South Coast Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale

I didn't make it to last year's local Cactus & Succulent Society show and sale but I made a point of getting there last weekend.  Like the 2022 sale, it was held in a nearby art center only fifteen minutes away.  It's a smaller venue than the local botanic garden provided in the prepandemic days.  Based on my earlier photographic record, there were fewer show tables and seemingly less sale plants.

I arrived about an hour after opening on the first day of the sale when rain was in the forecast so it wasn't as crowded as these events usually are

 

I gave the show tables most of my attention.  The light inside the art center's exhibit space was dicey and I had repeated problems focusing my camera so I only took closeup shots of selected plants.

Show table 1 (the tables weren't numbered but I've done so to keep them straight)

Closeup of 2 plants from that first table, Mammillaria formosa (left) and Melocactus conoides (right).  The Mamillaria looks like a fancy decorated cake to me.

Show table 2

Clockwise from upper left are closeups of: Aloe dorotheae, Dyckia 'White Whiskers', Euphorbia andpria, Euphorbia canariensis, crested Euphorbia lactea, Euphorbia stellata, and Rubutia tiraquensis

Show table 3

L-R: hybrid Dyckia, Machairophyllum albidum, and noID Fockea

Show table 4

Closeups from upper left: crested Aeonium 'Sunburst', Cotyledon pendens, Graptopetalum mendozae, and Pachypodium breviraule

I also took photos of some of the plant sale tables.

One vendor's display from multiple angles

Another vendor's display, including a Trichocereus in flower (lower left)

Colorful Aeoniums and Echeverias (left), crested Euphorbia grandidens and Melocactus matanzanus (middle, IDs are guesses), and a variety of other cacti (right).  I didn't process what I assume was an Agave 'Sunglow' in the background in the third photo until I reviewed my photos.  Everything on this sale table had looked pricey but I may have caved for that one if I'd been more attentive.

Snippets of 2 more sale displays

There were also pots for sale.  As I've lost some of my favorite pots to clumsy critters in recent years, I'm always looking for more; however, the pots were generally on the expensive side so I passed and put my money into plants.

Beautiful pots by succulent collector Jim Gardner 

Pots for sale by other vendors

I laughed at the saying on this planted pot but didn't check its price.  If that "5" on the tag, meant $5 I blundered in leaving it behind even though I'm unsure what the plant was.  It looked like a Clivia to me but that isn't what the tag suggests.

I took home just four plants.

Clockwise from the upper left: crested Aeonium 'Sunburst', hybrid Aloe sinkatana x jacunda, Crassula streyi, and Pelargonium carnosum

One plant's in a pot but all four found homes in my renovated succulent bed, which I'll show sometime soon.  I'm still doing some tweaking there.

Best wishes for a wonderful spring weekend!

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Can one have too many succulent plants?

In the last few years, I've greatly expanded my collection of succulent plants.  I'd very few in my former, shady garden but the sunnier, drier garden I inherited with the purchase of our current home 6 years ago seemed to call out for succulents, even before the drought became a significant issue here.  Other than a few Agave attenuata and some ragged Delosperma, this garden had no succulent plants when we moved in but today I can't even venture a guess as to how many succulent genera I have, much less muster a count of the sheer number of plants I've accumulated since our move-in date.  Every time I go to a garden center or nursery, I usually come back with at least one, and often several, succulents.  It's on the verge of becoming an addiction.

So, was it a good idea for me to spend last Saturday morning at the South Bay Cactus & Succulent Society's Show & Sale?  I didn't have any specific purchases in mind.  I went just to look...I admit that I spent most of my time scouring the sale tables but let's start with the show plants, shall we?  Here's a small selection of what was on display:

Among other things, this table featured: Aeonium 'Velour', a crested Euphorbia lactea, Mangave 'Pineapple Express' and Mangave 'Kaleidoscope'

My favorites on this table included: Aloe 'David Verity Hybrid', Hydnophytum formicarum (a plant I also recall admiring at last year's show), and Peperomia kimnachii

The plants that drew my attention on this table included: Cyphostemma juttae x cirrhosum, Echeveria 'Etna', Fockea edulis, and Gastrolea 'Green Ice'.  The second and the fourth aren't all that unusual, but aren't the specimens perfect?

Clockwise from the upper left, other plants I liked included: Agave victoriae-reginae 'Compacta' (another perfect specimen), Echeveria 'Dick Wright Hybrid', Echinocereus triglochidiatus, Lithops aucampiae, Lithops olivacae, and Neochilenia napina

One of my favorite displays involved some relatively ordinary but stylishly displayed succulents:

Through inadvertent eavesdropping, I learned that this contributor is a local TV weather forecaster.  As I recall, I enjoyed some of her creative presentations in prior years too.

This piece featuring Sansevieria and Aeonium haworthii 'Kiwi' was entitled "Lift Off: Fly Me to the Moon"

This one, constructed using noID Aeonium and what I think may be Senecio barbertonicus, was called "The Eagle Has Landed: One Small Step for Man..."

