Summary
Palomar College receives a donation from the San Diego Botanical Garden of a treasure trove of botanical books from the Library of Elmer Lorenz.
A wonderful article was written about Elmer Lorenz in the Journal of the Bromeliad Society (July-August 2013) an excerpt of which is transcribed below.
Elmer Lorenz was there when it all began. It started in 1946 when tropical plant growers from the southern California area attracted to the little-known group called bromeliads organized a round-robin to share the limited knowledge available on these plants. By May 1949 the group decided to form a bromeliad society, and the following year ...
It was on a Sunday afternoon, September 17, 1950, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Overton in Glendale, California that a small but enthusiastic group of plant lovers met and organized a society, not just a local society but an international
society for the benefit of bromeliad enthusiasts all over the world. (Mulford B. Foster, Bromeliad Society Bulletin, I(1):2) Included in the initial Board of Directors were Dr. Lyman Smith, Mulford Foster, Laslislaus Cutak, Victoria Padilla, and of course Elmer Lorenz.
Elmer John Lorenz was born on February 20, 1914. World War One began when he was six months old. Woodrow Wilson was president of the U.S. and Los Angeles was still a west coast backwater. It wasn't long before the young Elmer became interested in plants. His first interest was begonias, and his collection today still reflects that interest. He soon branched out and included the epiphytic cactus genus Rhipsalis as part of his gardening interests. In the 1920's he acquired his first bromeliad, a Billbergia nutans as a gift. In 1937 he joined the Begonia Society and began in earnest his networking with people in the plant world. At the time it was not altogether easy to find nurseries that carried exotic plants in southern California, so Elmer began to order from Julius Roehrs (a mail-order nursery based in New Jersey that was a major source for tropical plants) in 1937. It was from the Roehrs catalog that he ordered his first specimen of Billbergia 'Theodore L. Mead'.
The founding of BSI coincides with Elmer buying the house in which he currently lives in Eagle Rock, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, and the town where Elmer was born 99 years ago. The lot was one acre with a house; however, there was no landscaping whatsoever. In 1950 Elmer began work on his garden which now consists of one half acre: some years ago Caltrans needed the other half of the garden for a freeway offramp (Ah well, this is California ...).
Bit by bit, Elmer filled his garden with tropical and subtropical plants, constructing lath houses, greenhouses and ponds. The garden began to attract visitors including Mulford Foster, Roberto Burle-Marx, Thelma O'Reilly, Werner Rauh, Dutch Vandervort, Victoria Padilla (who cites Elmer as having a significant bromeliad collection in a Bromeliad Society Bulletin article dated March-April, 1954), and there have been scores of other visitors over the decades who have come to see Elmer's remarkable collection of plants.
Both Elmer and his wife Joyce (d. 2008) devoted their lives to the promotion of plants and gardens. Elmer was a volunteer at the Huntington Gallery and Gardens for 35 years, and Joyce was a docent there as well. Some years ago this author had the pleasure to be on one of the Joyce's tours, and her enthusiasm and knowledge impressed everyone in the group.
Elmer's professional career included a stint working for the U.S. War Department before World War II. In August 1941, before the outbreak of American hostilities, Elmer joined the Army and served until November of 1945. Following the war he went to work for the U.S. Post Office. At that time all civil service examinations were administered at the Post Office, and Elmer was in charge of giving these exams.
In his century on planet Earth, Elmer J. Lorenz has demonstrated his lifelong involvement with the environment, enriching everyone with his love of plants. He also has shown his commitment to his fellow man with his labors to help found the Bromeliad Society and to make it prosper over the years to the benefit of thousands of plant enthusiasts. Elmer's wit and intellect make him truly a plantsman for all seasons.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2013 Bromeliad Society International
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