The days are starting to get a bit longer; snowdrops are poking out their flowers here in south Wales and the daffodils won’t be far behind. Many of us are thinking about getting ready to sow seeds and wondering where on earth we are going to put all our new plants. Some will be thinking about adding artificial lighting and those of us growing succulents indoors will be making sure that their brightest windowsills are ready.
Of course it’s still early days but are there really no Branches or Zones planning any shows, meetings or marts this summer/autumn? If you have an event coming up then this is the place to advertise that. eNews goes out to all members with an email address and a large number of non-members too. It is also then posted on FB and other social media sites. I really want to hear from you.
With Brexit and the difficulties in obtaining plants from Europe so easily, I’d like all UK based cactus and succulent nursery owners to send me a short article on one of their favourite plants (with a couple of photos) and we will feature them and give out their contact details in future editions of eNews.
I look forward to receiving your articles for eNews on any matters of interest to members, especially for the ‘Favourite things’ feature, but any cactus or succulent-related pieces would be especially appreciated over the coming months, as would photos of favourite plants with a paragraph or two explaining why they are so fantastic. Articles can be any length from a paragraph or two to around 900 words. Longer articles are more suited to CactusWorld. Please submit items of interest to enews@bcss.org.uk
February Zoom Talks
Andreas Hofacker - A Journey to the Cacti of Brazil
More than 40 years ago I got my first cactus, a Notocactus ottonis. Since then I have been infected by cactus fever and especially Brazilian cacti. In the meantime I have had the privilege to visit Brazilian cacti several times in their natural habitats and to discover and describe some new species (from the Cactaceae, Bromeliaceae and Euphorbiaceae).
Brazil is one of the centres of diversity of cacti. We will visit the cacti in the different biomes (habitats) and learn more about the fascinating and rich cactus-flora of Brazil.
Woody Minnich - Conservation, Cacti & Succulents Around the World
There has never been a time when the conservation of our cacti and other succulents has been more urgent! Due to many factors, our precious succulents, as well as many other plants and animals, are now facing severe problems. When travelling around the world in succulent rich regions, I have observed an amazing increase in the devastation of habitats and the illegal removal of many rare and endangered species of cacti, succulents, and other plants and animals. Not only are we losing these very special and unique plants, sadly enough, we are aggressively destroying many valuable and irreplaceable habitats. Our desires to urbanize and agriculturally develop great numbers of virgin environments have only produced severe ecosystem imbalances, thus the extinction, at a most rapid rate, of many of the world’s most beautiful and fascinating plants and animals.
Woody, as he is commonly known, grew up in the Mojave Desert and has had an attraction to desert plants and animals since the early 1950’s. He has been involved with the cactus and succulent world as a grower, field explorer, club and organization leader, writer, photographer, lecturer and presenter.
Woody and his wife, Kathy, live in Cedar Grove, New Mexico. He is a retired secondary school teacher of 32 years where he taught graphics, art and architecture. In the cactus and succulent hobby, Woody is recognized for his high energy and creative spirit. As an educator, he has become an important part of the hobby and thus is an honorary life member of twelve C&S societies. With 51 years in the hobby and 64 years in the field, he has many experiences to share and numerous photos to show.
Photo: Woody in the field in New Zealand with his buddy, the famous Tuatara.
Tom Glavich is a long-time grower of cacti and succulent plants. He is one of the co-chairs of the Inter-City Cactus and Succulent Show in Los Angeles, the largest in the United States with typically 1,500 or so entries. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Cactus and Succulent Society and the author of two booklets for the CSSA, one on monocots and one on dicots, both focused on beginners. He is a frequent speaker and show judge at events throughout the Southwest United States.
This talk is a survey of mutant cacti and succulents, with a look at crests, monstrose, and variegated plants. The talk includes examples of each, and discusses how loss of meristem control produces these features. Sections of the talk show display techniques to maximize the appearance, and concludes with a section on cultivation and propagation.
Ralph has been growing cacti and succulents since he was in primary school, when he acquired a Rebutia minuscula at a fete. He recently retired to North Wales, and there built his dream greenhouse - and rebutiasand aylosterasstill comprise one of the main parts of his collection. He studied Latin at school, but much of that concerned the Romans fighting wars, so is of rather limited use in this talk, as you might imagine. In fact, botanical Latin would probably seem very foreign to the Romans, as we will see as we explore how plant names work, and what the Latin names of cacti and succulents mean.
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Late journal and impact on seed distribution
We were informed during December that there were delays in receipt of the journal right across the country. All journals were sent out from the mailing house on the same day. We understand that these delays were due to the lockdowns/tier systems with many people posting their presents rather than getting together, and this combined with the unprecedented volumes of post from online ordering plus the fact that Royal Mail needed to operate strict social distancing in their offices and sorting offices. We are living in unprecedented times and I doubt many people could have anticipated this issue.
