NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER 2017

What's Happened and What's Happening

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Contents
Special General Meeting to appoint Olive and Len Trevor as Patrons of our Society.
Notes from the Meeting 19th October, 2017.
Plant of the Month: Guzmanias with Graeme Stay
Guest Speaker: Amanda Meads - Creating Displays with Bromeliads.
Mini Show Competition Results
Christmas Party 7th December.

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Appointment of Olive and Len Trevor as Patrons of our Society.
You will have been advised that our next meeting will be preceded by a Special General Meeting to appoint Patrons for our Society.

Barry Kable opened the Meeting and welcomed guests.

Plant of the Month was Guzmanias with Graeme Stay.
Thirteen years ago, Graeme’s father asked him to buy some bromeliads for him, and making that purchase “was the worst thing I did in my life !! “ He quickly became besotted with Guzmanias.
“And they are fairly easy to grow"(after thirteen years of experience!)
He bought 24 from a deceased estate. When he asked how to grow the pups, he was told “just cut them off with a knife and pot them.” Graeme followed that advice, and all the offsets died of bacterial infection through the freshly cut base of the offset.
Lesson: you must let offsets ‘rest’ for 1-2 weeks for that cut area to “heal”.
Graeme sources his plants from three main growers who import tissue-cultured seedlings in sterile flasks with 100 seedlings. These come from China and Belgium. However, there have been no new imports from China for the past year. Before that, Graeme imported at least 20 new varieties each year.
Graeme covered a table with his Guzmanias (see photo), and these included Guzmania ‘Merthyr’, with intense green foliage, and a tall red spike.

Graeme's array of Guzmanias.

Guzmania is named after the Spanish naturalist, Anastasio Guzman. Guzman extensively traveled throughout South America and died while on an expedition in Ecuador in 1807. A short time after his death colleagues named this genus of bromeliad in his honour.

Guzmania 'Myth'

Guzmania 'Merthyr'.

xGuzvriesea ‘Marian Oppenheimer’ impressed:
the parentage of this plant is
V. 'Viminalis Rex' x G. lingulata var. minor
('Viminalis Rex' is the seed parent).

xGuzvriesea 'Happa'.
(Guzmania wittmackii x Vriesea Eva by H.Hill.)

Guzmania ‘Akabar’

Guzmania ‘Pink Nova’ (sanguinea x witmackii ) is variegated,
has the low-set bloom like sanguinea.

Guzmania ‘Francesca’

General comments.
Len Trevor imported the first Guzmanias into Australia and soon after they were hit by a severe frost, and had icicles on them!
He feared the loss of $10,000 worth of plants.
Len put the sprinklers on, washed the icicles off, and never lost one. Guzmanias appear to tolerate subzero temperatures, as well as 41°C (last summer !)
Graeme uses Scott’s Fertilizer with N:P:K of 15:11:29 and grows them under 70% shade cloth. Using double shade cloth can delay flowering by two weeks.
He uses the same approach to cultivate Vrieseas as for Guzmanias.

Small Guzmanias popular ?
At the Last Ipswich Show, Graeme sold 40 small Guzmanias quickly.
His biggest seller was Guzmania ‘Snowball’,
a lovely white (a Deroose hybrid, 2003)

Other plants discussed were :
Pitcairnia nigra
Guz teuscheri has a 1m inflorescence, brilliant orange colour (above).
Guz pseudospectabilis has a 1m tall inflorescence, is more common in Colombia.
Guz alborosea with pink and white bracts
It has a spike 1m tall, with a bright pink scape.
Guz angustifolia is caulescent
Pitcairnia palmoides has fab paddle-shaped foliage (below).

Thanks for an interesting talk, Graeme.

Guest Speaker was Amanda Meads who showed how to create flower displays with Bromeliad spikes.
Amanda runs a professional Flower School graduating Florists.
I first met Amanda when she shared her expertise at a Bromeliad Judges School where we trainee judges were shown to do wonderful things with bromeliads, making ‘Artistic Arrangements’ and ‘Decorative Containers’ that appear in our Show Schedule.
Amanda has lead the team that was so successful at the recent EKKA R.N.A. Horticultural Show, where their display won prestigious Awards. Amanda also steers the team that creates the display for our Spring and Autumn Shows.
Amanda started with a base of floral foam ( by Oasis) cut to size.

Floral foam by Oasis.

To the base were added various bits of greenery such as cordyline leaves, Xanadu, etc.
She demonstrated how to put a curl in a big leaf using wire. Amanda uses wire extensively, finds it gives great flexibility.
Then came the Bromeliad blooms.
Principles of design illustrated by Amanda included the height of the display equals the width, bigger and darker forms employed in the centre, with lighter and smaller elements more to the periphery. Amanda took care to achieve a measure of symmetry in the display, while noting lines of sight, lines that draw the observer to a central point of interest in the display. Beware making the display too high; this draws the attention away from the display.
Special thanks to Becky and Olive Trevor, and Pam Butler who generously provided the many Brom spikes used.
And thanks Amanda for a great performance.

Amanda starts her creation.

Decorative Display nears completion.

Amanda's second creation.

