November 2006 Newsletter

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Upcoming Meeting - November 26 th , 2006

South Country Public Library, Bellport from 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM

Directions - Sunrise Highway or Montauk Highway to Station Road, and go South on Station Road. The Library will be on your Right, or West side, about 500 feet before Main Street in Bellport. There is the United States Post Office in the same structure.

Bring your Local Bellport & Patchogue Bottles for a Club Table Display

And now few words from the President (or chief bottle nut notes)

First off I would like to thank Gary Hammond for getting Cedarmere for the club for our September meeting. What a neat place. While much of the structure is from the mid to late 19 th Century, and the early 20 th Century, part of it dates back to the 18 th Century, or the 1700's if you prefer. To see the sections already restored and open to the public, and then to go "behind the scenes" to see the amount of work required getting it into shape to be open was humbling. As with so many of our historic dwellings, little more than the frame can be salvaged much of the time due to the passage of time, use and neglect. While there is a long way to go, the dwelling is getting there, and the views of the Harbor are incredible to behold. Should the club meet there again, be sure to make it, it is worth it.

The November meeting will be held on Sunday, November 26 th , from 2 to 4:30pm at the South Country Public Library, in Bellport. Directions are above and I have included a map for you. Come early, and walk Main Street, there are a few nice Antique shops to check out, and maybe find something!

Since the meeting is in Bellport, which is close to Patchogue, let's all of us bring our Bellport and Patchogue bottles, I know that there are not a huge amount from Bellport, which is why I have included Patchogue which has plenty and I will have a table for them. Let's have a nice set up so that there is something interesting for newcomers to see. Remember that we are looking to add members to the club, and many of us started in the hobby with local bottles from the area we live in.

Since this meeting is again in Suffolk County, I have been working on the publicity for the meeting, and have sent a notice to Newsday, the Long Island Advance (Patchogue's village paper), Pennysaver and Yankee Trader. I have also met several people who are interested in bottles and the hobby, and I have let them know about the meeting also. One person "found" the club via our book by Don Weinhardt and George Fisher, and the other is the sister of a good friend's wife. Funny, we had met a number of times at parties at their home, but she only found out about my bottles at a party when someone asked me a question about the hobby.

Now, many of you know that from time to time George Fisher prints up a Supplement to the club's Beer, Soda and Mineral Water bottle book. The Supplement contains bottles not found in the book, and with that nonstop flea market/antique show called eBay, new bottles and towns are constantly surfacing! The most resent Supplement from George that I have, from January 1, 2006 is about half the size of the Book! If you are interested in obtaining one, please contact George at: lisoda@optonline.net or see him at the meeting.

Ok, those of you with sharp eyes might have noticed the part about "new towns" in the previous paragraph. Recently a bottle surfaced, the second of its kind, from a town on Long Island that no longer exists, the town of Plainfield. For some reason we decided to find out where Plainfield was on the Island, and here is the story.

Somewhere in an exchange of emails, myself and George got started on where Plainfield was. George mentioned that he found a listing for Plainfield in the Gazetteer, giving the location as being a stop about midway between Yaphank and Medford, on the Long Island Rail Road at the turn of the century. So off I went to confirm this, and contacted the Longwood Historical Society. Well, seems that somewhere someone made a mistake, as while there was a stop on the LIRR about midway between Yaphank and Medford, it was known as Bartlett's Station, named after a judge on the NYS Court of Appeals who had a large estate there at the turn of the century. It was the stop for his estate, and was a private stop.

Ok, back we go. I sent an email off to the Historian of the Town of Oyster Bay, on the chance that they might know something, but alas, that was not to be. They suggested contacting the Suffolk County Historical Society, which I did and am currently awaiting their reply, which arrived the other day. They must have found the same Gazetteer as George, as they sent me a nice copy of the page with the information about Plainfield being about half way between Medford and Yaphank.

Now, George was not sitting still either, and in his searching he came across a website epodunk.com which searches community names among other things, it is pretty neat, give it a visit. Try the satellite view of your community, it is so cool! He discovered that, according to the site, Plainfield was a name used somewhere in the area of what we know as Floral Park today. So I fired off an email to the Village of Floral Park to try and confirm the websites information, and they said that they would forward the email to the Village Historian for researching, but, while they did not know of any community named Plainfield in the area, this is the interesting part folks, there is a Plainfield Avenue! Now we are just awaiting word back from the Historian to see if this is correct.

I have to tell you that I just might have had more fun trying to figure out where Plainfield was than finding a bottle for the collection. To do all that digging around, searching and emailing was a great time.

Now, for those of us who would like to visit a bottle show, there is one coming up in February, which is not very far, about 1 ½ hours one way in a car, that is from our home in Sayville, which is quite possibly the closest bottle show to us here on the Island, it is just over the Outer Bridge Crossing, in South River, N.J. It is held by the New Jersey Antique Bottle Club. The date is Sunday, February 4 th , 2007, from 9am to 2pm., at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 88 Jackson Street, South River, New Jersey. Admission is 3.00 per person, and tables are 30.00 each. For further information, or to reserve a table, please contact Joe Butewicz at 1-732-236-9945, or email him at: botlman@msn.com. You can also contact him at 24 Charles Street, South River, NJ 08882. I go every year to this show, and always bring something, usually several something's, back for my collection, as both diggers and dealers are well represented.

