Discover the Bromeliad Society of San Francisco

The club is  excited to have Dylan Zoller here with us in San Francisco on Thursday 21 August to share a fantastic presentation about the Bromeliads of the Central and Western Colombian Andes. 

Dylan will present a programme revealing detailed information about the plants and the habitats from sea level to the barren, 14,000 foot peaks in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Cordillera Central, and the incredibly biodiverse pluvial forests of the Cordillera Occidental.  

This is a presentation you do not want to miss!

If you’re in the SF Bay Area, please join us in San Francisco on Thursday, 21 August at 7.30p to see his presentation and have a chance to purchase one of the amazing plants he’ll bring to share with us.

Dylan Zoller is a horticulturist at Sherman Library &Gardens, where he manages the Succulent and Bromeliad Gardens and their off-display collections. Raised in coastal Southern California, he developed an early fascination with exotic plants after discovering Exotica, a pictorial encyclopedia of tropical species. His passion led him to join both local and international bromeliad societies and begin a career in public horticulture at age 18. His current work focuses on cultivating xeric and cloud-forest species, with a growing emphasis on field exploration. He has conducted plant-hunting expeditions across Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, and Brazil in search of rare and localized bromeliads and cacti. He is currently pursuing a degree in biology.

This talk will present several special Bromeliad Environments that I have had the pleasure to encounter over my many trips into Ecuador. The relationship of the bromeliad species present in those environments will be presented and discussed, along with why those environments are so rich in Bromeliad species.

Jerry became interested in Bromeliads 57 years ago when his brother gave him one for Christmas. His interest has increased over the years and he is currently a director of the East Region, and a past president of The Bromeliad Society International. He has made numerous collecting trips into Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru and has discovered a number of new species of Bromeliads. Tillandsia raackii and Gregbrownia raackii are named after him. Jerry and his wife, Joanne, have an extensive collection of hard to find and uncommon Bromeliads at their home in Pataskala, Ohio.

He still goes collecting; although goverment regulations have made it impossible to bring plants into the US. So now he is collecting using pictures while studying plants in habitat. He is currently working with José Manzanares of Quito, Ecuador in translating and editing the 3rd volume of José's books scientifically describing and picturing all of the bromeliads found in Ecuador. The 3rd Volume documents about half of the genera of Tillandsioideae, and it will be published this year.

Scott started growing bromeliads in the early 1970’s as a kid growing up on the coast of Texas not too far from Houston. After successfully propagating a seemingly endless number of offsets from gifted Billbergia pyramidalis, Scott cajoled his father and a neighbor to take him to get more plants at the meetings of the Bromeliad Society Houston. Scott, along with his dad Joe and neighbor Bob Caswell started attending meetings in the mid-70’s when Scott was around 11 or 12 when John Anderson and Don Beadle would come from Corpus Christi to give fantastic slideshow presentations, often timed to classical music. (This is more than 10 years before Beadle would register his famous Billbergia ‘Hallelujah’.) Scott earned his landscape architecture degree from A & M and moved to San Diego in 1985. Scott has worked as a landscape architect – planning, designing and overseeing construction of schools, parks, streetscapes and retail centers. A particular focus for many years was the design of workplaces for technology, biotech and the life sciences. Scott had a 20-employee landscape architecture practice in San Diego before selling it and taking a position at the City Planning Department in San Diego as a Parks Planner. Scott and Jim have traveled through many states of Mexico, all of the Central American countries, and most of the countries in South America. Cloud forest ecosystems are a choice destination. Scott grows most of the popular bromeliad genera, with interests in Alcantarea, mesic Tillandsias, and especially the foliage Vrieseas.