CENTRAL COAST CACTUS AND SUCCULENT SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Pismo Beach, CA 93449 780 Merced St. c/o Markus Mumper & Succulent Society Central Coast Cactus On the Dry Side May 2010 Inside this issue: CCCSS April Meeting Recap •Upcoming Speaker We had a huge turnout for our April meeting. Rain nor wind stopped over 150 people from showing up with standing room - Nick Wilkinson only. •Genus of the Month Thanks to Wayne Mills for organizing the field trip on April 10th to - Agave Anne Erb and Muranaka Bonsai. The word is that it was great fun. •Last Month’s IMPORTANT REMINDER: Please pay your dues and please return - Meeting Minutes any library books you may have. You have a little over a month to get your plants ready for our Memorial Day weekend show & sale. We still can use help vol- unteering, and if you sign up to help you will get a discount on a future trip to the Inter City Show & Sale in August. This will be a bus trip to Los Angeles and one of the largest Cactus & Succulent shows in the world. Our plant of the month was an all time favorite of many, Aloe. These “Hummingbird Flower” plants are mainly from Africa and in the Liliaceae family. Many are in bloom right now and have striking flowers, usually red or orange but occasionally yellow and white. They can grow in temperatures down to the 30’s, but if it gets into the 20’s bring them inside or protect them, that’s too cold for them! Growers have been hybridizing them so you can find them in smaller than natural sizes with some very unusual and beautiful foliage. We had the pleasure of having Debra Lee Baldwin as our guest speaker, an award winning photo journalist from the San Diego area. Her presentation included a wonderful slide show of some beautiful gardens and some from her own garden. Debra pro- motes that one doesn’t have to have flowers in a garden when a succulent’s colorful foliage is just as beautiful. The low mainte- nance and low water requirements are also a huge plus. Debra’s vision of designing with succulents is contrast and repetition. Take your plants and pots, combine colors, textures and rocks to cre- ate a beautiful patio or garden scene. Even if you live in frosty zones pots can always be moved to a protected area, so don’t let it stop you from growing succulents if you live ‘over the hill’. Thank you Debra, I know I came home and looked at my plants with a whole different vision. See you at the May meeting. ~Jan Moon MAY’S PROGRAM NEXT meeting: Speakers of the Month Nick Wilkinson & Rob Skillin Sun, May 9’th at PREPARING YOUR SHOW PLANTS 2:00 pm l0l N This month Nick and Rob will lead a demonstration on prepar- San Luis Obispo Library ing show plants. They will bring some of their own plants, pots, Mill soil and top dressings to provide a lesson on their thoughts on San Luis Obispo show plant preparation and presentation. Palm Public Library S Monterey They invite you to bring your own plants, pots, etc. to partici- Santa Rosa Osos pate in the demonstration. Don’t be shy! Higuera Chorro Morro 995 Palm Street San Luis Obispo CCCSS Show Best Of Categories NEWS FROM THE MARCH BOARD MEETING: Open Class - Best Cactus • Still waiting for everyone to get caught up on annual dues Open Class - Best Succulent • Show & Sale May 29th & 30th, still need volunteers Advanced Class - Best Cactus Advanced Class - Best Succulent • Please spread the word and put show fl yers up in your town Novice Class - Best Cactus • We will be awarding 10 more “Best Of” ribbons this year Novice Class - Best Succulent • We just had business cards made for our club. We will be distributing Outstanding Novice Euphorbia Rick and Karen James Outstanding Advanced Euphorbia Farm Supply these at our show & sale Outstanding Open Euphorbia Farm Supply • If you would like to receive your newsletter by e-mail instead of Best Baja Native Entry Grow Nursery regular mail, please let us know at the front desk - printing and mailing Best Caudiciform Entry CCCSS Best Collection CCCSS newsletters costs us about $1.00 per month each! Best Rookie Entry Rob Skillin Best Staged Entry Grow Nursery BOARD—MEETING Bested Crested Entry Farm Supply The next Board Meeting will be held on May 9’th right after our General Outstanding Ephiphyte Rhonda Grace Meeting. As always all members are welcome. Outstanding Gymnocalycium Bud & Ev’s C&S Outstanding Mammilaria Farm Supply Central Coast Cactus and Succulent Society Outstanding Agavaceae Grow Nursery e-mail: [email protected] Outstanding Echiveria Wayne Mills Outstanding Haworthia Farm Supply All submissions to the CCCSS newsletter must be submitted Outstanding Sansevieria Lee Eby