Our general membership meetings are now being held in-person and online on the second Tuesday of the month at 7:30 in the Bamboo Room (downstairs Lecture Hall) at the Los Angeles County Arboretum, 301 North Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia, CA, one block south of the 210 Freeway.

When possible, we will continue the Zoom meeting access for our remote members. For Zoom access to our meetings, please contact us.

Please note – Because of the construction at the Arboretum, our meetings are temporarily being held in Ayres Hall. Park in the north lot, access is through the north entrance.  For additional information, see: https://www.arboretum.org/visitor-plaza-construction-begins/

2023

March 14: Online and in-person. Our March speaker is Yvonne Savio. She will be speaking on The History and Continuing Story of the Master Gardener Program, what it is, how it helps communities everywhere and everyone involved, and how to become a Master Gardener if you so choose.   

April 11: Our April speaker will be Al Palacio. He will be speaking on his wide and impressive collection of terrarium plants.

Previous Events:

2023

February 14: Our February speaker is Don Callard. He will speak about Staghorn Ferns and introduce his new book ‘Platyceriums: Growing the Staghorn Ferns.’ He will have copies to purchase and will be signing.

January 10: (Canceled because of the expected bad weather)

2022

November 8: (Canceled because of the expected bad weather)

Because of the construction at the Arboretum, our meetings are temporarily held in Ayres Hall. Park in the north lot, access is through the north entrance.
For additional information, see: https://www.arboretum.org/visitor-plaza-construction-begins/

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October 11: (In-person): The October program will be given by Mike Moody. Mike will be bringing some of his rarer ferns for the members to have an open discussion on them.  You won’t want to miss this meeting to see and learn about these plants he has collected.  Added incentive is that he will put one up for the silent auction.
 
Also, we get to have our meeting in Ayers Hall for the duration of the Arboretum’s building project.  For access see: https://www.arboretum.org/visitor-plaza-construction-begins/

September 13: (In-person and online): The September program will be given by Don DeLano – Culture class/Vegetative propagation of select fern types, demonstrations, and samples.

August 9 (in-person and online): The August program will be given by Steven Williams on his trip to Floriade 2022, the massive floral extravaganza held in The Netherlands every ten years, and his trip to various botanical gardens of the Netherlands and Belgium.

July 12 (in-person and online): The July meeting will be a review of our Fern and Exotic Plant Show held in June.

June 11-12: Fern and Exotic Plant Show at the Arboretum of Los Angeles County. For more information, see our Fern Show page.

May 20 (in-person and online): The May meeting will be Preparing Your Plants for the Fern Show.

April 15 (in-person and online): This meeting will be mostly about sharing a plant or two, so do bring something that you feel will be of interest to the other members.  Since this is the first time in 2 years that we are finally meeting in person, things will be much more about just being together and talking and sharing.

March 18 (online): The March presentation is Introduction to Clivias, by our Norman Nakanishi.

February 18 (online): Our February program will be: Fern Enthusiasts-Meet Gesneriads, by Dale Martins. Originally from the LA area, Dale is one of the most prolific gesneriad hybridizers and is a major influencer in the world of gesneriads. She is also a past recipient of the Award of Merit, given to those who help to further the study of gesneriads

January 21 (online): Our January program will be given by Dan Yansura about his tour of Japan that he made a few years ago with Fernando Orellana and others.

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2021

January 15 (online): Begonia propagation and growing under lights. By Al Palacio – A member of the American Begonia Society for nearly 40 years, and a member of many plant clubs and given programs all over southern California.

February 19 (online): The February presentation will be given by Jimmy Nguyen. Jimmy grows many miniature plants, mosses and begonias, and a few small ferns, but his main interest is in creating living habitats in terrariums for his Isopods. He ships in unusual live mosses from China and grows them in his terrariums to use as a form of food for his main passion, Isopods of all types. His terrariums are built to sustain and allow his unusual isopods to thrive and breed, which he sells.

March 19 (online): The March presentation will be given by Dr. James Downer, Ph.D. Plant Pathology, UC Riverside: trends in Plant Pathology in caring for ferns and related plants.

April 16 (online): The April presentation will be given by Norman Fang, owner of Norman’s Orchid Nursery: a walkthrough of the 2019 World Orchid Conference displays and a tour of Dr. Cecila Koo Botanic Conservation Center with emphasis on their fern collection. Norman can be found at www.orchids.com , Facebook at Norman’s Orchids – orchids.com, Instagram #normans_orchids.

