CENTRAL COAST CACTUS AND SUCCULENT SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Pismo Beach,CA93449 780 MercedSt. c/o MarkusMumper & SucculentSociety Central CoastCactus On the Dry Side February 2010 Inside this issue: CCCSS January Meeting Recap •Upcoming Speaker Our new President Gene Schroeder welcomed everyone to our - Petra Crist first meeting of 2010! He started off by thanking Mary Perraca for her two years of volunteering with a certificate of appreciation •Plant of the Month and a gift certificate. Gene introduced the present board and - Aeonium asked members to start thinking about getting ready for our May Show & Sale committee. And thanks to Rob Skillin for another great selection of raffle plants. Held back for the last four lucky ticket holders were an Adenia glauca, multi-headed Euphorbia horrida and two boxed collections of Haworthia and Gymnocalycium. Our plant of the month was Echeveria. Our guest speaker Brian Kemble took over this duty by talking about this beautiful genus. Brian is from the San Francisco area and has worked for 29 years at the Ruth Bancroft Gardens in Walnut Creek. Echeveria is in the Crassulaceae family and is mainly from Mexico and but some grow through to the tip of South America. There are around 130 species of this unique plant. From his travels Brian shared that Echeveria can grow in diverse conditions. His slide show included some very interesting pictures of some Echeveria growing as epi- phytes. One particular picture was an awesome shot of a very large Beaucarnea with Agave, Echeveria and Tillandsia growing epiphytically on the large Bottle Palm. Echeveria come in many sizes, some as small as a coin and some, like E. gibbiflora, can be as large as a foot across. E. gibbiflora can also get 2 feet tall stems and flowers stalks 3 feet tall. In some areas Echeveria share grow- ing areas with Salvia, Stenocactus, Hechtia, Ferocactus, Agave and conifers. We saw pictures of Echeveria growing on tiny little cracks in the sides of steep rock faces or growing in the middle of nowhere, thanks to the wind blowing those seeds around. Brian recommends the website www.crassulaceae.com to find some of the best information on Echeveria. By the time you are reading this I’m sure our week or so of rain storms have calmed down. So now is the time to start thinking about what plants you may want to enter in our May Show & Sale. Not to mention that we all have lots of weeding to do, so start cleaning those plants and start thinking about helping out with our show and sign up to help at our next meeting! Remember it takes a lot of people to make it all work. ~Jan Moon FEBRUARY’S PROGRAM NEXT meeting: NAMIBIA Sun, Feb. 14’th at 2:00 pm l0l SPEAKER OF THE MONTH: N Petra Crist, Owner - Rare Succulents San Luis Obispo Library Mill I’ll let Petra tell her story in her own words: San Luis Obispo Palm Public Library “About me?: I came over to the States in 1994. I always had some plants, especially cacti and succulents – not that I knew the difference at that time, way back when in S Monterey Santa Rosa Germany. I almost immediately started collecting and after being introduced to the Osos Intercity Show and the Huntington Botanical Gardens (especially the desert gardens) Higuera Morro there was no turning back. The ball was rolling and a few years later I successfully Chorro 995 Palm Street showed some of my “babies” for the fi rst time. Slowly but steadily the hobby (or ad- San Luis Obispo diction, as my husband calls it) grew into the business that it is now. The little backyard operation in Whittier grew way out of the restrictions of a residential property and almost a year ago we were lucky enough to fi nd a piece of property that does fi t the expansion – for right now – in Rainbow, Northern San Diego County. I mainly deal in Caudiciforms and Pachycauls (also called Fat Plants). I import, take cuttings where possible, propagate and grow from seed.” Petra will speak to us about the plants of the Republic of Namibia and the Richters- veld, the northern region of South Africa. The climates vary with Namibia having mostly summer rain while the South African Richtersveld (some of you may know this region as the Karoo Desert) having sharply delineated summer and winter rain cli- mate areas. Thus, the varieties of genus and specie are vast considering the relatively small geographical area. BOARD—MEETING You can visit Petra’s website at www.rare-succulents.com where you can view some The next Board Meeting will be held on February 14’th right after our of the incredible plants she has for sale. The picture below is not one of them! General Meeting. As always all members are welcome. Central Coast Cactus and Succulent Society e-mail: [email protected] All submissions to the CCCSS