Announcements:
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.
Minutes of Fantasy Violeteers General Meeting On October 10, 2001 The meeting was called to order at 4:20 P.M. at the home of Marie Rilea in Chico, California.
Members attending were Briony Gniechwitz, Marie Rilea, Jan Bernhard, Marilyn Larrance and Betty Garcia.
The minutes of the September 11, 2001, meeting were corrected as follows:
The treasurer's report was corrected to read $62.50 instead of $66.50.
After the correction the Minutes were approved as published.
CORRESPONDENCE
No correspondence
TREASURER'S REPORT
Previous Balance ------------------------- $62.50
Proceeds from Raffle ---------------------- 1.25
Dues to AVS -----------------------------( 8.00)
Balance ------------------------------------- $55.75
OLD BUSINESS
The proposed amendment to the By-laws - Article 4, Section 4 - pertaining to terms of office was voted on and passed by the membership present. This amendment will become effective with the close of the meeting.
Marie reported that her church could only be used for meetings occasionally due to insurance restrictions. A discussion followed and it was decided to try to book the Library on possibly a different day.
NEW BUSINESS
Marie Rilea was elected Treasurer since Marlys can't continue in the office.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
There will be a meeting of the Northern California Council on October 13, 2001.
Briony would like everyone to make a list of the plants they have and give the lists to her to make available to other members.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:45 P.M.
Respectfully submitted by Betty L. Garcia, Secretary
Members: Recipes/ Hints How I started Growing African Violets by Briony Gniechwitz
I first remember growing an African Violet when I was about five years old. They were in the same plastic pots that they were in whenever they had been purchased, and in the same medium. I didn't know about leaching or repotting. When I remembered, I gave them water. I didn't know about fertilizer. I lived near the ocean then, and the humidity in the air must have kept the plants from totally drying out too much between my infrequent watering. I don't even remember what color the blooms were - or if they ever bloomed. My mother told me that if I ever got the leaves wet it would be very bad for the plant so I worked at never touching the leaves beyond the occasional stroke with a finger. I loved how soft they felt. I don't know what happened to those plants. They probably got thrown away in one of my mother's rare cleaning fits. I liked those plants because they never died on me. I couldn't seem to kill them.
The next time I had an African Violet was when I was 13. They were being thrown away at a nursery so I got them. I brought them home. I still didn't know about fertilizing or leaching or repotting. But I watered them more often and the occasional plant gave me a bloom. These were all grown on a window ledge. I had heard you could grow them from a leaf, but when I stuck a leaf in a pot of dirt from the outside, they always died. Soon I had so many no names (more rescuees from various nurseries) that my father bought me glass shelves and hung them on the window in my room. Then we had to move, and the plants couldn't go with me. I gave them all to a neighbor and I don't think they survived. Again, I remember loving those plants because they never died on me.
I got another African Violet somewhere when I was a Freshman in college. I still didn't know about repotting or leaching, but I had heard of fertilizing by then. When I found out houseplants should be repotted at least yearly, I took my little no name and sunk it in a 5-inch terra cotta pot full of potting soil. It began to shrink. I complained of my difficulties of rooting African violet leaves to a fellow student and was told to use African Violet Soil. So I got a small bag at Raley's and filled a 4-inch pot with that soil and stuck a leaf in. I watered it when I remembered. The mother plant continued to die. The leaf gave me three babies, which I put in 4-inch pots with the African Violet Soil. They bloomed for me. I began to feel that excitement flow over me. They became cherished beauties.
After a particularly grueling final, my SO bought me an African Violet at Raley's. It had a name - Storytella Tin soldier. And on the back of the name tag some information was listed, including a website: www.avsa.org.
Aha! I decided to check it out and was overwhelmed by all the information and beauty there. I joined the AVSA. I joined 4 email lists about African Violets and a forum. On one list a grower sent me many, many leaves - all with names-just to be kind and help me grow AVs! This was April 2000. I printed out reams of how to care for the plants, bought vermiculite, perlite and peat. I cooked the peat to pasteurize it and had to calm my mother who was convinced the cooking peat was really a bad fire in the house.
One day my mother called my attention to an ad in the Sacramento Bee. An African Violet club in Sacramento was having a show and sale. I wasn't sure what all that meant, but wanted to see what it was about. I expected plants to be less expensive than at Raley's and was disappointed in the prices, but thrilled with all the beauty before me. I had heard of all the beauty and the variety online, but to see it all was amazing. My mother went wild over the names and grabbed many for that reason alone. I tried to find interesting looking ones and ones that I liked the name of. I was still learning and didn't know what names to look for or what I wanted. At this point I had no names, Tin Soldier and the dozen or so from the one show. I threw myself deeper into learning. By the time summer came along I could answer other newbie's questions. I had bought solo cups and ordered supplies from vendors. I realized that I would need to learn some limits - this hobby was already getting pricey for me!
By April 2001, a scant year since really learning about African Violets, I had many many more plants, three light stands, and stacks of catalogs from vendors. I had begun to start our local club. Plants still don't all fit on the stands, and the Isolation room has been moved twice - now it is in the room where my computer is. The hope is that this room won't get too hot or too cold for those in isolation.
Now, in October 2001, I have over 100 cultivars and probably about 150-175 plants. Most of them are wicked - my infrequent watering habits apparently are still with me a bit, and wicking helps during any absences from the plants. I love them all, and while I can no longer keep up with the four email lists, I stay on the Forum because so many of those people have become cyber friends. I have now lost a few African Violets due to heat or other problems, but the vast majority survives. And now, they bloom for me.
In next month's Newsletter, The Beginnings of the African Violet.
Visitors since October, 28 2001
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