. . . to Fantasy Violeteers' Newsletter

August 2001

Number 3

Announcements:

• Let us all welcome our newest member, Jan Bernard, to our club -- Welcome Jan!
• Remember -- our website can be found at: http://www.oocities.org/fantasyvioleteers. It contains newsletters, links and more information. You can see what has been added by looked at the Latest Updates section on the homepage.
• You can email all the members who have joined the our Yahoo!Group fantasyvioleteers by using the address: fantasyvioleteers@yahoogroups.com
• Raffle! Try to bring some thing African Violet related to the next meeting! Bring $0.25 and buy a raffle ticket and a choice of the Raffle items donated by our members!
• Do you have an idea for an article? Would you share how you got interested in African Violets? If so, please email an article (it needn't be very long) to fantasyvioleteers@yahoo.com , or give it to the Communications Committee. Remember - it's your Newsletter!
• In September the Delta Gesneriad and African Violet Society is having a Dual Judged Gesneriad and African Violet Show and Sale at the Sacramento Garden & Arts Center, located at 3300 McKinley Boulevard, Sacramento, 9/15/01, Time: Saturday, 2-5; Sunday 10-4.
This is listed under Upcoming Events on our website.
• Our AVSA Representative, Tina Sorenson, has contacted the grower for this afore mentioned show, and she will make the list of plants being sold available to our club at our September meeting. Don't miss it! Note: We may have a volunteer to run and get copies of this list for those wish to obtain them - please bring some funds for this.

Upcoming Meetings:

Mark your calendars! Reminders of these meetings will be sent out via fantasyvioleteers list groups 1 week and 2 days before the meeting date. These dates will also be listed on the Fantasy Violeteers website under Meetings.

• September 11th, Tuesday, 4-6 pm
• October 25th, Thursday, 4-6 pm
• November 5th, Monday, 4-6 pm

Minutes of Fantasy Violeteers General Meeting on August 16, 2001:

The meeting was called to order at 4:15 P.M. at the Butte County Library.

Members attending were Briony Gniechwitz, Marie Rilea, Betty Garcia, Marlys Moak, Marilyn Lorrance and Tina Sorenson. A guest present was Jan Bernard.

The Minutes of the July 11, 2001 meeting were approved as read.

TREASURER'S REPORT

As of the August 16th meeting, the assets of the Club were $50.75 in cash.

NEW BUSINESS

No new business

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

A motion was made to submit an application for membership to the Northern California Council of the African Violet Societies. Marilyn seconded the motion and the members approved it.

The proposed draft of the By Laws has been completed.

The draft of the By Laws was then read by President Briony and opened to amendment. There were no amendments and the By Laws were adopted.

CORRESPONDENCE

A letter was read from the President of the Northern California Council of African Violet Societies (NCC AVS) pertaining to information about membership to the NCC AVS.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Sacramento African Violet Club sent a flyer regarding their show on September 15 and 16 at the Sacramento Garden and Arts Center in Sacramento.

Jan Bernard applied for membership and was accepted.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 P.M.

Respectfully submitted by Betty L. Garcia, Secretary

Members:

• Jan Bernard
• Betty Garcia, Secretary
• Briony Gniechwitz, President
• Marilyn Greer
• Marilyn Larrance, Vice-President
• Marlys Moak, Treasurer
• Marie Rilea
• Tina Sorenson, AVSA Representative

Recipes/ Hints

• Do you use SUPERthrive ™? It's a vitamin-hormone supplement to be added to your normal fertilizing routine. Don't ask me what's in it - the bottle doesn't say. Add 1 drop (0.06 ml) per gallon (3.8 liter) - no more. Some people love it and others don't - like most variations in African Violet growing.
• A word of caution - you may need to leach more often when using this product. If you use too much you may notice a orange line of fertilizer salts building up around the pots and, sometimes, ugh, around the leaves themselves! Solution: Leach! Then back off on the fertilizer.
• Leaching is a term that means to let lukewarm water run into the pot of the plant until water drains out of the bottom. Continue letting water flow through the pot and the medium until the water leaving the pot is clear. Do not replace plants onto reservoirs for a day or so. Basically, let the plant's medium dry a bit before watering again, or the roots may get to water logged and rot.
• Ok, now that I have written that one drop of SUPERthrive ™ per gallon, I have an exception. Some like to use 7-10 drops per gallon when watering babies or rooted leaves or plants that have been recently repotted, or for plants in shock. Please do this with caution, and with all new ideas, please implement on only a few plants - never on your whole collection at once. This way, if the new method does not work for you, all is not lost.
• A hint - having trouble getting that infuriating cap off because of the fertilizer salts having become like encrusted cement? Once you finally do open that bottle, clean off the cap and bottle threads as best as you can (I needed hot water, a scrubbing pad, and plenty of paper towels to wipe off the bottle threads) and apply a thin coating of petroleum jelly on the cap. I applied it to both the cap and bottle. Voilá. I can now open the bottle. Warning - cap will remove very easily!

How I got into growing Violets

by Marilyn Larrance, edited by Briony Gniechwitz

I guess it started many years ago when my dear Mother tried so hard to grow them and didn't have any luck with them. She truly loved the plant but evidently they didn't love her.

Well in early 2000 I met a lady through my business that is truly an Orchid lover. She wanted to get me to grow orchids with her. Well I went to an orchid nursery with her and bought some. However I could never quite get enthused about them. She came in one day and told me she could get me a light stand for 25% off and was I interested? Of course she still was hoping I would grow orchids. I told her to go ahead and order the stand for me and when I got it, I decided I wanted to grow Africian Violets as my Mother had tried to. So in April of 2000, I set out to find Violets. That particular time I found very few but finally found enough to fill my light stand. I had such good beginner's luck that I eventually got another light stand and then another. I was so tickled that I could actually get them to bloom and thrive that I went a little crazy. I feel like I have a florist shop in my house. Many of the plants I have started from leaves and am real excited about the results. If any one saw how many plants I have they probably wouldn't believe the amount. I have all sizes from leaves to babies to big plants, and I love them all (600 to 700).

My Daughter once told me that I went overboard on anything or any hobby I decided to take up and I guess Violets are no exception.

So I guess that sums up my story. Lets hear from some of the rest of you.

In next month's Newsletter, Briony Gniechwitz will share some ideas of reusing containers for the African Violet Hobby.

Visitors since August, 29 2001

Home | Newsletters | African Violets Care | Members Pages | Meetings |African Violet Links | Software Updates | Upcoming Events | Back to the Top of Page