Our Summer Meeting is tentatively slated for Saturday, June 15th, 2024 in Lakeland, FL.  A few details for the meeting are still being hammered out, so mark your calendars and keep your eyes peeled for the full itinerary in the coming weeks.

A link to the Fall 2022 Meeting in Lakeland, FL: https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/73966-central-florida-palm-cycad-society-fall-meeting-sat-10222022/

CFPACS 2024 Summer Meeting

Saturday, June 15th, 2024

Site 1:

Time: 10:00AM - 11:00AM

Location: Barnett Park

Address: 121 S Lake Ave., Lakeland, FL, 33801

Description: We will park and meet near the Lake Mirror Center.  We’ll see some of the city’s nicest palm specimens, both old and new. 

 

Site 2:

Time: 11:30AM - 12:30PM

Location: Lake Wire Palm Collection

Address: 20 Lake Wire Dr, Lakeland, FL 33815

Description: Come and see Lakeland’s 20-year-old palm collection!  Parking is available along Lake Wire Drive starting at Bay St. and along Missouri Ave.  Once everyone is parked, we’ll meet and begin the tour near the Lake Wire post office. 

 

Site 3:

Time: 1:00PM - 4:00PM

Location: Bonnet Springs Park - Hollis Family Welcome Center

Address: 400 Bonnet Springs Blvd. Lakeland, FL 33815

Description: Lakeland’s newest park will host us for a catered BBQ lunch and a presentation by palm and cycad expert, Chip Jones.  After the presentation, we’ll have our auction and adjourn.  The building also includes a Starbucks, a gift shop, and the railroad and citrus museum.  The park also boasts a canopy walk, a butterfly house, a bar and restaurant onsite, and a tram service.

 

Additional Information:

• Chip Jones – Jones Landscaping Nursery:
  • https://cycadflorida.com/
• Lake Wire PalmTalk Thread and News Story:
  • https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/61996-lake-wire-lakeland-fl/
  • https://www.theledger.com/story/news/2004/07/20/palms-spruce-up-lake-wire-shore/26123969007/
• Bonnet Springs Park – Video Tour:
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsrMB9LDq3M
• 2022 Fall CFPACS Meeting:
  • https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/topic/73966-central-florida-palm-cycad-society-fall-meeting-sat-10222022/

Plan to bring an auction plant and a side or dessert to share at lunch.  Due to site restrictions, we cannot hold a vendor sale at this site.

Please RSVP by replying to cfpacs.membership@gmail.com for a lunch headcount. 

Please send any questions or concerns to cfpacs.membership@gmail.com.

 

Just a reminder that the meeting will take place in two weeks.  The itinerary above is unchanged.

The CFPACS website is currently being moved to another hosting provider, and unfortunately is not updated.  The Facebook page is updated and you should receive an email if you are on the mailing list.  If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to send and email or post here.

We look forward to hosting you there!

In my correspondence with the event coordinators at Bonnet Springs Park, they were advised that it is customary for us to donate a "host palm or cycad" to our gracious hosts.  They've asked that the palms or cycads be native since the primary purpose of the site is preservation.  If you have any of the species native to Florida, they'd love to increase the number of palms and cycads in their botanical garden and would gladly accept a donation.  Just bring it with you to the meeting and we can present them with lots of new greenery.  For reference, the list of native palms and cycads is included below:

Palms:

• Acoelorrhaphe wrightii
• Coccothrinax argentata
• Leucothrinax morrisii
• Pseudophoenix sargentii
• Rhapidophyllum hystrix
• Roystonea regia
• Sabal etonia (includes miamiensis)
• Sabal minor
• Sabal palmetto
• Serenoa repens (Green or Silver)
• Thrinax radiata

Cycads:

• Zamia floridana

 

 

We've received enough questions concerning buying and selling plants (a.k.a. the vendor sale) at the meeting to warrant a public post.

 

After speaking with our presenter, he advised he would like to be able to offer his products and several members have expressed interest as buyers.  In Chip's case, you're welcome to contact him using the information at his business website to make arrangements to buy plants off-site: https://cycadflorida.com/contact/

 

Other buyers/sellers are welcome to do the same as we are not legally allowed to host a plant sale at Bonnet Springs Park unless 100% of the proceeds go to the society.

 

As a result, we will have an auction at the conclusion of the meeting, as well as present our hosts with a few native palm and cycad donations to compliment the park.

 

Please bring an umbrella in case of rain and a side or dessert to share to compliment our lunch catered by Mission BBQ.  If you plan to attend and have not responded, please reply to cfpacs.membership@gmail.com for a lunch count.

 

We're looking forward to seeing everyone!

The presentation Chip Jones gave concerning palms in French Guiana was fascinating, the food from Mission BBQ was amazing,  and we had some well-timed cloud cover to make the walking portion of the tour bearable.  Our hosts at Bonnet Springs Park were gifted 2 x Acoelorraphe wrightii, 1 x Roystonea regia, and multiple Zamia integrifolia (syn. Zamia floridana).  We had an expert discussion concerning the palm at Lake Wire I thought might be Attalea cohune, and the consensus of the group based on all of the available factors including spathes, flowers, trunk, age, etc. was that it was likely a Coco Queen (Syagrus schizophylla x romanzoffiana).

Great seeing @Plantking165, @howfam, @cycadjungle, @PalmJuan, and @St pete ship of fools at the tour!

Kinzyjr:

Thanks for your leadership, knowledge (technical & historical), & stamina in conducting the palm tour. Lake Wire is awesome, and I look forward  to a follow-up tour to see the progress of several species like "Coco Queen" , Brahea armata, and Dictyosperma album.  I'll pay mission BBQ a visit here in Jax very soon, delicious.   Again, thanks and see ya next trip.

Thank you to everyone who attended!  Our Fall Meeting is slated to take place in South Florida, perhaps at Montgomery Botanical Gardens.  More information as the details are finalized.  Our Holiday Meeting in December is tentatively slated for Rob Branch's garden in Sarasota.  Happy Growing Season!

Had a great time! 

A few photos from this event:

A group photo outside of Hollis Gardens for those of us who weren't camera shy  

Cycads outside of Hollis Gardens:

Our tour guide showing off this Satakentia liukiuensis near the Publix HQ.

On to Lake Wire, the group assembles near the Silver Queen Palms:

A photo looking across the lake with one of the smaller Chrysalidocarpus decaryi in the foreground and luxury apartments in the background.

A Pseudophoenix sargentii with a flower spathe forming in the native palms area at Lake Wire:

We spread the palmy love with donations of native palms and cycads for Bonnet Springs Park after a lovely dinner served by Mission BBQ and an enlightening presentation by Chip Jones.

A quick recap of this meeting is now posted on our website:

https://cfpacs.com/org/wp-content/uploads/publications/2024/recap_2024_02.pdf

The Chip Jones PowerPoint presentation from the meeting is available here:

https://cfpacs.com/org/wp-content/uploads/publications/pptx/20240615_frenchguiana.pptx

The file size is ~200MB, so it is best to download this to a suitable device and open it.

The attendees for this meeting can now say they were at the #1 Best City Park in the USA according to USA Today!  The honor goes to the final stop on this tour, Bonnet Spring Park!

https://10best.usatoday.com/awards/best-city-park/