NEWS East London LETTER

Bromeliad Society October 2015 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

September Meeting and News

The September meeting was hosted by Pete and Heather Pfister and was well supported by members and visitors who all enjoyed a wander around their large, beautiful garden with all kinds of to feast your eyes on, not just bromeliads.

Besides all the bromeliad talk at the meeting, Billy shared the highlights from a trip he and his wife Sheila did to Mexico earlier this year. Billy Gerretsen, who gave a talk on his Above and below, some photos that The topic for the afternoon was a talk on trip to Mexico, Pete Pfister, our host, do not do justice to Pete’s amazing Orthophytum by Dudley Reynolds and Malcolm Stoltz and Dudley Reynolds. garden and collection of plants. Lyn Wegner.

Orthophytum Some basic, easy to remember information on the Orthophytum by Lyn Wegner.

The word is derived from ‘ortho’ meaning straight and ‘phytum’ meaning . ‘Ortho’ or straight refers to the inflorescence which is tall for the plant which is usually about 15 cm tall and the flower stalk can be 30 to 45cm long. The flowers are white.

Orthophytum navioides is an exception, it doesn’t have a tall flower spike. It has thin glossy green leaves which turn red when it is going to bloom with the white flowers in the green centre of the plant. Orthophytum are found in the dry areas of Eastern Brazil where most are found in full sun growing between rocks or on rocky ground and receiving little water.

There are about 60 with more discovered each year. Very little research has been done on orthophytum. They are easy to grow, in well drained fertile soil and easy to propagate. Orthophytum navioides

Next meeting: Sunday 25th October at 2.00 pm. Hosted by Malcolm and Pam Stoltz at 2 Bamburgh Road in Stirling. Please bring your mug and a chair. See you there!!

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Orthophytum vagans is one of the few bromeliads you can grow from a cutting. Water well in Spring and Summer, much less in Winter but not allowing the soil to dry out completely. Many are suited to growing in hanging baskets. There is a wonderful article on orthophytum in the Cairns, Australia Newsletter 2014, no. 4 by Dave Weston which I will forward to you all again as you might like to reread it.

Member news: • Congratulations to Brenda and Bryan Lyn’s Orthophytum vagans and right , Orthophytum sucrei. Wegner on the birth of a grandson to their daughter Hayley and husband Damien. • Thank you to all those who continue to renew their membership and support the society and members in pursuing our love of bromeliads.

Thanks • Pete Pfister, Lyn Wegner and Dudley Reynolds for the donation of piles of lucky draw plants for members and visitors!! • Thanks to Billy Gerretsen for an interesting talk on his and Sheila's visit to Mexico earlier this year. • Christine and Koos Steyn, Norma Hart, Miriam Kennard for bringing eats for tea time. • Larraine Parathyras for photocopying society brochures.

Tea Duty

To facilitate catering, please confirm with Bev Reynolds, our Catering Co-ordinator, cell: 071 509 1286 or [email protected] if you are unable to provide eats for the meeting when you are on duty. The local raffle winners for September, Norma Hart Lyn Odendaal, Irene Manthe and Glen Reynolds. October: Odette Degenaar, Noleen Hogan, Zena and Michael McClaren. November: Volunteers required to make desserts for the Bring and Braai function.

Raffle Winners for September • Norma Hart chose Neoregelia ‘Beach Party’. • Lyn Odendaal chose Vriesea fenestralis . • Irene Manthe chose Neoregelia 'Sybil Jane'. Orthophytum 'Blaze' Neoregelia 'Beryl Sheasby’ • Glen Reynolds chose Billbergia 'Hallelujah'. • Ann Carter from Cape Town chose Orthophytum 'Blaze'. • Kathy and Allan Botha from Port Elizabeth chose Neoregelia 'Beryl Sheasby'. • Graham Watts from Durban chose xNeophytum 'Firecracker'. • Debbie Brauckmann from Pretoria chose Tillandsia 'Ed Doherty'.

Lucky Draws • There were loads of lucky draws for most members and visitors to take a brom home, all kindly donated by Pete, xNeophytum 'Firecracker' Tillandsia 'Ed Doherty' Dudley and Lyn.