two weeks prior to the monthly meeting. Outstanding Dish Garden Rick and Karen James Top Dressing PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT SECRETARY CSSA AFFILIATE TREASURER Our annual Show & Sale is quickly approaching (May 29th & Gene Schroeder Nick Wilkinson Jan Moon Rob Skillin Edie Price 30th). In an effort to help our club members get their plants 929-2161 528-8880 927-1310 473-0788 489-8491 looking their best we are going to have top dressings available at the April and May meetings. There will be several different EDITOR ASST. EDITOR PUBLICITY LIBRARIANS HOSPITALITY types to choose from – red lava, black lava, crushed granite, Markus Mumper Nick Wilkinson Wayne Mills Martin Howell & Pat Gilson 481-5596 crushed brick, beige rock and green rock. All will be pack- 773-1499 528-8880 481-3495 Jeanne Hanysz Maggie Wagner 773-1499 aged in quart bags. For current members the first bag is free 544-5389 (one time only!!!), each additional bag is $1.00. For non-mem- A one time free newsletter will be mailed out to those who sign in at the monthly meetings. bers each bag is $2.00. After this dues must be paid in order to start a subscription. Upcoming Events May 15 Gates Cactus & Succulent Society Jurupa Mountains Cultural Center - 9:00am to 4:00pm 7621 Granite Hill Drive, Avon (909) 360-8802 May 15 - 16 Epiphyllum Society Show & Sale Los Angeles County Arboretum - 9:00am to 4:00pm 301 N. Baldwin Avenue, Arcadia (310) 670-8148 Ben Trogdon © May 16 EL CHOYERO SPEAKS: Huntington Botanical Gardens Plant Sale Huntington Botanical Gardens - 10:00am to 5:00pm Question: El Choyero, I buy a new plant from a grower and it looks great, but, after 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino (626) 405-2160 a year or two it stops growing and does not look so hot anymore. What gives? May 16 Answer: Hola Amigos and Amigas! Santa Barbara Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale There are many obvious reasons why this MacKenzie Park - 10:00am to 3:00pm happens - inappropriate soil, watering, light- Las Positas Road and MCCaw Avenue, Santa Barbara 15% off for all CCCSS members ing and temperatures, and/or pests and diseases. But there is one more growing condition that May 29 - 30 must be considered - irrigation water pH. Central Coast Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale pH is a measure of acidity or basicity and Ludwick Center - 10:00am to 5:00pm (29th), 10:00am to 4:00pm (30th) ranges from 0 (acidic) to 14 (basic). Pure wa- 864 Santa Rosa Street, San Luis Obispo (805) 473-0788 ter is neutral with a pH of 7, but the water that comes out of our hoses is never pure! June 5 - 6 Rain is slightly acidic because CO2 from the air has dissolved and becomes part of San Diego Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale the rain drop solution - plants love it. Casa del Prado, Room 101 - 10:00am to 5:00pm (5th), 10:00am to 4:00pm (6th) Most irrigation water, though, is ground wa- Balboa Park, San Diego (619) 477-4779 ter and has picked up (dissolved) various salts that occur in soil and rock. This makes ground water generally basic. June 12 - 13 Plants require nutrients (ions) from the soil to Los Angeles Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale survive. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potas- Sepulvida Garden Center - 9:00am to 5:00pm (12th), 9:00am to 4:00pm (13th) sium are the three biggies along with vari- 16633 Magnolia Boulevard, Encino (818) 363-3432 ous micro-nutrients. If these ions cannot be absorbed through the roots or the skin the plant is literally (well, in a sense) starving. For June 12 - 13 these ions to stay in solution in adequate San Francisco Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale amounts the water should be on the acidic WHEEL THROWN AND San Francisco County Fair Building side - a pH of around 5.5 to 6 is good for Richard Rowe 9th & Lincoln Way, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco HAND BUILT CERAMICS potter / artist plant nutrient uptake. EST. 1988 To lower the pH of your water try adding some vinegar prior to irrigating. Start with about one part household vinegar to sev- 7432 Exotic Garden Rd. enty five parts water. You can use litmus pa- Hospitality News Cambria, CA 93428 per to measure the actual pH. Sign up to bring refreshments and get a 4 inch plant!! You must sign the Hos- The P 805 924 1340 It may take up to a year to notice the im- pitality Sign-Up sheet and bring refreshments to get a plant. We need refresh- provements in your plants but I guaranty they will come! ments for each monthly meeting and we need to know who is bringing them.