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East London Bromeliad Society South Africa September 2017

Our aim is to promote and encourage awareness and interest in Our aim is to promote and encourage awareness and interest in Our aim is to promote and encourage awareness and interest in Our aim is to promote and encourage awareness and interest in Bromeliads in East London and all of South Africa!Bromeliads in East London and all of South Africa!Bromeliads in East London and all of South Africa!Bromeliads in East London and all of South Africa!

Thank you to Tamara and Aiden Hartwanger for

opening your home and lovely garden to us for

the August meeting! We met on a beautiful

windless day after a week of howling icy gales

under a huge tree providing loads of shade

over the lawn, a perfect meeting spot! Tamara

has created lots of interesting features and

nooks in her garden over the years, including

some of her super mosaic work as well. We saw

lots of inspiring ideas to try and adapt in our

own bromeliad gardens. We had a super crowd

of 32 members, plus a country member and

three visitors join us for an entertaining

afternoon.

Rob Hazell’s Trip to

The Chelsea Flower Show

We were privileged to have country member Rob Hazell from Swellendam

drive to East London for the day, over-nighting in Grahamstown, to attend

our August meeting, accompanied by his brother

Peter from Cape Town. He spoke about his trip to

the Chelsea Flower Show in May this year as part

ELBS is an Affiliated Society of Bromeliad Society International

East LondonEast LondonEast LondonEast London Bromeliad Society

South Africa Established: 25 July 2009

NEWS LETTER

September 2017

Next Meeting: Sunday, 24th September at 2.00 pm. Hosted by Dr Boots and Alison

Horsfall at 22 Vincent Gardens Road, Vincent. See you there!

Tamara with her super spectacular choice of hostess plant, Neoregelia ‘Gee Whiz’. Plus a view of just part of her garden with some of its

interesting features.

Rob in the back row, right, with the team from SANBI and just one aspect of the South Africa display at Chelsea.

Right: Rob, sharing tales of his trip to Chelsea and other

gardens.


of The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) team that set up and manned the South African

exhibit at the Chelsea Flower Show. It was a huge pity that we could not really see the photos on his lap top,

but it was an entertaining and interesting afternoon with lots of discussion, questions and banter. The South

African display won its 35th Gold Medal in 42 years of exhibiting at the show, plus it was also awarded with the

prestigious President’s Award. Rob moved from Hout Bay to Swellendam when he retired as a vet some years

ago, but remains very active in animal clinics and also has a bromeliad nursery.

Show and Tell

Lyn Wegner showed Aechmea ‘Roberto

Menescal’ and Aechmea ‘Black Zombie’.

Aechmea 'Roberto Menescal' belongs to the

chantinii group of Aechmea and was named and

registered after the original grower, R. Menescal

from Rio de Janeiro state by Chester Skotak in

2000. It is a tissue culture sport* of Ae. chantinii,

from the laboratory of Rolf Zornig in Sao Paulo. My

Ae. 'Roberto Menescal' are growing in a sunny

spot and doing well. I struggle with some of the

other Ae chantini varieties due to their cold

intolerance. These plants are beautiful, but

expensive to import.

While in Australia for the Sunnybroms Conference, I

became aware of Ae. 'Black Zombie'. This is the

novar form (or reverted sport) of Ae. 'Roberto

Menescal' which was registered by Mal Cameron from Australia in 2011. I now

have one of these as well and it is grouped with the Ae. 'Roberto Menescal'

bromeliads in my garden. It has a few stripes, so just maybe it might produce true

Ae. 'Roberto Menescal' pups. I am concerned that the pups of these beauties

tend to revert. Luckily I have one perfect pup!

*Definition of 'Sport'

The main cause is genetic mutation which usually happens in Spring or Summer,

often due to temperature fluctuations.

I queried the naming of a novar with Geoff Lawn, the BSI Registrar, and I am sure

you will find his explanation very interesting.

Feed back from Geoff Lawn:

There are several possible scenarios with Novars.

1. Where the original plant was produced as a tissue-cultured (e.g. Ae ‘Roberto

Menescal’), or as a vegetative sport, and reverts to a non-variegated form: If

the original non-variegated form already has a name, then the form reverting

back to that retains that name, such as Neoregelia concentrica 'Bill Morris' (a

marginated variegate) losing its stripes, so becomes just Neo concentrica

again. One never knows with Novars whether they will stay stable or go back to

a variegated form in the pups (they have that potential which is why some

growers keep "Novar" on their label).

