2024 Convention (St. Louis, MO)
Gesneriads Meet in St. Louis
June 30 to July 6, 2024
The St. Louis area convention team and The Gesneriad Society hosted The Gesneriad Society’s 67th Annual Convention “Gesneriads Meet in St. Louis” at the Hilton Frontenac Hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. The Local Convention Chair Ralph Olliges along with many other volunteers in the area welcomed the 137 convention attendees.
The convention was a great success based on the enthusiasm shown by all the attendees whether they were just socializing and talking plants with other attendees, enjoying time together on several well-planned trips, listening and learning at judging school or during the various lectures, programs and meetings held all week, participating in or just enjoying the flower show, plant sale, and auctions. The annual meeting/dinner was well attended where Irina Nicholson (Lakewood, CO) and Beverley Williams (Whitby, Ontario, Canada) were each honored with an Award of Appreciation this year.
The flower show displayed 221 high-quality entries from 36 exhibitors. A list of all awarded entries as well as the Flower Show images will soon be available on this website. Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who exhibited to help make a well-rounded show.
- Sweepstakes in Horticulture – awarded to Dale Martens with 13 first place, 8 second place, and 7 third place
- Best in Horticulture – awarded to Eileen McGrath for Aeschynanthus humilis ‘Topaz’
- Sweepstakes in the Arts – awarded to Stephen Maciejewski with 3 first place and one second place
- Best in Artistic – awarded to Vicki Ferguson for her design “St. Louis Wheel”
- Best in Arts – awarded to Wu Xiang-Hong for her watercolor of Petrocodon fangianus
- Best in Educational/Commercial – awarded to Ralph Olliges for his educational exhibit “Gesneriads Across the Globe”
- Multi-Division Sweepstakes – awarded to Vicki Ferguson
The featured speakers/lectures at convention were
- Mauro Peixoto (Brazil) and Alain Chautems (Switzerland) – “Forty years of Brazilian Gesneriads”
- Sinningia Growing Panel: Joel Egan, Betsy Gottshall, Peter Shalit, Alan LaVergne
- Kimberley Hansen (Chicago Field Museum, Illinois) – “On the Kohleria Trail: Finding, Studying and Understanding These Beautiful Species”
- Brandon Erikson (Omaha, Nebraska) – “Kohleria – The Most Beautiful Weed”
Downloads of all the featured lectures as well as other convention programs will soon be available to enjoy at your leisure complimentary to convention registrants and also will be available at a nominal cost to all others in The Gesneriad Society Shop.
Thank you again to the chairpersons, workers, and volunteers; to those who provided sale and auction items; to those who entered or helped with the flower show; and to all who attended and helped in any way to make our 2024 Convention a success. The St. Louis Convention may be over, but wonderful memories remain.
In 2025 we hope to see old friends and new in Parsippany, New Jersey from June 29 to July 5 at the Sheraton Parsippany Hotel to enjoy “Gesneriads Gather in the Garden State.”