Epi News San Diego Epiphyllum Society, Inc. March, 2014 Volume 39 Number 3 March, 2014 SDES Epi News Page 2 President’s Corner: SDES Calendar of Events It turns out that extremely warm 2014 winter weather and very little rain (unfortunately) seems to equal early March flower bud development in our epies. Who knew? 1 Work Party at the Safari Park It appears spring is already here although 1-2 Del Mar Spring Hm/Gdn Show technically spring doesn’t arrive officially until 15-16 Tomatomania and Herb Sale March 20th. San Diego Botanic Garden May March is traditionally the beginning of the busy 3 Cuyamaca Spring Gdn Sale epi season for the San Diego Epiphyllum Society 3-4 SDES Plant Sale– Safari Park and this year it’s no exception. Please check in 4 SBES Show with our intrepid Sales Events Coordinator, Cindy 10-11 Mother’s Day Plant Sale Decker if you are interested in helping out with nd 11 Mother’s Day Show any of our sales. Our 2 Vice President and 17 EpiCon XIV hosted by ESA Mother’s Day Chairperson, Sandra Chapin and 18 ESA Show her cohort in crime, Mother’s Day Co-Chair, September Patricia Frank can use any help they can get with 13-14-15 Del Mar Fall Hm/Gdn Show the organization of the Mother’s Day Show. There will be sign up sheets at the next couple of General Meetings if you are interested in participating. It’s now time to start planning your Mother’s Day display. Remember it can be a Inside This Issue small, simple display or a huge elaborate one or Calendar of Events 2 anything in between. Check Blooms for Accuracy 5 If you can bring in cuttings from your own Epi Con XIV 5 collections, even just a few to help benefit the ESA Research 11 Mother’s Day Show, please do so. Every little bit adds up to a lot and all contributions will be Get Your Facts First 8 greatly appreciated. At the beginning of April, it Got Cuttings? 9 will be time to make cuttings to bring to our April General meeting where we will process them in Membership Notes 11 preparation for the big Sale on Mother’s Day Mother’s Day Show 3 weekend. New Trophy Category 3 Epi season is upon us! Now is the Time 6 Off-Season Blooms 11 Ron President’s Corner 2 Programs 4 Safari Park Report 4 SDES Shirts Available 9 March, 2014 SDES Epi News Page 3 Preparations Underway for Mother’s Day Show --By Sandra Chapin HATS OFF TO displayed on the People’s Choice table, the Society Table, the Small Bloom table, George EPIES! French Hybrids table, and Newly Registered What could be an easier & Unregistered Seedling tables. I want to theme to plan a display encourage you to set up a display, but if you around. Everyone has an don't , please bring in your blooms to make old hat, a funny hat , a sports hat etc. Just put the room a blaze of color. it on your table and let the blooms be the stars. The Mother's Day Show is where we raise most of the funds to support our activities. The show itself attracts the visitors. They enter the room, admire all of the blooms on display and then rush out to buy cuttings of their favorites. We need a room filled with flowers to grab the public’s attention. There is a variety of displays you can do. You could make a flower arrangement; mini displays, one table, two table or larger, floor displays, and displays that do not follow the theme. We encourage blooms that are Sandra’s grandsons, named, but having a few unnamed blooms is Luke and Logan still OK. There are always extra blooms that Henderson create are shared, so don't imaginative charac- be nervous that ters. you don't have enough flowers to New Trophy Category Added fill out your display. Individual to Mother’s Day Show. flowers can be After last year’s show, Betsy & Jerry Markle and Michel McKee came up with a marvelous idea. They felt it could be a bit intimidating for a new member to compete against members who had been building displays for years. They suggested a new category. This novice group would be for those who had been Modeling hats: members three years or less. The Challenge Sandra Chapin’s has been made. The display can be any size, granddaughters, so put on your thinking caps (unless you are Alexa and Katelyn going to use that in your display) and come up Hissong. with a plan. March, 2014 SDES Epi News Page 4 Safari Park Epi Display House –By Jerry Moreau We had a great and productive work party in The next work parties will be March 1st, 15th, & February. The