BSGC News August 2002

THE BROMELIAD SOCIETY OF GREATER CHICAGO

THE BSGC NEWS

August, 2002

The next meeting is August 11th at 2:00 P.M. in classroom #3 at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The Goode’s program will be "World Bromeliad Conference 2002". This may help those who haven’t been to one, see what it is like. Maybe you will get some ideas for what we should do in 2004. We still need people to sign up to work the show, August 23rd (set up) through August 25th. We also need one more clerk. This is a really good way to learn what judges are looking for in show plants. We will be getting Tillandsias from Russell’s and miniature Neoregelias from Tom Wolfe. The motion passed that everyone that works get a plant for $10 (including shipping) free. Martha Goode made the motion and Mike Field seconded it. Please see the sheet on parking instructions. We have also included a membership card for everyone since the Garden now requests that you show it. This allows you to get in free at the Garden on meeting dates. If you have any questions please call one of the officers or Melissa Parcell at the Garden at (847) 835-8224.

The new slate of officers is President: Lori Weigerding, Vice-President: Wally Fox, Treasurer: Paula Derning and Secretary: Martha Goode. (What! My job is not an elected office?) At the August meeting additional nominations may be made from the floor. September is when we vote on the slate

President’s Column

The Flower sale and Show competition is August 24th and 25th. Come out and show your favorite plant. Remember there is no plant limit. Get to know your competition, What plants are in or out. Give it a Go and be a winner. No plant will be rejected. Bring a friend and even the little people. I know they will enjoy the live rainforest frogs.

See you all there!

The Reilly’s refreshed our memory on how to prepare our plants for the show for those of us who have done it before and helped our new members to get an idea of what to do (or not to do). Martha remember to get Club Soda not seltzer water for cleaning the leaves. You can fill out your entry tag ahead of time using an address label to save some time. Don’t skimp on cleaning your pots and plants. The judges look very carefully. The plants that make it to the head table are used as slides for judges school. Stan Wen and Jeff Weigerding won the two cryptanthus donated by Tropiflora for the raffle. We would like to thank Alayne Richards for providing us with her cookies and Martha Goode for bringing drinks.

We would like to congratulate the following members on getting married, Mike Field, Kay Hess, Lori Gomez and Jeff Weigerding.

Birthday wishes this month go to Olivia Forst 8/7, Ardie Reilly 8/7 (Are they twins?), Bob Jay 8/11 and Lillian Jay 8/17.

We visited two enthusiastic bromeliad people in June, Micki Ogrosky on June 30th and George Klosterman at the Southeastern Michigan Society Meeting on June 15th.

We visited Micki’s greenhouse and basement set-up on one of the 90º days. She has a Janco glass greenhouse with shades on the side of her house. Friends in town with a non-glass greenhouse had damage from a hailstorm one time while hers wasn’t damaged. She has orchids and cacti besides her bromeliads. Since it was so hot, we didn’t stay in the greenhouse too long.

She purchased hers from someplace in the northwest Chicago suburban area. It is quite interesting to watch the lights move ever so slowly from one end to the other on the tracks. That way, you don’t have to move the plants all the time to avoid the plant pointing to one side!

George Klosterman demonstrated mounting Tillandsias and also had plants for sale.We talked about the 2004 BSI conference and gave out registration forms. They have a small group like ours.
	George turned his daughter's former room into a bromeliad room. When she was living at home, their kitchen was a jungle. He grows his plants under lights in the upstairs room. The tables are lined with plastic and he uses styrofoam along the sides of the table to reflect light.The tillandsias are sitting on plastic coated wire racks so the water drains out from the plants. Plastic lining is used to catch the water that runs off the plants. The water that drains to the lining helps maintain the humidity in the room. He sprays the plants in the morning with a 50 foot recoil hose connected to the sink. The water runs back into the plant tray. He sprays the room daily but doesn't use a humidifier. There is a fan in the room for air circulation. He doesn't fertilize in the winter. The lights are on during the day so the temperature gets to 90 degrees and when he turns them off at night, the temperature goes down to 68 degrees. The vent to the room is closed. It is amazing how well the Tillandsias thrive in this room.
George even grows Spanish Moss, Tillandsias usneoides! He has a gauge to measure the high and low temperature and humidity in a 24 hour period. One of the members asked if he had any mold growing but he said that he doesn't. His wife "puts up with his plants." He takes his mounted air plants to craft shows. He uses a high-low glue gun for mounting and uses it on the lower setting. He has found that the glue can last up to a year. Other suggestions were fishing line, Liquid Nails and the E6000 glue for attaching Tillandsias. He also uses galvanized wire to attach plants to the wood. Besides mounting plants, you can also use items such as a candle holder and just set the plant in it. You would take the plant out and either soak it or mist it.

His hobby used to be tropical fish. At one time he had 20 fish tanks. Sixteen to twenty gallon tanks were built into the wall and he had two 50 gallon tanks, a twenty-nine gallon tank and a ten gallon sick tank on stands. He began his bromeliad hobby by buying a barnacle with tillandsias at a craft show. It did well until his wife moved it from the coffee table in the TV room where he watered it. After it got moved he forgot to water it so it died. She threw the whole thing away. (Steve, I'm not the only wife who throws her husband's stuff out.) Next craft show, he bought another one. In February he went to Frank’s and they told him to give it African Violent fertilizer(Violent-Steve! African Violets are not Violent! Speak for youself Dear!) . After fertilizing the plants, they were dead within a week. When he went back later, he got a discount on replacement plants. He was having a hard time finding tillandsias to mount so when his daughter brought home a flier to join the Michigan Society, he decided to join so he could obtain more tillandsias. Now he sells his mounted tillandsias at three or four craft shows a year.

It may be noted that we have put in six pictures, this month. However, we kept the size of each down to save wax sticks. Do you prefer a few BIG pictures or more smaller pictures?? When we do the August Show Pictures, we should have a number of different pictures.

Pictures taken by Steve and he figured out how to put it on the computer at last!

Of course during the hottest days of the year, we are talking about growing plants under lights! We prefer to put the plants outside and not pit our air conditioner against hot grow lights.