2. Where a variegate arises directly from seed only: This is usually from hybrid seed

so has two parents, not one. If the hybrid variegated seedling reverts when

young or older, to plain, it needs the word "Novar" unless the plain plant is considered worthwhile to keep

and given its own cultivar name. If it’s a species seedling form, it would go back to that species name if

reverted to plain foliage. Again, growers like to keep that word Novar next to the species name in case it

sports again.

3. Where a variegated sport has a cultivar name which defines the pattern of its variegation. Say it's a

marginated form and reverts to plain Novar but later produces a variegated sport in a different variegation

pattern, say, striated. If ‘stable’ for several generations, this new variegate could be named and registered,

unless someone has already done so, in which case it needs to adopt that registered name if

indistinguishable.

So yes, Novars can be named and registered if considered desirable and they stay relatively stable, providing

they are not identical to a species form already botanically-described, which always has priority re correct

I.D. over cultivar names.

Aechmea ‘Black Zombie’ Aechmea ‘Roberto Menascal’

Aechmea chantinii ‘DeLeon’ Dark Form’

Neoregelia ‘Bill Morris’


Member News • A very big welcome to Kevin Durrheim, a new local member and Shaun Hope from

Johannesburg, we hope you both have a long and rewarding association with

bromeliads and alll of us in the society. • Our sympathies go out to the people of Central America who have been badly

affected by Hurricane Harvey and now the devastating Hurricane Irma too. We were

concerned about our international member Pat Mitchell who lives in Houston (some of

our members have met Pat on his recent trip to EL), but Lyn has since spoken to him

and he and his 3 precious dogs are ok! We are so lucky in South Africa that we don’t

have the threat of hurricanes to worry about.

Thanks • Tamara and Aiden Hartwanger for hosting the meeting.

• Rob Hazell for travelling to East London to speak to us.

• Richard King, our member from Darling, who has donated 9 (yes NINE) of his hybrids to the society to be

used as raffle plants. Wow! • Dr Boots and Alison Horsfall, Lyn Odendall and Glen and Bev

Reynolds for providing goodies for tea time.

Congratulations to the Raffle Winners

for August! • Alison Horsfall chose Aechmea nudicaulis x triangularis.

• Lyn Wegner chose Aechmea 'Samurai' x Aechmea correia-araujoi

(Richard King's hybrid). • Eddie Black chose Aechmea ‘Glowing Embers’.

• Sue Pema chose Aechmea ‘Bert’.

• Deon Barnes from Randburg chose Neoregelia 'Flame Thrower'

• Eugene Ernest from Durban chose Canistrum seidelianum x Ae.

correia-araujoi (Richard King hybrid, remake of Liza Vinzant

xCanmea ‘Nani Ko’olau’) • Ann Carter from Cape Town chose Neoregelia 'Mini Me' novar.

• Danie Taljaard from Cape Town chose Billbergia 'Dorothy Berg'

vittata 'Domingos Martins'

From the Chairman - Dudley Reynolds I would like to thank and congratulate all

members who were involved in the Spring

Garden Fair at Pioneer Nursery. Whether

you assisted in supplying bromeliads for

the display, setting up, manning the

stand, selling raffle tickets or just chatting

to folk who showed interest in our

beautiful bromeliad stand, very well done!!! Judging

from past years, I think this year generated the most

interest, thus indicating the importance of exposing our

plants to the public when we have the opportunity.

What came to the fore once again this year, is that

form plants seem to attract a lot of attention. Although

many beautiful colour plants were noticed, it was the

unique form plants that seemed to attract the public

eye. Judging by the questions asked, there is still a lot of

ignorance out there. So it is our duty to keep on

educating and encouraging folks to become

interested and enthusiastic about the plants which we

have grown to love so much.

It was good to have Rob and his brother Peter Hazell

visiting us from Swellendam and Muizenburg

respectively. Thank you for sharing your experiences

Canistrum seidelianum x Ae. correia-araujoi (Richard King

hybrid, remake of Liza Vinzant

xCanmea ‘Nani Ko’olau’).

Neoregelia ‘Flame Thrower’

Neoregelia 'Mini Me' novar

Left: Billbergia 'Dorothy Berg'

vittata 'Domingos Martins'

Sue Pema

Lyn Wegner Alison Horsfall

Eddie Black

New local member Kevin Durrheim at his

first meeting! .


with us Rob.

A special thank you to Tamara Hartwanger for opening her home and lovely garden for our monthly get

together. A beautiful setting on a beautiful almost Spring day. Well, Spring is here. I am anxiously waiting for

the rains to come.

Happy Bromming. Until next time.

