Cereusly Speaking. Cactus of the season: Turbinicarpus valdesianus. Welcome to new members! March 2013 Vol. 6 Issue 1

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1 Cereusly Speaking In this issue: 2 Upcoming events 3 Election notice 2013 membership photo contest 6 Cacti for connoisseurs Photo contest 8 Advice/Buy/ Sell/Trade 9 Photo gallery March 2013 Vol. 6 Issue 1 Cactus of the season: Turbinicarpus valdesianus Cactus and Succulent Society of Alberta Contributed by our Calgary member George Grozev on February 22: All my Turbinicarpus valdesianus plants are blooming at the same time! I think that blooms happening in February and the next spring months are typical for this Mexican species. The plants are slow growing, on their own roots, and my guess is that these are at least 10 years old. They are tiny, as can be seen from the small rock and pots in the picture, but this is their mature size. I gave these not much water in summer, kept them dry in winter and gave moderate windowsill sun during the whole year, just like other Turbinicarpus plants I have. I have had them in my collection only about a year, and I think they came to Calgary as seeds from Mesa Garden. Welcome to new members! Welcome to new members Sophie Wonfor from Calgary and Adele Tait from Grande Prairie. We hope you enjoy the cactus & succulent experience as much as the rest of us do!

2 The Cactus and Succulent Society of Alberta was established in 1997 by a group of people sharing an interest in these odd and unusual plants. We meet at least four times a year usually on Sundays to exchange information on how to propagate, grow, and take care of cacti and succulents. President Colin Bundred Secretary Mike Gibbins Treasurer Rene Haasdyk Vice-President, Comminications Olga Mikheenkova Contact the society at: Cactus, St. Edmonton, AB T6J 5C4 or michael.gibbins@ ualberta.ca Upcoming events Sunday, April 28, 2:00 pm. Strathcona County Library, Sherwood Park, Room #3. Our first members meeting of 2013, including: (1) a talk by George Grozev about his cactus interests, with examples, (2) a photo show by Mike Gibbins about a recent trip he and Betty took to Baja California, with cactus pictures, (3) dispersal to interested members of the Society s library, unwanted books to be recycled, (4) the usual plant show & tell, (5) door prizes, (6) a short review of the recent Christmas party, (7) information and expressions of interest about summer events, (8) preparation for the Muttart show in September, (9) and more! [The Strathcona County Library is east off Sherwood Drive on Festival Lane, that lane being north of the intersection of Sherwood Drive and Brentwood Blvd., which in turn is between Wye Rd. to the south and Baseline Rd. to the north in Sherwood Park.] Sunday, June 9, 2:00 pm. Location to be announced. The next members meeting, including finalization of summer events, show & tell, door prizes. More content details later. June 15-20, Austin, Texas. The 2013 conference of the Cactus & Succulent Society of America. Saturday June 22. An outing down to Lacombe to see Amy & Darrel Allen s plants, perhaps with a side trip to the badlands to the east to see Opuntia polyacantha in bloom. Details later. Roughly the July 1 weekend. The annual viewing of cactuses in bloom and barbecue at Jean & John Wieprecht s place. Exact date will depend on the plants blooming schedule. Sunday August 25, 2:00 pm. The Society s annual general meeting, election of officers and burger potluck. Please see this newsletter s important notice about the election of officers and consider standing! Saturday August 31. Deadline for submissions to the 2013 photo contest. Details later in this newsletter. Cactus garden weeding at Devonian Botanic Garden. Probably mid-june, late July and mid-september. Exact dates and details later. Muttart Conservatory free day show and sale. Probably last Sunday in September. October members meeting. Date will be set later. 2

