WILLAMETTE CHAPTERWILLAMETTE CHAPTERWILLAMETTE CHAPTER AMERICAN RHODODENDROAMERICAN RHODODENDROAMERICAN RHODODENDRON SOCIETYN SOCIETYN SOCIETY

http:members. http://www.arswillamette.org/ ARS Home Page: http://www.rhododendron.org

Speaker: Jack Olson

From Seedling to Ecstasy ALL VISITORS WELCOME

CHAPTER MEETING January 9, 2019 7:00 pm in the Carrier room (600 State Street entrance) of the

First Methodist Church on the corner of Church and State Streets, Salem

NEWSLETTER Willamette Chapter American Rhododendron Society

Volume 14 Issue 123 January 9, 2019

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

2

January 9, 2019 Jack Olson From Seedling to ecstasy

February 13, 2019 Steve Hootman Plant Hunting in Exotica

March 13, 2019 Ella May Wulff Heathers for All Season Color

April 10, 2019 Dick Cavender Tba

May 8, 2019 Potluck and Plant Sale

CHRISTMAS POTLUCK at Wally & Kathy Reed’s

As always the food was delicious as was the prime rib that Kathy tenderly cooked. The number of attendee’s this year was down as we all fit upstairs this year. Several cameras were used this year to help me fill the January newsletter so most of the newsletter will be without words. Enjoy.

The table waiting for the food

The camel is Kathy’s new addition this years Christmas

The crowd is growing & so is the food

The desserts were delicious too.

4

Jane Gressler & Paul Doellinger

Jane & Tom Gressler

They just told Tom the food is ready These four pictures from Keith White

Guess who - Jane, Paul & Tom

January Speaker - Jack Olson Purchased the first Rhody in 1963. My dad started buying rhododendrons from all the nurseries in the area. He had over 250 rhododendrons. We would talk about the plants he had. When I bought my home, he gave me twenty five large plants. Our home was just off of Ervington Rd. The Swenson nursery was a quarter mile from my home so I spent time, talking Rhodies and just visiting with them. Gladis and Willard were good friends who taught me a lot about rhodendrons. I have many stories about the Swenson’s. Ask me about Art C. and Glady. In addition to rhododendrons I am an avid runner, and a collector of old cars. I have three Model A’s,

Lapland rosebay (Rhododendron lapponicum) Lapland rosebay is a low-growing bush with elliptic shaped leaves and reddish-violet flowers. It is win-tergreen and only reaches about a decimeter above ground at the most, but more commonly four to five centimetres. The branches are jagged and gnarled with smooth greyish bark. The plant blooms in June, with the flowers growing a few together on short reddish stems. It grows on dryas moors where the ground is rich in lime. It is rarer in the most north-ern parts of the mountain range.

5

Pruning Success after Feeding Rhododen-drons Originally published June 2017

The theory of stimulating flower bud production in

rhododendrons is quite simple if you know how

these plants grow. Rhododendrons make one or two

flushes of growth each year, and this growth flush

happens just after flowering, and sometimes a few

months after that. This new growth flush will make

a new leaf bud or a flower bud depending on the

conditions present. If there is sufficient light and

food, the plant will most likely make flower buds.

When I say 'sufficient light', I am not necessarily

talking about direct sun on the plant. If your rhodo-

dendron has light from the sky, there is sufficient

light for flower bud production, as an example, on

the north side of your house or on the north side of

a fence. However, if there are overhanging branches

from trees blocking light from the sky, then flower

buds will not be produced. The plant will grow fine,

but not make flower buds. I planted a group of rho-

dodendrons way under a grove of redwoods, and

although they had fabulous foliage, they never

bloomed...ever.

IVAN FINDLEY’S PASSING Ivan Findley and his wife Helen were members of our Willamette Chapter ARS for a number of years before he became ill. Ivan beat pancreatic cancer for 3 years, a record, and passed away November 16, 2018. Ivan and Helen attended many pre-Chapter Meeting dinners in the old McGraths, trad-ing wonderful tales. He helped greatly with our Truss Shows. Ivan is very much missed, and all our love to Helen and his family.

