Fantasy Violeteers African Violet Club's Newsletter

January 2002

Volume 1 Number 8

Happy Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday!

Announcements:

• Let us all welcome Sharon Walker, our newest member! Welcome to Fantasy Violeteers, Sharon!
• 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 $0.50 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!
• Trade lists are slowly coming in to the Communications Committee. As they are received, they will be added to the Club Library and added to the website. Please email/hand over your Trade Lists to the Communications Committee (Briony Gniechwitz)
• Capital City AVS is having a judged African violet Show and Plant Sale at the Sacramento Garden & Arts Center at 3300 McKinley Boulevard, Sacramento, on April 6th, 2002 Saturday 2-5 and April 7th, 2002 Sunday 10-4. This event will be listed on our Upcoming Events page -- http://www.oocities.org/fantasyvioleteers/events.html

Upcoming Meetings:

Mark your calendars! Meetings are usually the third Monday of the month, from 4-6 pm. 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.

• February 18th, Monday, 4-6 pm
  • February's Meeting will be held at the Chico Public Library's Conference Room.
• March 18th, Monday, 4-6 pm
  • March's Meeting will be held at the Redeemer Lutheran Church, which is located on Moss and Hawthorne Avenue in Chico.
• April 22nd, Monday, 4-6 pm
  • April's Meeting will be held at the Redeemer Lutheran Church, which is located on Moss and Hawthorne Avenue in Chico.

Minutes of Fantasy Violeteers General Meeting On January 21, 2002

The meeting was called to order at 4:05 P.M. at the Butte County Library.

A quorum was present. Attending the meeting were Marilyn Greer, Jan Bernhard, Briony Gniechwitz, Marilyn Larrance, Betty Garcia, Marie Rilea and Tina Sorenson. Sharon Walker attended as a guest.

The Minutes of the December meeting were approved as published.

CORRESPONDENCE

A letter was read from the African Society of America regarding their national convention in Washington D.C. This convention will be held on May 16-26, 2002. They are going to print a Souvenir Book which will be financed by Ads.

An E-mail was received Cindy Baker informing us of the 2004 AVSA National Convention in Tucson, Arizona. This convention will be held in April, the first week after Easter.

TREASURER'S REPORT

Balance in December ------------------------------$ 24.75

Insurance fee contributed by members --------------- 15.50

Raffle ------------------------------------------------- 2.00

New member dues ---------------------------------- 10.00

New Balance --------------------------------------- $52.25

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Our meeting place, starting with the March meeting, will be at the Redeemer Lutheran Church located at Hawthorne and Moss Streets in Chico, California.

It was suggested that everybody bring their seedlings to the February meeting so the members can see the results.

NEW BUSINESS

Referring to the letter read from the African Violet Society of America regarding an Ad in their Souvenir Book, Jan made a motion that we wait until next year to run an ad and it was seconded by Briony. The motion was passed.

Marilyn made a motion to raise the raffle donation to $.50 instead of the $.25 that was in effect. Jan seconded the motion and it passed.

It was suggested that we have a table at a show at the Chico Fairgrounds on March 16 and 17.

There was a discussion as to whether we should buy supplies in bulk and then resell them to members.

Briony Moved and Betty seconded that the meeting be adjourned. Motion passed and meeting was adjourned at 4:40 P.M.

Respectfully submitted by Betty L. Garcia, Secretary

Members:

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

Recipes/ Hints

• Do you have lots of notes on how to take care of your African violet? Can you actually find them? Try taking Marilyn Larrance's advice - keep a binder (or binders) especially for your African violet tips. I have a second binder with a page per cultivar I have - to take notes on when I repot or see problems.
• Trouble with mildew? It can happen when there are temperature fluctuations. Marilyn Larrance has given me a recipe for a spray - 1TB vegetable oil, 1 TB baking soda, and 1 TB ivory dishwashing soap mixed in one gallon of water. Spritz onto the mildew. Apparently a batch can be made up and stored for future use.
• You may also want to try increasing the air circulation in the room where the plants are.

How to tell if you are addicted to growing African violets

Just for fun I made up a short list. Then I posted the question on an African violet Forum I read sometimes. I got quite a response.

• Your fish aquariums have plants, not fish in them
• You save plastic containers such as margarine, sour cream and butter containers for reservoirs
• Loved ones you live with worry about losing their chairs and beds to make shift plant stands
• Most flat surfaces are covered with plants
• "Babies" refer to plantlets coming up from "Mother" leaves - and you are always very excited about them
• A watched leaf never gives babies. You know because you check your leaves three times a day
• You decide that plant stands with their lights are actually quite attractive in the living room
• Outside plants stay outside -- you wouldn't want a thrips to ride in on a rose bud!
• You have fifteen plants that are one color - but to you they are all very different
• There is always room to grow just one more plant
• You dream about your African violets, and know them by name
• The sink and or dishwasher is full of pots
• You ask loved ones to relocate their possessions - or themselves! - so your children have more room
• You plan all vacations around your list of out of state African Violet growers. - Jillene from AV Lovers
• The trunk of your car has cardboard boxes with circles cut out of the tops (for holding pots of AV's) - Jillene from AV Lovers
• When showing off your violets to your neighbors they think you speak another language when you use terms like, Geneva edge, girl leaves, semidouble stars, Chimera, Tommie Lou variegation, fantasy blooms, and they think you're color blind when you point out your "yellow" ones and "red" ones. - Jillene from AV Lovers
• When you get up in the morning and the first thing you do,is to water your Violets and remove spent blossoms. -- Inge from AV Lovers
• You gravitate to the plant section of Wal-mart, Home Depot, Lowe's etc - to see if they have any new arrivals of Avs in.
• When you save every box that could be used to mail trades. -- ryansjahpo from AV Lovers
• When you have no space for starting leaves you put them in baggies and tape them to the bathroom wall tiles and shelf edges. -- ryansjahpo from AV Lovers
• You go to a restaurant and ask for more cream in the little containers, even if you DON'T drink coffee!! -- violetmama from AV Lovers
• You buy coffee stirring straws in mass at Costco - and you don't drink coffee or run a coffee place

That's enough for now, but more symptoms will be listed over time! Got ideas for this? Email them to your Communications Committee Chair at fantasyvioleteers@yahoo.com or just hand them over at the next club meeting.

In next month's newsletter - How Marilyn Greer got into African Violets

Visitors since February 4, 2002

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