3 Message from the President As usual, the signs that Spring is just around the corner have started getting us excited for the upcoming season. Those of us with indoor collections will have already had a few flowers from the early bloomers, but the outdoor enthusiasts will have to wait a little longer to see what s made it through the winter unscathed. Surprisingly, in Edmonton those of us growing Pediocactus outside find they are often the first things in the garden to flower. The Executive have been busy over the winter planning this season s events and we look forward to seeing you all at our first meeting April 28. Colin Recent meetings and events It s been a quiet winter, with no events since the Christmas party. We can report that your Executive met in February at the Idylwylde Library in Edmonton to plan ahead. Some of the results of that planning are below, and here is a photo of your Executive at the meeting. From the right are Olga Mikheenkova, Rene Haasdyk, Colin Bundred (there by Skype that s him in the white-edged screen on the table!), and Mike Gibbins. IMPORTANT NOTICE The Society elects its officers every two years at the August Annual General Meeting. There are four officers: President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer, who constitute the Executive. The current officers are listed on the second page of this newsletter. All positions are open for nominations before or during this year s AGM on August 25. It s a good idea to bring new ideas into the Executive regularly, so the current officers encourage nominations. Please think about putting your name forward or suggesting another member (who would then be contacted). The Newsletter Editor is not an officer, but if anyone is interested in being the Editor, please make your interest known. Please forward any nominations or expressions of interest to the Secretary, Mike Gibbins, at michael. gibbins@ualberta.ca or The Executive decided that, for reasons of personal privacy, the Society s membership list will no longer be circulated. Anyone wishing to reach one of the members should contact the Secretary, Mike Gibbins, at michael. gibbins@ualberta.ca or membership fees Membership fees haven t changed for years: $15 for individuals, $20 for couples or families, and $300 for a life membership. Young people can join for free. Please send your fee to Treasurer Rene Haasdyk, St. NW, Edmonton AB T5W 5C6, or take it along to the April meeting. 3

4 Cereusly Speaking More photos from the 2012 photo contest At the October 14, 2012 meeting, members voted on the photos submitted to the contest. The photos were attractive, with all but a handful getting votes, and the results were very close. The prize winners were shown in the December newsletter. Here are three runners-up in each category, in what was often a close contest. Please send your photos to the 2013 contest! Details are later in this newsletter. 1. Outdoors: photos of natural settings, landscapes or panoramas. September 2012 Vol. 5 Issue 3 George Grozev Mary Scott Mike Gibbins 2. Outdoors: photos of your or others gardens, or other displays such as botanical gardens. Mary Scott George Grozev Mary Scott 3. Indoors or outdoors: photos of individual or a few flowering cacti, including close-ups. Colin Bundred George Grozev Colin Bundred 4

5 Cereusly Speaking Publisher The Cactus and Succulent Society of Alberta 4. Indoors or outdoors: photos of individual or a few flowering succulents, including close-ups. Editor Mike Gibbins michael.gibbins@ ualberta.ca Design and layout by Olga Mikheenkova Cereusly Speaking is published four times a year: at the end of March, June, September and December. Mike Gibbins George Grozev Joan Gouy 5.Indoors or outdoors: photos of spination, foliage or other non-flower features. Cereusly Speaking is distribu ted to the members of the Cactus and Succulent Society of Alberta by mail or . The electronic version of the newsletter is an exact co py of its printed version. Readers are encou raged to sub mit articles and photographs. Olga Mikheenkova George Grozev The publisher reserves the right to edit any material submitted for publication. Cactus and Succulent Society of Alberta Olga Mikheenkova 5

