Gerhard will have an open garden on Saturday, March 7, from 11 am to 3 pm. Even if you came to Gerhard’s open garden in October, there’ll be plenty of new things to discover. Plus, the aloes should be in full bloom, including some fairly mature specimens.
Check out this photo from last year. To see more pictures, visit his blog, Succulents and More.
WHERE: Davis (see February newsletter for address)
WHEN: Saturday, March 7, 11 am to 3 pm
Cassidy wiil show you plants and tell you about them!
Rare and exotic plants that you may not have seen in person will be featured. Cassidy is a club member and owns Radiant Cactus. He will be a vendor at the club May show.
Come to the meeting to see and hear about some special plants!
February meeting:
February 23rd, 2026
6:15pm -9:15pm
Doors open at 6:15 for plant sales and fellowship.
Program begins at 7 PM.
presented by Kyle Johnson and Gerhard Bock
Want a climate-resilient, modern, water-wise succulent garden but don’t know where to start? Think you need to visit specialty nurseries to find plant material for your design? Think again!
Join us for an inspiring presentation and learn how to create a stunning landscape using affordable and accessible succulents from your local big-box store. We’ll demystify the process from start to finish, showing you how to:
Whether you’re a beginner or a budget-savvy gardener, you’ll leave with the confidence and knowledge to turn a simple shopping cart of plants into a showstopping, low-maintenance garden display.
SCSS members Kyle Johnson and Gerhard Bock have created spectacular succulent landscapes in their own gardens. Many plants are from low-cost sources like Lowe’s and The Home Depot. To see photos of both their gardens, visit Gerhard’s
blog, Succulents and More.
Disclaimer: Although this talk is on big-box plant acquisition, we highly recommend starting at your local nurseries, where your dollars will stay local, supporting your community and neighbors. Additionally, local nursery folks can help guide you in your plant selection.
EVENT REMINDER:
The club will have a booth at the Northern California Home & Landscape Expo at Cal Expo on Jan 30, 31, and Feb 1: https://www.homeandlandscapeexpo.com/.
Members are welcome to come visit our booth, and we can always use a few volunteers to talk with interested people about cacti & succulents. If you volunteer for at least 3 hours, we can provide parking passes for you. There is a special place for volunteer parking that also allows you to get into the Expo for free. If interested, please contact Bill.
WHAT: Northern California Home & Landscape Expo
WHERE: Cal Expo (Google Maps)
WHEN:
Friday, Jan 30, 11AM-5PM
Saturday, Jan 31, 10AM-5PM
Sunday, Feb 1, 11AM-5PM
Join us on Monday December 15th for our annual Holiday Dinner & Gift Exchange. Please note that this is on the THIRD MONDAY of December, NOT our typical 4th Monday.
UPDATE: As of 12/8/25 the dinner is full. To get on the waitlist, email amie@vividroot.net. Amie will let you know if a spot opens up.
This year the Club will provide dinner free to members, but guests will need to pay $20 each that night. Set-up and socializing will begin at 6:15 PM with dinner starting at 7 PM. The caterers will supply meat and vegetarian entrees, as well as simple treats for dessert. Having said that, if any of you want to share your special Christmas Holiday treats/desserts with us, we would love it! Show us your holiday baking skills!
For those who wish to participate in our fun, but optional, Gift Exchange, bring a loosely wrapped gift valued at about $10-$25. The less tape we have to cut off with knives, scissors and machetes, the better. Bags are great for wrapping. The gift (or gift card) can be cacti, succulent or garden themed. Hand crafted or home grown items work great. Gag gifts can sometimes work, but nothing inappropriate! It’s a family Holiday dinner, not a Las Vegas night out. Remember, children may be there! If you are going to participate in the gift giving exchange, you must bring a gift. If you choose not to bring a gift, you can still watch and laugh at the rest of us.
There will also be gifts given for most festive holiday attire and most over the top Christmas sweater. 1st and 2nd place. Show off your wildest outfits!
