cfpacs Central Florida Palm & Cycad Society - Fall Meeting - Sat. 10/23/2021

[kinzyjr]

At this point, just a save the date to get the word out.  The plan is to meet at Sunken Gardens at 10am, then lunch on your own, then reconvene at Kopsick Palm Arboretum.  More details will be made available as they are finalized.

 

[RedRabbit]

Thanks @kinzyjr! I might have to attend this one. 

[kinzyjr]

[D. Morrowii]

I plan on making this! 

[kinzyjr]

One week out and looking forward to seeing each of the attendees.

A few quick updates for this meeting:

• At Sunken Gardens, there won't be a "formal" tour.  We'll be touring independently.
• At Kopsick, Rick Nale is set to guide the tour. 
• At this point, we'll likely not have a "formal" palm sale after the meeting concludes as we're set to have a large one in December at our meeting in Hastings.
• Attendees can still feel free to bring plants/seeds to buy/sell/trade independently.

A brief look ahead:

• The holiday meeting is tentatively set for December 4th, 2021 at St. John's Botanical Garden in Hastings, FL.
• Members of the FCPCS were invited to attend at while we were at their meeting on October 16th, 2021.
• We're expecting a fairly large turnout with an auction and sale after the meeting.

Have a great week everyone and see you there!

[RedRabbit]

Sorry guys, I’m sick today. I won’t be able to make it out there.

[kinzyjr]

A few photos from the morning tour at Sunken Gardens.  There were a lot of events taking place, so we had to work around everything going on. 

A few photos of the crew during the tour.

A few photos of the Koi ponds and other features

[kinzyjr]

Photos of various palms and other plants throughout the gardens:

[kinzyjr]

A few photos from the Kopsick tour.  We didn't know there was a music festival the same day, so parking became a little complicated - but we made due.

Some familiar faces:

Banyan:

Cycads:

[kinzyjr]

Palms From the visit:

This Acrocomia (next two photos) appears to have a conk growing on it

A get-well-soon present for @RedRabbit : Ficus aurea growing as an epiphyte in a Hyphaene coriacea.

[kinzyjr]

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend.  It was a long day and it ended up getting pretty hot out considering we are almost in November.  Afternoon highs in excess of 90F next to the water in St. Petersburg this time of year are not the norm, but the tours were fantastic. 

As a society, we have a very short turnaround time between this meeting and our next meeting. 

I'll be sending out the first notification later tonight, posting the invite thread in the Affiliates forum, posting a calendar event, and sending a website update to our webmaster later. 

We are formally inviting everyone from every palm society, or no palm society, to attend the next meeting in Hastings, FL.  Dr. Rossi is converting his garden to a botanical garden and would like everyone who wants to attend to come and see all of the work since the last visit in Fall 2018.  The new botanical garden will be called St. John's Botanical Garden.  Their website should be up in the coming months as they prepare to open.

Keep your eyes peeled and good luck to everyone as we start entering the cool season later this week.

[D. Morrowii]

I had a great time! I had never been to either of the gardens and really enjoyed both. It was very nice meeting and talking with everyone. 

[RedRabbit]

Thanks @kinzyjr! I used to never get sick, but lately with a kid in school it’s been happening a lot more. This time it isn’t too bad thankfully. 
 

I’ll have to take the family to Sunken Gardens soon, it looks pretty nice from your pictures. And how about that Carpoxylon at Kopsick putting on some trunk now? It looks great, I wonder if that species might have greater potential in Central Florida.

[kinzyjr]

6 minutes ago, RedRabbit said:

Thanks @kinzyjr! I used to never get sick, but lately with a kid in school it’s been happening a lot more. This time it isn’t too bad thankfully. 
 

I’ll have to take the family to Sunken Gardens soon, it looks pretty nice from your pictures. And how about that Carpoxylon at Kopsick putting on some trunk now? It looks great, I wonder if that species might have greater potential in Central Florida.

Now you know why I have no known offspring.  I'm officially a Mule Palm.   Glad to hear it isn't anything serious.

I really do think Carpoxylon has some potential.  We have a few in town and the one at City Hall looks like it will start trunking.  Sunken Gardens is highly recommended.  If you have a garden membership at Leu or one of the other Botanical Gardens, it's a good one to use that reciprocal membership on.  A lot of our members get a membership to Leu Gardens and use them on our tours.  I'm going to do that in the coming year myself.

https://ahsgardening.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-RAP-Members.pdf

[SubTropicRay]

Kopsick's microclimate is pretty spectacular.  Just a half mile west is less favorable on the really cold nights.