October Meeting

Post date: Oct 17, 2013 9:41:23 AM

15th October 2013

Topic - Bromeliads

Presenter - Bryan Paten

A plant family Bromeliaceae with 2000 species and thousands of hybrids make Bromeliads a very interesting plant with a large variety of types, shapes, colours and growing habits. In nature many Bromeliads grow on trees as epiphytes. Their roots are used mainly for support, but they are not parasites. They are remarkably versatile, very adaptable and have a tremendous will to survive. Don't plant Bromeliads too deep and ensure the soil or potting mix provides good drainage. The plant must be firmly located, don't allow the plant to rock back and forth.

Bryan demonstrated excellent skills in mounting Bromeliads and all the members had a greater appreciation of how this plant could be used to compliment their garden or outside living space. Thanks Bryan, we enjoyed your talk very much.

The Betty Knox Award (Best Exhibit)

Many of the exhibits showed this month were of a very high standard and all the members must be congratulated on the excellent standard and wide variety of exhibits.

An outstanding exhibit of Pink Tea Tree stems pleased the judge and was awarded the best exhibit on the show bench. Alison Ware was very excited and so she should be. Well done Alison!

Popular Vote Award

Members found it difficult to find their favourite due to the wide variety and high standard of all the exhibits. The count revealed it was the spikes of cymbidium orchid staged by Meng Yeap that won on the day. It is a great year for orchids and many shows are being held this month. Meng's orchid spikes were faultless and were a sample of what can be seen at the shows being conducted in local suburbs.