Since this is close to the Holidays, I will include the piece on caring for your Holiday plants, poinsettias and cyclamen. I have received a number of positive comments on it, and hope you find it useful. I will admit, it can be sad to be riding to work on December 26 th , and see the poinsettia that took 4-5 months to grow, at the curb with the wrapping paper waiting for the garbage pickup.

Holiday Plant Care

Oh, come to think of it, seems every year, I am always asked how to care for the holiday plants. Poinsettias and cyclamen, so here are some care instructions.

For poinsettias, keep in bright light, some sun is helpful, but do not place on a heat-generating device (radiator, TV). Typical room temperatures are fine. Water when dry, this will be about twice a week, and dump out any water still on the plate after 10 minutes. Standing in water will drown the roots, which need air just like us! I urge you, if you wish to keep the decorative plastic foil pot cover on at home, to use a hole punch and punch a hole in it so water will drain out onto a plate or saucer. I hate these things, as they are waterproof, and it is SO easy to over water and kill the plant. If the plant should wilt (hang as we call it), and the soil is wet, DO NOT WATER! A wilting plant with wet soil is telling us it is too wet, and needs to dry out. If it is dry and wilting, by all means, give it a drink right away. Your poinsettia will look good for you for some time, into March or April with proper care. At this time, feed it with a general-purpose plant food, something like 15-16-17, with roughly equal numbers, as the label instructs you to do. You can feed your poinsettia twice a month. You can cut off the faded flower bracts at this time, and repot into a larger pot. After Mother's Day, you can place it outside for the summer. Either bury the pot up to the rim in the ground, or water very frequently! Continue feeding. To get the poinsettia to bloom: This is so easy! Want it in bloom for Labor Day? Simple. Give the plant darkness from 5pm to 7am, every single day, beginning about the 4 th of July. With the plant outside, just place a large garbage can over it each evening, and remove each morning. One note here: It is very, very important not to skip a day doing this until you begin to see color. After about 30 days, you will begin to see color showing on the tips where the plant grows. Once you can see the yellow flowers in the centers of the colored bracts, stop feeding. Once you have color, it will bloom, no matter how much light it gets! The plant flowers in response to a hormone. The hormone is destroyed by light, even faint light, such as a night-light, or TV can mess up the plants blooming cycle. That is why you need the darkness, to allow the hormone to build up, and make the plant bloom! Here is a tip from a pro: We use timers to turn lights on about midnight in the greenhouses, to keep the plants growing for cutting production. We do not want flowers on the propagation material. This is why it can be so hard to get your poinsettia to re-bloom in the home, as we humans tend to turn lights on, and the plant "thinks" it is not time to flower because of this. Poinsettias naturally bloom in early to mid December, setting the flowers in late September to mid October. We start to see color in the greenhouse about Oct. 20-30 th .

As for cyclamen, give your cyclamen a nice bright window, some sunlight is ideal. Again, be sure there is drainage, or it can very easily drown, just like the poinsettia. Your cyclamen can take cool temperatures, down to the low 30's with no harm, as they are native to the mountains of central and southern Europe. Try to water your cyclamen when it is dry, but, before it wilts/hangs. At typical room temperatures, this would be about twice a week. Cyclamen are the same, as poinsettias, if it is wilting and wet, do not water! If it is dry and wilting, water right away. Feed your cyclamen a balanced food, just like the poinsettia, about once a month. Unlike many plants, a cyclamen will store food in its corm, and if you feed it too much, it will just like you and me after we eat too much, get a bellyache! The cyclamen will benefit from shade from about March to October, and will do nicely outdoors in the summer, pot buried up to the rim, in a shaded location. You can repot your cyclamen into a slightly larger pot in the spring, before you place it outside. Be sure to use a pasteurized or sterilized soil mix and a new pot, as cyclamen can catch problems from other plants. For the best results, feed your cyclamen every 3 weeks from April to October, and once a month from October to April. You can use the same fertilizer on a cyclamen that you use on your poinsettia, something with roughly equal numbers, such as 15-16-17, or 20-20-20. To remove spent flowers, grasp the stem and pull sharply, it should come right off, neat and clean. Try to avoid leaving stumps behind, as they can cause trouble.

Both plants, in their native environments are long lived; the poinsettia forms a shrub or bush, and the cyclamen a rounded mound. Cyclamen can live and flower for many, many years with proper care, as can your poinsettia.

 

Happy Holidays from our house to yours!

Mark, Laura and Anna

A view of Cedarmere from the back side of the estate, Anna and I enjoyed walking the grounds and investigating the ponds and gardens.

Below the view you would see if you turned around from where I was standing to take the first photo.

It was truly a lovely spot and the behind the scenes tour was fabulous, Anna enjoyed it immensely and I think our tour guide enjoyed having such an enthusiastic young person to show it off to.