Happy Holidays!
presented by Ernesto Sandoval
Ernesto Sandoval has grown South African bulbs and geophytes for many years, both professionally and privately. He wants to share some of his experiences with this beautiful and diverse set of plants, particularly concerning propagation and cultivation. Mostly, through the use of gorgeous photos, he wants to convince us to grow more of these fascinating plants in our gardens with little effort (free winter rainfall) to bring a little more color into our gardens during the winter months!
Ernesto Sandoval has been pondering and seeking answers to the question of why plants grow and look the way they do for nearly 40 years. He regularly lectures to various Western Garden Clubs throughout the year. Desert plants are his particular passion. He describes himself as a “Jose of All Plants, Master of None” and loves learning from the experiences and passions of others and his own.
When he was about 13, he asked his dad why one tree was pruned a particular way and another tree another way. His dad answered bluntly, “Because that’s how you do it.” Since then he’s been learning and teaching himself the answers to those and many other questions by getting a degree at UC Davis in Botany and working from student weeder/waterer to Director over the last 30 years at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory. He is now a Graduate Student getting his Masters in Horticulture and Agronomy at UC Davis with a focus on the propagation and cultivation of drought-adapted plants.
Ernesto will have bulbs from Barry Rice for sale, including Oxalis palmifrons, Nerine sarniensis, Ixia, Trachandra tortilis, Albuca spiralis, Lachenalia aloides var. quadricolor, Haemanthus coccineus and others, to name a few.
We will conduct elections for next year’s SCSS Board of directors at our November meeting on November 24th. We will take nominations for President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and four Directors. All of the current officers and Directors have agreed to be candidates again, but if any SCSS member would like to be considered, they can self-nominate or have a member nominate them. Please do not nominate someone without their approval. The elected Board will be installed at the December meeting so they can begin planning for 2026.
presented by Kyle Johnson and Gerhard Bock
Want a climate-resilient, modern, water-wise succulent garden but don’t know where to start? Think you need to visit specialty nurseries to find plant material for your design? Think again!
Join us for an inspiring presentation and learn how to create a stunning landscape using affordable and accessible succulents from your local big-box store. We’ll demystify the process from start to finish, showing you how to:
Whether you’re a beginner or a budget-savvy gardener, you’ll leave with the confidence and knowledge to turn a simple shopping cart of plants into a showstopping, low-maintenance garden display.
SCSS members Kyle Johnson and Gerhard Bock have created spectacular succulent landscapes in their own gardens. Many plants are from low-cost sources like Lowe’s and The Home Depot. To see photos of both their gardens, visit Gerhard’s
blog, Succulents and More.
Disclaimer: Although this talk is on big-box plant acquisition, we highly recommend starting at your local nurseries, where your dollars will stay local, supporting your community and neighbors. Additionally, local nursery folks can help guide you in your plant selection.
Mariel Dennis will open her garden to all club members on Saturday, October 25 (2 —6 PM),
Address: 11842 Sandy Knoll Ct., Rancho Cordova, CA 95742
The cooler weather and recent rains are bringing lots of things into bloom. The Halloween decorations will be in full swing, and for those that are here between 5 and 6 PM, you should see the solar lights come on and turn the garden into a fairyland! Halloween
candy will also be available to get a head start on the spooky celebrations.
Please pass along to friends and family if you wish to begin Halloween a little early. Halloween attire and/or costumes are also welcome.
To give you an idea of what Mariel’s garden looks like, read this post on Succulents and More.
Gerhard Bock will open his Davis garden to SCSS members on Sunday, October 19 from 1 to 5pm. His garden is full of succulents like agaves, aloes, and cacti, combined with water-wise perennials and shrubs. The afternoon light is particularly beautiful at this time of year.
If you’ve been to Gerhard’s garden before, you’ll notice many changes, including new succulent mounds in the backyard and updated beds in the front. To get a taste of what there is to see, visit Gerhard’s blog Succulents and More.
If you’re interested in attending, email Gerhard for directions. Or, if you’ve been to Gerhard’s garden before, simply show up.