Only Society members can buy tickets for the Raffle Draw. They can be bought for R5.00 each at the meeting. Country members can buy raffle tickets from Lyn, your winning bromeliad will be posted to you.

The Attendance Lucky Draws are open to members and visitors at the meeting.

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Members are encouraged to bring special bromeliads for the raffle draw selection. They will be paid for their From the Chairman - Dudley Reynolds plant if it is chosen by a winner. What a privilege it is to be associated with

this wonderful society and its members. It From the Committee is so good to be able to share with folk with • The committee has decided that the funds we the same passion throughout South Africa. make at our year end auction will go towards the Our meeting at Pete Pfister’s was filled cost of a PA System which we are needing as our with good interesting content. A big thank society grows. you Pete for supplying so many give-away • Our auction, for our new members, is a fun event plants, ensuring that everyone went home held at the year end Bring and Braai, where members donate any plants or garden related with something. items eg. broms, orchids, clivia, succulents, bird The visit to the Komga Agricultural Show feeders, pots etc. to be auctioned off to the highest was a pleasant experience where four of bidder! All good fun and for a worthy cause this us, Brenda Wegner, Pete Pfister, Lyn year! Wegner and myself were able to spread the • Maybe you would like to host a meeting in the new word about the society and bromeliads. year? Please consider it and contact Lyn if you are We were very well received and even willing. afforded the opportunity to have a few • Please bring your Show and Tell/Brag/Problem plants to the meetings! minutes on air with East Coast Radio. • You may bring plants for sale but your ‘box’ needs Looking forward to the next meeting at to be clearly marked with your name so members the garden of Malcolm and Pam Stoltz at know who to pay when purchasing sale plants. the end of October. Happy bromming, it’s • The raffle plants are for sale too AFTER the raffle wins the time of year to really get your hands have been chosen. dirty! • You may contribute plants to the raffle selection,

value no higher than R135.00. The society will pay you if your plant is selected. You will need to contact/email the society Treasurer, Lynn Friend regarding the transaction. • Plant sales, subs payment, t-shirt sales and library matters will all take place after the raffle draws before tea.

Upcoming Society Events 25th October: Hosted by Malcolm and Pam Stoltz at 2 Bamburgh Road, Stirling at 2.00pm. Bonsai will be an attraction at this garden meeting! Please bring your chair mug and a gardening friend. Topic: by Dudley Reynolds.

29 November : You are invited to our annual social day and the last time we meet for the year. This Dudley, Lyn, Brenda and Pete manning their stall at the Komga function is for members, their spouses and children. Agricultural Show. The new black shirts look smashing! If you are To be hosted by Dudley and Albie Reynolds at 24 Bush interested in buying one contact Lynn Friend or Barbs at the Willow Drive, Beacon Bay, starting at 12.00am, fires to meeting. They will have stock at the next meeting. be lit at 1.00pm • We will have a Bring and Braai and meet at 12 o’clock, not our usual 2pm. • PLEASE BRING: A chair/s, your meat, braai tongs, plates, cutlery, glasses and drinks. The fire, paper plates, salads, rolls and fun will be provided. • There will be a BBB Surprise Lucky Dip!! (Black Bag Brom Surprise) In order to participate, you need to bring a bromeliad wrapped in a black bag, so it cannot be seen, they will all be put together and you will have a chance to choose a lucky BBB Surprise! and go home with a bromeliad for your collection. • There will also be a fun auction, so bring anything garden related you want to donate to put up for auction to raise funds towards a PA system for the society.

January 2015 ! Our first meeting of the New Year will be hosted by Trevor and Lyn Wegner at 18 Wentworth Road, Sunnyridge at 2.00pm. Topic to be advised.

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Member’s Corner Calvin Coetzee from Pretoria: I am looking for a pup of Vriesea ‘Galaxy’. If you have one to sell/swap, please contact me at [email protected].

