The Guide

Thursday, March 8, 1962, page 12 (of 20)

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For Her 25,000 African Violets It Takes Johnson's Baby Powder

By RAYMOND LANG Guide Reporter There's nothing like a woman when she's made up her mind to do something. Like Mrs. Robert P. Baker, 9201 SW 35th St. Two years ago, she bought three African violets at Westchester. At $1, she says she couldn't pass up the bargain and she wanted the flowers for her kitchen sill. But the flowers, from Tanganyika, Africa, died. Mrs. Baker, who knew nothing about African violets, made up her mind she would get more of the plants and learn all there is to know. Today, she's got 25,000 African violets in her green house. She has created 50 hybrids and is tirelessly working on propagation and growth experiments. "I want to know everything there is to know about this plant," said Mrs. Baker, who last July formed the South Florida African Violet Society. The society of which she's president started with seven women and has grown to 50. This Saturday and Sunday at Dupont Plaza Center, they'll hold their first annual show. "It's hard work," said the five-feet-tall blonde who often works 16 hours a day with her violets, "but there's the self-satisfaction of learning and having had to dig out everything for myself." Once when the former San Franciscan wanted to know what a certain technical term meant, she wrote every biochemist in Miami. Finally, a letter to a Harvard professor paid off. And her experiments! "Not being a biochemist or a biologist, I had a rough time," she said. "But now, I count chromosomes (tiny bodies in cells which control heredity) and make pleniploids. "I make my own fertilizer and my own soil," she beamed, "and I'm experimenting with my own method of propagation." A pleniploid, in essence, is a giant Violet leaf. A standard leaf has 20 chromosomes, but Mrs. Baker, by disrupting a leaf's metabolism, has produced one 10 times heavier and four times larger in area than the standard and its chromosomes total 52, she said. But though Mrs. Baker, with her notebook full of notes with strange-sounding names of chemical solutions, sounds much like a botanist, she's still a woman with a woman's way of adapting. When she strips a plant of its leaf for experimentation, the plant "bleeds," like a person. Know what she mixes with a fungicide to stop the bleeding? Johnson's baby powder. 25,000 AFRICAN violets mean work for Mrs. Robert Baker.

COLOR SLIDES

Showing of 50 color slides telling you how you can change the scene in your home will highlight the meeting of the South Miami Home Demonstration Club Monday at the South Miami Lutheran Church, 7190 Sunset Dr. The meeting, open to the public, is scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to noon.

CONVENIENT

REGULAR CHECKING ACCOUNTS AT MERCHANTS BANK OF MIAMI 950 RED ROAD (S.W. 57th Ave. near the Trail) Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

See Waco Williams — fastest gun in the West

Free Wild West Shows March 8, 9 & 10 THURS. & FRI., 4 P.M. & 6 P.M. SAT., 11 A.M. & 2 P.M. 4 P.M. & 6 P.M. MEMBER Suniland MERCHANTS ASSOCIATION COURTESY • QUALITY • VALUE U.S. #1 at S.W. 112 ST.

Mickey

FORMERLY OF ARTHUR MURRY'S BEAUTY SALON IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE HER ASSN. WITH TROPICANA BEAUTY SALON 5804 BIRD ROAD MO 1-5268

Paris Closeup Paola Fundora

Invites you to a fashion tea that takes place every day from four to five in the afternoon. The complete selection will be shown by professional models. 2421 LeJeune Road Coral Gables By appointment only phone 448-1422

4 1/4% PER ANNUM ON SAVINGS PAYABLE 4 TIMES A YEAR!

Put your savings to work right now by opening or adding to your account at any of the five CORAL GABLES FEDERAL offices. You can save by mail if you wish: we pay the postage for you! Savings now placed on or before the 20th of the month immediately start earning from the 1st. Assets Now Exceed $125,000,000 CORAL GABLES FEDERAL SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATION MAIN OFFICE... 2501 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Coral Gables HOMESTEAD.... 1101 North Krome Avenue WEST MIAMI.... 6400 Southwest 8th Street PERRINE........ 701 Perrine Avenue BIRD ROAD..... 9843 Southwest 40th Street All Offices Open Monday Evenings 6:15 to 8:00 p.m. PERRINE and BIRD ROAD OFFICES ONLY Also Open All Day Fridays 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. GEORGE B. CASTER, President ALL-PURPOSE HOME FINANCING buying, building, selling or refinancing FEDERAL HOME LOAN BANK SYSTEM | FEDERAL SAVINGS AND LOAN INSURANCE CORPORATION

Philbrick Funeral Homes

CUT OUT — SAVE "The Cost is a matter of Your Own Desire" all (5) Locations MONTHLY PAYMENT PLAN OR 5% CASH DISCOUNT ALL SERVICES $145 $205 $275 $305 $345 $390 $425 $445 UP COMPLETE Funeral Cost Index Metal Caskets from $450 Hardwood Caskets from $460 Cremation — add $50 THE PHILBRICK FUNERAL HOMES Guaranteed Prices MIAMI 660 W. FLAGLER CORAL GABLES 837 PONCE DE LEON BLVD. SOUTH MIAMI AT KENDALL, U.S. 1 AT S. W. 106TH ST. MIAMI SHORES 11415 N. E. 2ND AVE. HIALEAH — MIAMI SPRINGS OLIVE DR. AT OKEECHOBEE RD. FR 3-6363 Our Educational Department will furnish Detailed Information, including Social Security and Veteran Benefits upon request, without obligation. CUT OUT — SAVE