FLORIDA WEST COAST BROMELIAD SOCIETY Celebrating 62 Years in Bromeliads

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1 FLORIDA WEST COAST BROMELIAD SOCIETY Celebrating 62 Years in Bromeliads floridabromeliads.org May 2016 Newsletter NEXT MEETING Date & Time: Tuesday, May 3, 2016 Doors open at 7 pm; meeting starts at 7:30 Location: Good Samaritan Church 6085 Park Boulevard Pinellas Park, Florida PROGRAM The next meeting will be our Annual Bromeliad Auction, always a lot of fun and a major fund raiser for our group. Members can participate in several ways: 1. DONATE items to the auction. 2. BRING refreshments to share with others. 3. VOLUNTEER to set up, arrange, and display auction items and to set up and clean up refreshments. 4. BID on auction items! There will be no business meeting, no show and tell, no member plant sales and no raffle. LAST MEETING HIGHLIGHTS PROGRAM Dr. Terrie Bert was scheduled to give the presentation for the evening but she had to cancel at the last minute due to the sudden passing of her father. Alton Lee (photo on right by Peggy Goodale) graciously stepped in with less than a day s notice to prepare the talk he presented to us in her place. In his talk, titled In the Footsteps of Giants, he provided a short history of four of the early bromeliads pioneers--mildred Palmer, Harry Luther, Mulford Foster, and Victoria Padilla. The achievements of each of these four would easily fill an entire evening s presentation but time did not allow that. A good deal has been written about them in other sources, such as the Bromeliad Society International (BSI) Journal. Here are some of Alton s comments about these pioneers. Mildred Palmer ( ) was a member of the Florida West Coast Bromeliad Society in its formative years. A self-taught botanist and passionate plant lover, she and her

2 husband owned an exotic fruit nursery in Kenneth City (now called Hazel s Nursery).In 1964 she was instrumental in putting on our society s first bromeliad show, which is reported to be the first bromeliad show held anywhere. Beginning in 1962 she led efforts to establish the Suncoast Botanical Gardens, following which she was president and chief caretaker for 25 years. The gardens were the forerunner of today s Florida Botanical Gardens. Harry Luther ( ) was a native of St. Petersburg and longtime member of our society. He was recognized internationally as an expert in the horticulture and botany of bromeliads and had an encyclopedic knowledge of many other plants, despite the fact that he did not have a degree in horticulture or botany. His love of plants started in his teenage years. During that time he joined our society and was in charge of the gardens at the former Webb City in St. Petersburg. In the late 1960s he joined the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota where he served as the director of the Bromeliad Identification Center and Curator of Living Collections for 32 years. In 2010, he became Assistant Director for Horticulture at Singapore s then new Gardens by the Bay. He was still working at these gardens when he passed away suddenly at the young age of 60. His passing was deeply mourned by many. Mulford Foster ( ) was a naturalist and botanist known by many as the "Father of the Bromeliad" because he was instrumental in the discovery and introduction of many new bromeliad species and hybrids. In 1923 he moved his family to Florida and settled in Orlando. In the 1940s and 1950s he and his second wife Racine traveled throughout South America and Central America collecting thousands of herbarium specimens. In the early 1950s, he worked with Victoria Padilla (see below) to found the organization that became the BSI. He served as its president from 1950 through 1959 and its editor from 1951 through An article about him can be found in the 1961 BSI Journal, Volume X, July- August, Number 4, on the BSI website ( Victoria Padilla ( ) was editor of the BSI journal for many years ( following Mulford Foster in that job) until the mid 1980s. In the 1940s she was editor of a gardening magazine in California and wrote a number of books about bromeliads such as her 1973 book Bromeliads, about the basics of growing bromeliads. An article about her can be found in the 1987 BSI Journal, Volume XXXVII, January-February, Number 1 on the BSI website ( ( SHOW AND TELL Reported by Helga Tarver Alton Lee Gary Lund X Quesmea Lymanii ( Quesnelia testudo x Aechmea disticantha var. schlumbergerii) An albomarginated Guzmania hybrid, possibly Grant Groves Denise 2

3 Alvaro Maranhao Aechmea bromeliifolia Aechmea contracta Aechmea bracteata Franne Matwijczyk Aechmea nidularioides (photo below) Nicole Matwijczyk Linda Sheetz Susan Sousa Janet Stoffels Aechmea Black on Black (photo below) Aechmea Perez Aechmea maculata (photo below) Tillandsia hammeri (photo below) Aechmea Covata (Aec. comata x Aec. recurvata) (photo below) Show and Tell Plants Aechmea nidularioides Aechmea Black on Black Aechmea maculata 3

4 Aechmea Covata Tillandsia hammeri THIS AND THAT Tip of the Month (Source: Terrie Bert, April 2016 Sarasota Bromeliad Society newsletter) Get rid of oak tree fallout! Oak leaves, flower pods, and acorns clog the centers and interleaf spaces of bromeliads. These are the growing sites of bromeliads. If the oak litter is not removed, it will kill most bromeliads. Oak litter is very high in tannic acid, which will kill the sensitive growing areas of bromeliads. Use long tongs (available at Tropiflora) or put on good gloves and get that stuff out of your bromeliads. Leaves can also be flushed out with a hose. Editor s note: When I want to be really fussy when cleaning debris out of bromeliads, for example when preparing a plant for a show or a sale, I use a pair of long tongs. But when I don t need to be so fussy and just want to remove most of the obvious debris (almost all of my bromeliads are in the landscape), I have found using a regular teaspoon or soup spoon works well and is much quicker. Member Bob Albanese uses another method to pull debris out of his landscape bromeliads he uses a shop-vac with a wide-diameter hose! BLOOMING THIS MONTH Folks from Sunshine Bromeliads Nursery in Miami (where I got this plant last fall) told me it is an Aechmea chantinii cross created many years ago by Patricia Bullis (Bullis Bromeliads in South Miami-Dade County). Parentage is not reported nor does the plant appear to have a hybrid name. It has been grown in soft morning light and Sunshine tells me that when grown in direct sunlight it will turn burgundy red. 4

5 Aechmea Mend albomarginated Dyckia brevifolia, submitted by Gary Lund. 5

6 Hechtia tillandsioides, submitted by Gary Lund who reports it is a rare bloomer and spineless. UPCOMING EVENTS, 2016 June 13-19, 22 nd World Bromeliad Conference, Houston, Texas ( June 25-26, USF Botanical Gardens Summer Plant Sale University of South Florida, Tampa, FL (cas.usf.edu/garden) August 20-21, Seminole Bromeliad and Tropical Plant Society Sale The Garden Club of Sanford, Sanford, FL (Ben Klugh at Klughka@yahoo.com) President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Immediate-Past President Newsletter Editor Trustees (3) 2016 FWCBS BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ashley Graham, adglaw@gmail.com Larry Sousa, lawrencesousa@yahoo.com John Edwards, JOHNRN56@aol.com Gary Lund, garybrom@yahoo.com Susan Sousa, susansousa1@yahoo.com Linda Sheetz, lsheetz@tampabay.rr.com Joe Ventimiglia ( ), ventimij@gmail.com Barbara Stayer ( ), bnice@tampabay.rr.com Sal Vactor ( ), salbiah93hafiz@gmail.com Website: floridabromeliads.org Webmaster: John Edwards, JOHNRN56@aol.com 6