May Program 2023

Guest speaker: Paul Wingert
Meeting date: Tue, May 16th, 2023
1475 West Gray., Houston, TX 77019

Meeting agenda:

  • Social time begins at 6:30p
  • Announcements & reports
  • Program
  • “Show & Tell”
  • Raffle
  • Adjournment

Paul Wingert has lived just about his whole life in the metropolitan Detroit area. Born into a musical family, he took up the cello at an early age. He won an audition with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 1979 and enjoyed a  41-year career, retiring in 2020. Shadowing his musical career has been an intense interest in gardening which features a compulsive fascination with bromeliads. His first encounter with bromeliads took place in 1975 while he was a student at the University of Michigan. He became a charter member of the SE Michigan Bromeliad Society in 1976, and served as president of the group from 1983-1994, and currently since 2017. He has also been a member of the Bromeliad Society International since 1976 and is currently on the Board of Directors representing the Eastern U.S. region. Paul built a greenhouse in 1990 which serves to limit the size of his collection. At the 2004 World Bromeliad Conference in Chicago, he was honored as the Sweepstakes Award winner. He has registered 80 of his hybrids with the BSI so far, and has a few more in the works that are just waiting for a good name! Paul has been a guest speaker at garden clubs throughout Michigan, as well as giving presentations for bromeliad societies in Chicago, New Orleans, and Sarasota. Paul is married to Karen, his wife for 43 years. They have two children, Jennifer and Andrew. The rest of the family does not seem to be similarly afflicted with the bromeliad bug.