August 13-15th

June 27, 2010

Regular Meeting

May 23, 2010

Regular Meeting

Woody Minnich returns to the CACSS meeting this month to present his newest program, "Brazil:  The Rio Grande do Sul".  Internationally known throughout the cactus and succulent world, Woody is an interesting and informative speaker who never lets his audience down. 

You will not want to miss his newest travelogue through an area not well known to US collectors.    Despite being home to the world's largest river and rain forest, Brazil has some of the most interesting and unusual succulents you will find anywhere. 

The following information about Woody is quoted from the newsletter of the Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society:

"Woody, as he is commonly known, has been a cactus hobbyist for some 40 years and is well known for his participation in many of the cactus and succulent clubs. He is also known for his extensive field work primarily studying the cactus family. He has traveled throughout the US, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Africa, Yemen and Socotra. His trips have afforded him the ability to gain extensive knowledge of the cactus family as well as many other succulent genera.

Woody is also known for his trip presentations, photography, and his entertaining commentary . He is a recognized international speaker and has spoken at plant conventions all over the US as well as in England, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Mexico."

April 25, 2010

Regular Meeting

Our speaker for April is Dr. Gerald Rosenthal.  His topic is "Sonoran Desert Life: Understanding, Insights, and Enjoyment."  

Gerald A. Rosenthal is a retired professor of biological sciences and toxicology. He spent his career engaged in distinguished research and teaching in botany and plant biochemistry, and he has traveled the world for nearly four decades observing and photographing its major plant communities. A resident of Scottsdale, Arizona, he has lived in, hiked, and studied the Sonoran Desert for ten years.

Rosenthal's book is of the same name as his topic this month, Sonoran Desert Life: Understanding, Insights, and Enjoyment.  John Alcock, who spoke to our group last year and who is Regents’ Professor of Biology, Arizona State University, and author of Sonoran Desert Spring said this about the book, "The author has admirably achieved his goal of guiding the desert enthusiast toward a more sophisticated, more accurate, and ultimately a more enjoyable appreciation of the Sonoran Desert.”   Many of the photos in the book were taken at the Wallace Desert Gardens.

February 2010
Regular Meeting

Dr. Guillermo Rivera will speak to us about,  "The Cacti of Northern Argentina."

Born in Argentina and presently living north of Sarasota, Florida, Dr. Rivera owns South America Nature Tours, which specializes in guided tours in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru.   Guillermo Rivera holds undergraduate degree in biology, a Masters in marine biology and a PhD in botany.   

Regular Meeting

January 31

"Oh, Oaxaca" is the title of the program for our January meeting.   Our speaker is John Trager, Curator of the Desert Collections at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California where he has worked since 1983.  Prior to that he had the privilege of working with master propagator Frank Horwood at Abbey Garden Nursery when it was located in Carpinteria.  Trager’s horticultural writings have appeared in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, the Euphorbia Journal, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Garden Record, Garden (the journal of the Royal Horticultural Society) and the Rock Garden Quarterly and Flora, the two-volume encyclopedia published in 2003.

He is perhaps better known for his photography -- over 2000 of his images have been published in numerous textbooks and horticultural journals including Aloe, American Horticulture and Fine Gardening.  Book projects include co-authorship and photography for Dry Climate Gardening with Succulents produced by the Huntington.  John was principal photographer for the Conograph (a revision of the genus Conophytum) and a contributor to other works by Stephen Hammer (Lithops - Treasures of the Veld,  New Views of the Genus Conophytum - Dumpling and His Wife [a revision of the Conograph], and Mesembs of the World [Hammer et al.]).  He has also contributed photographs to works by Gordon Rowley (The Succulent Compositae, Avonia and Anacampseros, Crassula, A Grower’s Guide, as well the multi-authored six-volume reference The Illustrated Handbook of Succulents (2001-2003). 
    John has traveled widely in search of plants (and insects) including China, Costa Rica, Israel, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand and Venezuela.   He holds a bachelor’s degree in Horticulture from Cal Poly Pomona and earlier studied Botany at UCSB and Santa Barbara City College.  He lives in Sierra Madre with his wife and has three children.

