39,700 LED Lights

That's right! Thirty nine thousand, seven hundred LED lights on an immense oak tree.

If you can see the house in the back ground you will get an idea of just how huge this tree is.... it's a monster.

Located right by Cedar Avenue and Old Shakopee it's been a holiday tradition for years now. The owner just upgraded to LED lights instead of the traditional style this year. It took a boom truck and three and a half weeks of labor (8 hours a day) to get the tree ready for the season.

WOW!

Fall Bloom Highlights!

Here are a few photos of some of the flowers seen at the show at Bachman's this weekend.










If a picture says 1000 words, these should be saying a lot!

Everything was bright and colorful!

If you missed this show be sure to mark off the last week of March on your calendar for coming to see the Spring Show at Har Mar Mall.

FALL SHOWS!

It's time again for the African violet societies to have their fall Show and Sale at both Northtown Mall on October 21-22, 2011 and Bachman's Heritage Room October 22-23, 2011 on Lyndale in Minneapolis!


Come and see African violets and other Gesneriads in bloom and looking stunning!

Bachman's Heritage Room is at the main Bachman's store location at 6010 Lyndale Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota!

We always have knowledgeable folks with growing advice and answers to all those violet questions you might have!

Semi-minniature violets for sale - for those of you will limited space! Come by and say "hi"!

Making a Natural Garden for a Show, Part 1

 Before beginning a natural garden, you have to select the proper plant material. Although it's not recommended, sometimes tasting it helps the "artist" get the feel for his masterpiece.

 Inspecting the plants sometimes includes checking if there are other interesting features about the plant, such as rhizomes.

Selecting the natural item for the base is important. Does it have pockets and spaces to plant in? Is it good looking? Is it something that you can "really get into"???

 Are there any mice in the crevices?

 When in doubt, check all the holes thoroughly, with both hands.

 Chew the extra bits off the back so that it will look good from all angles.

And finally, if you can really get into your work, it's probably going to look "smashing" at the show.

Stay tuned for planting the natural garden in part 2 of our series, and transporting it to show in part 3.

Special thanks to Walter for modeling and technical support.

Spilled Pollen

 Here's a very pretty African violet flower. This is actually a "grocery store" plant but it shows some pretty nice characteristics such as strong peduncles (the stalk holding up the flower cluster) and large, long lasting flowers.

In this picture you can see the center of the flower. It looks like there are some little "dusty" bits of something on the right hand side of the stamen. Most people won't  be looking closely at this feature, but if you are adding plants to your collection you might want to know about this. This "pollen spill" might be caused by thrips.

Thrips are small insects that hide and breed and feed in the center of the flower. They eat pollen and to get at it they will rip open the pollen sac and some of the pollen grains will spill onto the petals near the center of the flower. This might be caused by the owner bumping the flower, or it might be caused by other pollinators like bees coming to flowers on a plant that's grown outdoors, but for the indoor grower, this should be a warning sign to check your plant a bit closer.

If you are checking your own plants at home, look for little torpedo shaped insects quickly moving about on the petals. Using a hand lens is also helpful to see the bugs (they are quite small). As you might have guessed, a dark flower shows up the pollen spill and the insects much more easily than a white or light colored flower. Insecticides aren't usually very effective for a thrip infestation. Disbudding the plant and then keeping the plant disbudded (which means pulling off all flower stalks and blooms) for a period of 6 months usually takes care of the problem! Questions???? Leave a comment please.

Fantasy Flower Problems

I have always enjoyed fantasy flowers but sometimes they do not come in "true". I recently got Neil's Beetle Juice. The first bloom came in solid pink. As you can see it is pretty but not a fantasy. When I saw Dennis Miller, the hybridizer of the plant, I asked him and he said to let it bloom again and it might come in "true"

This is what the second bloom looks like. Totally different isn't it?

This particular flower is not a real large marked fantasy, but it is a fantasy. I have seen this happen with violets when the first flower is different than it should be. So if you get a plant, be patient. I don't know why this happens but it does.

 

 

Rob's 'Slap Happy' African violet!

WHOOPS! I finally get a nearly perfect violet, in glorious bloom and in technicolor too and it's one month and two days till the spring show.

The next time you are at a flower show, whether violet or other flowers, remember that it takes quite a lot of planning and not just a little talent to get the entries to the show looking fresh and magnificent and like they just came out of a painting. I get to tip my hat once again to the rest of my club's members that have the skills I still lack in planning and timing. Sometimes the plant just defies all your best efforts, but I think I better study up on my "efforts". Remember, to see things like (but NOT) this one, the show starts April 1, 2011!

Violets In Windows!!!

I found this old picture of my mothers' violets growing on shelves on windows. It was taken before 1954 because she moved away that year. Note how all the plants are in clay pots, which is the way they grew them back then.

As I recall when she watered the plants some water would spill on the shelves so she would have to wipe up the water but it was not a problem since it was glass. Once in awhile she would take all the plants off the shelves and clean the glass. A big job indeed.

The window faced the south. She would close the blinds when it got real hot. Windows at that time were not E windows so how they never burned was a surprise, or maybe they did but I don't remember.

The lowest shelf always fascinated me because the supporting bracket pulled up and away. Kids liked things that moved. The shelves and brackets are no longer around.

I thought you might like to see how violets were grown many years ago …or maybe some still do it that way.

Chimera Violet Seeds

 Well..... this is what a year and a few months of experimentation are starting to look like.

Last year seeds were set on a green chimera violet. Do chimeras pass that trait down in seeds? Can you get a chimera from seed?

I guess we'll see.

 This is my first bud on my first baby to produce a plant from seed.

Violets need to leave the pod ON the plant to ripen for approximately six months. Then it takes a while after sowing to get the plantlets, and of course waiting enough months for a first bloom takes patience.

Other gesneriads do not take quite so long from pollination to plant, but African violets do.

This is the bud on it's very, very first day trying to open. It's not a large bloom, and I'm not sure if it will have any sort of striping on the flower, but it is green and shows a lively amount of fuzziness.

More photos when it and it's companions open up a little and we can see what sort of blooms might actually be represented. It does look like it has pollen though......

January Meeting Minutes!

President Gail P. called the meeting to order 1:02 PM. at Davannis restaurant. Fifteen members and 2 guests were present. The November 2010 minutes had a typo which needed to be corrected, third paragraph, from "makes some" to read "make some". The treasurer's report was distributed. Mary E also reported a loss from the show at Bachmans. There is still one bill for the ribbons that has not been paid.

Carol S. and Jim G. seconded to raise the dues to $15 for individual, and $10 for second person in the same household. The membership voted and approved it. The increase will be effective March 1, 2011.

Gerten's Greenhouse is having a Plant Society day March 26 from 1PM to 4PM. Volunteers are needed to be there. Steve asked for some logos for signs.


The Feb. 12 meeting has been changed to Gail P. house. It will be a DVD on trailers by Bill Price.

The March 12 meeting will be at Davannis in Bloomington at noon, with a program about orchids by Steve and Jim.

The meeting April 20th, Wed. 6PM at Old Country Buffet.

There will not be a meeting in May.

June 15th Potluck 6 PM at Patty and Steves.

The club voted the slate of officers.

Announcement: Orchid Show at the McNeely Conservatory in St. Paul, Jan 29 and 30th.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:28 PM.

Following the meeting was the Jeopardy game presented by J.S.

Respectfully,

Sharon J