Spring Garden Fair - Brenda Wegner Feed back from our Events Co-ordinator, Brenda: The Spring

Garden Fair held at Pioneer Nursery (owned by members

Robert and Tracy Moss) from 11 -13 August was a huge

success. The nursery looked amazingly colourful after all their

hard work. Once again the ELBS were invited to participate.

Our display stand was setup on the Thursday afternoon and

after much manoeuvering and repositioning of plants the

stand looked fabulous by the end of the afternoon. A very

big thank you must go to Dudley Reynolds, Dr Pete Pfister, Lyn Odendaal,

Betty Heunis and Barbs and Eddie Black for assisting with the stand setup

and for bringing some of their beautiful bromeliads to be displayed. A big

thanks to Malcolm Stoltz for providing the planks used to tier our stand.

They were cut to size and even

delivered to the nursery!

A huge thank you to Lyn O. and

Betty for doing such a great job

of selling raffle tickets on Friday

and Saturday and Eddie for

getting involved on Sunday. We

managed to raise R1000.00 for

the society! Thanks to those who

donated bromel iads and

booklets for the raffles and

giveaways at the talk, Larraine

for photocoping and last but not

least, to the few other members who gave up their

time to come and sell raffle tickets, hand out

information pamphlets and chat to the public.

Dudley and Pete did a talk on Saturday at 10:00am

covering a general overview of bromeliads, the

different varieties, their growing conditions and

colouration and form.

The society gained one new member, Kevin Durrheim

from Berlin, who happened to have his own stand right

opposite ours full of his wooden creations from

benches, tables to hanging, slatted wooden ‘baskets’

perfect for bromeliads and orchids! Welcome to the

society Kevin.

The raffle was won by our very own society member Pam Stoltz. Happy bromming

Pam!

The three days seemed to fly by and it was wonderful to hear all the comments and

compliments from the public. It was a great platform to show off these amazing

and diverse plants and hopefully whet some appetites and encourage more

interest in growing bromeliads in East London. Lyn O and Betty said they so enjoyed the 3 days they spent at

our stand and felt sad when the fair had to come to an end.

The bromeliad that drew the most attention and questions was Barb’s Hohenbergia correia-araujoi. Overall, it

was a huge success and a great way to promote and encourage awareness and interest in Bromeliads in our

community. Thanks once again to all involved.

From the Committee • We are experiencing problems with our sound system used at the meetings. Is there anyone in the society

who could assist us with sorting it out and maybe identify the problem or if we are possibly dong something

incorrectly?

Brenda’s willing team of workers after setting up the display: Pete, Betty,

Brenda, Dudley, Lyn O and Barbs.

Pack up time with the guys! Eddie, Dudley, Pete and Glen.

Eddie and Barbara Black’s s tunning Hohenbe rg ia

correia-araujoi with its large

pup, back home in the garden

with its mate.

Parts of the fabulous display and some of the members who did a sterling job talking to the public who showed interest, sold lots of raffle tickets and assisted with the tough job of dismantling and packing up.


• If any members have bromeliads to spare, or don’t want anymore, before you give them away please

consider bringing them to a meeting, they will be very gladly received by someone at the meetings when

used for lucky draws or give-aways.

• We are still appealing to all our members to submit good quality photos of special bromeliads in your

collection/gardens which must be correctly named please. Also photos of your bromeliad gardens. They

will appear on our soon to be launched web page. Please send them to Barbs or Lyn.

BSI Matters - Lyn Wegner Are you a BSI member?

We currently have 135 members in our society, 60 local, 72 country and 3 international (Kenya, Africa

and Colorado and Houston USA. Of our 135 ELBS members only 11 belong to the BSI (Bromeliad

Society International), 1 local, 7 country and 3 international. The cost to join is $50, the rate of

exchange is just under 13! So, how about it? Why not join BSI today!

Go into bsi.org to join. If you have any problems registering on line I will sort them out for you! You will become

part of the bromeliad family around the world!

Upcoming Society Events 24th September: To be hosted by Dr Boots and Alison Horsfall at 22 Vincent Gardens Road, Vincent.

Topic: Hybridising, Culling and Registering Bromeliads, presented by Christo van Wijk from Pretoria.

Please remember to bring your chair if you want a seat and any bromeliad you would like to show or discuss

at the meeting.

29th October: Val Nel and Caryn Dunlop in Vincent Heights. Topic Blooming Broms!

26th November: Brenda and Bryan Wegner in Nahoon Valley. End of year Christmas Auction, BBB Surprise and

Bring and Braai Function.

