Basic Training INTERNET EDITION. by Stephen Cooley. Monthly Meeting. Volume 13 April 2010 Number 4. This Month's Program

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1 The Bakersfield Cactus & Succulent Society % Stephen Cooley, editor thecactuspatch@bak.rr.com New buds on Bakersfield Cactus, Opuntia basilaris var. treleasei, growing on the bluffs at the Panorama Preserve photo by Andy & Sasha Honig INTERNET EDITION Opuntia basilaris var. treleasei Volume 13 April 2010 Number 4 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE BAKERSFIELD CACTUS & SUCCULENT SOCIETY This Month's Program Basic Training by Stephen Cooley Monthly Meeting Tuesday, Apr. 13 Olive Drive Church, 5500 Olive drive at 6:30 PM (Building 6, Room 604) Pick Up the New Club Roster at the Meeting

2 Volume 13 Number 4 April 2010 The is the official publication of the Bakersfield Cactus & Succulent Society of Bakersfield, California APRIL S PROGRAM BASIC TRAINING: Care & Maintenance of Succulents PRESENTED BY STEPHEN COOLEY I will give a brief talk on how to take care of your succulent plants. I say brief because one could spend several hours talking about this. I will cover soil, identification, potting, pest control, watering, and whatever else comes up. Questions will be encouraged as will input from the audience. I will also be bringing some plants for sale, Most will be inexpensive and I will donate half of the proceeds to the club! Membership in the Bakersfield Cactus & Succulent Society costs $10 per year for an individual and only $15 a year for a family. Visit Us On the Web! CONTACT INFORMATION President: Ed Colley CactusWoodsEd00@aol.com Membership: Maynard Moe lithops44@bak.rr.com Newsletter/Website: Stephen Cooley thecactuspatch@bak.rr.com n an effort to get some movement on the calendar Nancy will do a quick presentation and voting period on the calendar pictures just before the presentation. If you have a picture you want considered contact Nancy at: nancy@nancyharper.com The date for this year s YARD SALE has been set for May 15 th

3 I Could Have Cried When I Read This! Mary Jean, a dear friend of mine from the rock club, knowing that I love cactus and succulents and belonged to the Cactus Club, -4- gave me a small, 64-page pamphlet that her mother had in her belongings. The title is CACTUS & SUCCULENTS And how to grow them, written by Scott E. Haselton. At the time Mr. Haselton wrote this, he was the editor of Cactus Journal. There is no date on the pamphlet. I was able to find a date for it on the Internet. It was self-published in Apparently I share this sentiment with Scott Haselton about the barrel cactus. Notice the writing below the picture. (This Echinocactus ingens may be heading for the cactus candy factory where a worthless product clams a high mortality of our fine desert plants.) Further information about the barrel cactus I found on the Internet: Native Americans boiled young flowers in water to eat like cabbage and mashed boiled older flowers for a drink. They also used the cactus as a cooking pot by cutting off the top, scooping out the pulp and inserting hot stones together with food. The spines were used as Ferocactus glaucescens needles, awls and in tattooing. The pulp of barrel cactus has been widely used for making cactus candy (thus one of its common names, Candy Barrel Cactus), but this has also accounted for its destruction and, therefore, protected status in many areas. In an emergency, the pulp of the stem can be chewed for its food and water content, but obvious care must be taken during such an operation. The taste can vary greatly depending on species

4 The March get-together was yet another well attended gathering. We sped up the business part of the meeting and quickly discussed up-coming Field Trips (see page 8 for more), the Cal State garden, the Field Trip to Sand Canyon (page 8), the Brag Table (next page) and changed the topic for next month s meeting to Care & Maintenance of Succulents. (page 3). Our new found swiftness left lots of time for Woody s plants and Guillermo s presentation on Argentina. Woody Minnich, a long time supporter and member of the club, brought some great plants to sale all of his usual unusual stuff. Guillermo Rivera gave us another great talk, this time on Northern Argentina. We saw many Echinopsis, Gymnocalyciums and Notocactus as well as many other succulent plants. Guillermo showed us the great variations that occur in different populations of the same genus leading to many invalid names. His show certainly makes you want to go and see them for yourself and if you do, contact him at: I welcome the changes in presentation of the Brag Table. (Of course, I was not consulted on this.) We had more variety and heard more members, which is always a good thing. Lynn McDonald brought a cactus painting to show how she was already thinking of them early in life. Stephen Cooley brought a mesemb, Cheiridopsis rostrata which was showing vigorous growth. He included a picture to show the flower. Alice Hargreaves brought a Pelargonium echinatum of the Geranium family which she had won in the raffle. It differs from most in having spiny stems. It was in full bloom. It comes from South Africa. Sidney Kelley brought a cactus, Neoporteria nidus senilis. It had beautiful red flowers. I brought a spurge, Euphorbia pubiglans which comes from the Garden Route of South Africa. It was in full bloom, but the flower bracts are green. Jack Reynolds brought Euphorbia hofstaederi for a correct ID as this was last month s Plant of the Month. Polly Hargreaves brought a member of the Hyacinth family, Lachenalia mutabilis which she had won in the raffle in Fresno. It had beautiful blue and yellow flowers. It comes from South Africa -7-

