NEWS East London LETTER

Bromeliad Society February 2018 South Africa Established: 25 July 2009

Our aim is to promote and encourage awareness and interest in Bromeliads in East London and all of South Africa!

ELBS is an Affiliated Society of Bromeliad Society International

A revisit to a still magical garden! What a fabulous start to another new year in the life of ELBS!! We had a really super, fun and informative meeting with 30 folks turning up including 3 new members. The meeting was hosted by Elna and Henri Smit in Gonubie who were so hospitable and opened their home and spectacular show garden to us for the afternoon. We have met here before, in 2013, and the garden was a blast of creativity. Much building and painting has taken place since then, and you know what builders do, trash everything around Henri and Elna Smit in their absolutely stunning, imaginative and creatively laid what they’re building!! So the garden has out garden in Gonubie. reaped the benefits after loads of hard work, rearranging some things and lots of personal touches that only Elna can do so beautifully, often working late in the evenings as she works all day, often out of town. The garden surrounds the house and changes through the different areas you walk through. Of course there are loads more bromeliads, some for the very sunny areas, some planted in the shady tropical nooks, all interspersed with other plantings and lots of decorative features and beautiful tree stumps and trunks collected over time. Truly lovely and a wonderful experience for all of us who did not manage to see Elna’s garden when it was on the Pam Golding Gardens of East London Show last October. I hope all the special little nooks in your garden bring you some comfort while you relax or

Next Meeting: Sunday 25th February at 2 for 2.30pm. Hosted by Ester Botha at Adelsicht Farm 1337 Schafli Road Chintsa. Don’t forget to bring a chair if you want a seat.

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work as you get used to your daughter having flown the nest and off to university. First chick out the nest, it really is tough! She’ll be back! Thank you so much to both of you for sharing your special place and hosting us!

Dudley welcomed all to the meeting, getting through the formalities trying not to deviate from the agenda too much!!! Then he gave us an interesting chat about his favourite , . I have included a few over the next pages, impossible to cover them all!

Tillandsia - Dudley Reynolds Sometimes this genus is overshadowed by some of the other genera in the Bromeliad family. No other genus can beat Tillandsia when it comes to ‘remarkability’ and the interest they generate amongst collectors and the public. The largest genus in the Bromeliad family, Tillandsia can boast with over 600 and many thousand hybrids. Dudley Reynolds with his array of They get full marks when it comes Tillandsia that he brought for to diversity ie. some living in humid discussion at the meeting. rain forests and some in dry desert- like conditions surviving on meagre resources.

Xeric Tillandsia have evolved and adapted in various ways to survive in these arid conditions. There are several factors that have made them the survival machines that they are. Often found where no other will survive.

Firstly the fine hair like structures called trichomes, which appear on the leaves assist with reflection of the sun's rays, absorbtion of nutrients and water. Many xeric Tillandsia show succulent tendencies, which allow for water storage. The CAM process ie. Crassulean Acid Metabolism, simply put is a process where the stomata under the leaves stay closed during the heat of the day and open at night when it is cooler, thus preventing water loss.

Obviously the greener leaf tank type Tillandsia are those that live in shadier conditions. The ones that are really furry with trichomes are those that can survive in sunny positions.

Unfortunately a lot of Tillandsia are exploited commercially. Sold as gimmicky items such as fridge magnets and in glass bottles, terrarium type containers, and the eventual result is the demise of the plant.

I brought a few examples of different types of Tillandsia which I discussed individually.

T. albertiana is a small plant. Leaves are T. latifolia var divaricata? There are different varieties T. streptocarpa. Grows in full sun as an distichous (grow opposite each other on of latifolia growing in different areas and conditions. epiphyte. Lovely lavender and white the plant stem). The bloom, a three petaled This one can tolerate good sun. I selected this one as scented flowers. Older leaves dry bright red/cherry colour is very large in it has an attractive orange inflorescence with pink curling around the mount for relation to the size of the plant. It prefers flowers. additional support. filtered sunlight and good air movement.

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T. bulbosa ‘Belize’, left, comes from Belize which borders on the north of and the west of . T. bulb os a, right, is found growing close to rivers and streams, therefore requiring medium light, high humidity and T. leiboldiana is a soft leaf, tank type Tillandsia. The orange bracts and blue/purple flowers are pleasing to the eye. frequent watering. As with all Tillandsia good air movement is required. This is Potted and grown in much shadier conditions and enjoys a pseudobulbous myrmecophyte, (ant plant). When flowering, the upper reasonable amounts of water. leaves and inflorescence turn cherry with lavender colour flowers.

