Category: Monthly meeting

Exploring remote locations to try to find new species and decipher relationships between species can often get researchers into challenging situations on the sides of cliffs or in sketchy boats. Stephen has braved rough seas, steep climbs, and close encounters with dangerous wildlife as part of the process of naming five Dudleya species new to science. While describing these adventures, he will also talk about the many endangered species of Dudleya (a.k.a Liveforevers) and how grow them successfully.

Stephen McCabe worked in Yosemite for three summers, started studying Dudleya in 1983, then worked at the University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum for 30 years. His hobby of rock climbing has come in handy in accessing some of the species in the group he studies. He has published widely on the genus Dudleya and on a variety of subjects. Some of the publications were in Madroño, the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Fine Gardening, the Jepson Manual second edition, Systematic Botany, the American Alpine Journal, and Rock Garden Quarterly. He has named five species of Dudleya and has developed cultivars of Dudleya, monkey flower, × Gasteraloe, manzanita, and an Australian shrub. He was named the first and only Fellow of the Society for the San Jose Cactus and Succulent Society. Stephen and his brother Bill, our current club president, have been growing cacti and succulents since they were young.

April meeting:

Monday, April 27, 2026
6:15pm -9:15pm

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

Program begins at 7 PM.

The Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society Show and Sale will be on May 3-5, 2026. This is the time for club members to show your plants in either novice or advanced categories!

The March meeting will focus on how to show your plants to best advantage. Club members who volunteered will bring in plants and get expert feedback on those plants grom Keith Taylor, Penny Newell and Cassidy Roberts-Yee, club members who have had winning entrants. Ok you club members who volunteered, please remember to bring those plants in!! Details on the judging, entering of plants for the judged show, and general ins and outs of the annual sale will be covered.

Even if you do not plan to enter plants this year (but we hope you will), the growing and showing tips to be offered will help get those “up and comers” growing beautifully and ready for next year or for display in your garden. Please feel free to bring photos of any plants you would like to get feedback on, as time permitting, there may be opportunity in a small group format to talk about those plants with other club members.

March meeting:

March 23rd, 2026
6:15pm -9:15pm

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

Program begins at 7 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.

Keith will help educate us on the growth, care, and presentation of caudex-forming succulents. Keith is an expert at growing and staging these plants to look their best. Be ready with any questions you may have.

Let’s add a bit of excitement to this meeting. Let’s also make it easier for Keith to answer your questions about the plant(s). Instead of trying to describe the condition of your plant with contorted facial expressions and wild hand gestures, why not just bring in the CAUDICIFORM PLANT that you have a question about? The condition and the size of the caudex does NOT matter. This presentation will be about how to grow a bigger and better caudex and how to stage it in the pot. Keith likes natural-looking pots, but you may prefer brightly colored pots. Hey, Keith’s easy going – he won’t hold it against you. He can still help you to improve the staging of the plant in the pot. Using our own plants as visual aids will help all of us.

Yes, you can bring in more than one caudiciform! Keith will answer as many questions as possible and will look at as many plants as he can in his allotted time.

Keith will bring in specimens from his collection and have pottery available for purchase.

About Keith Taylor:

Keith began collecting caudiciform succulents in 1991 after seeing a large Cyphostemma juttae in the ground at a local botanical garden. “I was drawn to size and grotesque shape of the trunk”. The Cyphostemma he saw is also the first succulent he purchased and still in his possession. His collection has swollen to more than 800 plants. He grows in plastic containers, raised and ground beds. Keith prefers his succulents to look like habitat specimens rather than cultivated plants. He grows them hard, meaning limited water, little to no feeding and hot sun.

Keith sells his work at C&S clubs and shows, bonsai clubs, online through Facebook, Instagram, and his website. He accepts custom orders and ships worldwide.

Meeting details:

Date: Monday, August 25, 2025

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

A species is discovered, described, published, and seeds (and later plants) are distributed to botanical gardens and growers, yet within a few decades the species is lost. Surprisingly, this appears to happen frequently. The genus Lithops has multiple examples in which a valid species is never seen again, claimed to have never existed, or synonymized out of existence. For example, Lithops opalina was discovered in 1922, synonymized with another species in 1946, and then in 1973 said to have never existed as a species in nature and instead claimed to be a cultivar that was bred in the late 1950s and early 1960s. To finalize this transformation from species to man-made cultivar Lithops opalina was “officially” declared as a cultivar in 2013 — as if Lithops opalina had never existed in nature.

To spice up the story of botanical malpractice, someone found a “new” species in the 1960s that was described to look mostly like Lithops opalina, and it was named Lithops eberlanzii var. aiaisensis. Luckily, the 1922 discoverer of Lithops opalina, Kurt Dinter, gave detailed descriptions of his research trips to what is now Namibia, and with some sleuthing we could recreate his trip through the southern Namibian desert. We found Lithops opalina exactly at the location where Dinter said he found and collected them, and we restored the taxon as Lithops eberlanzii var. opalina. By doing so, ironically, we relegated aiaisensis to synonymy. Since then we followed up by “rediscovering” Lithops summitatum, which had been subjected to a similar fate as L. opalina. By now we are convinced that there are about a dozen or so original species that were “lost” because of botanical malpractice, and we are working to get them back one at a time, including Lithops halenbergensis, the story of which is currently awaiting the Editor’s approval for publication in Haseltonia.

About Peter Beiersdorfer:

Following his retirement from paid research in physics Peter has switched to unpaid research in botany. Since the end of 2020 Peter has been spending about 9 weeks per year in Namibia searching for Lithops, although recently he also ventured to the Canaries. At his home in Livermore, Peter propagates plants from seeds and cuttings, including mesembs and bulbs from the winter rainfall areas of Southern Africa and many cactus species from South and North America.

Peter will bring plants for sale.

Meeting details:

Date: Monday, July 28, 2025

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

Evolving interests of an expert novice by Barry Rice

It has been a few years since Barry talked to our society. He is a little unpredictable regarding exactly what he will talk about (“talent” can be so difficult sometimes!) but he says he’s going to talk about his current favorite passion — Echinopsis hybrids. He will describe just why he loves these, and why you should too. He’ll also talk about how you can take a small Echinopsis bud — even an unrooted one — and turn it into a glorious plant that will make your collection a crowd pleaser. And even more, he’s going to go into detail about best practices for grafting. After all, any cactus grower should know at least the basics of grafting, because it can be an effective way to guard against the loss of a beloved plant.

Finally, he will describe some of the challenges and successes of breeding your own plant. You could…if you wanted…create a unique plant that never existed on the planet before. Imagine that!

All that said, Barry will no doubt touch on a few other things on his mind…for example, some major changes that have gone on in Astrophytum cultivation during the last few years, and also something he just recently learned about selling plants in California…that EVERYONE selling plants should know about. It’s The Law.

Barry Rice is, by profession, an astrobiologist who has his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Arizona and is a tenured professor at Sierra College (Rocklin). He is also an expert in carnivorous plants, having written two books, many scientific papers, and long-term editor of the most prominent carnivorous plant journal on Earth.

His experience with cactus horticulture really only spans the last 15 years. However, he jumped into the field with vigor and passion. A scientist by profession and heart, he has optimized many aspects of cactus growing in the blast furnace of the Central Valley. While he has grown cacti from many genera, he specializes in named Echinopsis cultivars but also any really peculiar genera and species that catch his eye.

Meeting details:

Date: Monday, June 23, 2025

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

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.