May 21 (online): The May presentation will be given by Darla Harris: “Welcome to Texas-some of my favorite native ferns and a tour of the nursery and our spore production.”

Darla Harris is currently the President of the Texas Gulf Coast Fern Society, and is also a member of the American Fern Society, Los Angeles International Fern Society, the Tropical Fern & Exotic Plant Society, and the Hardy Fern Foundation, and also serves as a content editor for the American Fern Society’s newsletter.

As an avid grower of ferns for over 35 years, Darla has collected more than 500 various varieties. Darla is the Owner/Grower at the Fern Plantation Nursery, which has over 200 different ferns and adding more all the time. Find Darla on the Fern Plantation Nursery on Facebook.

June 18 (online): Our June presentation will be given by Art Silk from Colorado: Building ‘self-maintaining eco terrariums’ with epiphytic ferns, other rare terrarium plants, and begonias to breed poison arrow frogs.

July 16 (online): Our July presentation will be given by Daniel Yansura – ‘Finding Ferns in Bali, Indonesia.’

August 20 (online): The August presentation will be given by Michael Moody “Backyard Paradise”.

September 17 (online): Our September presentation will be ‘Ways to apply fertilizers for the home hobbyist -from the watering can to injectors’ by Don Delano – Horticulturist and Farm Manager, L.A.County Fairplex.

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October 15 (online): Our October presentation will be ‘Ferns in Southern California Gardens’ by Don Hodel – Emeritus Environmental and Landscape Horticulture Advisor, University of California Cooperative Extension, Los Angeles County

November 19 (online): Our November presentation is ‘Various growing media used for ferns in various situations’ by Don Delano – Horticulturist and Farm Manager, L.A.County Fairplex.
Don will cover the basics of potting mixes, new trends in soilless mixes, and terrarium mixes and mounting ideas. He will also touch on the needs for supplements to the mixes or reasons for the mix based on the native growing conditions of a few groups of ferns.

2020

January 17: An introduction to fertilizing ferns: A basic primer with an in-depth look at nitrogen – By Don Delano, Horticulturist, Fairplex

February 21: Growing ferns under lights – By Don Delano, Fairplex Horticulturist, Fern Extraordinaire

March 20: CANCELLED – All meetings and programs at the Arboretum have been canceled until further notice due to the Corona Virus.

April 17: This meeting will be held online. An email with instructions will be sent to members on Wednesday, April 15th.
My Experience with growing the Genus Drynaria – By Fernando Orellana, Trader, Adventurer, Fern Expert

May 15: This meeting will be held online. The May presentation will be given by Norman Fang: The Best orchids to grow outdoors in Southern California with your ferns.

June 13 & 14: CANCELLED Our 2020 LAIFS Fern & Exotic Plant Show & Sale
Saturday 9 am – 4 pm — Sunday 9 am – 4 pm
Door Prizes — Outstanding Plant Show — Vendor Sales — Society Sales
Sales of ferns, exotic plants, native & drought tolerant plants, plant & garden/patio related items

June 19: To be announced later

July 17: This meeting will be held online. An email with instructions has been sent to our members.
The presentation will be “The Hodel’s Ferns and Garden”, by Marianne A. and Donald R. Hodel. For access, please RSVP on our MeetUp page:
https://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-International-Fern-Society/

August 21: This meeting will be held online. An email with instructions has been sent to our members.
For August, we were going to do a recap of the past few shows.
For access, please RSVP on our MeetUp page: https://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-International-Fern-Society/

September 18: This meeting will be held online. An email with instructions has been sent to our members.
For September, we will have show and tell from our member’s gardens. 
For access, please RSVP on our MeetUp page: 
https://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-International-Fern-Society/

October 16: This meeting will be held online. An email with instructions will be sent to our members.
For October, we will continue the presentation of our member’s gardens. 
For access, please RSVP on our MeetUp page: 
https://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-International-Fern-Society/

November 20: This meeting will be held online. An email with instructions will be sent to our members.
For November, we will continue the presentation of our member’s gardens. 
For access, please RSVP on our MeetUp page: 
https://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-International-Fern-Society/

December 18: There will be no meeting in December