5 Check for more field trip pictures! Wind Wolves -- April 10 th CANCELLED (lack of interest) Desert Images & Cactus Mart (Ojai) -- April 17 th is the date set for the trip to Ojai. After Ojai we'll be going on to Piru to the Cactus Mart, then home via I-5. Hope everyone can come to pick out plants for the Garden Fest. -- Sidney. Monterey Bay Area Show & Sale -- April This is to be held at El Jardin Restaurant, 115 3rd. Street, San Juan Bautista. Besides the show & sale, there is the Mission to explore, and one can easily travel to Monterey Bay as well. Can be a weekend or day trip. Garden Fest, Bakersfield College -- also April 24. The Club traditionally has a booth at BC for this lively event. Central Coast C&SS -- last year's show & sale was in May. We will add this to our list, when the dates are known. Grow Nursery, Cambria, Ca -- this trip will be arranged for the summer, when it is hot here Lynn McDonald The Sand Canyon Trip On the morning of March 6, Bruce, Polly, Steve, Sidney, Carol, Bill, Lynn & Jacob, met with Jon Hammond for a field trip up Sand Canyon Road near Tehachapi. It rained a little as we began, but was otherwise dry. We all drove to the Mountain Spirit Center, where we visited the Buddhist Temple and grounds. We took a walk up one of the canyons, along a creek bed. Jon discussed some geology, flora, history of the area and the Ki'waiisu peoples who first inhabited the area. When we returned -8- to the to our cars, one of the nuns came to us & invited us to have our lunch inside a meeting room. She provided us a large mat for our food, cushions to sit upon, and made us tea. It was gracious of her & proved to be warmer than eating outside. After lunch, we drove to the Brite Valley Tree farm & apple orchard, which was purchased by Carol's parents several years ago. Carol lives there now & she and her family sell Christmas trees in the winter. There was an excellent crop of apples last autumn as well. We looked at the land & had delicious cookies that she had baked. Last was a stop at Tangle Weed Farm, where produce is sold, and visited the gift shop as well. It was a very nice day & only began to rain again as we were getting on the freeway for home. Lynn The Carrizo Plain Trip We all had a fine day on our field trip to the Carrizo Plain National Monument on March 28. Seventeen BCSS members, five from the Danish Sisterhood, a few their friends and 3 dogs, all met up in Maricopa, then drove onto Soda Lake Road from Hwy 166. Maynard generously agreed to lead the group --- he and Stephen darted across the fields to collect the numerous specimens for us to see up close. The hillsides were covered with blooms, which seemed to increase as we drove north. One highlight was a large -9-

6 area of Phacelia, which looked like a small lake off to the east. The day was sunny, making the colors exceptionally bright. After several stops, we all converged on the Goodwin Education Center. There we relaxed and had a delicious lunch provided by the Danish Lodge. From there we all made our way home. Thanks to all who made it a great trip. Lynn Rocks! photos by Carol Gates -10- Curiouser and Curiouser A Letter From Bruce I will start with an apology. Last month I accidently sent an uncorrected version of my letter rather than a corrected one. The first error was in the name Rob Plowes. This, of course, should have been Darryl Plowes. (Rob is his son.) The second error was in leaving out the names of Kalanchoe thyrsiflora and K. luciae in my note on the article on corrections in the Cactus and Succulent Journal. The editor must have been puzzled by my inclusion of a picture of these (which did not appear). I thought Morgan Freeman should have won best actor in the Oscars for his portrayal of Nelson Mandela in Invictus. (Of course, I was wrong on most Oscar choices.) I thought he had the accent and mannerisms perfect. But, of course, I may be prejudiced because we were next door in Botswana at the time. Our Gaborone Music Society, in fact, made a trip to South Africa to hear the New Zealander Kiri Takanawa who sang The World United. (Polly and I had heard her previously in New York.) The movie had very clever use of this and other songs including the South African national anthem sung by Sibongile Khumalo. (Of course, we didn t have to travel to hear her. She came to us in Botswana.) I especially liked it when (after a tussle over anthems and flags) the team captain declared the popular song Shosholoza (which the spectators had burst out singing) representative of all South Africa. The Fresno cactus meeting on 4 th March featured Ernesto Sandoval from Davis who spoke on photography. Unfortunately, much of the presentation was on apertures and focal lengths which are relative more to film rather than the digital cameras most of us use now. I did, however, appreciate comments on focus, lighting and arrangement before going to the computer to correct pictures. Polly s sister Martha surprised us with a book set in Botswana: Predator by Frederick Ramsay (2009 Poisoned Pen Press, Scottsdale, Arizona). The author s name caught my -11-

