March Meeting:
All About Avocados with Dr. Stephen Brady
Next Meeting: 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM Tuesday, March 27, 2018 | Sarasota Garden Club
Dr. Stephen Brady, physician, fruit hunter, and Curator of Tropical Fruit at the Naples Botanical Garden, will speak about the best avocado varieties for the home landscape and how to grow them.
About Dr. Brady: Since planting his first mango seed at the age of 7, Dr. Stephen Brady has had a passion for growing tropical fruits. A retired physician with an undergraduate degree in botany, Stephen has a small urban farm just a mile from Naples Botanical Garden that is home to a collection of 600 fruit trees and 300 coffee trees. Stephen was one of the many local fruit enthusiasts featured in the documentary The Fruit Hunters (2012), which follows exotic fruit cultivators and preservationists from around the world. Stephen has traveled the world searching for new fruits and new varieties.
Our Mission:
“The Tropical Fruit Society of Sarasota is organized exclusively for charitable, educational, and scientific purposes associated with the propagation, cultivation, selection, improvement or enhancement of superior cultivars of tropical fruits, and the distribution of tropical fruit trees and the associated knowledge necessary for their successful cultivation and harvest, for the benefit of mankind. A 501c3 corporation.”
Click to view our Articles of Inc.
We are a group of enthusiastic and passionate tropical fruit lovers, focused on the art and pleasure of growing our own tropical fruit here in the Sarasota area.
We love to exchange ideas, and share knowledge, tips and expertise with fellow gardeners.
But most of all, we love to enjoy ripe, delicious, homegrown tropical fruit!
Monthly Meetings:
Our regular monthly meetings are held on the fourth Tuesday of each month, except August and December, at the:
Sarasota Garden Club
1131 Boulevard of the Arts
Sarasota, FL 34236
Located on the northwest corner of US41 & Blvd. of the Arts, in front of the Van Wezel
Agenda:
6:30 – Sign in, social time, and tasting table
7:00 – Short business meeting, followed immediately by speaker’s presentation
8:00 – Plant raffle and social time
8:30 – Clean-up
Membership:
We welcome guests to join us for any meeting!
Non-members are welcome to attend meetings for $5 admission, except for tasting events such as the July MangoFest, which are $10.
We strive to keep our membership costs affordable:
- Individual membership: $10/year
- Family/household membership: $20/year
Past talks have included:
- Grafting Techniques, Wayne Clifton
- Mangofest!
- Should You Consider Growing Citrus?, Gary Patton
- All About Jackfruit, Dr. Noris Ledesma
- Growing Pomegranates in Florida, Dr. William Castle
- Lychees, Longans & Spanish Lime, Will Wright
- Canistel and Sapodilla in the Home Landscape & Tropical Fruit Pollination, Dr. Jonathan Crane
Donations
Our donations help fund club activities such as fruit tastings, honorariums to bring in four star speakers, and cover our beautiful meeting location.
Past speakers have included Dr. Jonathan Crane of the University of Florida and Associate Director of Horticultural Sciences at T.R.E.C. in Homestead, and Dr. Noris Ledesma, Curator of Tropical Fruit at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
We always appreciate donations made in person, but we welcome them online as well.
