Growing Tips

Kingwood Center Gardens

Mansfield, OH

2024 Ohio State African Violet Society Convention/Show/Sale News

Convention Chatter - From the 6/2024 issue of The Violet Connection

It is hard to believe that convention is only three months away. Our committees are busy planning another great convention.
Our show schedule and special awards list is in this issue. It’s time to start picking out your show plants and giving them a little extra TLC. We have a few more “special awards” this year, including “Best Buckeye” and “Best Jitterbug” given by the Dayton club in memory of Pat. Please consider entering one of those varieties if you have one. It would be great to have a good showing of Pat’s plants in her honor. The last two years we set up an area in our showroom for our presentations and annual meeting and it really worked well. We had plenty of space for everyone to sit and we even gained a few extra attendees just by having it in the open where people could see what was going on. It was also nice to have a place to sit and visit during the show.
Terri is working on lining up some great speakers for our three presentations. One of this year’s presentations will be a tribute to our dear friend, Pat Hancock. Lori is in the process of contacting our vendors. Currently we have the Violet Barn, Black Oak and Lyndon Lyon already committed. We had all of our loyal vendors last year and are hoping for a couple of new ones this year. Since Kingwood changed their policy on Garden/Horticultural events, we no longer need to charge our vendors for their tables.
If you did not attend the last couple of years, you will be extremely impressed with the renovations Kingwood has made. You will now need to enter through the visitor entrance and as long as you are registered for the convention, you will not have to pay admission. There is no charge for parking. For our exhibitors and vendors, you can now use the service entrance past the visitor center to get right up behind the main building (showroom) to drop off your plants. Kingwood also now has a restaurant on sight, so you do not have to leave the grounds for lunch. They are also continuing renovations, so it will be interesting see what else is new this year.
Please plan to stay a little late on Friday evening for our annual meeting. It will be held at 5:00 pm (as soon as the show closes) in the showroom. This is our only meeting of the year, so it is very important that everyone attend. It usually only takes about 30 minutes, but we have some extremely important issues that we will be voting on this year, so please try to attend.
Once again, we are asking everyone to pitch in for our hospitality room. It is located in the room behind the sales area. Everyone is welcome to come in and grab a quick snack or drink. Last year we had a fantastic variety of snacks, cookies, cakes, chips. We even had pizza on Saturday for lunch. While we are not set up to have an actual meal like the Dayton club used to prived, it is nice to be able to take a break from shopping or visiting and get a quick bite to eat.
We have a block of rooms reserved at the Hampton Inn, Mansfield/Ontario for $119 plus taxes per night for either two queen beds or one king. You will need to call directly to get the special rate. The number is 419-747-5353. Our block is reserved under “Ohio State African Violet Society.” The cutoff date August 13, so don’t wait too long.
Registration information is included in this issue. We are once again utilizing the Caterer’s facility for our Saturday night banquet. It is located just a few miles from both Kingwood and our motel. We are limited to 50 people due to the size of their room, so be sure to get your reservations in early. We were able to decrease the cost a little due to only having two salads and two sides instead of three. We will also have a vegetarian entrée for our vegetarian friends. We will have a cash bar available. Soft drinks coffee and tea are included.
This year’s program will be our every other year “live” auction. We will also have our silent auction during the dinner. The Dayton Club is hosting all of the auctions this year, so if you have anything that you can donate to either the live or silent auction, please bring it with you. All donations are truly appreciated — and remember, nothing is too big or too small.

See you in September!

Penny Wichman
pennypwic@aol.com

Kingwood Center GardensMansfield, OH

2024 Ohio State African Violet Society Convention/Show/Sale News

Kingwood Center Gardens

Mansfield, OH