Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 10:27:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Chris Teichreb <cjteichr@sfu.ca> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2865$foo@default> Subject: PNWCPC 1999 meeting
Hi everyone,
Well, the Vancouver chapter of the Pacific Northwest Carnivorous
Plant Club just had our annual meeting yesterday (Sunday the 8th). As
usual, there was a lot learned by both members and by the public, and
plant sales were brisk given the high quality and reasonable prices. A
nice donation to the Richmond Nature Park for their gracious hosting was
also made. A few of our American members also made it up for the meeting,
which was great to see.
Members of our club brought numerous beautiful specimens. In my
personal opinion, one of the most spectacular was a beautiful deep red
Cephalotus with 2 inch pitchers planted in a round fish bowl. The nice
thing is that it was also in flower with a stalk over a foot long.
Several members brought prized Nepenthes specimens with the risk of many
little fingers poking into the pitchers :)! Overall, the kids were in awe
of the plants (as were the adults!) and showed respect. While we often
forget the simple plants, many new and future growers were impressed by
plants such as D.capensis and pygmy sundews.
I hauled along my tissue cultures of cp's as well and, without
sounding arrogant, they seemed to draw quite a few people's attention.
It's one of those things that still seems quite foreign to people, even
though it's quite common to obtain plants from tc nowadays.
Doug Fung graciously donated his time and expenses to make up a
simple guide to growing and cultivating the plants. The profits from it
going towards the Richmond Nature Park. With the number that were sold,
hopefully this means that not all the plants sold will head the way of our
first vft's!
One of the biggest rush on plants was when one member brought
along a couple of trays of P.moranensis. Hopefully, this means people
will start appreciating the more subtle carnivores such as pings and
utrics, as currently there doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in them
around here.
As usual, people were quite amazed at the fact that a large
proportion of the plants shown can be grown outdoors all year. One woman
refused to beleive that the Sarracenia she purchased _had_ to be left
outdoors to grow properly. I think we eventually convinced her though!
The local paper (Richmond Review) was present to take photos. So
if you're in the area, make sure to watch out for it.
The meeting went well. We're hoping to have two shows and sales
next year, one in May, one in October. The May one would allow people to
adapt the plants to their growing conditions as well as see a large
proportion of the N.American plants in bloom. The October will be aimed
towards informing people on how to maintain their plants through our
gloomy wet winters. We're still getting the club organized and back in
order. Due to greenhouse thefts (see David Wong's article in CPN or the
listserv archives), the club somewhat fell apart. So we're hoping with
careful organization and by not giving out members addresses and phone
numbers, we'll avoid this in the future.
To end on a happy note. It was a great meeting and everyone
seemed to have fun. I know I personally resisted the urge to get too many
new plants (only 3), however other members definitely didn't fair as well
;)!
Happy growing,
Chris
**********************************
Chris Teichreb
Department of Biological Sciences
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C.
cjteichr@sfu.ca
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