Right, T. ‘ Kacey’ is a hybrid. T. caput-medusae, tolerates hot T. rectangular. Parents being T. bulbosa and sun. It roots well on to a mount Interesting curly leaf. T. butzii . I grow this plant in the being epiphytic. From the sub genus T. neglecta forms a nice clump. Grows same conditions as its parent Diaphoranthema. epiphytically and is similar to T. tenuifolia T. bulbosa and T. araujei . Develops red bracts and blue flowers. Grows in filtered light away from hot afternoon sun.

T. tricholepis . One of themoss type T. remota has needle type leaves, grown in Tillandsia. Needs good filtered light. From filtered light with good air movement. Gets T. filifolia, this is a mesic (moderate water) the subgenus Diaphoranthema. an overspray of fertilizer from time to time species which grows in low light. The needle resulting in a nice clump of over a type leaves signify that it requires good air period of time. movement. Interesting pin cushion shape.

Left, T . butzii, the weirdo of the Tillandsia genus. Grows in filtered light with good air movement. Grows prolifically here In East London self seeding itself. I grow mine hanging under 40 percent shade cloth with my orchids.

Right, T. tenuifolia surinamensis . I brought this one to show the lovely amethyst colour leaves. It gets full afternoon sun. The inflorescence is pink and the flowers lilac.

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Show and Tell

Members were asked to bring any of their blooming Tillandsia to the meeting for Show and Tell. Dr Pete Pfister brought a stunner that he had grown, Tillandsia capitata ‘Peach’ and Elna chose it as her hostess plant!!! What an awesome example of this lovely Tillandsia , sooooo big!!!!

Robert Moss brought along his seeds, below, that have been quietly growing away in his shade house. I asked him to bring them to show us before he started planting them out into larger containers. The first ones are Dyckia ‘Men in Grey’ grown from seed that was very kindly sent to us by Rob Murray in Australia. Not all the seed Rob received germinated. They are nearly ready to be planted out separately into small single trays. The middle photo is of more seed from Rob Murray, Alcantarea ‘Green Giant, these are due to be separated out, they have done very well. The next container has tiny seedlings of a Vriesea cross that Robert is experimenting with. These will still Elna and Pete with her choice of be kept under cover in a warm spot for a long time. Slow growers. plant, a magnificent Tillandsia

capitata ‘Peach’.

Lyn Wegner showed Tillandsia 'Antonio', left. A beautiful Andre Eybers brought a Tillandsia which is now re- Tillandsia for ID, which is classified as Wallisia . I Googled Tillandsia juncea. for information, always so frustrating when you can't find any! The Bird Rock Tropical site mentioned 'A Chester Skotak hybrid produces a beautiful multi- branched hybrid (Lyn: I think this should say inflorescence) with lavender purple flowers'. Mine is growing in morning sun and I am excited to have 2 flower spikes. I am still eagerly waiting for the flowers. I decided to email Chester for more info and he has advised it is a branched form of cyanea x wagneriana .

Lyn also showed a Vriesea ‘Tasman’ hybrid. I have a variety of beautiful pattern-leaf Vriesea ‘Tasman’ hybrids which I imported from Andrew Maloy of New Zealand in 2013. They grow in the garden in a sunny spot and are all doing very well. Just 2 which are similar in appearance are doing something strange. They seem a little muddled! Both have a pup that looks like it started off as a flower spike. One of the plants has a normal pup developing as well! I emailed Andrew for his comments and this is what he has to say: “We did see this in some ‘Tasman’ Vriesea but only very rarely and I have no real idea what causes it. I think probably genetic, as in some other genera it’s more common for some pups to arise from flower spikes. If you let it get big enough it may start to grow roots or you could cut it off and treat it as you’d normally treat an un-rooted pup.” I emailed David Fell from Hawaii too and this is what he had to say: “It does look like the plant became confused. I have seen this behaviour more in Guzmania than Vriesea. In my experience, the plant gets a message to flower but is in a vegetative growth phase and switches from flowering (causing the extension) back to vegetative form. I’ve rooted the

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tops and they have grown on to normal plants. I don’t believe it is genetic.” All very interesting!

Dr Boots Horsfall brought two beautifully grown tillies to the meeting. Above, Tillandsia hondurensis and his magnificent Tillandsia xerographica on the right, which brought about much Miriam Kennard brought a lovely discussion on growing conditions. Boots said his is grown in full sun. example of Tillandsia tricolor from her It is a species of Tillandsia that is native to southern Mexico, El garden. Salvador and Guatemala. The name is derived from the Greek words (xeros), meaning "dry," and (graphicos ), meaning "‘painting’ which refers to the inflorescence.