7 attention as we knew Jeff Ramsay as Press Secretary for the Polly s sister Martha surprised us with a book set in Botswana: Predator by Frederick Ramsay (2009 Poisoned Pen Press, Scottsdale, Arizona). The author s name caught my attention as we knew Jeff Ramsay as Press Secretary for the president of Botswana. Sure enough, Frederick is his father. There are many Ramsay novels set in America, but this is his first set in Africa. It is a good counter to the Lady Detective series as it has the blood and guts which many want in a mystery. It manages to retain the good Lunch character of Botswana, however, by making the villains visiting Temple gangsters from Chicago! The Sand Canyon trip on the 6 th was reported on at the last meeting, but I would like to add a few comments of my own. I had no idea the Mountain Spirit Center was Buddhist. I had, wrongly, assumed it would center on Native Americans. At any rate, we were graciously received and served tea. The art works are marvelous. I was grateful for the course I took in oriental art at UCSB as it would be much less meaningful without an understanding of the religion and culture behind the art. Polly and I took the old road down from Tehachapi and found the wreck from the recent tunnel disaster beside the road just as a train came around the loop and through the tunnel. Incidentally, my Great Aunt Faye s house in Ceres is now painted bright pink and is a Buddhist center! This is quite interesting as the area is quite strongly Baptist Most of the family (including Daniel who is visiting from South Dakota) went to see the new Alice while we were up at Sand Canyon. Polly and I went on the 8 th when it was much less crowded. I was pleased that my mother enjoyed it since it departs considerably from the books. (Mother collects anything to do with her Train Wreck name sake, especially since the original Alice, Alice Liddell, married Roger Hargreaves and, thus, was also Alice Hargreaves.) Like the cartoon of the 50s, this version mixes both Wonderland and Looking Glass. Unlike any other version it brings Alice back as an older person. She is constantly told she is The wrong Alice and, in fact, introduces herself as Alice Kingsley. This is interesting as Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll did, in fact, write for more than one Alice. As Alice herself would say, it becomes Curiouser and curiouser as Alice Kingsley (in the film) turns down a marriage proposal and is last seen boarding a ship for China. This mirrors my Great Great Aunt Alice J. Whittier (who rejected Julia as her first name). She had quite an adventurous life. She and her brother went to the World s Fair in Chicago and saw electric lights and ice cream cones introduced. After earning an RN she joined her roommate in San Francisco just in time for the 1906 earthquake and fire. Following that, Alice went to China and served as a nurse somewhere near the border with Tibet. Unfortunately this turned out to be the time of the Uprising of Righteous Fists (aka Boxer Rebellion). Alice returned to the States at the second such uprising. On the 9 th, of course, we heard Guillermo Rivera s talk on NW Argentina. The pictures were beautiful and informative. And, of course, the meeting was kept to a briefer time. -13-

8 Cactus Fabric These three fabrics are at Beverley's now. Price is $10 per yard. The first is spring in the desert with blooming yuccas, cacti, et cetera. (see also the Field Trips on page 8) Apr 13 BCSS Meeting at 6:30PM Olive Dr. Church. program: Succulent Care & Maintenance speaker: Stephen Cooley May 11 BCSS Meeting at 6:30PM Olive Dr. Church. speaker: Woody Minnich May 15 BCSS Annual Yard Sale June 8 BCSS Meeting at CSUB Garden The second one has 15 different cacti in 7 inch squares; you need to buy about 25 inches to get them all. April 10 and 11, South Coast C&SS Show and Sale. South Coast Botanical Gardens. 9:00 am to 4:00 pm May 1 and 2 Sunset C & SS Show & Sale, Veterans Memorial Center, Garden Room, 4117 Overland Avenue, Culver City May 2 South Bay Epiphyllum Society Show & Sale at the South Coast Botanical Gardens, 9:00 am to 4:00 pm May 15 Fresno C&SS Show & Sale at the Sierra Vista Mall (see below) The third is just wall to wall saguaros. Polly The 2010 Bakersfield Cactus & Succulent Society Roster will be available for pick up at the next meeting. If you can t attend the meeting and would still like a roster, contact Stephen Cooley: thecactuspatch@bak.rr.com