BAY NEWS
Newsletter of the San Francisco Gesneriad Society
Volume 30, No. 8, August 2008
Next Meeting: Sunday, August 17, 2008
Program: Chiritas Slide Presentation
Prez Sez
by Jon Dixon
With the dog days of summer bringing us unseasonably cool and pleasant weather, we can hardly complain about anything. Our show is rapidly upon us, having been moved up to the weekend of September 6th and 7th. We have the entire auditorium to fill with plants, so, everyone, please bring as many plants as you can. We will have our sales area near the main entrance to the room and our show near the large windows. We will enjoy very good lighting for our plants with this arrangement. In the other rooms, the SF African Violet Society will be having their annual show and sale. So, the hall will be taken over by gesneriads. We will be discussing last minute arrangements for the show at our upcoming August meeting. See you at the meeting.
Last month I attended the annual Gesneriad Society
Convention, in Denver. Alan and Debra Lavergne also attended, as well as
Harriette Poss. Harriette, who in years past always drove to the convention,
chose to fly, while Alan and Debra drove, as did myself. I enjoyed the long drive
through the desolate landscape of Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming. I did not enjoy
driving on Rte. 80 through N. Utah though. The roads were narrow, curvy,
filled with poorly marked construction zones, and about as dangerous as I have
ever encountered. The convention went very well, with great programs and an
excellent Gesneriad Hybridizers program and meeting. Everyone won one or more
plants at the GHA meeting, many of them being cuttings, rhizomes, or starts of new
and exciting cultivars. My number came up fairly late in the free raffle, yet
I still came home with a really choice hybrid Kohleria from Taiwan. This year I decided not to buy anything, but be content with the free raffle
plants and table favor plants from meals and banquets. Turns out, as usual, I
ended up being unable to resist the sales plants and came home with quite a
haul, though much less than in previous years. The convention show was a stunning,
and much bigger than the previous convention in Denver. However, a certain
Bill Price, decided to drive from Vancouver with a truck load of entries. Of
course they were amazing, and not surprisingly, he won Best in Show, with a
collection of Nautilocalyx. At the end of the convention, when the show was
taken down, a crowd gathered around this display, hoping for cuttings. I was
one of them. The most outstanding plant in his collection was a Nautilocalyx
'#23' (pictured, note: picture from TGS website). Well, it just so happened
that I gave Bill the cutting for that plant and I lost it. Bill kindly gave me
a stem cutting, which is growing now on my light stand. It has chocolate
foliage with a beautiful bullate pattern of deeply incised veins, reminding me
of Gasteranthus attratus. Although the plant was not in flower, Bill has
flowered it, and reported that it has white flowers with a blue purple halo
around the petals. I never flowered it when I grew it, but now I am determined.
I will be propagating this one for the club as soon as it gets some new
leaves. On my way home I opted to take a different route that goes through the
Rockies in Colorado. It was much more beautiful than Wyoming, and although
supposedly longer, took less time. I didn't take time for excursions but
thought that S. Utah and Nevada would be very interesting to visit in Spring.
August Program
by Terri Campbell
Our program for our August meeting will be a slide presentation from the Gesneriad Society, "Chiritas." Please remember to bring chiritas for the show and tell or the raffle, if you have some!
The following description is from Ronald Myhr's Web site:
Chirita is an old world genus, with about 150 species ranging from Sri Lanka and India through the Himalayas into China and Southeast Asia down the Malay Peninsula, with a very few species reaching the islands of Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. A number of the species are grown for their unusual and very attractive foliage, with intricate silver designs on large green leaves. Others are grown for their unusual lavender, yellow or white flowers, usually produced in clusters on long or short stalks.
Some members of the genus seem to require relatively warm temperatures, and moderate humidity. They do well in standard "African violet" soil mixes, although some growers modify these through the addition of substances like perlite or vermiculite.
It is clear, however, that a number of the members of this genus tolerate cool to downright cold temperatures. - copyright Ronald Myhr, http://www.gesneriads.ca
San Mateo County Fair
by Jon Dixon
Once again the gesneriad societies participated in the fair. This was our fourth year. In the past we encouraged members to enter plants in the ten classes of the Gesneriad Division, plus the class for collections of gesneriads. This year the SF chapter entered in the Educational Exhibit, which is reserved for plant societies and other groups. They only have seven slots in the Educational Exhibits class, and it usually fills well before the deadline. So, this year Gene Sussli made sure that we got our slot. Gene also headed up a committee made up of TehShan and Tommy Lee, and myself, and he also conceived the idea and plan for our exhibit.
