February Meeting Minutes

Minutes from the FEBRUARY 23, 2010 MEETING of the Gesneriad Society.

What a fun meeting. We had a nice full house with 13 members attending! Stephanie brought a wonderful Codonanthe gracilis that was blooming all over the place. It was interesting because the flowers were especially large and good looking. As it happened, Charles brought the "parent" Codonanthe that Stephanie's plant was a cutting from and the flowers on the parent, although lovely, were not as large and numerous. Later in the meeting cuttings were taken from Charles's parent plant because everyone wanted to try out this Codonante for themselves.

The official meeting was started at 6:55 p.m. There was little old business. A check for the AVSM awards wasn't yet sent and it was discussed as to how to best get it delivered now. Jude might have taken it with her following the meeting so it wouldn't have to wait to be mailed. More dues were collected. Most everyone is paid up till next year now. If there are questions about whether you have paid, ask Bob.

The spring show with the AVSM was discussed. The show is in MARCH. Thurs. Mar. 18th, is set up and judging. Friday and Saturday the 19-20th, 2010 is the official show that is open to the public for standard mall hours at Har Mar Mall in Roseville. The members of the Gesneriad Society are eligible to show at the AVSM show. We are also allowed to sell either as individuals (talk to the AVSM about getting a seller's number if this is of interest to you) or we can sell using the club's number which is #40. The proceeds of club sales will be 15% to the AVSM and 85% to the Gesneriad club's treasury. It's a nice way to increase our treasury since we have no independent shows of our own. BE SURE TO HIT THE "READ MORE" BUTTON FOR THE WHOLE ARTICLE.


I, Jinean, asked about whether our club has enough and current materials to hand out to the public at various events to promote our Gesneriad Society. I also asked about whether we need more of an internet presence and perhaps a web page/blog of our own. It seems that the yellow brochures we have are still abundant and handed out at various events. We were done with the official meeting at 7:12 p.m.

More discussion was held about a "field trip" made by a couple of the club members including Charles to a greenhouse in Forest Lake. Dennis H. grows mostly cactus and succulents but had also a selection of nice size gesneriad tubers. Some of these were Sinningia leucotricha and S. cardinalis. Charles bought some of these to resell to  members and the public. Some tubers were reserved to go to the AVSM show so that more members of the public could purchase and get familiar with the cool plants that are Sinningia.

Thank you!!!!!!!! to Esther for bringing treats to the meeting. The apple cake was really fabulous. Next meeting treats will be brought by Stephanie!

We had a slide show of the 2009 National Gesneriad Convention winners. There were some very remarkable plants shown. Some of the highlights were S. species "Florianopolis" which has very, very fuzzy white "hair" on it's stems making it look like it has cotton all over it. Another Sinningia was S. 'Ozark Red Lightening'. A nice bright bloomer from David Harris. Kohleria 'Peridots Mango Martini' was good looking and a very bushy example of what most of our Kohleria do NOT look like. Amalophyllon clarkii is a neat looking "unusual" gesneriad that would be interesting to get seed for for our club. A huge, long Alsobia 'Cygnet' was shown that would make anyone proud to own it. A Chirita dielsii was the very stunning flower that was somewhat Streptocarpus like in that of it's five petals the bottom three were stunning lavender/blue and the top two petals were bright white. Apparently that plant is not available for sale. There were photos of some cool Petrocosmea begoniifolia and various Chiritas. Strep. 'Dale's Scarlet Macaw' shows a bright red flower that gets its color from the parentage of  S. dunnii. Some of the Chiritas were nicely variegated like C. 'Cynthia'. A rather unusual gesneriad shown was Conandron ramondioides. Later in the slide show were examples of design featuring gesneriads and some photography. It was a great show.

Next meeting is March 23, 2010. Tuesday evening at St. Christopher like usual.
Notes by JS.