Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society

Author: gerhard

  • SCSS Potluck, May 19, 2025

    SCSS Potluck, May 19, 2025

    The May meeting will be held on the 3rd Monday, not the 4th Monday of May, so as not to interfere with any Memorial Day plans. We will be having a potluck.

    We will talk about the positives of the Sale/Show but not overdo the business aspect of things. This is a time to eat, relax, talk and enjoy ourselves. There will be index cards that you can use to comment on the Show and Sale. Send me an email if that works for you. We welcome any positive suggestions for tweaking the Sale/Show for future years.

    For details on what to bring, check the May newsletter.

  • Next meeting, April 28, 2025

    Next meeting, April 28, 2025

    How Plants Get Around: Flying, Hitchhiking, and Other Cool Methods

    The speaker at our next meeting on Monday, April 28, 2025 will be our club’s own J.D. Wikert. He will present on the various modes that plants use move from one location to another. J.D. will discuss some of the more interesting ways plants have of distributing themselves across the landscape. This is an aspect of cacti and succulent horticulture that we don’t often focus on.

    J.D. will bring plants to sell at the meeting. He can take cash or Venmo.

    Meeting details:

    Doors open at 6:15 pm for plant sales and fellowship.

    Program begins at 7:00 pm.

    Shepard Garden & Arts Center
    3330 McKinley Blvd
    Sacramento, CA 95816

  • Open gardens

    Open gardens

    We have several open gardens coming up: May 24, May 31, and June 7, 2025. For addresses, see the May newsletter.

    Saturday, April 24: 9AM-2PM
    DAVE ROBERTS, SACRAMENTO

    Dave Roberts will be having another open garden this year. If you’ve been there before, you know there are great things to look forward to in Dave’s garden. If you haven’t been to Dave’s, don’t miss your chance this year!

    Saturday, May 31: 10AM-2PM
    AMIE FRISCH, COLOMA

    Amie Frisch hosted an Open Garden last year and will give us all another opportunity to see her greenhouse amidst the oak studded countryside. Her place is a few minutes past Coloma in Garden Valley and it’s well worth the drive.

    Saturday, June 7: 10AM-3PM
    LINDA PARTMAN AND ELAINE THOMAS, SACRAMENTO

    Linda Partmann and Elaine Thomas, neighbors and best friends, will host open gardens in the Greenhaven neighborhood south of downtown Sacramento. Their backyards touch and they have a gate, so can tour both of them.

  • March 2025 meeting: Show Prep

    March 2025 meeting: Show Prep

    Our next meeting on Monday, March 24, 2025 will be all about our upcoming Show & Sale, May 2-4, 2025. Show chairs Mariel Dennis and Keith Taylor and others will give you the inside scoop, sharing everything you need to know about the Show. They will take us through the dates and times, how to fill out registration forms for entry plants, how to prep your plants, and the judging process. They will also give a demonstration of how you can stage a winning presentation for the Show.

    Meeting details:

    Doors open at 6:15 pm for plant sales and fellowship.

    Program begins at 7:00 pm.

    Shepard Garden & Arts Center
    3330 McKinley Blvd
    Sacramento, CA 95816

  • March 2025 Mini Show themes: Ferocactus and Gasteria

    March 2025 Mini Show themes: Ferocactus and Gasteria

    The themes for the March 2025 Mini Show are Ferocactus in the Cactus category and Gasteria in the Succulents category. For more information on these two genera, see the March 2025 newsletter.

    If you are participating in the Mini Show, please plan on
    arriving on time to get your plant set up and give the
    members time to vote! Voting ends at 7 pm when the
    speaker starts. Winners are announced after the
    presentation.

  • Discounted copies of Jeff Moore’s Agave book, 2nd edition

    Discounted copies of Jeff Moore’s Agave book, 2nd edition

    The 2nd edition of Jeff Moore’s and Jeremy Spath’s book Agaves: Species, Hybrids, and Cultivars is now available. This is the most beautiful book on agaves ever published: more than 2000 images on 365 pages. The 2nd edition has been completely revised; about 10% of the content is completely new.

    Gerhard Bock is friends with Jeff and Jeremy and can get the new book at a discount, probably 15-20% off the list price is $49.95. If anybody would like a copy, please email Gerhard at gerhard@succulentsandmore.com or talk to him at the next meeting. The more books we order, the more we save.

    Click here for more information on the 2nd edition.

    Click here to read Gerhard’s review of the 1st edition.

  • February 2025 Meeting (2/24/25)

    February 2025 Meeting (2/24/25)

    FEBRUARY MEETING:
    February 24th, 2025, 6:00pm -9:15pm

    Doors open at 6:15 for plant sales and fellowship. Program begins at 7 PM.

    Open to the public. No admission fee. Free parking. Refreshments served.

    PROGRAM:
    Everything (a lot anyway)You Need to Know to Get the Most Out of Your Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Club Membership

    There has been and currently is a lot going on in your club. Your club membership can be more enjoyable, rewarding, and promote your hobby enthusiast growth by joining in as we take a look behind the curtain at all the goings on during this month’s meeting.

    There will be two parts to the meeting. First, we will provide tips and information for how to get the most out of your club membership. In the second half of the meeting, we will have a member Show-n-Tell session in a small group format.

    How can you leverage your club membership:

    • To get more for your cactus and succulent buying dollar
    • To gain access to more, interesting, and rare plants
    • To see cacti and succulents in more natural and beautiful landscape applications

    We will very briefly look at the club across all of the decades of its existence. We will move quickly to looking at the club currently and new directions on the horizon. Some of these directions are most welcome, and others may require the club to navigate wisely, creatively, and with enthusiasm.

    For the Show-n-Tell, please bring either 1) a plant you love (and may even be thinking of entering in the juried show in May), 2) a plant that is giving you trouble, or 3) a plant you would like to know more about. We will have club “experts” circulating to offer help on identification, culture, or how to show your plant to its best.

    Please come. Guaranteed that you will be more ready to leverage your membership. Guaranteed that you will enjoy yourself, connect with other members, and contribute to the forward momentum of the Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society.

    For more information, read the February 2025 edition of Thorny Issues.

  • February 2025 Newsletter

    February 2025 Newsletter

    Here is the February 2025 edition of Thorny Issues. We have lots of announcements and updates this month. 

  • Gerhard Bock Open Garden, March 1

    Gerhard Bock Open Garden, March 1

    Gerhard Bock will open his garden in Davis on Saturday, March 1, from 10 am to 2 pm. Gerhard has a large collection of aloes, and many will be in bloom. There are plenty of other things to see, too: agaves, cacti, and companion plants from around the world. Check out Gerhard’s blog for a sneak peek: https://www.succulentsandmore.com/

    Email Gerhard at gerhard@succulentsandmore.com to RSVP and get the address. Or, if you know where he lives, just show up.

  • SCSS T-Shirt Contest

    SCSS T-Shirt Contest

    We need your help to design a new T-shirt for our club! Submit your design, and it could be featured on T-shirts and other merchandise to be sold at our upcoming Show & Sale in May, as well as at club meetings.

    For more details and to submit your design, go to this page.

    Deadline for submissions: March 12, 2025. The winner will be announced at the March meeting on March 24, 2025.