Annual Show and Plant Sale May 2, 2015

 

 

VAVGS' Annual Show and Plant Sale will be held in the Floral Hall of VanDusen Gardens, corner of 37th Ave and Oak Street in Vancouver on Sunday, May 2.   The event is open to the public from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and admission is free. Only once a year, at this Show, will you see and be able to purchase such an array of African Violets and other related gesneriads.   Drop in and see these beautiful and easy-to-grow houseplants displayed at their best on the show tables.  Young plants, leaves and cuttings will be available, all at unbelievably low prices.  Be sure to arrive early for the best selection from the sales tables.  

Another Excellent SKYPE'd Presentation

Mel Grice (on-screen) and some of the audience

At our last meeting, members enjoyed another interesting and informative presentation via SKYPE.  Mel Grice, a Director of The Gesneriad Society and the African Violet Society of America and winner of countless blue ribbons and Best in Show awards with his artistic designs, presented a talk entitled "The Elements of Design Demystified".  His expert advice and beautiful photographs provided the audience with a great deal of inspiration.  Thanks to Mel, we expect to see many entries in the Artistic Design classes in our upcoming show on May 2.

Dale Martens' Presentation via SKYPE

It was a great honour and pleasure to have Dale Martens, an expert gesneriad grower and hybridizer, present via Skype to VAVGS on January 18, from her home in Illinois.  Most VAVGS members have at least one of Dale's hybridized plant beauties in their collection so are familiar with her creations.  Dale won Best in Show at the 2014 Gesneriad Society Convention with one of her own hybrid streptocarpus,  'Dale's Polar Canary'.  In her presentation, Dale showed members how to grow streptocarpus, sinningias and espicias for exhibition, with plenty of useful growing and propagation tips based on her own extensive experience.    After this successful Skype presentation, a first for VAVGS, we hope to have more experts from around the world present to us using this technology.


VAVGS Members and Dale Martens (on-screen)

Change of November, 2014 Meeting Date

Due to continued construction in the Administration Building at VanDusen Botanical Garden, the date of the November meeting of the Vancouver African Violet & Gesneriad Society has been changed from Sunday, November 16 to Sunday, November 23. 

A new year begins at VAVGS!

Welcome to the 2014-15 year at VAVGS!  Our first General Meeting of the year will be held on Sunday, September 21 at 2:00 in the usual location - the Cedar Room at VanDusen.  The educational topic will be "Show and Tell - Growing Good Gesneriads", an introduction to the enormous variety of gesneriads that can be grown and enjoyed.  So much more than just African violets! 

As usual, members of VAVGS did well at the Annual Convention of The Gesneriad Society held in Nashville, Tennessee in July.  See the link at right to highlights from the Convention, including an interview with VAVGS member Arleen Dewell, who won first prize for the best Sinningia - S. speciosa 'Buzios'.

Have a good year!

2014 VAVGS Show Report

                 - by Iain James

The Vancouver African Violet & Gesneriad Society held its show and sale on Saturday, May 3 in the Floral Hall of VanDusen Botanical Garden.

The Show Table

Photos of more show plants will be available soon by a link from this blog.

The Society opened its first show to the public in 1960 and, excluding the 2010 Gesneriad Society Convention Show, this year's event marks our 53rd show and sale since than time.

The Show was comprised of 106 exhibits entered by 10 exhibitors.  Approximately one-third of Society members entered and staged exhibits for competition.  Entries and member participation in this year's Show reached a 10-year high.  Competition included the following entries: 96 horticultural exhibits, 1 artistic design, and 9 project plant entries. 

In addition to the Society's annual awards, 4 Pacific Northwest Judges Council (PNJC) Awards were won at this year's show.  In the horticultural divisions, Iain James won the coveted Award of Merit (Gold Rosette) for Horticultural and Botanical Excellence with Sinningia 'Peridots Harvest Glow'.



Sinningia 'Peridots Harvest Glow'

The horticultural divisions of the Show included 70 Old World gesneriad exhibits and 35 New World gesneriad exhibits. 

 

Entries for the PNJC collection rosettes included 2 entries for the Blue Rosette (One Genus), 2 entries for the Green Rosette (Three Genera), and 3 entries competing for the Pink Rosette (Saintpaulia).  Bill Price entered the winning collection of Saintpaulias for the Pink Rosette, while Arleen Dewell won the Green Rosette for a collection of a Sinningia, a Primulina and a Kohleria.  Ken Li was awarded the Blue Rosette for his Petrocosmea collection.

 

The artistic design divisions of the Show included 1 entry, an artistic planting by John Wrightson. 

 

There were 9 exhibits entered in the Project Plant Section of the Show.  Arleen Dewell won Best Project Plant in Show with Primulina 'Omen' while Lori Barrington won Second-best Project Plant in Show with Streptocarpus 'Bubblegum'.



Saintpaulia 'Mac's Northern Lights'

All exhibitors won blue ribbons for their exhibits.  These included Lori Barrington, Ken Li, John Wrightson, Joyce Carter, Richard May, Marianne Moore, Bill Price, Arleen Dewell, Iain James, and Jessica Lo. Congratulations to Marianne Moore and Arleen Dewell who led the group in blue ribbons: Each won a total of 14 blue ribbons for their efforts.

 

Early returns from the sale portion of our annual event indicate that not only was our show a great success but also our plant sale .... well done!

 

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO MADE THIS EVENT SUCH A SUCCESS!

AND THE WINNERS ARE .....

Iain James:
Award of Merit (PNJC Gold Rosette) for Sinningia 'Peridots Harvest Glow'
Second-best New World Gesneriad in Show - Sinningia 'Peridots Harvest Glow'

Bill Price:
Best Saintpaulia in Show - 'Mac's Northern Lights'
Second-best Saintpaulia in Show - S. diplotricha 'Parker'
Best Saintpaulia Collection in Show (PNJC Pink Rosette) - S. ionantha 'Mather Clone',
    S. diplotricha 'Parker', S. shumensis

Arleen Dewell:
Best Old World Gesneriad in Show - Primulina liboensis 'White Vein Leaf'
Best New World Gesneriad in Show - Sinningia cardinalis 'Innocent'
Best Gesneriad Collection in Show - Three Genera (PNJC Green Rosette) -
    Sinningia cardinalis 'Innocent', Primulina liboensis 'White Vein Leaf, Kohleria
    'Silver Feather'
Best Project Plant in Show - Primulina 'Omen'

Lori Barrington:
Second-best Old World Gesneriad in Show - Streptocarpus 'T.J.'
Second-best Project Plant in Show - Streptocarpus 'Bubblegum'

Ken Li:
Best Gesneriad Collection in Show - One Genus (PNJC Blue Rosette) - Petrocosmea
    kerrii, Petrocosmea sericea, Petrocosmea sp. #5

John Wrightson:
Best Artistic Design in Show - Artistic Planting 'Rhythm and Blooms'

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS!
 



 

Annual Show and Plant Sale

VAVGS' Annual Show and Plant Sale will be held Saturday, May 3, 2014 in the Floral Hall at VanDusen Botanical Garden, West 37th Ave & Oak Street, in Vancouver.  This event is open to the public from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. and admission is free. 

Visitors will see some beautiful and unusual gesneriads in the show, all of them grown by VAVGS members.  There will also be an opportunity to purchase plants from a large selection - come early for the best choices.  Plants like these aren't available in local retail outlets and would cost considerably more if ordered from growers on-line. 

You may well find starter plants of the prize-winners among the many plants on the sales tables, and you'll love the very reasonable prices.  Experts will be on hand to provide advice on how to get the most enjoyment from these easy-to-grow plants.