Next meeting of the ACP - Saturday July 11th at 10am

[Jeff in St Pete]

The next meeting of the Asociación Costarricense de Palmeras (The Costa Rican Palm Society) will be held at the home of Dewayne Richardson in Santa Ana. The meeting will start at 10am on Saturday July 11, 2009. Please send me a PM if anyone would like to join us. I will send the directions.

Dewayne has been living in Costa Rica since 1959 when he arrived to work for the United Fruit Company after receiving his doctorate degree in botany. He retired in 1994 as Director of the Palm Research Group for United Brands Company.

He started his current palm collection in 1990 and now has about 250 species of palms in his garden with an emphasis on native Costa Rican palms like Geonoma, Bactris and Chamaedorea. He credits Marco Herrero, Wilson Botanical Garden, and Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden as the source of many of his palms.

I'm really looking forward to this meeting and I hope we have a great turnout! Of course photos will be posted afterwards

[Jeff in St Pete]

We had a great meeting on Saturday. Dr Richardson and his wife Cristina have one of the most beautiful gardens I've ever had the pleasure of visiting. We received a tour of the garden and then we had our meeting followed by a palm swap. We finally elected our last officer and now have a full Board of Directors.

As promised in the other thread in the main forum, here are some additional photos of the garden and meeting.

I could have spent all day photographing just his croton collection!

[Jeff in St Pete]

Forum Member Jose Maria in the red shirt talking to Forum Members Luis Diego (FossilNypa) and Adolfo (geonomaDude)

Forum Member Marco Herrero (MAHE) on the left

[Jeff in St Pete]

[Jeff in St Pete]

I can't imagine a more beautiful setting for a palm meeting!

Nice spread. The guacamole was the best ever!

Dr. Richardson's wife is also a plant lover - as you can see.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Some of my neighbors from the Central Pacific Coast - Teresa on the left and Donna (ACP Director) on the right.

Donna lives here in Manuel Antonio and is trying to start a Botanical Garden (or Tropical Viewing Garden as she calls it) in our area but she needs some investors. Anyone have some extra money for a good cause?

Getting ready to start the meeting

We all were amazed at the size of this plant.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Once again we waited until the end of the day to take a photo after half of the attendees left. Next time we are taking a photo first!

Checking out the palms available for the palm swap.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Adolfo and Luis Diego in the foreground, Martin, Marco, Jose Maria (in red) and our host Dr Richardson (in blue)

That's all the photos. Thanks to everyone who attended this memorable meeting!