Johan Bouwer from Graaff-Reinet : This is my second year growing bromeliads, including tillandsia. I was fortunate enough to buy a large collection of tillandsia being old plants from an old friend of mine and notwithstanding our horrible winter cold they started flowering and 99% of the plants that I bought survived. At present our winters go down to – 9.5 and in the winter that we just survived the lowest temperature was - 8.Our summers however now rise to 48*c which makes it very difficult to grow bromeliads and tillandsia. The last month and a half I have been ordering seeds of the type of broms I know, concentrating on and hopefully will be successful in cultivating the following species – D y c k i a , Puya, Deuterocohnia, Ananas and Hechtia and any other thorny brom. Country member, Johan Bouwer sent some photos of his tillys flourishing in Graaff-Reinet! I was also fortunate enough to obtain an address from Brazil and obtained seeds of 56 species of the various varieties and weather permitting I will start sowing towards the end of the month. I also want to thank Barbs and Lyn for your assistance and the contact that was made with the other collectors. I was however surprised to note that from all the members of our society only myself and Chris van Zyl, now residing in Cape Town have an interest in the same species. (Lyn – we do have members interested in these species.) I would also appreciate it if members spread the word to other members of our society with a similar interest to make contact with me. [email protected] cell: 07828577526. A matter of interest appears in the new Bromeliad Journal and 3 new Dyckia species have been discovered - amazing plants with amazing colours. Thank you for your help and those of the society members who assisted my search for seed.

Rupert Partridge in Kenya : sent in another photo of his sad looking cryptanthus mentioned in last month's newsletter and we were trying to indentify it for him. He says: I found it at a rather derelict nursery near Mombasa which is sadly no longer operating. The owners knew nothing about bromeliads but I just guessed it might be one. It gets about 3/4 hours of sunshine and perhaps might go redder ( I notice one or two lower " leaves" are a little redder ).

Dr Larry: Rupert Partridge’s un-named bromeliad, pictured in your last Newsletter, looks like the green form of Cryptanthus bahianus . It looks like it has been grown very hard (less water and little fertilizer for a while). I would suggest taking off all the offsets. Peeling off all the dry leaves along the stolons (to expose the root nodes) and starting all of them arranged in a hanging basket. Fertilize them with a 6 month pellet fertilizer like Dynamite or Nutricote to get them started and water frequently. Watering cryptanthus with a 1/4 strength water soluble fertilizer very frequently and bright light will give you outstanding Dr Larry’s Cryptanthus bahianus. A better view of Rupert’s plant. plants with size, color and you will be rewarded with numerous offsets. This cryptanthus can take nearly full sun. Within two years you will have an overflowing pot of three generations of plants. When the base of the plants start to look like your original

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plants did, plant the last generation back into the pot to keep the pot attractive. C. bahianus , C. warren-loosei and a few other stiff leaf C ryptanthus are the few cryptanthus which are prone to scale, so keep an eye on them and treat with your favorite, safe insecticide.

Lyn Hudson from Australia suggested: It could be Cryptanthus ‘Pickel’, right, a cultivar of C. warren- loosei. I grow mine in all day sun and it has red edges and stalks. I imported it from USA. It was named as C. pickeli but changed when they said it was a hybrid. I don’t think C ‘Pickel’ will ever die out as it is so tough. Great for landscaping.

Kathy Botha from Port Elizabeth: If you have any idea what may have caused this damage to my bromeliads I would like your opinion . They have not been grown under treated timber nor watered with a hosepipe that has been lying in the sun and filled with hot water. [email protected]

Barbs: I spotted this on Planet Bromeliad on Face Book last month and thought it Kathy Botha’s damaged bromeliads. interesting and worth sharing as I have not seen this Quesnelia before. I asked Shane Weston, who posted it, if he minded me sharing with our members. Shane Weston, President of the Gold Coast Succulent and Bromeliad Society, Australia: “ Quesnelia lateralis. A simple species plant with the most magnificently coloured inflorescence. And look where it flowers from? That's why it's called lateralis. It can also flower from the centre/well - and a friend of mine has a clump with one lateral and another central inflorescence. But the Quesnelia lateralis with its amazingly blue flowers . colours... lovely to my eye.”