We had an eight foot table and wall space. Gene put together a mounted map of the world with named photos of gesneriads that went around the map. Each photo has a cord that goes to a push pin at the native location of the plant. On the table we used most of the space for a very nice display of gesneriads, arranged with old world on one side and new world on the other. As is not surprising, problems ensued with the construction and production of the display board. At the last minute we found that we had to mount it on the wall rather than a trellis that the fair provided. Gene and Tommy spent many hours working at home creating the photos, titles, and the board. Problems led to many unanticipated hours of work, such that Gene was working right up until the minute the judging began. And, a good thing he did. Our exhibit took FIRST PLACE!, with a prize of $200 for the club. We beat out a very nice and complicated exhibit by the African Violet Society, which took second and a very nice display by the Peninsula Succulent Club which took Third. Considering that all the other groups that entered were seasoned entrants with many years of displays, our first place is especially nice. Congratulations to all. In addition to display plants from Gene, Tommy and TehShan and myself, Katherine brought excellent flowering specimens of streptocarpus and petrocosmea. Alan Lavergne contributed some beautiful sinningias.
In the Gesneriad Division, the entries were less than in past years, in part because so many beautiful specimens were on display in our exhibit. Best in Dvision went to Streptocarpella Good Hope', entered on behalf of Gene by JoAnna Behl. The fair opened on Friday, August 8 and runs through August 17th. I encourage everyone to go see the fair and our display. This year the Floral Dept. is located in the side exhibit rooms in the large Fiesta Hall. Hopefully we will get back our building, Redwood Hall, next year. Also, congratulations are in order for club member Bob Hudak, for winning Best Succulent, with his Euphorbia Capsanmariensis.
Arboretum Field Trip Notes
by David Waugh and Terri Campbell
Instead of a meeting on this date we had a field trip, an abbreviated tour of the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum. It was abbreviated because the whole garden is an all day venture.
We met outside in the patio near our normal meeting place in the Garden Club Room, San Francisco County Fair Building. We then moved to the Botanical Garden area where Sunset Magazine installed many demonstration gardens many years ago. They are still in good condition. One of the gardens had unoccupied benches where we had our bagged lunches. While munching and drinking we discussed the upcoming September Show and Sale arrangement of the tables in the Auditorium. We also looked at pictures of various gesneriads produced by Tommy and Teh-Shan Lee to be used in our display table at the San Mateo County Fair August 8-17 and on our sales table in September.
Six of us went on this tour , which was conducted by Anna Chou, who is a docent at the Botanical Garden.
Near the demonstration gardens is an area devoted to plants from Australia. In an area south of there we saw plants and trees replicating a rain forest. Then on to other areas including a large duck pond, Oriental plants and ponds, and succulents. The end of the tour included plants from Chile, next to the west wall of the Fair Building.
Jon Dixon added a great deal to our tour, offering additional information on many rarities and on the history and design of the Arboretum.
Anna was able to show us two flourishing gesneriads, one in the Botanical Gardens and one next to the County Fair Building: a species from Central America, moussonia elegans, and the alpine gesneriad mitraria coccinea. Many a botanical garden would be envious of these.
Strybing Arboretum holds many hidden treasures that most of us had never seen. We agreed to schedule a future visit to see more.
2008 Officers
President: Jon Dixon
Vice President: Terri Lynn Campbell
Secretary: David Waugh
Treasurer: Gene Sussli
Newsletter Editor/Webmaster: Lorah Gross lorah@lorah.net
Brazilplants Support Club San Francisco contact: Terri Campbell
2008 Meetings: Usually third Sunday of each month, 1-4 p.m. at Library of County Fair Bldg., Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. (Enter from parking lot North side of 10th Avenue and Lincoln Blvd., turn right through gate next to building, go to third door)
January 20, February 17, March 16, April 20, May 18, June 15, July 20, August 17, September 21, October 19, November 16, December 21 Holiday Luncheon at Lakeside Cafe
2008 Shows and Sales:
One day plant sale May 31, Judged Show and Sale September 27, 28
Dues: $10 single, $11 family. Make checks payable to AGS SF, mail to Treasurer.
Website: http://www.sfgesneriads.org