NEWS East London LETTER Bromeliad Society February 2020 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 From the Chairman Another year has begun. It seems unreal that two decades have already passed in this century. I am positive that we will have a good year growing bromeliads. On a personal note, it could never be as bad as last year. My bromeliads did not fare too well with the house move. Most of them have frizzled and burnt badly. I have only now had the opportunity to start creating a shadier environment and I hope the pups will be more tolerant of the brighter light. We are well into the planning stages of our Judged Bromeliad Show to be held on the 28th and 29th March. We will be opening the doors to the public this time round and are hoping for an overwhelming response. That's all from Dudley welcoming everyone to the me for this month. Until next time...... Happy Bromming. first meeting of the new year. January Meeting Our first meeting of 2020 took place on the 26th January at the home of Bryan and Brenda Wegner in Nahoon Valley. Dudley welcomed everyone and thanked Brenda for opening her garden for us to enjoy. What a splendid garden Brenda has, evidence of all her hard work and dedication Brenda and Bryan in the front part of their can be seen around the garden amazing garden! packed with a large variety of bromeliads all in super condition. They have lived in the house for about 15 years and as we all know, you start from scratch when you move into a new home, especially if you are a keen gardener with an addiction! There was much to see and admire. Brenda's garden has been on the Pam Golding Show Gardens of East London and I know that quite Above, Brenda’s owll collection recently displayed all together and views of the garden. Next Meeting: 23 February at 2.00 for 2.30pm. Hosted by Dr Boots and Alison Horsfall at 22 Vincent Gardens Road , Vincent. Remember to bring your chair and a plant for Show and Tell. East London Bromeliad Society South Africa February 2020 Page 1 a few visitors to the garden were inspired to become bromeliad enthusiasts as a result. There was a good crowd of 45 at the meeting. We originally planned to walk around the garden and discuss some of the plants but that happened between the members anyway. There were quite a few Show and Tell plants to discuss. ELBSSA Bromeliad Show 28th - 29th March Dudley spent some time telling us about the upcoming show, which will be open to the public to view this year as so much interest was shown last year. A view of part of the Guzmania We hope all this will generate some excitement amongst members in terms of collection. your potential entries into the different classes. There are many more than last year. So take a browse around your garden and look to see what you could possibly groom to enter on the show or get creating, sewing, crafting, painting or mosaic-ing!! The sky is the limit! Thursday 26 March at 2pm the committee will begin setting up the hall at Little Beacons Pre-Primary School. Society member plants /entries can be brought to the venue on Thursday from 4 to 6.30 and on Friday 9.30 to 1pm.. That is the cut off time as everything will then have to be placed in the correct classes and the judging will take place. No late entries will be accepted after 1 pm on Friday. Saturday morning we will be open to the public from 9.00 - 4.00pm. Sunday from 9.00 till 3pm. R10 entry fee. There will be refreshments and eats available to buy and enjoy while you are enjoying the displays and vendors who will be selling their goods too. Members are also welcome to take a stand at R50 and sell homemade goods/bromeliads too. Please speak to Brenda Wegner should you wish to participate. Entry forms, guidelines for entries in the different classes and posters will be available at the next meeting plus they will be e-mailed to you. You just need to list your plants on the numbered list and we will assist you with names and Classes if you are not sure when you bring your plants to the hall. More information will be available at the next meeting. This is going to be fun and we are hoping for a bumper show to help spread the love and beauty of this diverse plant family!!! Species Talk - Lyn Wegner Aechmea (pronounced eek-me-uh) dichlamydea var. trinitensis. The reason I chose this species for today’s meeting is due to a dead tree, heavily laden with these Aechmea, hanging baskets, an enormous platycerium (staghorn fern) and more fell over in the garden after endless days of rain! At the time, only a couple of days ago, it seemed to be a disaster! Miraculously the pool filter and bench which it crashed down onto were undamaged. I only had a couple of pups broken off as well as a plastic pot of Cryptanthus squashed but the plants were fine! Amazing! This forced a change in the garden but I must say I am rather pleased with the ‘new look’. I have struggled to find info on this species so I took the following from Baench’s Blooming Bromeliads, a book I love. “This majestic species is a true jewel to the horticulturist. It thrives in semi-shade as well as in full sun. The flowering period, including the development of the widely branched inflorescence, lasts over 2 months”. It is found in Northern Trinidad and adjacent Venezuela at 60-800m above sea level. I find that due to the pendulous habit of the inflorescence it is best to mount the plant. The Lyn with her Aechmea dichlamydea var. foliage colours nicely if it receives a fair amount of sun. trinitensis East London Bromeliad Society South Africa February 2020 Page 2 Show and Tell Zena McClaren brought an Aechmea orlandiana hybrid to show. She thinks it might be A. ’White Knight’. The A. orlandiana varieties are her favourites and grown for the colourful foliage; green, pink and white variegation and strong dark banding. The plant has an upright growth habit, they like bright light, full sun in milder climates. It needs good drainage, generally grown in bark. It makes a great specimen for mounting or grown in baskets where the stolons have room to develop their new pups. Aechmea orlandiana is not only a standard in the bromeliad world, it is also one of the most spectacular in the hobby of collecting bromeliads. A species collected by Mulford and Racine Foster in 1939 in Brazil. Named for the city of Orlando, Florida, Foster’s adopted home town. The orange bracts and white flowers, Zena McClaren and her Aechmea. being the colours of Orlando. Zena discovered bromeliads as a result of seeing Brenda’s garden in 2016. Because they had a problem with dassies eating everything they planted, Zena got her husband Michael to go and see the garden too, thinking these spiky plants won’t appeal to dassies! Well, they have been hooked on broms ever since, with a wonderful garden and collection of their own. Zena also came up with some points to ponder….. the more bromeliads you buy, the more you need… the flowers were beautiful when you left home for the show, by the time you arrived, the sun dried them to a crisp…. after you spent what feels like forty years carefully labelling bromeliads and learning how to pronounce the names, some idiot Robert’s bromeliads grown from seed. changes them…. the longer you grow bromeliads the less you know about them… the more raffle tickets you buy, the less you win…. bromeliads grow over and under the benches. It doesn't matter what size greenhouse you have, it is never big enough; but…. there is always room for more…. you put a high price on your favourite bromeliad, hoping that no one will buy it, it sells… the greater the bromeliad passion, the flatter the wallet! Robert Moss brought three small bromeliads to show, he has grown them from seed, the largest one in the photo above being Aechmea bracteata. He offered them up as Lucky Draw plants. Robert has Dudley’s Tillandsia bulbosa been very busy doing some hybridising and growing from seed with some very interesting results, watch this space! Dudley Reynolds I noticed that one of my Tillandsia bulbosa plants produced a pup on top of the plant from where the inflorescence would normally emerge. It would normally produce pups from the base of the plant. From what I can see and feel there are pups developing at the base as well. I don't recall this happening in the past. Have you experienced this as well, is it a common occurrence? I would be very interested to hear from anyone if it has occurred with one of your plants and if the plant is able to develop an inflorescence. My email address is: [email protected] Lyn Wegner: I think these should be referred to as Show and Brag! I walked around the garden looking for something to bring to the meeting and decided I would brag with these four Tillandsia! Tillandsia buchhlochi - I imported this beautiful species which is found in Paraguay, from Dennis Cathcart of Tropiflora Nursery.