Andre Eybers also showed these two photos at the meeting of bromeliads he is trying to identify. Lyn says the one on the left is xNeomea ‘Dotty’. Anyone know the name of the other? You can respond to Andre on: [email protected] bahiana

What species is that? - Lyn Wegner Neoregelia bahiana : Our species talk was short as I could find very little information, rather frustrating! on this plant that I rather like. Mine is Neoregelia bahiana Pink which I presume must be a pink form. It has rather narrow, 33cm long, pink foliage that sort of flares out about 10cm from the base of the plant. The tips, about 2cm long are a darker pink. It is a rupicolous bromeliad, which means it grows on or between rocks and crevices. It is endemic (found only in an area) to Minas Gerais and Bahia in Brazil. A beautiful species!

Member News • A hearty welcome to new local members Wendy and Trevor Fiebiger, Sandy and Gavin Wegner and Gabriel Scholtz from Wilderness. We hope you enjoy a long, happy and rewarding association with the society. • It was wonderful to welcome country member Graham Watts and his lovely wife Gwenda from Umzumbe on the South Coast to the meeting. They had gone to Queenstown for a wedding held the day before our meeting. We love the opportunity to meet our country members!

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Thanks • Many thanks to Elna and Henri Smit for hosting our first meeting of the year. It was great! • Dudley for an interesting talk on some of his Tillandsia . • Henri Smit and Robert Moss for changing Xenia Winther’s tyre which went ‘poof’ in a donga on arrival at the January meeting! • Dr Pete Pfister and Lyn Wegner for Lucky Draw plants. • Dr Pete Pfister for give-away Tillandsia . • Everyone who pitched in and helped out at the meeting, with three committee members not available, Lynn Friend, David Flint, Lyn Odendal and Wendy Fiebiger who joined Sandy and Dennis Wegner, Larraine Parathyras are not well (get well soon!!!) and together with her husband related to Lyn and Brenda Lyn Odendaal is on holiday. Trevor. In the background, it Wegner in the society. • Bryan and Brenda Wegner for hosting a really was nice to see Gale Kockjeu who has now retired and fabulous end of year Christmas Bring and Braai loving it. Function. • Tannith McGregor for being our auctioneer supremo. • BBB surprise participants, hope you all got something interesting to take home. • The donors of items for the auction, (and the buyers!!!) which raised the

awesome amount of R2 234.50 towards the purchase of a digital projector to use at meetings. • Bev McGregor, Alison Horsfall, Lyn Wegner, Sue Pema and Larraine Parathyras for delicious desserts. • Everyone who helped to make it a fun and festive occasion. Visiting country members Gwenda and Graham Watts Congratulations to the January Raffle Winners from Umzumbe on the South Coast. • Tracy Moss chose Billbergia amoena x 'Afterglow'. • Barbara Black chose Neoregelia ‘High Voltage’ (Been craving for this brom for many moons!). • New member, Dennis Wegner won and his wife Sandy chose Neoregelia ‘Kona Gold’. • Sue Pema chose Neoregelia ‘Milagro’. • Calvin Coetzee from Pretoria chose Neoregelia 'Gold On Fire'. • Philip Visagie from Pretoria chose Neoregelia ‘Line Me Up’. • Rob Hazell from Swellendam won two of the raffles. He is still to make his choice.

Lucky draw winners: Tracy Moss Barbara Black • Sue Pema, Gale Kockjeu and Ester Botha.

From the Chairman Greetings to all you Bromeliad gardeners, collectors and addicts. Maybe we should take a moment to reflect on how this family of plants has affected our lives. How have they affected your life? I suppose I would describe myself as all three, bordering on insanity (well, at least my wife thinks so). Once the Bromeliad bug has bitten, all logic goes out of the window. Sandy Wegner Sue Pema The main thing is that we are here for the interest and enjoyment of bromeliads. I must say that as the years go by, one does become more selective in what you keep. Um, insanity.....well, it's a nice illness. Our first meeting of the year has come and gone and I am looking forward to an exciting year ahead of us. My thanks to all who contributed towards the meeting, making it an enjoyable afternoon. To those who are affected in the drought stricken parts of the country, our thoughts and prayers for rain are with you. Until next time. Happy bromming!

