Share the Joy

Its that time of year again when we soon will be able to ship plants and leaves to one another. Soon the snow will melt and the flowers will be poking through the grown. What a wonderful time of year it is. Its also time to think about our Share the Joy program. My name is Millie Reavis, I will be running the Share the Joy program this year. Thanks to Kay sending me all the information on the ins and out of this program I hope to do a good job. Kay has done this in the past and was wonderful at it I hope to be as good. Thanks Kay for all your help. Now down to the basics of how this all works: The program is designed to share the joy of growing our wonderful violet with beginning growers. A beginning grower is a person defined as having less then 15 or less named African Violets in there Collection The beginner who chooses to sign up for this program will be ADOPTED by a member who will send the beginner: Leaves, suckers or baby plants that the member can comfortably spare. Remember this is a volunteer run program and the donor of the plants has the choice of what you as the beginner receives. Most of our donor's have been a beginner in the past and wants to give back and share what they have learned from there donor. There also is no guarantee that the plants will survive. The donors do there best to send live healthy plants or leaves. The beginner should be a member of Rachel's Violet Reflections for 2 months and be active in participating. Then they are eligible to join the Share The Joy program. Being in the group for 2 months gives the beginner a chance to learn about violets and helps them get a head start on being able to grow them. The beginner is expected to mail postage prior to shipment of there share the joy package. Sorry, but we have had a few problems in this area as some folks have expected to get postage for free. There has and may be a postage increase in the near future. If so the amount of postage will increase . The postage will be $8.00 if the donor and the receiver are in the United States. If the donor or the receiver are in another country It is up to the donor as what amount will be charged for postage. I have mailed and received plants from Japan and the ran around $20.00. There is no priory mail out of the USA. To guarantee shipment in 4 days to another country is a lot higher then in the USA. As of the writing of this column for the newsletter I have 3 donors and 3 beginners. If you are interested in the program please send your name and address to me at MReavis398@aol.com.. After you receive word who your donor or receiver is send them an e-mail to set up a good shipping time that will work for both of you. Happy Growing Millie/Ca VR Assistant Manager STJ co-ordinator