Volusia County Master Gardeners
Spring Sale – April 5th
President – Nina Leggett - 386/673-0550
Vice President – Joan Campbell – 672-7382
Secretary – Calandra Thurrott – 761-4804
Treasurer – Evelyn Santus – 615-1138
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The Master Gardeners Sale will be held at the Volusia County fairgrounds (the address is 3100 E. New York Ave., just off I-4) on Saturday, April 5th. This is a really nice event, an opportunity for you to "thin out the herd" and sell some of those ever-increasing offsets, and a chance to pick up even more plants from an extraordinary variety of horticulture. Everything from apples to zinnias can be found at this sale! Rules for the sale are the same as in past years – your plants should be clean, clearly labeled with a tag showing the plant’s name and there must be a second tag with the price that you wish the plant to be sold for. If you would like to participate in the 80/20% split of the sales price, put your name or initials on the price tag also. If you wish to donate the proceeds to the club, just leave your name off of the tag with the price on it. What could be easier?
By the way, the exit for the fairgrounds as you head west on I-4 is being worked on, so you may have to find an alternate route.
Everybody’s Flower Show –
…is now history and FECBS was a significant presence at the show. We had a great looking bunch of plants entered, lot’s of participation from our membership, and missed winning the award for most blue ribbon entries by one plant. The Garden Club of Halifax Country won this year, but we really gave them a run for their money – just wait until next year! Congratulations to everyone who entered and brought home ribbons from the show. Special congratulations to Calandra for the display that she put together – winning the club the award for best educational display! For those of you who didn’t see it, the display followed the show’s them of "Globe – Trotting" by identifying some of the bromeliad world pioneers and their countries of origin and showing on a map where they lived vs. where they explored in their travels. The huge Neoregelia johannis in front of the display with an explanation of derivation of the name on this plant drew quite a few interesting comments from the public. Overall, a very successful display – many thanks to Calandra for her work on this!
…and speaking of work, our club had volunteered to handle the deliver of properties to the Ocean Center on Tuesday and the take-down and return of them at the end of the show on Sunday. Everything went like clock-work, thanks in large part to the efforts of past–president Bradley Rauch who borrowed a flat bed truck that was large enough to take everything from the Garden Center in one load. Thanks also are due to Gerry O’keefe for for his untiring efforts throughout the 5 days of show. It seemed like he was always there, lending a hand wherever he could! Thank you everyone, for this truly was a group effort from those of you who helped out after our last meeting in moving properties from the attic to the workroom, to those who helped load and unload the truck, to those who helped with clerking and security, and finally, to everyone who entered plants in the show (and many of us entered in categories other than just bromeliads). Good job and I hope we can call on you again next year!
This Month’s meeting
The Halifax Council of GardenClubs has their annual luncheon coming up in May and has asked our club to provide the table decorations. They usually raffle off the decorations as a fund raiser at these events, so we thought it might be interesting as a community service project to devote this month’s meeting to a workshop on mounting bromeliads on driftwood. We’ll provide the materials and will make 10 table mounts using driftwood and Tillandsias. This should be fun and will give you an opportunity to try your hand at creating displays with bromeliads. Who knows? It may even inspire you to go home and make some more display pieces on your own – the possibilities are endless!
Upcoming Events
:April 5th
Volusia Master Gardener’s Spring Plant Sale, Volusia County Fair Grounds at 3100 E. New York Ave. in Deland. Morning only – this is a half day sale only. This will be the
5th consecutive year that we have participated in this event and it just keeps getting better!
April 6
Spring Fling at Sugar Mill Gardens in Port Orange 12-4. 950 Old Sugar Mill Rd.
April 19th and 20th, 2008
Two great shows and sales this weekend. Some day I’m going to try to catch both of them, but I’ll probably have to settle for either one or the other this year. If you are in the Miami area you won’t want to miss the annual Bromeliad Society of South Florida show and sale at Fairchild Tropical Gardens. Great show, great setting, great sale! If you are on the west coast of the state this same weekend, you must go to Selby Gardens for the Sarasota Society’s show and sale. Selby is the home of the Bromeliad Identification Center and the BSI world headquarters, so it’s no surprise that this is always one of the premier events in the bromeliad world. Which one should you pick? They’re both outstanding events – you decide.
April 19th and 20th
Did I say two shows and sales? Don’t forget the Seminole Bromeliad & Tropical Plant Society’s sale at the Garden Club of Sanford (Hwy17/92 & Fairmont Dr.) from 9-4
May 3rd and 4th
Brevard County Orchid Society’s 15th annual Spring Orchid Fair – Azan Shrine Center, 1591 W. Eau Gallie Pkwy., Melbourne ( 3.8 miles east of I-955 exit 183) $4 admission
June 24 - 29, 2008
18th World Bromeliad Conference
WBC 18 - "Bromeliads Down Under"
Cairns, Australia