From the Committee • By popular demand the meetings will now start promptly at 2.30 pm. Please consider arriving at 2.00pm for 2.30pm if you want to have time to buy your raffle tickets, pay for your tea (R10) and browse the gardens

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beforehand. • It’s that time of year where we have an annual lucky draw for a 1 year ($50) free subscription to BSI (Bromeliad Society International). You will Hello receive 4 magnificent Journals. This will be our 4th Lucky Draw, previous winners: Dawid Botha from PE, New Year ! Graham Watts from Umzumbe and Craig Nicholas also from Durban. Please let Lyn Wegner know if you would like to be included in the draw which will take place at our next meeting. • Annual Subs : All members, your subs are due in the month that you joined the society. R120 per family per annum, R60 for students. You don't need to remember the month as you will receive an email when your subs are due. After a further 2 reminders and no renewal has been received, you will be removed from our member list. You are of course welcome to rejoin at any time should you wish to do so. Payments may be made via eft to Lyn Wegner or paid to our Treasurer, Lynn Friend at a meeting. (Please check with Lyn if you require the banking details.) For payments made over the counter at the bank please add R30 to your payment to cover banking fees. • Country Member Raffles : On the Monday after our Sunday monthly meeting, Lyn advises the winners via an email and requests them to choose their plant from the photos attached as soon as possible after receiving the email. The society posts the plants to each winner. The winners names and the plant they chose, local and country, appear in the newsletter. • Reminders for unclaimed raffle wins will no longer be issued. Only members are allowed to purchase raffle tickets. Raffle tickets are R5 and you may purchase as many or as few as you like. These can be added to your subs payment or bought before a meeting from Lyn Odendaal. • Refreshments : We consider our tea break an essential part of our meetings. This is when we socialise and get to know each other and talk about broms!!!. By popular consensus and committee discussion, we have decided members will no longer be required to bring eats to meetings. Instead we will have a R10 fee per person at each meeting which will be used to cover the costs of the tea/coffee and eats. Xenia Winther is the person you will need to pay before the meeting when buying your raffle tickets. We will draw 3 names at each meeting and these members will be responsible to clean up after tea. Any ideas or requests for topics for meetings are always gladly received. We need to know what you want to know more about, so do tell one of the committee and we will gladly incorporate it into one of the meetings. We want to keep the meetings informal, relevant and interesting and of course fun so we can all learn together. • We need speakers at our meetings! How about researching a topic of your choice? Or sharing your brom story with us? • If any of your details, address / contact details etc… have changed over the last 3 months, please let Lyn Wegner know.

Upcoming Society Events

25th February: Our host for the meeting is Ester Botha, Elna’s twin sister who lives on a farm, Adelsicht Farm 1337 Schafli Road Chintsa. Lyn will send directions closer to the meeting date. Topic: Xenia Winther will talk about Growing Bromeliads.

25th March: Our hosts will be Elna Smit and Esther Botha at their family farm Kransig Farm, Upper Kwelega. Topic: Dr Pete Pfister will be discussing Splitting Bromeliads which is always interesting as there are so many different varieties.

Upcoming International Conferences 2018: World Bromeliad Conference to be held in San Diego, California from 29 May to 3 June 2018. This will be the third WBC that will be held in San Diego, California. Seeing double! Elna and her twin sister Ester, whose garden we will be 2019: ‘Golden Broms’ 17-20 October 2019 Hosted by the Gold Coast visiting this month. Ester found the meeting so interesting and inspiring Succulent and Bromeliad Society Inc. at the Sea World Resort on the Gold she is going to join the society!!!! Coast. This will be the 20th Australasian Bromeliad Conference. For contact information go to the conference website at www.goldenbroms.com

2021: The New Zealand Bromeliad Society has recently confirmed that they will be hosting the bi-annual Australasian Bromeliad Conference again in 2021.

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From the Members Chris van Zyl in Somerset West: LOTS of exciting stuff has been going on in our brommie garden. I have sent two photos taken in our front garden recently, during the open day in support for Hospice. We received more than 160 visitors over the week-end. It was a huge success as 12 selected gardens (of all sorts) were opened to the Boland community as part of their annual fund-raising event. I am busy now with two HUGE tillie projects at home: the main entrance and Christmas garlands. Regards to all brommie-friends in ELBS, Chris and Zelna. Barbs: We miss your inventiveness Chris so keep us posted!!

Janet Schaeffer in Colorado: Sent a photo of her big Tillandsia ‘Curly Slim’ that she bought from Bird Rock Tropicals when she was in Houston at the WBC. “I love it. What a beauty. It now has a nice pup.”

From the Editor I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and are refreshed and ready for a new year that is already very much on the go, full to the brim with new challenges, opportunities to learn and the willingness to be open and receptive to new ideas and learning. That’s what keeps your brain young!

