NEWS East London LETTER Bromeliad Society August 2019 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 SA is an Affiliated Society of Bromeliad Society International AGM and 10th Birthday Bash!!!! Wow! Another exceptional meeting was held at the end of July to celebrate a significant 10th birthday!! The weather was great! Fizz Ananas and champagne flowed and tea was great too! Thank you to the committee for organising a fun filled afternoon. The business of the AGM and report by Chairman Dudley Reynolds and Treasurer Lynn Friend was dealt with swiftly and thereafter loads of fun and laughter was enjoyed plus the usual Species Talk, Raffles and Lucky Draws Most of the happy bunch before we dispersed for choosing raffles, lucky draws and tea! for all as a birthday gift from the society to the members! Forty four folks attended the meeting and I am sure you all enjoyed it and went home with some new plants for your collection. It is always a pleasure to welcome country members to our meetings, so it was great to welcome Dawid and Scherine Botha, Peter Moulang and Gerda Esterhuizen joining us from Port Elizabeth. They also Trevor and Lyn Wegner, our managed to Birthday Bash hosts! squeeze in visits to Left, what is a birthday without members gardens as balloons? Lyn Wegner and well. It has been a Brenda Wegner in celebratory mood! Next Meeting: Sunday, 25th August at 2.00 for 2.30 pm. To be hosted by Irene Manthe at 27 Epping Road, Nahoon Valley. Don’t forget your mug and chair! East London Bromeliad Society South Africa August 2019 Page 1 wonderfully successful 10 years, may the next ten find us growing from strength to strength. A very special thank you to Lyn and Trevor Wegner for hosting our Birthday Bash, every year! Lyn’s garden is looking exceptionally good and was a wonderful setting for our birthday meeting! It is such a privilege and a pleasure for all of us to be able to appreciate Lyn’s collection of bromeliads and Tillandsia, plus lots of extra touches of memorabilia Lyn has added over the years from all her many We all know Lyn’s other travels to bromeliad conferences in USA, passion, her boys, Ebby ☺ Mavis Downey discussing broms with Lyn in part Australia and New Zealand. Do go and visit and Ninja! ☺☺ of the garden that has an amazing show of again as you foliage Vriesea, Guzmania and many other need to go interesting plants. multiple times to take it all in! ‘Bromeliads for Africa’ is open on weekends. Please check out our ELBSSA facebook page for more photos of the Our trusty Treasurer, Lynn Friend centre, with event taken by Miriam Kennard and Scherine Botha. Brenda Wegner of the garden and birthday festivities. Chairman's AGM Report - Dudley Reynolds 2019 was another busy year in the life of ELBSSA. If I think back over the year the highlight was probably our first Judged Show held in March. Although, we can Those members still hanging in there 10 years later easily regard all of our from the original 13 founder members, Lyn month end meetings as Wegner. Andre Eybers, Brenda Wegner, Barbara and Eddie Black, Albie and Dudley Reynolds. highlights packed with information and activity. Firstly I would like to thank all the members for their David Gower with chairman, Dudley Reynolds. support and enthusiasm and attendance at the meetings. Then I extend my thanks to my committee, for all the hard work and mutual encouragement amongst us. You truly are a wonderful bunch of people and everything you do is greatly appreciated. Who can believe that 10 years has flown by since our very first gathering back in 2009? Thirteen members and two visitors were in attendance at that first meeting. So much has been discussed Eddie Black, Nancy Brindley and Gordon Murray about bromeliads over the years and look how many friends we enjoying tea amongst the many folks admiring have made. Now, for the normal formalities of the AGM. The Lyn’s garden. committee have all indicated that they are willing to serve another term. There being no nominations for new members the committee stands as is. (See the list at the end of the newsletter.) I would like to encourage members to use our library resources. Back copies of our newsletters are available on a flash stick plus many other interesting books, journals and newsletters from societies across East London Bromeliad Society South Africa August 2019 Page 2 America, Australia and New Zealand. We also have the Cryptanthus Society and BSI Journals and interesting bromeliad garden clips on flash stick as well. In conclusion I would like to extend my best