeting was Fantastic!! We had over 20 Members with three new prospects (Recruit-Recruit). We need Bromelians like you, with Enthusiam with the 2004 Fever.

Our BSI Directors Meeting has been set for June 13th, June 14th and June 15th, 2003 at the Westin O’Hare. The Directors will meet with us on the 15th of June 2003, at the Gardens. Do not forget this date.

Back to 2002-August 24th and August 25th

TheAugust Flower Sale and Competition Show. We have always had a good turn out for this event. Bring your favorite Bromeliads to be Judged. Bring them all-No Limit.

Jack and Ardie will show you how to win. They will share with you the Tricks of the Trade on July 14th.

See you all there!
Birthday wishes this month go to Jack Reilly 7/2, U.S.A. 7/4, Nancy Spitz 7/8, Gerald Gersey 7/10, Stan Wen 7/15 and Barb Temchuck 7/24.

Here is a Poem from the Houston Bromeliad Society Newsletter, Feb. 2002.

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure Somebody would do it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

 

We need to start getting our committees for the 2004 Conference. Please consider being a chair (Person, Man or Woman!) for one committee. Here is a list of most of the chairs needed.

1. Space engineer: Draws up most efficient table design for areas that need

tables, mainly Sales and Show areas. Should be familiar with hotel areas to be laid out and blue print drawings.

2. Staging: Mainly staging for the Show. Needs to have creative ability.

3. Sales: Solicits vendors. Committee uses cash registers so need to know MS Excel, spread sheet and bar code systems.

4. Audio Visual: Provides AV needs for all events and speakers.

5. Security: Provides day security in the area where there are plants and

displays. Checks for proper ID for Registrants, Day Visitors, Food Events, etc. Secures Exhibits, Show, Sale and other vulnerable areas.

6. Hotel Liasion: Gathers information, plan, food and service and

coordinates Hotel space and schedule with Conference needs

7. Display Chair: Solicits and co-ordinates displays, commercial, affiliates and others.

8. Name Tags: Makes them up for those already registered and then makes new ones for those signing up at conference.

9. Hospitality: Oversees and co-ordinates Registrants Packets

including a list of interesting sites. In charge of selling Day Tickets, Food event tickets and Show and Exhibit tickets. Seeks donations for conference packets.

10. Tours: Co-ordinates tour destinations and transportation. The tours are a separate charge and participants pay for these in advance.

11. Advertising/Promotion: Needs to get out information to local area by TV, radio and Print as well as soliciting ads for the program

12. Banquet: Co-ordinates food, entertainment, decorations, and program.

13. Raffle: Seeks raffle donations and co-ordinates the raffle.

14. Seminar Chair: Finds speakers and schedules them. Provides

abstract of seminar to Conference Program chair. Selects small gift plus one free hotel night per seminar. At time of Conference, in charge of seeing the speaker’s needs met.

15. Conference Program: Plan and prepare the conference Program for inclusion in the registration packet.

 

One of the tours during the 2004 Conference was of Rob Branch’s garden. This was Steve’s favorite tour. That was the day I was doing my duty as a BSI Director and attending the Board meeting (Darn It!).

Rob Branch’s Place

Rob is a 49 year old House Painter who bought a 1 acre spread about three years ago in Sarasota, with a Deep love of Palms and Bromeliads. He has started out to do what we all wish to do in our wildest dreams!! He has cleaned out the brush and planted Palms and Bromeliads. This is the start of a ten year plan to have a triple canopy Bromeliad Forest. He seems to have already planted a Noah’s Ark of Neoregelia, Catopsis, Aechmeas, Puyas, and other bromeliad families. It was quite interesting to see how he pulled back dead palm leaf stumps and used the spring like pressure to hold Billbergias. He said that for the plant to thrive, it had to be firmly anchored. Rob has a large shade house and is trying to condition many plants to grow in full sun.

He talked about the recent frost and said that there were two kinds of frost blankets available. One is good for one or two degrees of frost and the other is good for up to four degrees. He also mentioned that he hopes to make the garden more resistant to frost by planting tall trees (Palms) on the North side of the property. Rob is also planting bromeliads in the creek area behind his house. If the room is available, he is using it.

Rob is really happy about going "Overboard" with his plants. He appears to be much younger than his "real age". This seems to be the foundation of the Fountain of Youth. You have to find something that you really enjoy and go overboard with it. When you enjoy what you do, everyone will enjoy being with you. The many selections of bromeliads that he has would do any commercial nursery up here great honor.

only water for a limited time with an automatic system in Sarasota.)

The Sarasota Bromeliad Society Display used plants dug up from Rob Branch’s place after this tour! As bright and colorful as the display was, it was only a hint of the full wonders of Rob’s Garden. I was really sorry that Martha could not see Rob’s Garden. At least we got to see Selby Garden and shop at Tropiflora where Rob gets a lot of his plants!

 

In June, we visited Penrith and Inge Goff up in Northville, Michigan. We visited their attached greenhouse. They took us to the June meeting of the South Eastern Michigan Bromeliad Society at George Klosterman’s house in West Bloomfield. One little trick that they use to fertilize Bromeliads is to use the Black and Decker Model VP450 Power Sprayer. This sprayer is popular with the S-E Bromeliad Society since it holds three gallons of liquid and is powered by two VersaPak™ batteries. (7.2 volt system) If you use any of the VersaPak batteries in power tools, you will have common chargers and batteries for use. It comes equipped with two wheels for easy movement of the sprayer. Weight is 8.8 pounds dry with water around 33 pounds. (Easy to move around). You don’t have to "pump up" the sprayer before and during use. The machine will keep a constant pressure which means that the spray pattern will be constant. There are two nozzles: one adjustable for fog to stream and a fan shape spray nozzle. It sells for $79.95 (list price). I looked for it at our local Home Depot, Menard’s or Ace hardware and they didn’t have it, so I went to the DeWalt Service Center in Addison, IL. on North Ave. (South side of North Ave.). Many times, you can get it for a bit less due to damaged boxes. The power head screws onto the bottle easily (Martha can do it!). Our friends use it to water plants in the winter and to fertilize the plants in spring, summer and fall.