January 2018: Elna Smit in Gonubie

February: Esther Botha, Elna’s twin sister who lives on a farm, Adelsicht Farm 1337 Schafli road Chintsa.

March: Elna Smit’s farm garden, Kransig Farm Upper Kwelega.

Upcoming International Conferences 2018: World Bromeliad Conference to be held in San Diego, California from 29 May to 3 June 2018. Check out

the Conference Corner at bsi.org for more information. This will be the third WBC that will be held in San

Diego, California. Registration for the 2018 conference has already begun. If you are interested in going,

contact Lyn Wegner for more information.

2019: ‘Golden Broms’ 17-20 October 2019 Hosted by the Gold Coast Succulent and Bromeliad Society Inc.

at the Sea World Resort on the Gold Coast. This will be the 20th Australasian Bromeliad Conference. For

contact information go to the conference website at www.goldenbroms.com

2021: The New Zealand Bromeliad Society has recently confirmed that they will be hosting the bi-annual

Australasian Bromeliad Conference again in 2021.

From our Members

Some lovely photos from local member

Anne Holder’s garden. ‘I fell in love with

bromeliads when I went to Lyn's garden

about five years ago, then I was hooked!

Miriam Kennard has helped me so much

too, over the years I've bought them from

nurseries and swopped with friends and

given duplicates to friends! I find them so

rewarding and each one has its own

personality. I enjoy having them in my

garden more for my enjoyment. But my

garden is nowhere near the other gardens

that I've seen. When I was in New Zealand

last year, I went to nurseries and they had

beautiful ones there but unfortunately I

couldn't bring any home.’


Left, local member Bev McGregor selling bunnies and other items that

she makes at the Pioneer Spring Fair. Bev sells them at the meetings

too.

Members are welcome to sell bromeliads, plants and garden related

items or homemade goods at the end of the monthly meetings.

Please ensure that your name is clearly visible on your crate or display,

so that members know who to pay for items chosen, as it is your own

responsibility.

From the Editor ‘Spring has sprung, the grass is riz…..’ and no one can be happier than me! The day of our last

meeting, the air just seemed different, it is a ‘feeling’ and after some furiously cold weather and

snow on the mountains and a horrible winter here in East London, Spring

has definitely arrived. There are buds waiting to burst open on our trees.

I fear that without back up rain it is all going to fall flat with poor growth.

The drought continues, we must try to conserve water where we can

and live in hope that good rains will come very soon, not just here in the Eastern

Cape but country wide.

I have not had much time to spend in the garden this winter, what with the house

being painted etc… and now that it has warmed up considerably it is great to get

stuck in and time is being spent tidying up, getting rid of dead leaves, splitting and

repotting every day. Now is the best time to split your plants, provided the pup is

two thirds the size of the mother plant. It is guaranteed to get a good start in Spring.

Plus your mother will possibly send out another pup or two. Some are more prolific

than others.

It is always a privilege to visit another passionate gardener’s special place and

Tamara's garden was no exception. It is always so inspiring to get ideas and see how

creative gardeners are, especially with their bromeliads. The colours and forms of all the bromeliad varieties

lend themselves so well to landscaping in sun, semi shade and shade. Just remember that light is crucial to

your bromeliads and how you want them to grow to their best potential. If you are not sure where to place

your plants, ask an experienced grower in the society. Your plant will also show you when it is not happy. If

the colours or patterns get bleached out, it is getting too much direct sun or too much light. The spikier and

thicker the leaves, the more sun your brom can take. Nidularium like a shady spot as do most Guzmania. Too

much shade for eg. a tough Aechmea, will make it grow lanky, lose its shape and colour. Neoregelia are the

same, but I find dappled light is best or they lose their beautiful colours and patterns. Some can take the sun

but be careful, they need to acclimatise to the sun, so should already be in the sun if they are to grow used to

the full blast of our summer sun. You don’t want your plants to get unsightly burn marks. That is the nice thing

about keeping them in pots, you can move them around now that the sun has moved and shade is falling in

different places in your garden. Our bromeliads are mostly grown out in the garden, just a few of the soft

leaved Vriesea and Guzmania are kept in the potting shed under shade cloth. The summer sun is vicious, so

do bear that in mind when placing your bromeliads. Your plants will reward you with good growth and form

and show off the colours to their full potential if the light conditions are right for the plant. Light is so important

to growing fabulous bromeliads. Time to get stuck in now, but most of all enjoy your plants and your gardens and NEVER compare your garden

to anyone else’s! We are all uniquely individual as are our growing environments and some of us only like

certain species of bromeliads, some love many!!! we all just happen to be obsessed with collecting these

wonderful, often spiky (to the point of drawing blood!!!) plants.

