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East London Bromeliad Society South Africa September 2017 Page 1
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.
East London Bromeliad Society South Africa September 2017 Page 2
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’
East London Bromeliad Society South Africa September 2017 Page 3
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! .
East London Bromeliad Society South Africa September 2017 Page 4
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.
East London Bromeliad Society South Africa September 2017 Page 5
• 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.’
East London Bromeliad Society South Africa September 2017 Page 6
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!
East London Bromeliad Society South Africa September 2017 Page 7
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
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