The Bay Of Plenty Branch of the CSSNZ

August 07

Hello Members,

Presidents Report
June 9th, Derek's talk and display on Gasteria's was interesting with lots of variation within the genus.
Phillip's plant ballot sale in July offered members the chance to buy some larger plants that are not usually available on the sales table.

August 11th meeting, we have a lot to discuss on funding the National Association, our idea of adverts has stimulated Nelson branch to come up with some schemes, see pages 5 , 6 & 7 of this newsletter.
There are items on the agenda for the Executive meeting that will need to be addressed.
Programme for the day is a workshop 'dish gardens' , so bring along your bowl, mix, plants and ornaments. Interest is , dish gardens. Name the plant is, Phillip P. Competitions both cactus/succulents are Cristate/Monstrose.

We have Martin W giving a presentation on Aloe's on September 8th.
Ferocactus and Aloe are the competition plants with Neoporteria and Sedum for the interest table.
Kerry C will provide name the plant.
This meeting is our birthday month, so please bring along some goodies on a plate to share.

The Orchid Show is on September 14-16th at the Racecourse, please fill in the form if you can help set up, provide display plants, plants for sale, help man the display or clean up at the end.
We also need a quality plant for the main raffle the Orchid Society runs at the entrance, this they pay for.

The Gisborne trip is on the 6 & 7th October, cost $75.00, we have 15 starters, so at this stage we might have to take a car.

As we are approaching the end of the year please give a thought to the election of incoming executive and committee, the type of programme that you want and the return of trophies for engraving which will need to be back by the October meeting.

The National AGM and Convention: We have set the registration at $140.00, partner attending Saturday dinner only $35.00 and Sunday Spit Roast at $26.00. If you want to be included in the cactus crawl, as a collection to be visited, and for those living outside Tauranga, pre/post convention visits are as follows : 'pre' - phone member to arrange a time suitable; 'post' - Monday following, please let Dianne Bennett know so that a list and maps can be made up. As we get closer to the time other requests will be made for help.

Tom S

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COMPETITIONS JUNE 2007
Cactus Red Spined
Senior:
1st Syd W
2nd Kerry C
3rd= Heather C & Tom S
Novice:
1st Coral C
2nd John S
3rd Janeen S

Succulent Gasteria
Senior:
1st Shirley L
2nd Syd W
3rd= Phyllis W & Kerry C
Novice:
1st Phillip P
2nd Kim W
3rd Megan L

1st Overall: Phillip P with Gasteria Carinata

COMPETITIONS JULY 2007
Cactus Opuntia
Senior:
1st Dianne B
2nd Tom S
Novice:
1st Janeen S
2nd Coral C
3rd Phillip P

Succulent
Senior:
1st Phyllis W
2nd Tom S
3rd Dianne B
Novice:
1st Janeen S
2nd Coral C
3rd = John S & Phillip P

1st Overall : Dianne B with Opuntia Sp.

10 Points : Megan L and Syd W

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Our speaker for our June meeting was Derek G from the Hawkes Bay branch, he gave us a very interesting and entertaining talk on Gasterias.
He said he joined the Society about 10 - 12 years ago, and for a start he collected a lot of different cacti and succulents, then noticed no one seemed to be growing Gasterias at the time, so he thought he would give them a go.
He grows all his gasterias outside and in pots, there are 49 - 50 species and they come from the South African region, they grow in various shapes and sizes, with stiff thick leaves, and unfortunately are prone to rust.
Derek told us that Aloes and Gasterias will cross pollinate, and he had samples of these he showed us, they are easy to grow from seed. Many years ago they were known as Gasteria Warty.
He brought along with him lots of different species, and went through them explaining the different ones.

Gasterias are most accommodating plants, wanting very little in the way of special treatment, soil requirements are again not highly critical, but it is advisable to include more sand than usual as the fleshy roots of these plants are apt to rot if insufficiently well drained.
Derek said he pollinates his gasterias with a cat whisker, - cute.

Thankyou Derek for your time.

Gasteria
Gasteria are endemic to South Africa, with the main centers of distribution in the dry karroid and savanna regions of the south-eastern Cape. They are a drought resistant, shade loving, shallow root succulent. Gasterias are slow growing plants that range in height from 20 mm to 600 mm. They adapt well to indoor conditions and have been widely cultivated.

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CRISTATE/MONTROSE PLANTS - COMPETITION FOR AUGUST 2007
CRISTATE

In a cristate, or crested plant instead of the growing point being a single lateral apex, it is a (long) horizontal line at the apex consisting of many growing points in a symetrical line, forming patterns like a fan if straight, or a 'brain' if wavy, or like a rooster comb.

