Skyview Succulents: San Gabriel Valley Winter Show Entries

The final show of the year is the San Gabriel Valley Cactus and Succulent Society Winter Show. This show is planned to show the winter growing succulents as they come into their fall growing period when many of them look their best. The show has moved later in the year as increasingly hot autumns make it difficult to teg plants ready. This year was no exception, it was 90 degrees the week before the show, and many show entries were cacti whcich had yet to show signs of entering their winter dormancy.

These are some of my entries. Several appear in earlier blogs so you can follow their development.

Arioecarpus kotschoubeyanus cv 'Pear Pimples' dressed for fall. In summer it is much pinker. Another couple of years should make this a spectacular specimen.

I've entered this as Mammillaria pondi, and also is Cochimea pondi, depending on the show rules. It's a great old plant in any case.

Copiapoa hypogaea ssp hypogaea crest, being shown for the first time in an Erika van AUker pot. It really needs a couple more years, but already loking pretty much as I would like ti to.

There is a geophyte class, and with some trepidation I entered this cyclamen graecum. It is not a genus often displayed at succulent shows, but it is everybit as geophytic as some of the other plants we show. It took a third in a very competitive class.

Echinopsis longispina needs a bigger pot next growing season. A great plant. It should be fun to repot. The spinds are stiff, fragile and sharp.

Geohintonia mexicana slowly growing into a good show plant.

Haworthia truncata cv. 'Lime Green'. Another prize winner, again a third. I sold this two weeks after the show, before it either grew or I realized how special it was.