COUNTRY MEMBERS , what is happening in your bromeliad world? Be inspired to share your garden story, problems or special bromeliads with us, e-mail Barbs or Lyn with pictures and words, we would love to hear from you and share it with our members.

Editor’s Corner After being away for 2 weeks, I took a wander around the back gardens, of course the broms are amazing survivors and are doing just fine after weeks of neglect, lack of decent spring rains and the sun which is getting stronger by the day. Be prepared and move those softer leaved bromeliads that could get scorched and are not meant to be in full sun.

On our recent travels in Mauritius we were naturally very interested in the natural vegetation, most of which has been almost wiped out over the last 4 centuries since the Dutch first arrived in Mauritius and subsequent visitors who settled there. Land was cleared, wood from the trees used for construction. The Dodo (related to the pigeon) ate the fruit of the ebony tree and being a flightless bird, laying only one egg on the ground, the loss of its food supply and being easy to catch as food for hungry settlers, it became extinct. In the old days, sugar was the main export from the island, sugar cane plantations can still be seen everywhere. Fields of Ananas (pineapple) can also be seen. The variety cultivated is Ananas ‘Victoria’. It is smaller and sweeter than our Queen and Cayenne pines and locally called ananas, not pineapple. Anthiriums are grown for the local and export cut flower market in huge shaded nurseries. All sizes and amazing colours! The Hibiscus, Gingers, Heliconia and gorgeous Cordyline varieties thrive in this tropical climate. When we went to visit Ice cold Ananas everywhere, Yum!

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Pamplemousses Botanical Gardens where there are very old, beautiful exotic trees and 85 varieties of palms from all over the world, we thought, aha! I wander if they have any broms? We spied a few miserable looking Billbergia pyramidalis used as a bed of ground cover, very neglected and sparsely planted.

I hope you all enjoyed the Pam Golding Show Gardens held recently. We must commend 2 of our members, Miriam Kennard and Noleen Hogan for showing their gardens, it must feel like baring your soul, as so much of your time and nurturing goes into a wonderful garden. I am sure they were much enjoyed by all who saw them. I managed to get to eleven gardens and At Pamplemousses Botanical Gardens, WOW!! There are some stunning gardens in this little city of ours! I went with the oldest botanical garden in the Southern Hemisphere. Famous for its 4 friends, one of whom is a young lass, just arrived from Germany and long pond of giant water lilies from the working on contract for Daimler Chrysler. It struck me how proud we all were Amazon. The garden was first to share ‘our’ garden knowledge, our indigenous plants and tell her all established in 1770. about what we experience in South Africa; from the spittle bugs in the trees above us to amazing clivia in bloom to the other foreigners, bromeliads of course, of which we saw a few varieties in many of the gardens.

Thank you to those of you who have assisted me with the newsletter in my absence from the last two meetings with items of news and photos. Do keep it coming, especially the country members, we want to get to know you and your bromeliads! Happy bromming and see you soon at the next meeting!

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 above. Any opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the Society.

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

We meet on the last Sunday of every month, 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 and member plant sales, plus a monthly newsletter sent out via e-mail. Visitors are always welcome and can attend three meetings before they will need to join the society 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: Norma Hart 043 7211364 084 602 3953 Librarian: Brenda Wegner 082 743 2141 [email protected] Catering Co-ordinator: Bev Reynolds 071 509 1286 [email protected] Events Co-ordinators: Brenda Wegner 082 743 2141 [email protected] Larraine Parathyras 043 726 3167 082 594 4559 [email protected] Eddie Black 043 7212775 0825505347 [email protected] Zoo Co-ordinator: Dudley Reynolds 079 488 2360 [email protected]

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You will find ELBS on Facebook: [email protected] 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 becoming 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 website:

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

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

fcbs.org (Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies). 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!

Photo Credits: Lyn Wegner, Brenda Wegner, Billy and Sheila Gerretsen, Johan Bouwer, Rupert Partridge, Dr Larry, fcbs.org, Shane Weston

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