There was consequently a knock-on effect for the seed list that is enclosed with the journal. Due to the extraordinary times that we are living in there was more demand than ever for seeds. These two events together resulted in many people being disappointed and not able to receive the seeds requested or in fact any seeds at all. For all those that missed out all I can say is sorry. In almost record time poor Peter, our very hard-working seed distributor, sent out over 15,500 packets of seed in over 600 orders. There were in fact more seeds offered this year than in many previous years.
With the new website nearly ready to go live we will be working closely with Peter to make the seed list available online complete with an online purchasing system.
Next years seed offering has already been acquired by Colin who works tirelessly and seed is currently being counted and packed. As ever this is being undertaken, like all Society roles by unpaid volunteers so if you think you can spare an hour or two a week to help the BCSS in many different ways, please contact me.
I would like to introduce readers to a succulent daisy because, although it is not the sort of leafy succulent that I normally grow, it is a really excellent species that deserves wider attention. Jennifer and I won our plant, which had been sourced un-named from M&S, as a raffle prize at a paperweight society meeting of all places. At that time, when it was without flowers, we thought that it was something in the Crassulaceae. I have also seen it in mixed trays of succulents from the Netherlands, usually without a name although a friend saw one with the incorrect epithet Senecio cephalophorus on the label. With the help of our esteemed President, who is one of the few people who have kept track of the changes in taxonomy in the succulent Asteraceae, I have been able to give the name Kleinia galpinii to this plant with a fair degree of certainty.
The species was first grown at Kew in 1890 from seed provided from South Africa by E E Galpin and according to Rowley’s Succulent Compositae book it quickly became very popular in the stove houses of the late Victorian and Edwardian era. However, I get the impression that it became very rare in cultivation until one of the big Dutch wholesalers started to propagate it. I had certainly not noticed it for sale or in collections in my 55 years of interest in succulents until relatively recently.
It is essentially a summer-growing species which produces terminal flower spikes from each rosette of flat silvery-grey leaves in the autumn. These elongate to about 20cm with several branches, each one crowned with a capitulum containing a cluster of bright orange-red flowers, 4cm across. Flowering lasts for several months, continuing over Christmas. Because flowers are terminal, the stems are chopped back in the spring and each stump produces several new rosettes. If required these can be cut off and rooted to provide additional plants. The species seems happy down to 5°C during winter.
I consider this to be an excellent plant in every way and one that I am tempted to recommend for an Award of Garden Merit to my RHS Committee on the grounds of attractiveness, long flowering period, ease of growth and freedom from pests. However it must have reasonable availability and although it can be found in garden centres and other shops, it is hardly ever sold under its proper name. A curious situation really.
Text and photos by Terry Smale Photo below: Kleinia galpinii
Jane Perrone Podcast - Episode 169: Cactus and Succulent poaching - what you need to know
Rare cacti and succulents are being ripped out of the ground and sold illegally all over the world. Dr Jared Margulies of the University of Alabama joins Jane to discuss the issue of plant poaching: from what to look for when you’re buying rare succulents, to who is behind the illegal trade.
Photo: Dudleya farinosa growing in California. (Photo: Stephanie Falzone)
Graham’s musings 8
At the heart of most cactophiles hobby is the actual growing. It is a common human desire to acquire more of what you like, or to ‘get the set’. You only have to see the popularity of plant sales to appreciate that adding to our collections is an activity we all enjoy. But it has consequences and I write this from personal experience. For me, selling plants to enthusiasts is great fun. Some have a list of what they already have and scan my labels to see if I have something they don’t have. Others have a ‘wants list’ that they hand to me hopefully. I remember an occasion a long time ago when I was manning a Branch sales table. An elderly member of the general public came to me clutching a flat-padded opuntia. She told me that she had a round cactus and a tall one so she wanted this one to ‘complete the set’!
Whatever reason you have for buying more plants, you still have to find a place to grow them. No matter how big your glasshouse is, you will always fill it. This can lead to plants being relegated to unsuitable places, like under the bench, resulting in their slow demise. Erecting more shelves can also have a detrimental effect on plants under them. A full glasshouse discourages the owner from repotting plants when they need it, simply because it would then require more space.
Over the years, I have amassed collections of genera in preparation for writing about them so, for instance, I ended up with thousands of Gymnocalycium. When my book was published, I had the challenge of disposing of many to make room for Matucana. My liking of all the plants makes that difficult and I am only now facing up to the reality that I can keep only my favourite species.
It is remarkable that we can grow such a diverse collection of succulent plants in a single glasshouse even though their optimum growing conditions may be somewhat different. Small changes in environment can be the difference between flourishing and simply surviving or even dying. A glasshouse will have a range of environments, for instance near the glass roof, under the benches or perhaps in the shade of something nearby such as a tree or a house. So, knowledge of what a particular plant enjoys will guide you to the best place to put it. This will tend to result in plants from the same genus and liking similar conditions ending up together. This arrangement helps you when you are watering since this is also to some extent dependent on the genus. But it is worth bearing in mind that small pots dry out a lot quicker than large ones so need to be watered more often. As a general rule, I think that there is tendency to under-water small pots and over-water large ones. The drawback to this practical organization is that the overall aesthetic appearance of the collection is less appealing than when shapes, colours and forms are mixed in a pleasing way. The picture of De Herdt’s collection in 1983 shows the contrast of the bedded out artistic arrangement with the functional sorted arrangement on the benches.