So in the meantime, happy bromming till we meet again at Dr Boots and Alison Horsfall’s garden in Vincent for

the next meeting at the end of September which will be super interesting as Christo van Wijk will be there, all

the way from Pretoria, to tell us all sorts of interesting stuff about growing, hybridising, culling and registering

bromeliads! You will recall his many articles that have appeared in this newsletter. See you there!!!

[email protected] 072 1787 421

A happy ‘sign’ at the Pioneer Spring Garden Fair!


This is a publication for the East London Bromeliad Society, South Africa for the interest of its members. Articles

may be used by non profit societies with acknowledgement to: East London Bromeliad Society South Africa.

Any opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the Society.

When submitting items for inclusion in this newsletter, please ensure that all information is checked and accurate.

ELBS is an affiliate of the Bromeliad Society International.

ELBS Address: c/o 18 Wentworth Road, Sunnyridge, East London 5201 South Africa, [email protected]

We meet on the last Sunday of every month, January to November, at various venues around East London. We have a

topic for each meeting and Show and Tell where members are encouraged to bring along their brag or problem plants.

There are member raffles, lucky draws for those present, tea time, library and member plant sales, plus a monthly

newsletter sent out via e-mail only. Visitors are always welcome and can attend three meetings before they will need to

join the society in order to continue attending. Annual subs are R120.00 for individuals/families and R60 for students.

Peter Cook from Sunnybroms (Australia) has very kindly created a link to ELBS newsletters on their web page.

https://bromeliadnewsletters.wordpress.com/east-london-south-africa/

You can access:

• All the back copies of the 2016 and 2017 ELBS Newsletters

• The first of the BSI BCR genus changes and cultivar changes generated via DNA studies complied by Derek Butcher the

BSI Cultivar Registrar.

You will find ELBS on Facebook: [email protected] or type ‘East London Bromeliad Society’ into the

fb search bar. You can request to join the group and will then be able to upload your photos and comments on the wall.

The ELBS SA page and other bromeliad related sites are becoming a useful and informative forum to share and ‘meet up’

with other like-minded bromeliad folks. There are also many other bromeliad related sites that you can join and become

part of a world wide online sharing environment.

You can view most of all the bromeliads mentioned in meetings or in the newsletter at the following websites:

The BSI’s official Bromeliad Cultivar Registry www.registry.bsi.org which is maintained by Geoff Lawn, the BSI Cultivar

Registrar. Plus other information regarding the Bromeliad Society International is found at bsi.org

Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies: fcbs.org This is a very useful site to reference many bromeliads where you can

clarify identification or just trawl through the site and add to your wish list!

Encyclopedia of Bromeliads - http://bromelia.club (Bromeliad Taxonomists and Growers Society) has photographs. It also

now has keys for the genera and sub-genera. If you like to be informed what is happening, just follow on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/bromeliadsencyclopedia Just type in ‘Encyclopeadia of Bromeliads’ into the Facebook

search bar.

For internet resources you can also go to TAXON (The New Bromeliad List) for the most authoritative and right

up to date list of genera and species, accepted and new names and taxonomic keys - http://

botu07.bio.uu.nl/bcg/taxonList.php or just type in ‘New Bromeliad Taxon List’, it's much easier!

Committee Members

Chairman: Dudley Reynolds 079 488 2360 [email protected]

Vice- Chairman: Dr Peter Pfister 082 625 5533 [email protected]

PRO & Secretary: Lyn Wegner 043 736 1737 082 970 2293 [email protected]

Treasurer: Lynn Friend 043 748 2271 083 318 1179 [email protected]

Editor & Publisher: Barbara Black 043 7212775 O72 1787 421 [email protected]

Proof Reader: Lyn Wegner 043 736 1737 082 970 2293 [email protected]

Raffles: Lyn Odendaal 043 726 1075 083 441 6813 [email protected]

Librarian: Brenda Wegner 082 743 2141 [email protected]

Catering Co-ordinators: Eddie Black and

Larraine Parathyras

043 7212775

043 726 3167

082 5505 347

082 594 4559

[email protected]

[email protected]

Events Co-ordinator: Brenda Wegner 082 743 2141 [email protected]

Additional member: Betty Heunis 073 226 1610 [email protected]

Photo Credits: Barbara Black, SANBI, Lyn Wegner, Derek Butcher-fcbs.org and Anne Holder

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