wishes for the year to come. Happy Bromming! Species Talk - Lyn Wegner Alcantarea imperialis . Due to a very exciting discovery in the garden this week I have chosen this majestic plant for our Species Talk. Alcantarea are found on mountains in Rio in Brazil at about 1500m above sea level. For interest sake, I checked, East London is 48m above sea level, Table mountain 1085m and Johannesburg is 1750m. They originally formed part of the Vriesea genus. There are currently 42 species of Alcantarea. Alcantarea are named after the 2 nd Emperor of Brazil which is rather apt for such regal plants don’t you think? Alcantarea imperialis is the most regal signature species of the genus Lyn’s impressive Alcantarea imperialis Purple. and is one of the giants of the bromeliad family. I imported my Alcantarea imperialis Purple about 15 years ago. I have a bed in my driveway where I have a variety of Alcantarea. They make quite a statement! They make grass pups which I haven’t tried to grow on. The leaves are a blue/grey colour, ribbed, spineless, tough and leathery and have a powdery coating. I can’t say I see too much purple! They can take up to 10 years to reach this size and about 15 years to bloom with flower spikes reaching up to 3.5m! These have 100’s of slightly fragrant creamy white flowers. They will grow in full sun or part shade in most climates from tropical to cool but don’t tolerate any frost until established when they are able to handle a light frost. We fortunately don’t get frost in East London. They like a free draining soil with little water. If too wet, they are likely to rot. Mine receive sun for most of the day, are planted in the garden, not potted, and are enormous! I’m sure you have guessed that the discovery I made this week is that a flower spike is just starting to emerge! Wow! How exciting is that! Show and Tell Lyn Wegner I was doing some overdue cupboard tidying and came across some old zim sponge cleaning pads. I had a light bulb moment! Just maybe I could use these! I put the sponge in a small bowl, wet it and placed some Tillandsia vernicosa seed I spotted a few days previously over the top of the scouring layer. It has a label with the name and the date of seed sowing. Voilà! I now have a small propagating exercise in process! Maybe I should try another sponge with different seed and then check which one germinates first. I have positioned it on the window sill in the dining room, it is a warm spot and I will be able to keep a check on it. Watch this space! Member News • We welcome two new international members to our happy throng of brom lovers: Martin Siaw from China and Andrea Oldrini from Italy. We hope that you enjoy keeping up with our local activities and we hope to continue to hear of your bromeliad experiences from afar! • Our sincere condolences to Chris and Zelna van Zyl and family on the sad loss of Chris’s father. We are thinking of you at this sad time. East London Bromeliad Society South Africa August 2019 Page 3 Thanks • Lyn and Trevor Wegner for hosting the meeting. • Dudley Reynolds, Brenda Wegner, Eddie and Barbara Black, Lyn Wegner, Dr Pete Pfister, Lynn Friend and Lyn Odendaal for providing a mountain of super bromeliads for the Birthday Lucky Draws. • Dr Pete Pfister and Lyn Wegner for Tillandsia for the ‘Tillie Toss’. • Peter Cook and members of the Sunshine Coast Bromeliad Society, Australia for good wishes on our 10th Birthday! • Marianne Hillstead and Dr Pete Pfister for catering delicious party treats. • Thanks to all who assisted in the kitchen. • Barbs Black for making two enormous birthday pineapple tarts. • Eddie and Barbs Black for supplying ice and bath to keep the Fizz Ananas and champagne chilled on a HOT winter day! • Eddie Black and Gerald Vogt for playing barman for the afternoon! • Brenda Wegner for organising the helium balloons. • Lyn Odendaal for sourcing pineapple suckers. • Everyone who came along and contributed to making it a memorable and festive afternoon!! • An amendment to last months thanks to Peter Cook from Australia for so kindly mailing us the SunnyBroms Conference proceedings booklet for our library. It is doing the rounds of eager readers already, thanks Peter! Congratulations to the July Raffle Winners • Sue Pema chose Neoregelia ‘White Wedgewood’. • Wendy Fiebiger chose Neoregelia ‘Groves Red Tiger’. • Glen Reynolds chose Neoregelia ‘Island Sunset’. • Sandy Wegner chose Neoregelia ‘ High Voltage’. • Mike Whitten from Durban chose Neoregelia ‘Anacaona’. • Philip Visagie from Pretoria chose Tillandsia leonamiana .