Cactus and Succulent Society Show Plants

This is the 50th anniversary Cactus and Succulent Society Show, held at the Huntington Library and Botanic Garden in San Marino, CA.

I will be entering and selling both plants and pots.

I'm entering 15 or so plants.  I'm never sure of the exact number until the morning when I have to put them into the car.  Some come out, others go in.

Turbinicarpus knuthianus 

It is in a 14 inch Erika van Auker pot and is barely movable.

 Astrophytum myriostigma (Tulense)

Grown from seed.  It gradually outgrew all of my cold frames.  It is in one of my pots.

Astrophytum myriostigma 'Onzuka' crest

Another in one of my pots.  An old crest from Miles Anderson.

Cereus jamacaru crest

A seed grown plant from CSSA Seed bank seed. The batch of seeds produced several monstrose seedlings, this being the best by far.  It is in one of my pots.

 

Cleistocactus winterii variegated crest with variegated semi-normals

Another Miles Anderson crest in one of my pots.  It never wins, the judges rightfully mark it down because of the brown areas.  It's such a wonderful weird plant I enter it anyway, just to watch people try to figure out what it is.  Lots of photos taken of this.

Cochimea pondii

Again in one of my pots.  I don't use my pots as often as appearing in this blog.

Coryphantha radians

Potted in a wonderful Evelynn Stevens pot.  I'm afraid it will outgrow this in the next year.

 

Eriosyce species.

This is in a Joe Wujick Pot.  I'm not sure of the species.  I have flower pictures, but they don't match or even come close to any reference. 

The picture of the unknown Eriosyce.

Eriosyce bulbocalyx

An old plant, originally from Rene Caro, and growing steadily.  It is ready for a bigger pot.  Currently in one of my own.

Espostoa ritteri crest

An old Miles Anderson crest in a wonderful Joe Wujick pot. The secret to growing large crests like this is to immediately get them out of the undersized pots they come in, and put them into something large. 

Gymnocalycium tudae (marsoneri ssp megatae)

I believe this is a Joe Wujcik pot.

Mammillaria chionocephala

It one of my early pots.  It really should go into something nicer.  Maybe next year.

Mammillaria crucigera

When young this is painfully slow.  When old it is too.  In a great Joe Wujcik pot.

Mammillaria lloydii

In one of my early attempts at pottery.  It looks better in person than in this picture, but this needs repotting as well.

Mytillocalycium 'Pollop'

Around for quite awhile.  This is beginning to show its age.  It's still a wonderful plant.  In one of my pots.

Oxbow

It's been awhile.

Pictures from Oxbow, Lesotho are below.
 

We drove from the New Oxbow Lodge to Two Gun Pass.  The spring  had been dry, so there weren't as many flowers as we hoped, we were limited to just a few million to choose from.  Although the spring had been dry, it was raining nearly every afternoon on the trip and flooding was a problem.  Here we are lightening the bus as it is guided through a wash.

Just ahead of the bus were massive Heliochrysums and a fantastic waterfall.

The bus took us to Two Gun pass, a little over 9000 feet altitude.  A scenic place with views for miles in all directions.  We were dropped off at 10 in the morning, while the bus went to be refueled, with the nearest gas station 60 km away.  It would only take two hours, so we left rain clothing and lunches on the bus.. 

Lots of pans with small succulents (Crassula setulosa above) and opportunistic bulbs.  With near daily rain, these do well in spite of the poor soil.

A nearby geranium, probably Geranium multisectum.

Even more interesting is Aster ericifolious, a nearly succulent member of the family

Romulea thodei was a small, sparsely distributed species.  Only a few were found, spaced fairly far apart.

Moraea alpina was also found at the top of Two Gun Pass, often just a few feet from Romuleas and Crassulas.  Heliochrysums were everywhere.

This is the enemy.  They are brought here for summer grazing and eat everything except Helichrysums and a few other shrubs..  All land is owned by the King, and used by everyone resulting in significant over grazing.

This photo was taken at 1:00.  A thunderstorm was coming, the bus hadn't arrived, we were at 9000 feet and were the tallest things for 30 miles.  We started a long walk back to the New Oxbow Lodge, hurrying to try and beat the rain, but stopping every hundred feet to photograph a new plant.

Nearer to Oxbow lodge, on a hill where sheep and goats could not comfortably graze was Delosperma nubigenum.

While looking for the Delospermas, we came upon two wonderful plants.

Eucomis nana

Eucomis schijffii

While on the hill, this fantastic Zantedeschia aethiopica.  The bus eventually made it back and we were on to central Lesotho the next day.