December 13th

Holiday Party. 12 p.m. at the Webster Auditorium at DBG.

November 22nd

Breeding and Farming the Sonoran Desert Halopyhte Salicornia bigelovii in Sonora, Mexico. Jon Weeks founded Landscape Cacti in 1975. It is a nursery devoted to growing cacti and other desert plants from seed for landscape use. In 1986, he received a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. He was a research scientist for the University from ‘86 to ‘92. He studied halophytes (plants that can handle salt in the soil) and farmed them in Kino Bay, Sonora, Mexico. He is going to tell us the incredible story of one such plant, Salicornia bigelovii.

October 25th
Special Event in lieu of Regular Meeting

Annual Silent Auction at Desert Botanical Gardens. Download the bid sheet here. You may bring plants as early as 12 noon. The auction begins at 2 p.m. Be sure to bring boxes for your plants as well as dollars!

September 27th
Regular Meeting

Tim Harvey, "Tissue Culture: A New Frontier"
Dorrance Hall, Desert Botanical Gardens

Tissue culture.  Many of us have heard the term but have no idea how it works.  Our speaker for September, Tim Harvey, will explain it to us.  His talk is entitled, Plant Micropropagation, and he promised it would not be too technical.

Tim lives in Southern California but is British by birth.  He has grown cactus and succulent plants since he was 10 years old.  In the early days, he grew only cacti but now has expanded into other succulent genera.  He has traveled extensively in South Africa and Namibia and has visited Madagascar.  Now he concentrates on pachycaul trees, aloes, winter-growing bulbs and hybrids of all types.

If he is not at home, he is likely to be volunteering at the Huntington Botanical Gardens.  He grows lots of plants and is probably will bring some interesting specimens to sell.

Jon's doctoral research at Arizona State University on the systematics of the chollas of Lower California (both states) included extensive fieldwork while living in Ensenada. During this time he became fascinated by the varied and often bizarre flora of the peninsula, an interest which continues as a focus of his research.

This interest in the broader floristics of the area has led to another major project for the Botany department—compiling an annotated checklist of the flora of the Baja California peninsula and its islands, with synonymies and literature citations. This project is now nearing completion.

August 30, 2009

Regular Meeting

Kelly Griffin, Curator of Xerophytes for Rancho Soledad Nurseries in Rancho Santa Fe, CA, will show us amazing pictures of Agaves in Habitat.  Kelly is a seasoned traveler, having explored for plants in South Africa, Madagascar, Yemen, Socotra, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and 25 Mexican states.  Kelly is an extraordinary photographer so you will not want to miss this fantastic picture show.

Invasion of the Cactus Moth!   Mike Wallace, Survey and Detection Manager for the Arizona Department of Agriculture will talk to us about the local and international efforts to control the spread of the incredibly destructive Cactoblastis cactorum.  This moth has invaded the United States and is slowly spreading across the Gulf Coast on its way to the cactus rich Southwest.  It has the potential to wipe out entire species of Opuntia, seriously disrupting ecosystems in the U.S. and in Mexico.  Even if you don't care for prickly pears and chollas, you need to learn about this serious threat.

March 29, 2009
Regular Meeting

Cesar Mazier, former Director of Horticulture for the Desert Botanical Gardens, "Deserts of the World." Dorrance Hall, Desert Botanical Garden.

February 22, 2009
Regular Meeting

Michael and Joyce Buckner - "Landscaping with Succulents"
Dorrance Hall, Desert Botanical Garden

January 17
Saturday
Special Event

October 4
Member Open House

Joe Stead from California will be talking about Having Fun Creating New Plants - Propagation and Hybridization for Plant Enthusists. Joe is an Adjunct Professor at Orange Coast College and is the Horticulture Laboratory
Coordinator at the school.

September 23

Board Meeting

September 16
2009 Show and Sale Meeting

August 24
Regular meeting

April 27
Regular meeting