NSAVC Minutes 09 15 10

President Gail P. called the meeting to order 7:10 PM. at her home. Fourteen members were present. The Secretaries and Treasurers report were read and approved.


Fall show discussion: Set up is Friday Oct. 1 at noon.

Email entries to Mary E. by Sept. 27,

Exhibits must be entered before 3 PM. Judging begins at 4PM

Need help with sales. A paper was passed around for signing up to volunteer.

Board meeting is Sunday Oct. 3 at 1 PM.

Members may donate money or gifts towards special awards if they would like to.

A new schedule of awards was distributed and voted and approved by the membership.

Members are asked to donate leaves to sell.

Grocery bags are need for the sales.

Hopefully Jim can bring boxes for sales.


Other items of interest: The treasurer has not received the insurance bill for the club. She will check with Jim if he knows anything about it.

The audit still has not been completed. The committee needs to schedule a time to do it.

A new sheet was distributed asking for hosts/hostesses and treats for upcoming meetings.

Any unsold sale plants can be sold to members at the end of the show at the cost to the club. Roughly the cost is $4.75 for standards, and $12.00 for chimeras. Any plants unsold will be donated to Bachman employees.

Mary K. F. volunteered to make new nametags.

I am not sure if the meeting was actually adjourned. It seemed to slide into Gail and Carol grooming plants.

Carol brought some very delicious treats.

Respectfully,
SJ

Flower Pollination

 The flowers aren't African violets unfortunately, but this is how the seeds are made, whether in violet or any other plant that makes seeds. See the cool orange sacks on the bee's back legs? One on each side. The bee picked up this pollen at a flower somewhere and in its travels will perhaps pollinate a flower it will soon visit.

Click on the photos, they will enlarge somewhat.... See the powder/dust on the bee's eyes and wing base and legs? All that is pollen too.


How about a comment?

From Store to Show Violets

The upcoming show has a new category. The GROCERY STORE violet. What do you do with what you typically get at the store?

This one is from the home improvement store actually, but you see a bunch of stuff wrong with it.

It has baby leaves, broken leaves, spent flowers, suckers, what doesn't it have wrong?

 First, the baby leaves come off.

Look for the small leaves that are directly under the largest outer row of leaves. The outer row should logically have the biggest, oldest leaves. When they are little you know that they are from the starter plant and they are babies.

 Take off all the spent blossoms, the  broken stuff etc.

 Look deeper under some of the leaves. See the small plantlet that is starting in the center. It's the little thing with three leaves  and it is NOT the center of the plant, as you can see the center is further back not in focus right now.









 Here is that small three leaved sucker removed. You could plant up that portion to make a baby plant.

One of the lower leaves is rotated to the right. If we reposition it, it might straighten up in a couple of weeks and fill in the gap.

 Toothpicks work nicely to gently move the leaf into the position you want it to be in.

Now the cleaned up, and groomed plant is under lights and we'll see if it can be taken to the show as an example of what you can do with a plant you just purchased from a regular store but want to look like a "show plant"

Please feel free to comment.

June 16, 2010 Meeting Minutes

Ten members showed up for our fun potluck supper. Sandy took the time and gave us a tour of their beautiful garden. It is nice to see spectacular plants especially the Martagon lilies. Her daughter and only grandson were staying at her house so we finally met them after knowing Sandy all these years. The grandson is great, a very busy cute boy!




The potluck turned out nicely. It was a nice combination of appetizers, main courses and deserts all, which was very good.



The club decided to donate $15 each to the Boyce Edens fund, AVSA Building fund, and the AVSA booster fund. The next bank CD is coming due in June but with such a low interest rate of 1% we decided it is not worth the effort to renew it but put the funds in the checking account.



A lot of time was spent revising the fall schedule omitting edged and geneva edges and putting the trailers in a separate section. We may not be asking members for donations and may not give any cash awards, just ribbon awards.



Respectfully,

SJ

After the Flower

Perry's flower is now dried and done... the next phase of Perry's intriguing life will having a single leaf (that looks somewhat like the leaf of the little plant sitting to the left of Perry) start to grow. Believe it or not, if you examine the plant next to Perry closely, it has just the one large, compound leaf. The plant goes through it's life like this till it's time for that leaf to die, after hopefully providing the underground corm with lots of energy for the next round of flowering. Stay tuned.

PERRY!

 PERRY IS BLOOMING!!!!!

