Vancouver Dahlia Society

Transcription

1 Vancouver Dahlia Society Promoting Dahlia Growing Since 1955 February 2014 Bulletin No. 1 President s Message D Peter Krueger Next Meetings: February 19 The VDS meets on the 3rd Wednesday of every month, except November, December and January in the Floral Hall at VanDusen Botanical Gardens at 7:30 pm. 1

2 CALENDAR OF EVENTS March 15 Federation Spring Workshop Mt. Vernon, WA March 22 BC Council of Garden Clubs General Meeting April 12 & 13th Vancouver Dahlia Society Tuber Sale April 19th Fraser Valley Dahlia Society Tuber Sale July 19 Federation Summer Workshop Seattle, WA July 26 Judges Training Mt. Vernon Washington August 23 & 24th Vancouver Dahlia Society Annual Dahlia Show August 30th ADS National Show Tacoma, WA September 20 & 21 Fraser Valley Dahlia Society Annual Show DOOR PRIZES FOR 2014 Everyone looks forward to the door prizes that we award each month at the end of the general meeting. Door prizes do not have to be new, they can be just about anything - cuttings from your garden, extra produce, a re-gift or homemade treasures. Each month names are randomly picked from those who have signed in at the beginning of the meeting, and each person chooses their door prize in order of winning. Everyone appreciates contributions to the door prizes. Please bring in anything that you would like to share with the club. OLYMPIC CHEERS Richard and Jennifer Zuk s niece Hannah Kearney won a Bronze Metal for the United States in Women s Moguls. Although she is America, there is Canadian blood running through her veins. Congratulations to her! UPCOMING TUBER SALE The 2014 Tuber Price List will be ready for the February Meeting, you can also have it ed to you upon request, contact Norm Sharp. If you have never sold tubers at our sale and would like to, see Norm Sharp or to get your seller s number. Full details on the tuber sale will be published in the March Bulletin. We are still looking for photos for the picture boards at our sale. If you have any please them to at themcnabbs@telus.net or put them on a DVD. They can be submitted up until a week before the sale. SAD NEWS Jeannie Leroux passed away on January 24 after a debilitating stroke. As most of you know she was married to Gordie Leroux who hybridized the Kenora dahlias. She was an elementary school teacher for 27 years and had a passion for discovering precious stones and minerals in the caves and mountains of the Pacific Northwest and Canada. Have You Paid Your 2014 Membership Dues? Don t forget to renew your membership this month if you want to continue receiving this Bulletin. Also you ll need it to attend the Member s Only portion of our Annual Tuber Sale. You won t want to miss out on that! 2

3 Report from the B. C. Council of Garden Clubs I represented the Vancouver Dahlia Society at the B.C. Council on October 19, The Council is an umbrella group of 182 garden and floral art clubs in the province. 53 clubs had representatives at the meeting. The Council executive has undergone a change in the last year, with a new president and several new executive members. With new executive comes new ideas, and lots is planned for the coming years. The first issue they tackled is accessibility to the executive and to information about the council. Now the monthly bulletins will be distributed by to all clubs, with a request to pass it on to members. Jack will be forwarding it to all VDS members with . If you wish to have a copy sent by regular mail, the Council is accepting yearly subscriptions. Also, the website is undergoing a major rehaul, and all executive will have a BC Council address on the website. Minutes of all executive, scholarship committee and general meetings will be available. The executive is also undertaking an extensive review of judging standards in the province, and a report will be made at the next meeting. This judging would not impact our annual show bench, as we follow the judging standards of the ADS, but it could potentially impact our floral art section. The meeting was held in a new venue, the Executive Inn in North Burnaby, and the room was filled to capacity with 157 attendees as well as 6 vendors. Richard Zuk is the chair of the scholarship committee, and he presented a comprehensive report. The BC Council will be awarding $7, in awards ranging from $ to students in horticultural programs throughout the province. I have the complete financial report if anyone would like to have a look at it. The speakers this year were top notch. Our first speaker was a student from Burnaby South who has started food garden in the courtyard at the school, and has started a group who is gardening with seniors in a local nursing home. The second speaker was Julia Common from Hives for Humanity. Please have a look at their website: hivesforhumanity.com. She and her daughter have brought beekeeping to the downtown eastside with some amazing successes. Her talk was inspirational. After a short question and answer session with a technical expert, the keynote speaker was introduced. Brian Minter spoke of Gardening to the Next Level. He challenged all of us to reevaluate our gardening with a view to engaging the next generation. Horticultural sales have levelled off (flats of petunias, perennials etc.) while sales of vegetable and fruit seeds continue to grow. New gardeners are seeing gardening as creating living space and food security, and garden clubs will need to address this in order to survive. This was my first time attending a BC Council meeting, and I appreciated the opportunity to represent the VDS. The 50/50 DRAW Tickets are still 1 for a Looney - 3 for a Tooney and 10 for $5.00 REMINDER - Tickets will be on sale at each meeting only until 7:25 PM. Meeting starts at 7:30 PM. Please come early enough to purchase your tickets before the start of the meeting. 3