WCARS INCOME-EXPENSE STATEMENT Sept. 1, 2017 through Aug. 31, 2018

Membership dues- National $1,455.00 Remitted to National $1,059.00 Net dues retained by chapter Associate Members dues TOTAL CHAPTER DUES $ 470.00 Truss Show Other Plant Sales TOTAL PLANT SALES $ 944.70 Contributions to ARS & ARS Res. Fnd $ 300.00 Donation to chapter $ 100.00 Investment Income-savings Investment Income-CD Total Investment in-come $ 4.25 Credit from ARS $ 110.00 TOTAL REVENUE #### Speaker expenses $ 551.01 Rent to church $ 385.00 Newsletter expenses $ 85.00 Liability insurance $ 90.00 Membership RSF $ 100.00 Donations, RSF $ 200.00 Memorial donations, RSF, ARS Donations ARS General Fund Donations, ARS Research Fund ARS startup 2020 $ 250.00 Dec. Dinner Potluck $187.99 May Potluck $ 82.05 Coffee $ 96.00 Total Supplies, food Business checks Awards Supplies Postage for renewal notices Truss show expenses, plants, etc. TOTAL OTHER EX-PENSES $ 663.09

6

TOTAL EXPENSES ##### NET (REVENUE LESS EXPENSES) $(395.15) Checking Account $2,829.23 Savings/Membership Account $1,303.78 Certificate of Deposit $2,003.70 TOTAL BEGINNING FUND BALANCES $6,136.71 change in checking $(395.15) change in savings $ 0.26 change in cd $ 4.34 Checking Account $2,430.19 Business Savings Account $1,304.00 Certificate of Deposit $2,007.37 TOTAL ENDING FUND BALANCES $5,741.56 $5,741.56 Dana Malby, Treasurer Willamette Chapter ARS 12/ 21/ 2018

THE STATE OF THE WILLAMETTE CHAPTER AMERICAN RHODODENDRON SOCIETY

JANUARY 2019 MEMBERSHIP – As of January 2019, our WCARS has 31 paid Memberships and 8 paid Associate Mem-bers. Sadly over the past year, we have lost a num-ber of Members including Ivan Findley, Tammy Malby, and recently Bob Grasing. Keep breathing and doing well this coming year. FINANCES – Our WCARS Treasurer, Dana Malby’s, report for our Fiscal Year September 2017-August 2018 is displayed elsewhere in this January 2019 WCARS Chapter Newsletter. We are basically sol-vent based on Membership dues and our various plant sales. This past year, we spent about $400 more than we received, and that has been about the amount we have been doing for a number of years as our Membership and attendance at our various sales have declined mainly due to increasing age. ACTIVITIES – Thanks to our WCARS Membership Chairman, Keith White, we put on a full schedule of interesting monthly Chapter Meetings. Keith prom-ises many more for our 2019 season and he is work-ing on field trips for the Chapter. Thanks to Kathy Reed and many others we had fun December and May Potluck events. Thanks to the hardy Truss Show Crewe we had a beautiful April Truss Show and plant sale, and thanks to all who attended our May Plant Auction, at the Stonebrinks, it was a great success. During 2019, we will be developing plans to help host the, American Rhododendron Society’s 75 Anniversary conference, in late April 30 to May 3rd in Portland, Oregon. Save the dates and have fun there. Wally Reed - President

Bob Grasing is gone On December 17, 2018 our good friend Bob Grasing passed away after many a year battle with emphy-sema. Perhaps you will best remember Bob as a reliable volunteer, always available to help set up and take down the spring garden show and for his work with Herb Spady in the Smith Garden every Monday. But you may not know that Bob was a remarkable athlete. Throughout his life he was a skier - both cross country and downhill. Several years ago, he and friends went to Norway in the Winter to ski "Hut to Hut" for several days. He rode the bus to Mount Hood Meadows every Thursday in January and Feb-ruary for many years to ski the slopes of Mt. Hood. In all the time I skied with him I never once saw Bob fall. He had perfect balance to the end. Finally, at age 84 emphysema forced him to quit skiing. Bob's profession before retiring was as a building contractor. As we drove around this part of the Wil-lamette Valley, he was proud to show me all the custom houses that he had built. Bob was an expert draftsman and a master woodworker. We still have the beautiful maple high chair that he made for our infants. Care and thought and precision went into all of his work. Bob was a man of intellect. He had many inter-ests. He read the agricultural journals, Wooden Boat magazine, Architectural Digest and several oth-ers. He read every new issue of my New Scientist (weekly) magazine weeks before I could get to it. He read all my new rhododendron books, most of which I have yet to read. I just found out from son, Ken, that Bob had been a sports car and racing enthusiast. Almost the mo-ment he got home from the Army in the late 40's, with silver dollars had saved up from his Army pay, he bought an MG-TC right off the dock in New York. He went to races from Watkins Glen in New York to Daytona in Florida. In the 1960's Bob moved his family here from New Jersey. He is survived by his sons, Ken and Kurt and his grandchildren, Aaron and Caytlyn. He was very proud of their many accomplishments. Bob had many friends in many fields. Aside from rhody and skiing friends Bob had fishing friends, ag-riculture friends, building friends, mycology friends and many more that I have heard of but have yet to meet. Several of those friends stopped in regularly to help Bob with his shopping et al. But he was in-dependent to the end managing his own house-hold. Bob's memorial will be held on January 6th at Black Sheep Cafe and Catering (a really nice place) from 2 PM to 4 PM. Address 1932 McGilchrist St. SE, Sa-lem, OR, 97302. 503-385-1909. There will be cof-fee, tea, libations and good hors d'oeuvres. There is