weather was perfect; it started out 29 th. Your help is always needed! The more cool but warmed up never getting too hot. We volunteers we have at the Park the better for the continued to organize and alphabetize the epies and the display. There is much to do, so workhouse pulling out all the duplicates for whether you can do a lot or a little, everyone is future sales. We made cuttings to sell to the welcome and all work is appreciated. If you Plant Trader and for the up coming sales events can’t volunteer, how about making a donation of for the Society. We fertilized with blooming some sort? Money is always helpful, but help fertilizer (low nitrogen such as 0-10-10) and could also take the form of doing research and continue to repot and up-pot plants as needed. grant writing or donating equipment and sup- Although there was a lot of work, we had some plies. amazing volunteers that lightened the workload. Helping out these past work parties were Sandra If you are interested in joining the fun and Chapin, Ron & Velma Crain, Cindy Decker, learning a lot about epis in the process, come Marie Dempewolf, Bill Greene, Bob Holzinger, and volunteer at the Park. Information on how Judy Johnson, Oliver La Puebla, Laurie Lassio, to sign up can be found on the website can be Michal McKee, Mildred Mikas, Jerry Moreau, found at www.SanDiegoEpi.org click on the Fred Savage, and Janice Wakefield. Thank you Safari Park tab or contact Jerry at all! Your help is greatly appreciated. [email protected]. Meeting Programs Pre-Meeting Workshop: In last month’s pre-meeting workshop Ron Crain discussed fertilizers…what they do and how to apply them. This month Ron will discuss cuttings…how to make a cutting, how to tell if it’s a good cutting and how to label a cutting. Please join him again on March 12th at 7:00 pm in room 104 to learn everything you ever wanted to know about cuttings!! February Program: At our February meeting, we enjoyed a DVD presentation of George French hybrids. Jerry Moreau narrated the program, giving us information about George, how he started hybridizing and information about the flowers he named. Our thanks to him and to Linda Sinkovic for creating the program mostly composed of slides taken by George French March Program: Our Mothers day show is looming on the horizon… You know what that means…We need your display!! But wait you say…”I’m new…I know nothing about making a display…Blink blink…I’ve never even been to a show before!…” See “Meeting Programs” Continued on page 5) March, 2014 SDES Epi News Page 5 “Epi-holics” Unite at EpiCon XIV Every two years one of the three Epiphyllum attend, you might make plans to stay over night Societies of Southern California hosts EpiCon. in the area so that you may also attend the ESA’s This is an event where epicactus enthusiasts from Annual Show and Sale the following day, all over the world gather to compare notes on all Sunday, May 18th at the Los Angeles Arboretum, things epi-related. This year, the Epiphyllum Ayres Hall in Arcadia. So, if you would like, you Society of America (ESA) will host this exciting can make an entire weekend of The Epiphyllum! event. EpiCon 2014 will take place at the Altadena Town and Country Club on Saturday, Registration Form can be downloaded from the May 17th from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. The cost is ESA website http://www.epiphyllumsociety.org/ $60.00 per person and includes continental penticocollect/EPICON.jpg , or the ESA’s breakfast, guest speakers throughout the day and Facebook page where, if you are more clever than lunch. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn I (editor), you will find more details as well as a more about epies and to meet and mingle with downloadable registration form. people from everywhere who share your interest in our favorite plants. If you are traveling to Are your hybrids blooming true to their names? Now is the time to haul out your ESA Direc- that only one of the cuttings planted in your tory of Species and Hybrids. If you have a pot might be mismarked. These mismarked hybrid plant that is blooming for the first time, plants should be marked as “unks” (for check its description in the Directory and see unknown) so that they not be used for the how it compares with the bloom on your cutting sales. plant. If it is a definite match, confirm it on the tag.