This one, featuring Kalanchoe luciae and noID Tillandsia, was entitled "Succulent Galaxy: Does Anyone Out There Hear Us?"

And finally, this one with Aeonium 'Sunburst' and Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire' was entitled "Houston: We Have a Problem"

The sale areas were packed and just about impossible to photograph.  Here's one display that particularly intrigued me:

EMT Design Studios had numerous succulent displays in both the show and sale areas but I was particularly attracted to these succulent kokedama.  I don't like most kokedama but I liked these and, after-the-fact, regretted that I didn't bring one home with me.

Even though I passed up on the kokedama succulents, I certainly didn't leave empty-handed.  In fact, when my sale was tallied by the cashier, I actually blinked.  Here's my haul:

Back row, left to right: Sedum oxypetalum, Senecio macroglossus, Aeonium nobile, and Aloe cameronii
Middle row: Crassula platyphylla, Rosularia murtagadhensis, noID Echeveria, and Agave macroacantha
Front: Albuca spiralis

Two plants were tucked into pots but the rest found homes in the garden.  Now, if I could just clear out some of that ivy and honeysuckle on the back slope, maybe I could find myself some more room...


All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Summer Succulent Shopping

Two weeks ago, before summer officially began and prior to the June's first heatwave, a friend and I attended the Los Angeles Cactus & Succulent Society's Drought Tolerant Plant Festival at the Sepulveda Garden Center, a community garden run by the City of Los Angeles.  We arrived early under gray skies and and enjoyed blessedly cool temperatures, which isn't something you can generally count on in June in the San Fernando Valley.  I know as I grew up in that inland valley.

I took my time to scope out the plants.  There were some beautiful specimens that were too expensive for my blood.

Left to right: Agave sebastiana, Agave 'Snow Glow' and crested Euphorbia kibwezensis

There were few real deals but, in retrospect, there were many I should have considered more seriously.

Left to right: divisions of Agave 'Blue Flame' (for $5 - why didn't I bring one home?!), variegated Agave gypsophila, and Agave 'Royal Spine'

A nice variety of reasonably priced succulent selections in mostly 4-inch pots from Hannah's Succulents

Other than cactus, succulents and bromeliads, there weren't many other drought tolerant plants but there were a surprising number of pot sellers.  No, California hasn't legalized recreational pot (at least not yet).  I'm talking about clay pots.

Another surprise was an exhibit by the California Turtle & Tortoise Club.

This is "Speedbump," so named because he was run over by a car.  You can see the work performed by the vet to repair his shell when he was rescued by the society.

Succulent guru Debra Lee Baldwin was scheduled to speak so, after making our purchases, we killed time before her talk looking at some of the community gardens.

Most were very neatly maintained

Some focused on ornamental plants more than edibles

This one was very exuberant

This was the most whimsical one I saw

We came upon a plant that intrigued us both but neither of us could identify.

Can anyone tell me what it is?

The Matilija poppies (Romneya coulteri) were blooming too.

My own Romneya coulteri, planted in early spring, didn't bloom this year but at least it's still alive on the back slope where little else is in respectable shape

I didn't go home with a lot but I did make two purchases.

I found a well-priced Agave 'Mr. Ripple', now in place in my dry southeast side garden, where it has plenty of room to spread out.  I also picked up an embellished pot from Hearts of Jade, which operates a succulent art and gift shop in Moorpark. 

If the event had followed our recent heat apocalypse rather than preceding it, maybe I would have purchased more plants but there's always the Inter-City Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale.  I may be able to entice my husband to go if August isn't blazingly hot (ha!).


All material © 2012-2016 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Succulent Shopping

In an earlier post on my spring plant shopping extravaganza, I mentioned that I'd also attended the South Coast Cactus & Succulent Society's annual show and sale at my local botanic garden.  The event takes place in the auditorium near the garden's front entrance and the indoor light is always awful so keep that in mind as you view my photos.

I circled through the display tables first.

While I understand the display tables shown above represented the collections of particular individuals, another long table showed individual selections of members of the local CSS chapter.

Plants that attracted particular interest on my part included these:

Clockwise from the top left: Hydnophytum formicarum, Albuca namaquensis, Calibanus hookeri, crested Euphorbia lactea, Fockea edulis, Gasteria batesiana, Lithops olivacea, and Sempervivum arachnoideum

The only photos I took in the crowded sale area were of pots.  There were more pots for sale than I remember of past shows.

The pot on the upper left was in the show, not sale, area but I included it because I really liked it.  Most, if not all, of the rest were creations of Peety Pots.

Of course, I came home with several succulents.

Clockwise from the left: Faucaria tuberculosa in a new pot also picked up at the show; the Agave colorata I've wanted for a long time; conjoined twin Echeveria agavoides; a plant labeled as an Echeveria, showing some characteristics of Pachyphytum in its parentage; and a Tillandsia albida I've tucked into one of my hanging succulent baskets 

That's it for my shopping expeditions thus far.  Even though we had some light rain today (our first in a month and possibly the last until fall), we're on the brink of summer here, which means I should call a halt to any further plant shopping.  I probably won't but I should.


All material © 2012-2016 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party