4 Dahlia Research I received a request from a researcher from the University of Calgary who is looking into the medical properties of dahlias. If you can help him with seeds/tubers, please see details below. Please note that these are the original species varieties of dahlias, which some of you may grow, not our "show" hybridized varieties. I am a researcher from the University of Calgary working with medical properties of Dahlia tubers. I would like to know if someone can sell or donate me seeds and tubers of Dahlia coccinea and Dahlia brevis. I will greatly appreciate any information. Thanks for your help. Kind regards Dr. Arturo Lopez Villalobos Biological Sciences Department University of Calgary 2500 University Drive NW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4 tel 001 (403) alopezvi@ucalgary.ca This sounds like very interesting research, I hope someone from VDS will be able to contribute to it! DAHLIAS OF TODAY BOOKS WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE FEBRUARY MEETING AT A COST OF $10.00 EACH. There is a limited supply. In the event there is an overwhelming interest I may be able to pick up a few extras at the Spring Workshop in March. WHAT THE HECK IS AN ORCHETTE? It s the new dahlia form that the American Dahlia Society has added this year. A bloom that combines the involute characteristics of the orchid dahlia and the petaloid (collar) characteristics of the collarette. The length of the petaloids must give it visual impact and not so small that they are not easily discernible at arm s length. Some of the well known dahlias that now fall into this class are: Verrone s Morning Star Verrone s Marmalade Lorona Dawn Jac s Kelli Lupin Beau James Fancy Pants Alpen Imp 4

5 Things To Do In February Now is the time to check on your tubers. If you find any rotten ones throw them out. Any that have a little rot may be saved by cutting off the infected ends and dipping them in some sulphur. If there is a little mould on them I heard spraying them with Lysol can help save them. I have never tried this myself but if they are favourites what heck, give a try. While you re in there digging around why not pick out some to start up for cuttings, especially any that are quite expensive and maybe didn t produce a lot of tubers. You can use any kind of potting mix to start them up. Use pots or milk cartons. When you are starting tubers for cuttings light is not the big factor but bottom heat is. We have heating mats made especially for heating plants, they are available at Lee Valley. If you don t have mats, a good place is on top of your fridge. It may take a while for the shoots to start to show, maybe weeks. Just be patient. At our February meeting we tell all about taking cuttings. If you can t make it to the meeting there are a lot of sites on the internet about dahlia cuttings. A good place to start is with our website under Links and check out Success with Cuttings borrowed from the ADS website or the Colorado Dahlia Society website has articles with photos on cuttings. The Federation Flower for the Year for 2015 is Mak s Royal Ruby, a red waterlily. Never Too Old Spring is just around the corner, and my fingers are itching to start some seeds. Five years ago 2008 I bought a packet of Dahlia seeds supposedly Collarette. The packet said MIN GERMINATION 60%. Started 50 seeds Tuesday Jan. 14, 2014 on blue hand towels One week later I have better than 30% germination WOW Arlene Brody Have you any gardening tips, ideas or experiments you would to share with our members. Please send them to me at: themcnabbs@telus.net I m always looking for interesting articles for the bulletin. 5

6 VANCOUVER DAHLIA SOCIETY CONTACTS President Peter Krueger Past President Norm Sharp Secretary Jack Duncan Treasurer Donna Quinn Directors Robin Blackmore Evelyn Crawford Sue Croft Vittorio Fontana Wally Kurth Dorothy Pitre Carole Rollie Gary Rollie Richard Zuk Bulletin Editor Membership Publicity Evelyn Crawford Food Services Sue Croft Webmaster Jack Duncan Show Awards Robin Blackmore If there s anything you would like see at a meeting, any ideas or comments you would like to put forth or something you would like to put in the bulletin, please don t hesitate to contact any one of the above listed people here. We are hear to listen. February Meeting Sandwiches: Richard Zuk & Evelyn Crawford Sweets: Dorothy Pitre Fruit/Veggies: Norm Sharp REFRESHMENT REMINDER March Meeting Sandwiches: Sweets: Fruit/Veggies: Sign Up Sheet at February Meeting Please bring your own mug to cut cost of purchasing foam cups and to be environmentally friendly. 6