7

Bob's memorial will be held on January 6th at Black Sheep Cafe and Catering (a really nice place) from 2 PM to 4 PM. Address 1932 McGilchrist St. SE, Sa-lem, OR, 97302. 503-385-1909. There will be cof-fee, tea, libations and good hors d'oeuvres. There is no formal service. Come to see pictures of Bob and mementos and swap stories and socialize. Keith White

Award

Bruce Brechtbill

Curlew

Eunie

Dreamland

Forever Yours

8

ONLINE SHOPPING AND THE ARS STORE

A REMINDER TO HELP FUND THE ARS Anytime you shop online for just about anything, please

consider first going through the American Rhododendron

Society Online Store. The ARS Online Store is reached by

the link: http://arsstore.org/ On this site you will find a very wide range of merchants

who have agreed to give the American Rhododendron

Society a referral fee of 4% to 25% on each sale

"referred" by ARSStore.org. Just use a link from the ARS

Online Store site to go to a merchant’s site and buy

something like you normally would. You get the same low

price and help the ARS. Wally Reed - President

Willamette Chapter Officers President: Wally Reed.........…...503-588-3666 V-President: Programs Chair: Keith White ……….…..503-363-2815 Secretary: Mary Crofts….… .…...503-838-4122 Treasurer: Dana Malby ……….... 503-393-6463 Librarian: Dick Lundin .......…...503-585-8439 Newsletter: Editor: Dick Lundin .......……503-585-8439 Print. & Mail: Dick Lundin .......…...503-585-8439 Board Members: Tom Bailey ........…...503-364-7741 Bill Vagt ………………..503-581-8654 Susan Doellinger …..503-838-4884 Greeter Susan Doellinger…...503-838-4884 Past President: Chuck Dehn.......…...503-362-9217 Web Site

All ARS Bulletins are

now available on line at:

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/

DISTRICT 4 CHAPTER WEB SITES

Arswillamette.org

eugene-chapter-ars.org

rhodies.org (Portland)

siuslawars.org

sworegonars.org

tuatitinvalleyars.org

All other web sites can be found on

rhododendron.org

MONTHLY EVENTS EUGENE CHAPTER

Campbell Senior Center 155 High Street, Eugene, OR

Second Thursday Oct to May at 7:30 pm

SIUSLAW CHAPTER First Presbyterian Church 3996 Highway 101,

Florence, OR

Third Tuesday of the month at 7 pm.

PORTLAND CHAPTER All Saints Episcopal Church

4033 SE Woodstock Ave, Portland, OR

Third Thursday, and the program begins at 7 pm.

SALEM HARDY PLANT SOCIETY First Tuesday of the month 7:00pm

Salem Heights Community Hall

3505 Liberty Road S.

TUALATIN VALLEY CHAPTER First Tuesday of the month at 7 pm Washington County

Fire District 2 31370 NW Commercial Street

Sappho

Predominate Flower Color: White

Flower and Truss Description: Flowers broadly

funnel-shaped, wavy edges, 23/4” to 31/3” across,

white with prominent purple-black blotch. Held in

conical-shaped trusses of about 15 flowers.

Fragrant: No

Bloom Time: Midseason

Foliage Description / Plant Habit: Leaves 5” long,

dull, mid green. Upright habit can become open and

leggy. Can grow to tree size.

Height: 6 feet in 10 years.

Cold Hardiness Temp: -15°F (-26°C

Parentage (Seed Parent x Pollen Parent):

Unknown x Unknown

Elepidote (E) or Lepidote (L): E

Hybridized or Selected by: Waterer, A.