How Many More Weeks of Winter?
President – Bradley Rauch – 386/767-8937
Vice President – Jay Thurrott – 386/761-4804
Secretary – Nina Leggett- 386/673-0550
Treasurer – Jim O’Shaughnessy - 386/253-0335
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I don’t know about you, but I’ve had quite enough of Winter for this year, thank you very much! This new frost blanket material really is wonderful and I like the fact that I can leave it over my plants for relatively long periods of time, but quite frankly, I’m sick of looking at it. When I come home at the end of the day, it looks like there are snow drifts in my yard and that’s not really the look that I was going for! This had to go to print before Ground Hog day arrived, so I can’t really comment on the Punxatawnee Phil prediction, but I’m hoping he didn’t see his shadow and that we are looking at less than six more weeks of cold weather.
Welcome New Officers!
We had our election of officers at the last meeting. Welcome to our new president, Bradley Rauch. Welcome also to secretary, Nina Leggett and treasurer Jim O’Shaughnessy. Thank you all for agreeing to serve as officers for our group over the next year. I’m sure that you can expect the help and encouragement of all of our club members as you begin the duties of your positions. Thank you also outgoing president Linda Stagnol – you did a great job during your tenure and those efforts are sincerely appreciated. Finally, I don’t think we can thank Ted Nuse enough for the outstanding job he has done as treasurer of our organization over the past…how many years has it been Ted?! Thank you all, for without your hard work there would be no FECBS!
This months’s program
Recently I had the opportunity to tour a bromeliad nursery in South Florida. The nursery was the classic example of a collection taken to extremes and ending in a commercial operation. It was a wonderul collection to see and I took a lot of pictures and put them into a slide show format to share with our group. As an added bonus, I also happened to be present at another private collection that included plants the owner wished to "force" into blooming. While I was there a nearby nursery owner stopped by with equipment and materials to make this happen, so I have included some interesting pictures of this process – one that I had heard whispered about, but had never truly witnessed.
Dues for 2006
If you haven’t already, please pay your dues for this year. $12.50/individual.
Looking ahead:
We are about to enter into that hectic time of year when it seems like there is some plant show-related activity going on nearly every weekend. I would like to get to all of these, but unfortunately there are always some scheduling conflicts. At least pick one of these and let us know what you thought of the event at the following meeting!
Feb. 11 Garage sale – Saturday at the Garden Center on the corner of Jessamine and Oleander Aves. 9am to 3pm. Proceeds to benefit the
Halifax Council of Garden Clubs.
March 4th and 5th "A Patchwork of Bromeliads" Show and Sale presented by the Bromeliad Guild of Tampa Bay. 9am to 5pm on Sat., 10am to 4pm on Sunday. Garden Club building on 2629 Bayshore Blvd. in Tampa.
March 16 – 19 Everybody’s Flower
Show at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach. Standard judged flower show, horticultural displays. Many vendors selling garden related items.
March 25, 26 – Leu Gardens Spring Plant Sale. 1920 Forest Ave. in Orlando. Free admission to the gardens. The Bromeliad Society of Central Florida will have a sales booth here. Bring a wagon to haul your purchases back to the car!
March 25, 26 – Annual Spring Garden Festival at Kanapaha Gardens in Gainesville. 4700 SW 58th Drive. Entranc on SW Archer Road (1 mile W. of I-75). Call 352/372-4981 for directions or further details
March 31 - April 2, 2006
April 1 Master Gardener’s Sale at
Volusia County Fair Grounds. This is a half day
sale only, so don’t arrive late! Start getting your plants for sale together now. This is a good way to make some extra cash (you get 75% of the sales proceeds of your plants, the club gets 25%) that you can spend on purchasing more plants!
April 9, 2006
May 17 – 21 Florida Native Plant Society will sponsor the 26th Annual Conference at the Shores Resort and Spa (formerly the Hilton) in Daytona Beach Shores, 2637 S. Atlantic Ave. This will include a Plant Professionals workshop on May 18th at the Volusia County Fairgrounds (Volusia County Agriculture Center). For details and registration forms visit: www.fnps.org.
May 12-14, 2006
May 23rd and 24th Bromeliad Show and Sale at Fairchild Tropical Gardens sponsored by the Bromeliad Society of South Florida. 10901 Old Cutler Road, Miami Show Chairman: Robert Meyer, 305-668-3344
Commercial sales: Peter Kouchalakos, 305-461-2367