Good Growing!
Graham Charles
Photo Below: Part of the De Herdt collection in Belgium, photographed in 1983.
FloraGuard: Tackling the illegal trade in endangered plants in endangered plants
Over the last 60 years, commerce in exotic wild plants has increased in Western countries. Alongside the legal trade in plants, the profitability of the market has also boosted illegal markets. Wild plant trafficking threatens and destroys numerous species and important natural resources and hinders the rule of law and security as profits are also used to finance other forms of trafficking. The Internet has increased the illegal trade in wild plants (both of live specimens and derivative products), facilitating the encounter of supply and demand; no matter how highly specialised the market in certain wild plants, it is much easier to find potential buyers or sellers online than in the physical world.
Unfortunately, the policing of such criminal activity is still scarce and poorly resourced: a major challenge is the fact that many law enforcement agencies have limited training opportunities and lack of equipment and specific expertise to counter effectively this illegal trade. In this context, the question of how can we best control and prevent this criminal market needs to be addressed.
FloraGuard combines innovative and cross-disciplinary ways of analysing online marketplaces for the illegal trade in endangered plants and analyses of existing policing practices to assist law enforcement in the detection and investigation of illegal trades of endangered plants.
Lockdown has given us time to look back and drag out those old snaps – ok, so this is a digital picture, but you know what I mean! Reminiscing on some good times helps us to look forward to when we can get together again.
This picture was taken in March 2016 at Specks nursery Exotica in Germany. It closed two years later and so many of the great European nurseries have closed over recent years.
Photo: L to R – Ian Armstrong, Ernst Specks, Alan Rollason, Stirling Baker
Succulessence - An Irwin Lightstone video
A 5-minute video of succulent plant photos by Irwin Lightstone. This is a nice relaxing 5-minute diversion from the stresses and strains of everyday life.
Irwin has featured previously in CactusWorld and is a renowned photographer and teacher of photography in the USA. He has kindly agreed to share the link with us.
We very much enjoyed interacting with you at our Shows Committee Zoom presentation on 12 January and thank you for joining us and for your questions. If you really enjoyed that, maybe you would enjoy the Showing and Judging Weekend, so please do contact Bill Darbon by email: william.darbon77@btinternet.com to reserve your place.
We now have another confirmed speaker, Ian Woolnough, a very entertaining speaker, who is going to speak on Pediocactus and Sclerocactus. Watch this space for more updates! Do let us know if there is something you would particularly like us to cover, because we are still finalising the programme for the weekend. We look forward to seeing many of you there!
Mammillaria Society news
The Mammillaria Society has a new editor, and a larger journal with more content. There is also extra online content for members. The annual seed list has free seeds for members, and you don’t even have to pay for postage.
The Society doesn’t just cover the genus Mammillaria, but also includes Turbinicarpus, Thelocactus, Escobaria and Coryphantha, so if you are interested in finding out more about where these plants come from and how to grow them, you need to join up. Four journals per year, great online content and free seeds – what are you waiting for?
Zoom meetings As mentioned in the last Journal, the Mammillaria Society will use Zoom to host quarterly talks and also their AGM. Full details including the all-important links will be posted on the Society website. Please make a diary note NOW
18th March at 19:30 – Inaugural Talk – Chris Davies on ‘Among my Mammillarias’
20th May at 19:30 – Annual General Meeting – agenda will be available on the Society website
17th June at 19:30 – A talk by renowned Mammillaria expert Wolter ten Hoeve ‘Mammillarias in my Collection and in habitat’
The schedule for the next set of talks will be published in the August Journal.
Annual Subscription for 2021: £13.00 (UK), £20.00 (Europe), £24.00 (Overseas)
Join via the Website: http://mammillaria.net/
Freddy Lampo
Freddy Lampo, the editor of the Belgian cactus journal, suddenly passed away on 14 January. I know Freddy had a lot of British friends and acquaintances, but I don’t know them all and don’t have the details of all. I only have the email addresses of a few he had good contacts with so am notifying anyone who has not heard the news.
Peter Rely, travelling companion during his last US trip.
Freddy Lampo at ELK 2014 (Photo: David Rushforth)
We hope that you have enjoyed reading this eNews.
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Contact
If you would like to discuss anything in the newsletter please email enews@bcss.org.uk
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Editor: Al Laius
Layout: Jennie May
Contributors: Hazel Taylor, Graham Charles, Ian Thwaites. Jane Perrone, Irwin Lightstone, Peter Rely, Alan Rollason and Terry Smale.
