Minutes from the March 16th, 2008 meeting

Generally meetings will proceed in the following format, with exceptions made to accommodate speakers and special presentations:

• 2:00 - Arrival (use of library books, etc.), plant display, plant sales
• 2:30 - Welcome and announcements; any further business
• 2:40 - Cactus of the Month
• 2:50 - Succulent of the Month
• 3:00 - Break
• 3:15 - General Program
• 4:30 - Dismissal

The following minutes describe the meeting in condensed form. For complete information, please attend the next meeting

Eugene Collias filled in for the ailing Sheila. We hope she’s better soon.

Welcome back to Peter Gammarano has been traveling extensively this year and will provide the program for our September meeting on his CSSA Brazil trip.

Jean Macak is out of town and Karen Summers filled in on minutes.

Eugene presented the Rainbow Garden (Tucson) catalog to the club for the library. He also shared a CSSA brochure and encouraged members to consider joining. Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville sent brochures also.

For the May meeting we will go to Ron McKitrick’s gardens in Union Gap, near Yakima. Visit time is 1:30 p.m. Saturday May 17. On Sunday we can see the native Pediocactus outside of Vantage. Ron will be featured in a national magazine for his gardens. Graham Charles of England said Ron’s garden is the nicest outdoor cacti garden he’s ever seen. Ron is also an accomplished painter. For places to stay, check the Oxford Inn & Super 8.

Brag Plants:
Peter G. shared his amaryllis he grew from seed and created as a cross. He also shared his Orthophaton “Copper Penny” that is in flower. He got a piece of it from a club member. It keeps getting bigger and produces lots of offsets.
Joan shared her crassula “Morgan’s Beauty” that bloomed. She has had it for 2-3 years.
Peter G. shared two books he brought to show the club. “The Great Cacti Ethnobotany and Biogeography” Peter says is very readable and an excellent book.
George Krasle brought in an Echinofossulocactus zacatacasensis cactus in bloom. It was once partially eaten by a rat but has grown in to recover from it.
Nick shared some of his plants that he likes from his collections. He’s been experimenting with growing succulents in water, and cacti and succulents on bark.

Dixon provide the Treasure’s report. We are in the red this year. This is primarily due to members not paying their dues. Anyone owing will be hearing from Dixon soon.

Dixon is listed as our cactus expert on our website, therefore a woman contacted him regarding identifying the kind of cactus she had. He requested photos and it was so amazing he brought them in to share with the club. It was unanimous that the Aporocactus flagelliformis was the best anyone had ever seen.

Dixon also shared correspondence he has had with Zoltan Varga from Hungary who has a photo DVD of his 4,500 km trip across the Peruvian Andes. Which is for sale. You can contact Zoltan at vargaz@piszkenet.hu

The date of the June Conservatory event was clarified: Sunday, June 8 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. our club will have members at a table talking about succulents and our club. DON’T FORGET the conservatory plant sale is May 10.

Peter G. reported on TOPSS (The Odd Plant Show and Sale). (Note to new members – this is a large sale we have held each fall at Sky Nursery. It’s an opportunity for members to sell plants, to make ourselves known to the community, and to build up our club’s finances). The new manager at Sky says they won’t probably do a fall event but will have a customer appreciation day in June. They are removing the greenhouse structures that we always used so there won’t be space for us to use anyway. Peter also told the group they need to get someone else to coordinate this because he will be traveling much more now. Possibilities were discussed: Swansons? Northgate, Crossroads Community Center? Joan mentioned that Crossroads supports 3 iris society sales. They advertise and there is traffic. Nick will check with them. It was mentioned that we might be too late to have a sales event there this year, but we are hopeful.

Cactus of the Month: Don A.
Don chose to present on tree cactus which come from a variety of families: Pereskiodeae, Opuntiodea (3 species), Cactiodeae (7 species). To begin with Don asked us to define a tree and helped us out by stating that for the purposes of his talk a tree was at least 3 feet tall, has bark, and produces wood. He prepared a handout of a tree with the segments of the inner trunk cut away showing the parts. In the cactus family there are variations to the basic tree structure. These variations are designed to allow cacti to survive in the climates in which they live. Thus the wide variety of cactus wood because cactus grow in such a variety of climates and settings. Cactus wood is very light yet strong enough to make furniture, walking sticks, and rain sticks (which we asked Don not to wave around).

Succulent of the Month: Karen S.
Karen presented Haworthia which are from South Africa, with a few in Madagascar. They are neat, attractive, small plants which lend themselves to being grown on a windowsill very nicely. They are frequently available in stores and unless they are tagged it can be difficult to name them because they hybridize freely with themselves and Gasteria . Haworthia also vary in appearance according to the circumstances in which they are grown – low light, bright light, dry, etc. In general, keep them well drained and dry. They usually put out offsets for propagation and can also be propagated from leaf cuttings if a bit of the stem is cut along with the leaf.

Door prizes were awarded: Herb won one of Dorothy Collias’ plants. Peter G. won the Primal Cactus Lights.

We took a short snack break with snacks provided by Karen & Bill.

The meeting then shifted to the program portion which was a Plant Sale. Many desirable plants arrived with one owner and left with another.

Respectfully submitted by: Karen Summers,Librarian of the CCSS of Washington State