In response to our Members Survey,
The following decisions were made by the committee:
We encourage the selling of non-bromeliad plants.
Meeting Times will not change, and continue on the third Thursday of each month,
7pm Practical Class on odd-numbered months,
7:30pm Main Meeting commences,
9:30pm meeting ends.
More frequent Practical Classes will be planned for 2018.
Guest speakers on non-Bromeliad topics will be permitted.
There was support for Study Days for Genera other than Tillandsias.
If you would like to organise one, speak to Barry Kable or John Olsen.

Mini Show Competition Results

Advanced
Class 1
1st Neo ‘Bob’s Baby’ from Barb McCune.
2nd Neo ‘Enchantment’ from Barb McCune.

Class 2
1st Tillandsia lorentziana from Ron Jell.
2nd Tillandsia streptophylla from Bruce Dunstan.

Class 3
1st Deuterocohnia abstrusa from Barb McCune.
2nd Hectia tillandsioides from Ron Jell.

Class 4
1st Vriesea pardalina from Barry Kable.
2nd Pitcairnia ‘Rhubarb’ from Barry Kable.

INTERMEDIATE
Class 1
1st Neo 'Donna’ from Jenny Ittensohn.
2nd Neo hybrid from Jenny Ittensohn.

Class 2
1st Tillandsia ‘Ty’. from Pam Butler.
2nd Tillandsia streptophylla from Maxim Wilson.

Class 3
1st Deuterocohnia brevifolia from Livia Doidge.

Class 4
1st Nidularium innocentii from Jenny Ittensohn.
2nd Acanthostachys strobilacea from Maxim Wilson

NOVICE
Class 4
1st Vriesea ‘Velva Wurthmann’ from Sharon Born.

Neoregelia 'Bob's Baby' from Barb McCune.

Neoregelia 'Enchantment' from Barb McCune.

Vriesea pardalina from Barry Kable.

Pitcairnia 'Rhubarb' from Barry Kable.

Nidularium innocentii from Jenny Ittensohn.

Acanthostachys strobilacea.

Deuterocohnia brevifolia from Livia Doidge.

Popular Vote Aggregate
Advanced	Feb	Mar	May	Jun	Aug	Sep	Nov	Total
Ron Jell	3	5	7	9	5	3		32
Bruce Dunstan			1	1	5	2		9
Barbara McCune	9	7	4	3	4	3		30
Barry & Ann Kable	2			3		5		10
Bob Cross						7		7

Intermediate	Feb	Mar	May	Jun	Aug	Sep	Nov	Total
Fred Thomson		1						1
Maxim Wilson	1		3	5		6		15
Pam Butler		1	5	2	3	3		14
Peter Ball	5							5
Pat Barlow		1	5					6
Denice McLean		1		3		2		6
David Rees					1	1		2
Livia Doidge	2		2	3	3			10
Narelle Aizlewood								0
Charmaine Rooney	1	1						2
Ric Cairns			3					3
Dorothy Andreason	5	9	5	5		6		30
John Olsen	1				5			6
Jenny Ittensohn			1			4		5

Novice	Feb	Mar	May	Jun	Aug	Sep	Nov	Total
Sharon Born	5	4	4	5	9	2		29
Steve Molnar	2					5		7
Jenny Brittain	3		6			7		16
Tom Isaac	2							2
Glen Drewett		8	3					11

Decorative	Feb	Mar	May	Jun	Aug	Sep	Nov	Total
Ron Jell	5	1	5	3	5	5		24
Janet Richter	3	3						6
Sharon Born	1		3	1	3	4		12
Denice McLean		5		5				10
Barbara McCune				1				1

Mini-Show Aggregate
Advanced	Jan	April	July	Oct	Total
Barry Kable	3		13	8	24
Ron Jell	7	8	8	11	34
Barbara McCune	27	15	14	15	71
Peter Paroz	1				1
Bruce Dunstan				4	4

Intermediate	Jan	April	July	Oct	Total
David Vine	7				7
Pam Butler	5	5	15	6	31
Livia Doidge	8	5		7	20
Pat Barlow		6			6
Maxim Wilson		8		8	16
Greg Aizlewood			8		8
Charmain Rooney			2		2
Jenny Ittensohn				14

Novice	Jan	April	July	Oct	Total
Steve Molnar	5				5
Sharon Born		8	5	5	18

Christmas Party Thursday 7th December, 2017.
Starts 6 to 6:30pm
Easts League's Club, 40 Main Street, Coorparoo.
costs $40 per head. Pay John Olsen at the next meeting.

How many plants can you enter into Competition ?
For the Popular Vote, you can enter three plants only.
For the Mini Show, you can enter two plants in each of four classes
making a maximum of eight plants.

The Committee is keen to expand the range of plants on offer at meetings. Sales will be made open to the public so bring your plants in!

Society Member Shirts are available,
For new members they are $25, includes
the BSQ logo, and members name.
For current members, BSQ shirts cost $25.50 with BSQ logo,
an extra $5.50 for a pocket (total $31)
and an extra $5.00 with your name embroidered on it.

2017 Meeting Information

Meeting Show Schedule

January - MINI SHOW

Class 1 – Aechmea species and hybrids
Class 2 – Vriesea species and hybrids
Class 3 – Dyckia species and hybrids
Class 4 - any other flowering bromeliad species and hybrids