BROMELI ANA PUBLISHED BY THE NEW YORK BROMELIAD SOCIETY (visit our website www.nybromeliadsociety.org) November, 2012 Volume 49, No. 8 THE 2012 WORLD BROMELIAD CONFERENCE IN ORLANDO by Herb Plever “Kaleidoscope of Peter Bak who runs the giant Bak Bromeliads”, the 20th World nursery in Amsterdam gently chided Bromeliad Conference was held at me for my article lamenting the the Caribe Royale Hotel from disappearance of Vriesea splendens. He September 24th to October 1st in said there were many growers selling Orlando, FL. It was the third time V. splendens in Europe. the world conference was held there; One great surprise gave me this time the official host was the special joy when I was able to greet Florida Council of Bromeliad and hug Don Beadle, a good friend Societies, but the local Bromeliad who has quietly returned to working Society of Central Florida did most with bromeliads in Michael Kiehl’s of the hard work in putting on a nursery in Venice, FL. Don had conference and did it well (except for owned that facility and sold it to the too large venue of the auction Michael for personal reasons. Don and the frigid conditions at the Don Beadle and Joann in Orlando left the fold to live with his true love banquet). The conference was on a river boat; those of us who attended by about 300 people, mostly from the United knew him wished him well. When the suppressed brom States, but many registrants were from abroad. bug emerged, Joann made it possible for him to be both Although this WBC was held in late September, personally and billbergia happy. it was sunny, hot (88° F.) and humid outside, but we I beg the reader’s indulgence if I have digressed spent most of time in the hotel as there was much to do and now wax eloquent about Don, who has played an and see. The hotel facilities were spread out and there important role in BSI and WBC history. Beadle, a/k/a was a long, welcome walk outside to go from the rooms Mr. Billbergia, created hundreds of beautiful Billbergia to the conference site. The Caribe Royale is a lovely hybrid cultivars, taught us about their cultural needs and facility offering suite rooms with separate bedroom, at many a World Conference he presented a professional living room, toilet, shower and sink areas that were a musical video on the billbergias that was educational, bargain at $119 a day in today’s market. A restaurant and entertaining, and memorable. café were available with decent food and prices. Don Beadle was the BSI’s first cultivar registrar, The crowded events schedule over the week was and after years of research he created the first Bromeliad enough to keep one fully occupied, besides the fun of Cultivar Registry in 1998. This monumental work is still meeting up with old friends - and making new ones. invaluable and unique for its comprehensive historical NEXT MEETING - Tuesday, November 13th, 2012 promptly at 7:00 P.M. at the Ripley-Grier Studios 520 8th Ave. (between 36th & 37th St) Room 16K - 16th floor THE WORLD BROMELIAD CONFERENCE IN ORLANDO - complete video coverage of the show plants, garden tours and bromeliad personalities. Please bring in plant(s) for sale and for Show and Tell. As promised, there will be some pups of Aechmea ‘Blue Tango’. Bromeliana -2- September, 2012 source data on all cultivars; I Bromeliad Society had a display consult it frequently even in the corridor at the approach to though we now have available the Show, Living Colors digital cultivar registries on Bromeliads had a striking display BSI’s website at inside the Show area and Grant www.registry.bsi.org (thanks to Groves for his Color Zone Derek Butcher, Geoff Lawn Tropicals nursery mounted a and Eric Gouda) and at really superlative exhibit outside www.fsbs.org (thanks to Derek the entrance to the Show. Butcher and Michael Andreas). Grant Groves’ elegant, On Wednesday I took kaleidoscopic design consisted of Front view of Grant Groves’ Kaleidoscope display the tours of three local four large triangular areas with a yard/gardens of Steve Beaudoin/Tina Farsetta, Steven dark background surrounding a huge flowering Wagner and Lisa Robinette. The first two featured tillandsia that looked like Tillandsia krukoffiana. (It was so lovely foliage plants and a few bromeliads; Lisa’s “yard” robust it could be var. piepenbringii, but its leaves were was loaded with broms. There was a nice welcoming dark and somewhat lepidote - not glabrous green as in party on Wednesday morning where we were greeted by the photos and descriptions. So perhaps it is a different BSI President Jay Thurott. I did not take the Saturday species.) Six large, blooming Neoregelias were mounted tours of Leu Gardens and the Environmental