At the moment I wish I had a giant shade cloth large enough to cover most of my garden and really, really sunny spots. I have had some burn on some of my broms. Some had to be rescued and moved to shadier areas where ever I could find space. I keep telling myself: February is the worst month, so hang in there

What an awesome meeting we had to kick off the year. Wonderful to see everyone and welcome new members too. Those that didn't pitch, well, Janet’s Tillandsia ‘Curly Slim’, (intermedia x streptophylla ). you missed a real treat in not seeing Elna’s amazing garden! We look forward to seeing Ester’s farm garden at the end of this month. Don’t forget the meeting starts promptly at 2.30pm.

Happy bromming to you all!

This is a publication for the East London Bromeliad Society, South Africa for the interest of its members. Articles may be used by non profit societies with acknowledgement to the author where applicable and East London Bromeliad Society South Africa. Please use the photos that accompany the article used. If you require higher resolution photos please request them from the Editor.

Any opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the Society. When submitting items for inclusion in this newsletter, please ensure that all information, including spelling is checked and accurate.

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ELBS is an affiliate of the Bromeliad Society International.

ELBS Address: c/o 18 Wentworth Road, Sunnyridge, East London 5201 South Africa, [email protected]

We meet on the last Sunday of every month at 2.00 for 2.30pm, January to November, at various venues around East London. We have a topic for each meeting and Show and Tell where members are encouraged to bring along their brag or problem plants. There are member raffles, lucky draws for those present, tea time, library and member plant sales, plus a monthly newsletter sent out via e-mail only. Visitors are always welcome and can attend three meetings before they will need to join the society in order to continue attending. Annual subs are R120.00 for individuals/families and R60 for students.

Committee Members Chairman: Dudley Reynolds 079 488 2360 [email protected] Vice- Chairman: Dr Peter Pfister 082 625 5533 [email protected] PRO & Secretary: Lyn Wegner 043 736 1737 082 970 2293 [email protected] Treasurer: Lynn Friend 043 748 2271 083 318 1179 [email protected] Editor & Publisher: Barbara Black 043 7212775 O72 1787 421 [email protected]

Proof Reader: Lyn Wegner 043 736 1737 082 970 2293 [email protected] Raffles: Lyn Odendaal 043 726 1075 083 441 6813 [email protected] Librarian: Brenda Wegner 082 743 2141 [email protected] Catering Co-ordinators: Larraine Parathyras 043 726 3167 082 594 4559 [email protected] Events Co-ordinator: Brenda Wegner 082 743 2141 [email protected] Additional member: Betty Heunis 073 226 1610 [email protected] Sound System & Tea Xenia Winter 043 726 2978 083 981 1312 [email protected] Money

Peter Cook from Sunnybroms (Australia) has very kindly created a link to ELBS newsletters on their web page. https://bromeliadnewsletters.wordpress.com/east-london-south-africa/ You can access: • All the back copies of the 2016 and 2017 ELBS Newsletters • The first of the BSI BCR genus changes and cultivar changes generated via DNA studies complied by Derek Butcher the BSI Cultivar Registrar.

You will find ELBS on Facebook: [email protected] or type ‘East London Bromeliad Society’ into the fb search bar. You can request to join the group and will then be able to upload your photos and comments on the wall. The ELBS SA page and other bromeliad related sites are a useful and informative forum to share and ‘meet up’ with other like-minded bromeliad folks. There are also many other bromeliad related sites that you can join and become part of a world wide online sharing environment.

You can view most of all the bromeliads mentioned in meetings or in the newsletter at the following websites:

The BSI’s official Bromeliad Cultivar Registry www.registry.bsi.org which is maintained by Geoff Lawn, the BSI Cultivar Registrar. Plus other information regarding the Bromeliad Society International is found at bsi.org

Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies: fcbs.org This is a very useful site to reference many bromeliads where you can clarify identification or just trawl through the site and add to your wish list!

Encyclopedia of Bromeliads - http://bromelia.club (Bromeliad Taxonomists and Growers Society) has photographs. It also now has keys for the genera and sub-genera. If you like to be informed what is happening, just follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bromeliadsencyclopedia Just type in ‘Encyclopeadia of Bromeliads’ into the Facebook search bar.

For internet resources you can also go to TAXON (The New Bromeliad List) for the most authoritative and right up to date list of genera and species, accepted and new names and taxonomic keys - http:// botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/taxonList.php or just type in ‘ New Bromeliad Taxon List’ , it's much easier!

Photo Credits: Barbara Black, Lyn Wegner, Brenda Wegner, Chris van Zyl, Janet Schaeffer

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