Each Month:

The Bromeliad Society of South Florida (BSSF) features a paid speaker whoconducts an informative talk about Bromeliads. Sometimes we have scientists, sometimes Nursery Growers or even people who are just knowledgable about Bromeliads. So far this year we have hosted:

January - Mr. Dennis Cathcart

Owner of Tropiflora Nursery, who spoke about “Terrestrials, Earthbound Bromeliads" which was really both a survey of these kinds of Bromeliads and a travel log that showed what his collection trips to South America are like. Dennis owns a nursery in Sarasota FL that specializes in rare plants for collectors.

Tropiflora is located at
3530 Tallevast Road, Sarasota Florida 34243

Phone: 941-351-2267
Fax 941-3516985
Toll Free 800-613-7520

and he has a great website at
www.tropiflora.com

February - Dr. Theresa Bert

has been a member of the Sarasota Bromeliad Society since 1988 and of the Caloosahatchee Bromeliad Society since 1997 and has held multiple offices in the Sarasota Bromeliad Society. She served on the Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies for 8 years and held all executive offices in the Council. She has served and currently serves on the Bromeliad Society International (BSI) Board of Directors and chairs the Nominations Committee for the Board. She is a BSI internationally accredited judge. Her bromeliad collection consists of approximately 1,200 different types of bromeliads, and she has won top awards in the shows of local clubs and BSI world conferences. She has given presentations on bromeliads to numerous Florida bromeliad societies and other groups.

Her Presentation: Aechmea, the catch-all, most confused genus.

March - President - Tom Wolfe

lives in Lutz Florida where he operates a landscaping business. He has been collecting and growing bromeliads for over 35 years. In his years in the business, he has become an expert on the best bromeliads to use in particular settings, small and large, sunny and shaded.

Tom has been active in the Bromeliad Guild of Tampa Bay since l966. He became President in 1969 and has served as President six times as well as most other offices. He was General Chairman of the l992 World Bromeliad Conference in Tampa and served as Chairman of the Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies three times. He is a BSI master judge and has been judging shows since l979. He has served as director and Secretary of the BSI and is now completing his sixth year as President.

April - Mr. George Aldrich

is a retired engineer who worked for 32 years with the Florida Department of Transportation. He and his wife live in Ocala Florida where they have their collection, and run a nursery. Mr. Aldrich has been collecting for 15 years and has a 10,000 square foot green house. George is an accredited BSI judge and an educated horticulturalist who is a member of the FNGA (Florida Nursery Growers Assciation)

His Presentation: Bromeliads in Peru,

His Nursery

Plants-n-Things 746 N.W. 46th St. Okala Florida 34479

June - Ms. Adrian Hunsberger

is an entomologist / horticulturist with the UF/IFAS Miami Dade Extension office.

She writes a column "Plant Clinic" in the Miami Herald. Adrian will be speaking about the EVIL WEEVIL, Mosquitos and Bromeliads, Good Insects and Bromeliads among other related topics.

Ms Hunsberger's contact information is:

Plant Clinic, 18710 S.W. 288th St Homestead, FL 33030;

email aghu@ifas.ufl.edu

July - Dr. Mary Lamberts

has a doctorate in Vegetable Crops from Cornell. She works for the Miami-Dade County Cooperative Extension Service as a trainer of professional pesticide sprayers who work in the outdoors for agriculture and the spraying of public places.

Address 18710 SW 288 Street
Homestead, FL 33030-2309

Phone (305) 248-3311 (234)

Although Dr. Lamberts has lived in Miami for 21 years she has also lived in Michigan, Illinois, Arizona and was schooled in Up-State New York.

Her Presentation will be “Pesticides and the Garden”. In it, she will speak about what pests are, what pesticides are and what the alternatives to using them should be.

August - Alan Herndon

Alan Herndon is a trained botanist graduating from Florida International University. Allan is a true native having been born here in Miami. He and his wife Rhonda have a nursery in the Redlands. Alan is a member of the "Herndon Bromeliad Clan" . These folks aren't the Windsors of Bromeliads they are the Hapsburgs of Bromeliads .

His Presentation will be “Aechmea and Neoregelia hybridization”.

November - Dr. Ronald Dave Cave

Assistant Professor of Entomology with the University of Florida, will be talking about the work the state is doing on Metamasius callizona (Mexican weevil or Evil Weevil) which is supported by the Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies.

Dr Cave was also in the Peace Corps in El Salvador and later in Honduras. He has frequently visited Central America in search of a biological control for the Evil Weevil.