Monday, April 14,  2025
6:00 pm

This meeting will be in the Great Room at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.

Jason Mellica
will present:

"New Bromeliad Hybrids for 2025"

This month’s program will be presented by Jason Mellica, the current President of our Sarasota Bromeliad Society; Jason has previously served as President and Vice-President.

He earned his Botany degree from the University of Florida in 1995. After interning at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Jason started his own bromeliad business, Advanced Bromeliads, selling and hybridizing bromeliads.

He has two greenhouses behind his house in the South Sarasota Gulf Gate area, with about 10,000 bromeliads. The greenhouses can be visited by appointment.

Jason has studied bromeliads in the wild in Northeastern South America during over 20 trips to Venezuela and Guyana. He supports many environmental groups working to preserve natural forest systems throughout the tropics.

Monday, March 10,  2025
6:00 pm

This meeting will be in the Great Room at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.

Captain Kaleidoscope
will present:

"Bromeliads: A family of Fascinating Genera"

This program will be a discussion on different genera in the bromeliad family with representations of assorted genera and species within which are myriad forms and types.

You’ll hear basic cultural information including water requirements, light situations, propagation and control, fertilizer, soil, and bug control.

The program will be given by none other than Captain Kaleidoscope — a reclusive local yocal with many years of experience with bromeliad culture.

I met him one sunny day and he blew my mind with all that he knew about these incredible adaptive plants.

I have no picture of this character because he is one of those who believes taking a picture takes a piece of his soul. So just show up and you get to meet him.

Monday, February 10,  2025
6:00 pm

This meeting will be in the Great Room at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.

Dr. Rick Batt
will present:

"A Look at Terrestrial Bromeliads"

Dr. Batt is a retired geology professor who now lives in Cape Coral with his wife, Dr. Robin Harris. When they both taught at Buffalo State College in western New York State they had transformed their small property there into an English Country Perennial Garden..

It wasn’t until they moved to Florida full-time in 2015 that Rick became interested in bromeliads, and today bromeliads are the main focus of their gardens, with more than 4000 bromeliad plants representing more than 2600 varieties (species, crosses, cultivars) on their quarter acre property.

With the removal of about half of the tree canopy by hurricane Ian in 2022, many more sun-tolerant terrestrials, especially Dyckia and Hechtia, were introduced. Currently the genus Dyckia alone is represented in their gardens by more than 350 plants representing more than 180 varieties.

He will focus on some of the familiar, more sun-tolerant genera of terrestrial bromeliads, including Dyckia, Deuterocohnia, Encholirium, Hechtia, Orthophytum, and Puya, and he will also consider some of the bigeneric crosses, including xDyckcohnia, xDycklirium, and xEnchotia.

Monday, January 13,  2025
6:00 pm

This meeting will be in the Great Room at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.

Terrance Hoffman
will present:

"Mounting Bromeliads"

Terrance has been growing bromeliads for over 50 years. He will bring a fine selection of his tillandsias, dyckias, orthophytums, billbergias and neoregelias to the meeting.

He will share with us his beloved botanical objects and the tools he uses for mounting them on pieces of slate, stone, 'Japanese meditation stones', stalagmites, wires, and broken glass blocks.

Terrence will invite us to have a hands-on experience and he will share his plants with us to create our own mounted bromeliads to take home.

He will also demonstrate his two favorite secrets for successful mounts — rubber- bands and gel-glue.