Study into each triangle in sets of red, fuchsia, purple and Center in Osceola County which featured broms in pink, and the triangle borders consisted of many small their native Florida habitat. I went home on Sunday so flowering neos with pink and rose blooms. I could not take the Monday commercial nursery tours Every plant was uniformly the same size and to Grant Groves’ Color Zone Tropicals, Russsell’s shape and of a high quality. And at the base corner of Bromeliads, Deroose Plants and McCrory’s Sunny Hill each triangle was a clump of Herb Hill’s new, polyploid Nursery. hybrid of Beadle’s Billbergia ‘Poquito Mas’ with dramatic On Thursday afternoon both the plant sales black and fire-red markings. (See my note about this room and the judged show opened at the same time. As plant at end of this article.) expected, hundreds of people rushed into the sales area There were some beautiful show plants, but while only a few went to the judged show. Vendors, more were of average quality, or were immature and including Bullis Bromeliads, Color Zone Tropicals only a few were in bloom. There were about 300 entries; (Grant Groves), Michael Kiehl, McCrory’s Sunny Hill Neoregelias, Dyckias and tank type Vrieseas were the Nursery, Tropiflora and Duroflor (Chester Skotak) genera with the most entries, but there were a brought in many hundreds of plants, and those were reasonable number of Cryptanthus and Orthophytums. mostly sold before the week had ended. There were There were only a handful of Guzmanias and Tillandsias. some beautiful plants to be bought from every vendor. Floridians don’t seem to grow (or like?) these genera. I had made my usual vow not to bring home any more The most interesting and most challenging Tillandsias plants, and this time I mostly kept to it except for about entries to grow in a pot were T. rackii, T. reuteri and T. a dozen Tillandsias. biflora all entered by Unlike the WBC Jerry Rack. This show two years ago, there were was an improvement some really beautiful over the WBC in 2010. commercial displays. (I still can’t get out of Tropiflora had a nice my mind the incredible, exhibit in the upper huge displays of quality, lobby of the hotel, broms in bloom by Patricia Bullis and local Australian Florida East Coast Tillandsia reuteri T. rackii societies at the WBC in Bromeliana -3- November, 2012 Cairns in 2008 - and they open), Neoregelia ‘Wild had to drive many Rabbit’ (Skotak), a variegated hundreds or even a form of Neoregelia thousand miles to bring ‘Fairchild’ (that I hope their plants to the Patricia Bullis will name conference. and register as a new There were 26 (!) cultivar as well as her plants on the prize table; Neoregelia ‘Seduction’), some were nice and some Dyckia ‘South Bay’, appeared to be only of Multiple Cryptanthus fosterianus My Cryptanthus fosterianus Tillandsia rothii, T. average quality. The five magnispica, and T. awarded Cryptanthus showed the current penchant ‘Steve’, a blooming, mounted hybrid of T. cacticola x T. among crypt growers to grow multiple plants in one fasciculata entered by Steve Goode. pot. This seems to me to defeat the aesthetic “Earth Nine interesting video seminars were presented Star” character of the genus, even when as in this case on Friday and Saturday: Dr. Terri Bert spoke on the individual pieces are of fine quality. Thus we saw an “Bromeliad Ecology - Bromeliad Diversity in an award for the best crypt multiple (?) to Cr. ‘Jennifer’, the Ecological Wonderland”, Dr. Larry Giroux talked on awarded Cr. ‘Elaine’ had two pieces in the pot, two very “The Diversity of Cryptanthus”, Andy Siekkinin nice pieces in a pot of Cr. ‘Thriller’ were awarded Best showed photos “In Search of Mexican Silver - New Crypt Hybrid when a single plant in a pot would Hechtia Argentea”, Eloise Beach spoke on “Creating have been a knockout, and the prized 4 or 5 pieces of and Growing Chester Skotak’s Hybrids” with photos Cr. fosterianus in one pot totally ruined its beautiful earth of Chester’s millions of plants growing in his huge star character. (Compare this multiple with my single mountain spread in Costa Rica, Bruce Holst of Selby specimen in the photos on this page.) And the single Cr. Gardens took us to Venezuela and onto the strange ‘Eternal Love’ (unregistered), awarded Best mountain plateau of “Roraima tepui - The Original Cryptanthus, with too few leaves was no great shakes. Lost World”, Barry Landau gave his ideas on how to The Best In Show Award and the Mulford expand the reach of BSI by “Social Media and Foster Award were given to a Vriesea hybrid (V. Bromeliads”, Dennis Cathcart of Tropiflora related hieroglyphica x fosteriana ‘Red Chestnut’) x (V. ‘Nova’ x V.