MONTROSE

In Montrose plants, the mutation occur takes place all over the plant, not just at the top or apex. Growth points originate all over the stem or branches causing very irregular growth. The resulting plant may bear little or no resemblance to its sister or brother in the same species of plant.

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Fund raising for nzcss funds
A few ideas to try and avoid the inevitable increase in National Subscriptions, which I know is going to see further decline in our membership.

• 1. The NZCSS run a national raffle between all Branches, to be run of course at a different time of the year to the Branch hosting the convention, should they wish to run a raffle for extra funds.
  • (a) 1000 numbered tickets printed for $100 is what Nelson paid, so the cost here is quite minimal, plus the cost of the prizes. Nelson had a very good return on sales; in fact all tickets were sold even the few that were returned unsold. At a $1.00 per ticket they are not that difficult to sell.
• 2. The NZCSS look at running a convention independently to the Branches. I have recently helped organise a convention on a scale of attendees similar to ours for a National body wanting to hold their convention in Nelson. This is how they run their conventions every year, and it works well. The host Society does the spade work and organising venues etc, the National society organises speakers, stationary, sets the fees etc.
  Say for arguments sake you chose Nelson to be the host Branch,
  
  • a) Nelson would get prices of 2 or 3 venues and food for the National Society to peruse and confirm.
  • b) Nelson would handle the accommodation bookings, once they were open.
  • c) Nelson would book any bus's required for trips and arrange the gardens for visiting, plant sales etc, make up the registration packs, entertainment if required, - all with authority from the National Society
  • d) The National Society would, arrange the speakers and their travel arrangements, arrange the programme and rego forms for the Journal. Organise a national raffle for extra funds if necessary. Arrange the name badges for registrants etc.
  • e) A check list would of course need to be sorted so we didn't forget anything, but there are several of those around the different branches already. The hosting Branch I am sure would not mind contributing by some means, in fact there could be a set fee here.
  • f) At the end of the day the National Society would reap the surplus from the convention this giving extra in the account to offset a Subscription increase. A strict budget would be required so you knew the profit margin expected.

In closing our Nelson Branch is not in favour of 11 pages of extra advertising in the Journal, and in fact would struggle to find any suitable contenders who would consider this, especially those which would benefit themselves and our Society.

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PLANTS AVAILABLE WITH OUR SEED BANK
I would like to offer a suggestion to reap a few more funds for the Society and would ask you to consider the following idea, which can be added to or amended however you see fit.
I am more than willing to operate this along with the seed bank.

• 1. To offer plants for sale in our quarterly journal and all plants sold, a commission of say 10% is retained by the Society. Those members who grow seeds, saturate their own Branches and usually have a surplus that they would, I am sure, like to try and sell off.
• 2. Those members wishing to take up on the deal, send the plants they want listed thru to me, and they get listed on a separate page along with the seeds. This would have to be limited to an A4 because of the cost of printing. Also those wishing to sell plants could possibly pay a registration fee of say $5.00 to list up to 25 species. (this figure needs discussing as I do not know the cost of an A4 to be added to the Journal.)
• 3. Those members wishing to purchase plants come back thru me and I put them in touch with the grower, and keep in touch until I know the plants have been forwarded to the purchaser. The purchaser will of course have to be prepared to pay any freight costs. When a member is purchasing off more than one grower in an area then the plants could possibly be combined in the one parcel.
• 4. Payment for any sales would come thru me, and payment to the growers would have to be paid by the treasurer (as I do not have a cheque book) who will in turn retain the 10% commission for the Society. Freight costs would be added on to the total cost.
• 5. It would be beneficial that those only with email addresses use this service as there will be a little bit of contact between growers and purchasers happening, until we get the system streamlined.
• 6. I have several growers I have spoken with who are interested in coming aboard already to trial the suggestion, but the whole idea possibly needs stream lining by this executive meeting, to see if it is a possibility.
• 7. We could get approximately 175 listings on an A4 that would mean 7 Growers could come on board for the first edition, more if they had less than 25 species to list. The 25 plants per grower would be a maximum number that could be listed.
• 8. It would also be great if Coromandel Cacti could come on board and list a few of their special plants as well.
• 9. I have made up a little NZCSS invoice document which I am using with the seed orders, and a similar system could be done with the plant sales.
• 10. Hopefully Frances will be good enough to check the listings for name accuracy as she does with the seeds.

Dianne