Perry the Titan arum is blooming at Gustavus. The live webcam feed can be seen here.  http://gustavus.edu/biology/titanarum/  How awesome to be able to see the bloom of the plant that produces the world's largest flower right here within an hour of the Twin Cities?

Perry is a youngster at only age 17. Sprouted from a seed, the now approximately 200 pound Perry is blooming for the second time in about three years.

Titans either put up one single leaf a year or one single flower then followed by the single leaf. The dead material you can see displayed on the right side of the photo is Perry's SINGLE leaf from last year.

This is Perry's primary enthusiast. Dr. O'Brien of Gustavus. This isn't a short plant folks.


Leave comments at the bottom here, and remember to click on the link for the web feed.

REMINDER! Get that violet now!

Now is the time to get that "grocery store" violet! This October's Fall Show has a whole class for violets that have not been owned over three months! This sort of display is supposed to show the public what can be done to display and enjoy a "regular," "run of the mill" violet that a person could pick up at any retail location that carries plants.

Grab a good one, groom it up..... check very carefully for insects and get it ready for the show... Can you believe it is only 2 and 1/2 months away???

Let us know how it's coming along. Please make comments, just hit the comment button below with the cursor and leave a message for the gang.

Happy 4th of July

Boom

 Always a pleasure to see the fireworks and enjoy a nice summer evening.

Ker-boom!

How are the violets growing in the hot weather???

Make a comment and share how yours are doing....

Martagons and Meetings

 The June meeting was held at a wonderful home! Here there are Martagon lilies of all sorts and colors. One of the leading hybridizers of Martagons has spent years creating the most lovely and newest forms of this lily! Click on the photos to enlarge them.

 Martagons come in whites, yellows, oranges and, as you will see, some stunning reds.

 Aren't these cool?

 These lilies can do well with a touch more shade than some of the other sorts of lilies that you might be familiar with.

 They are upright growers and certain ones get quite tall and majestic.

 They do well growing with hostas, as you can glimpse in this photo.

This is the greatest part. To keep the pollen from a random source off of a flower that is due to be crossed with another particularly chosen flower, a little bag made of bridal tulle is placed over it. It's very light weight and lets in sun and air, but keeps out bees and insects that may come to pollinate it. This flower will be hand pollinated and labeled and the resulting seed with be harvested and grown out to see what the new hybrid will look like. It can take nature up to 7 years till the newly seeded plants will be mature enough to produce the first blooms. Patience is golden in hybridization! For more information on Martagon lilies email the blog at nsavctc@gmail.com and you can privately be put in touch with the hybridizer.

May Meeting Minutes

We had a fun meeting at the Old Country Buffet in Fridley. Nine members and two guests were welcomed to the evening's get together. We all chatted and talked about various things including the lady at the convention that uses bleach to disinfect her plants. No one can believe that such a strong alkaline solution would not harm delicate plant tissue.

The meeting started at 7:00 pm. and there were no changes to last month's minutes. We talked about the upcoming Pot Luck Picnic at S. O.'s house on June 16th, 2010. Everyone brings a dish to pass.

We will try to have the new show schedule ready for the meeting to introduce a couple of new categories and give everyone enough time to prepare their plants for the show.

B. W. asked about who else to send publicity information to regarding the fall show. The AV magazine needs to get the notice by June 1st. Everyone is asked to give B. W. contact ideas.

M. E. took care of the tax exempt materials and it was noted that this needs to be done by January of each year now. Rules have changed in the past couple of years regarding club's status with the IRS. The end of the club's fiscal year is the end of Feb. We need an audit this summer. Our club CD matures and the club will decide what to do.

It was noted that the dues are current. There may be a club matching idea for fall awards. The club will match the amount donated by individual members for awards to be given out at the fall show. This will reduce the financial burden on the treasury. The meeting ended at 7:25 pm.

One member brought a really LOVELY 'Artic Frost' with huge blooms (look back a couple of blog posts) and a problematic baby plant. Discussion was focused on what the problem might be and solutions to make it grow in a more robust manner. Many idea were brought up and it was a good time to learn about different aspects of growing.

A clear deli-style container was passed out with leaves from the leaf exchange being used for the next club contest. The first member to get their leaf to BLOOM will get a ten dollar prize. Other members that didn't get a leaf at the last meeting will get a chance to get one at the Pot Luck.

Hope to see EVERYONE at the next meeting and picnic. Submitted by J.S.