newsletter must be submitted two weeks prior to the monthly meeting. PRESIDENT VICE PRESIDENT SECRETARY CSSA AFFILIATE TREASURER Gene Schroeder Nick Wilkinson Jan Moon Rob Skillin Edie Price 929-2161 528-8880 927-1310 473-0788 489-8491 EDITOR ASST. EDITOR PUBLICITY LIBRARIANS HOSPITALITY Markus Mumper Nick Wilkinson (Joan Field) Martin Howell & Pat Gilson 481-5596 773-1499 528-8880 (773-6644) Jeanne Hanysz Maggie Wagner 773-1499 544-5389 A one time free newsletter will be mailed out to those who sign in at the monthly meetings. Tylecodon paniculatus After this dues must be paid in order to start a subscription. Upcoming Events March 6 - 7 South Coast Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale South Coast Botanical Gardens - 9:00am to 4:00pm 26300 Crenshaw Blvd., Palos Verdes (310) 832-2262 April 10 The Cactus and Succulent Society of San Jose Buchser Middle School - 9:00am to 5:00pm 1111 Belomy St., Santa Clara (408) 295-1634 April 17 - 18 Green Scene Plant Sale Fullerton Arboretum - 10:00am to 4:00pm 1900 Associated Road, Fullerton (657) 278-3407 May 1 - 2 Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society 50th Annual Show & Sale Sacramento Garden and Art Center 15% off for all CCCSS members 3330 McKinley Blvd, Sacramento (530) 753-7011 May 1 - 2 Sunset Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale Veterans Memorial Center, Garden Room EL CHOYERO SPEAKS: 4117 Overland Ave., Culver City (310) 822-1783 Hola Amigo! Hello my friend! May 2 South Bay Epiphyllum Society Show & Sale In Baja Mexico they call me South Coast Botanical Gardens - 9:00am to 4:00pm El Choyero; north of the bor- 26300 Crenshaw Blvd., Palos Verdes (310) 833-6823 der I’m named The Cactus Man. In the coming months I will have May 8 short ‘how to’ tips on growing Gates Cactus & Succulent Society and enjoying our plants. I will also Jurupa Mountains Cultural Center - 9:00am to 4:00pm talk about the taxonomy and sci- 7621 Granite Hill Drive, Avon (909) 360-8802 ence that help us understand plant relationships and behavior. May 16 If you have specifi c questions or Huntington Botanical Gardens Plant Sale WHEEL THROWN AND Richard Rowe tips regarding these fascinating Huntington Botanical Gardens - 10:00am to 5:00pm HAND BUILT CERAMICS potter / artist plants, or if you have personal pho- 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino (626) 405-2160 EST. 1988 tographs and stories you want to share (please be discriminating), con- tact me at [email protected]. 7432 Exotic Garden Rd. Hospitality News Cambria, CA 93428 Remember though, free advice is al- Sign up to bring refreshments and get a 4 inch plant!! You must sign the Hos- The P 805 924 1340 ways worth what you’ve paid for it. pitality Sign-Up sheet and bring refreshments to get a plant. We need refresh- ments for each monthly meeting and we need to know who is bringing them. Clayworks [email protected] Hasta la vista amigo! Thanks to everyone who has been contributing to the refreshment fund; dona- Until next time my good friend! tions can be made at the refreshment table. ~Pat PLANTAE, MAGNOLIOPHYTA, SAXIFRAGALES, CRASSULACEAE Geof Stein (palmbob) Aeonium Aeonium are one of the most ornamental of all the succulents. Even those that don’t climates they will probably need to be watered frequently or put on drip irrigation. I appreciate succulents seem to like these plants. Perhaps it is the fact they look like large, have rarely overwatered an Aeonium and the more frequently I water the ones I have, colorful, rubbery fl owers that these popular plants have such an appeal. And luckily the better they look. They do not need to be thoroughly watered though as the main many are easy plants to grow as well. The following article is an introduction, along with water-absorbing roots are near the surface with the deeper roots functioning nearly some of my own experiences, to these amazing plants. solely as support. Most Aeonium come originally from the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain in the Pot life also means one can move the plants in and out in good and bad weather situ- Atlantic Ocean, with a few oddball species from several isolated parts of Central Africa. ations. As mentioned already, these plants do not like heat, and high temps will often The climate of the Canary Islands is fairly Mediterranean so these plants are perfectly cause root death, and then plant death. So during high heat times of year, they may adapted to many similar climates around the globe. Most are moderately drought toler- need to be moved indoors in a window (indoors in low light is also very diffi cult for these ant (though less so than most might guess), mildly frost tolerant (some more than others), plants and most will quickly weaken and colors will fade).