6 Cacti for connoisseurs by Colin Bundred Another in the regular series of articles about Colin s favourite plants, this time Agave victoria-reginae, a favourite succulent. This plant was featured in an earlier newsletter, but we thought this updated description and new photo would be interesting. Named after Queen Victoria, this most regal of all the Agaves is a much sought-after and treasured plant, one of the most beautiful and desirable Agaves. One of the few Agave species that can easily be grown indoors, it rarely gets any bigger than 50cm in diameter, 20 cm tall and is extremely slow growing. Usually solitary, but there are individuals which offset with abandon. Numerous hybrids are now beginning to find their way onto the market and one could easily specialize and build up a collection of plants of different and interesting forms. A well-grown specimen of the species is in my view still hard to beat. As with all Agaves the plant dies after flowering which usually takes years. They are easily grown from seed but very, very slow. A. victoria-reginae is a very slow growing but tough and beautiful Agave. It forms individual slow growing dense but not large rosettes, some heavily offset (forma caespitosa). It is extremely variable with the very open black-edged form sporting a distinct name (King Ferdinand s agave, Agave ferdinandi-regis) and several forms that are the more common whiteedged form. Several cultivars have been named with different patterns of white leaf markings or no white markings (var. viridis) or variegation. Leaves are short, cm long and up to 3 cm broad, rigid and thick, trigonous (triangular), dark green, and beautifully marked with brilliant white-margins (The distinct longitudinal white markings are unique, slightly raised, like mini-variegation bordering each leaf) They are toothless, with only a short black, terminal spine. Leaves grow close together and are arranged in globular regular rosettes. The inflorescence takes the form of a spike, from 2 to 4 metres high, containing many paired flowers of various colours, often with shades of purple and red. As with all types of Agave, it has a long life cycle and sets flowers in the summer after approximately 20 to 30 years of vegetative growth, and the effort to produce the flowers exhausts the plant which dies within a short time. Our rather advanced favourite plants (Thanks to Patsy Cotterill of the Edmonton Plant Study Group for raising this topic in a recent talk and to the website plants_photosynthesis.htm for additional information.) Our cactuses and succulents are nice plants. They are also evolutionarily advanced! Cactuses are recent on the evolution scale, having turned up since the dinosaurs left the planet, but they also do the fundamental plant job of photosynthesizing in a way few other plants do. Photosynthesis is the use of the plant s chlorophyll to process carbon dioxide so that it can be combined with water to make the carbon compounds that the plant needs to live and grow, and incidentally to eject oxygen that we animals need to live ourselves. Most plants use a form of photosynthesis called C3 under which their stomata (pores) are open during the day. Very efficient but the plant can lose water through its stomata in the heat of the day. Another form of photosynthesis is C4 which is better adapted to dry conditions but the stomata are still usually open during the day. Some recently evolved arid-adapted plants including cactuses use yet another form of photosynthesis called CAM (Crassulacean Acid Metabolism) photosynthesis, named after the Crassulaceae plant family in which it was first found and because the carbon dioxide is stored as an acid overnight before being used in photosynthesis during the daytime. The plant protects itself from water loss by having its stomata usually closed during the day and open at night, in fact, some CAM plants can live for a long arid time with the stomata closed day and night. This adaptation also allows the plant to recover very quickly when water arrives, not having to regrow leaves or branches as some other arid-zone plants have to. 6

7 2013 Photo Contest The Cactus & Succulent Society of Alberta announces its 2013 photo competition. Members of the Society, spouses/partners and prospective members are all welcome to submit photos taken by the person submitting them. If you re not yet a member, you are welcome to participate: just submit your photos along with the $15 membership fee. The objective is to encourage interest in cacti and succulents, so the emphasis is on the plants rather than the photographic technique. Competition categories All photos must feature cacti and/or other succulents in some way, and may have been taken in Alberta or anywhere else. These categories are not mutually exclusive, so for each photo you choose the category that you believe best represents your photo. 1 Outdoors: photos of natural settings, landscapes or panoramas. 2 Outdoors: photos of your or others gardens, or other displays such as botanical gardens. 3 Indoors or outdoors: photos of individual or a few flowering cacti, including close-ups. 4 Indoors or outdoors: photos of individual or a few flowering succulents, including close-ups. 5 Indoors or outdoors: photos of spination, foliage or other non-flower features. 6 Other interesting photos having something to do with cacti and/or succulents (this category is a residual any photos you wish to submit that don t seem to fit any of z the other five categories). Details a. Each person may submit up to five photos in total across the six categories, so choose your best photos! You specify each photo s category. b. Photos may be submitted electronically, or as printed photos or slides. Photos may have been taken at any time in the past, but photos submitted to the 2012 or earlier contests may not be resubmitted. Photos used in any prior publications may be submitted, as long as publication in the newsletter Cereusly Speaking is permitted (please so indicate). c. Any size or resolution is acceptable, but you must do any cropping or other alterations to the photo before submission. If you have a printed photo that you want to submit only part of, please just indicate the part you want included. d. There should be no identification of you on the face of any photo. e. The submitter of the winning photo in each category will receive a $25 gift certificate. f. The winning photo in each category will be chosen by vote of members present at a members meeting. All submitted photos will be projected on-screen and a check-list of them will be provided to members to facilitate voting. g. Winning photos will be displayed in a special section of Cereusly Speaking. Other photos may appear elsewhere in the newsletter. h. Your photo remains your property, but by submitting it, you grant permission for it to be published in the newsletter Cereusly Speaking. Your permission for any other use will be separately sought from you. Submission and Deadline Submit your photos by August 31, 2013 to the Society s Secretary, Mike Gibbins, at michael.gibbins@ualberta.ca or Street NW, Edmonton AB, T6J 5C4. Phone with any questions. 7

8 Advice/Buy/Sell/Trade This is an opportunity for you to list your questions, your wishes for plants to buy or trade for, any plants you want to sell or give away, etc. We hope this can develop into a networking feature where members can keep in touch with each other, and it should supplement the show and tell and plant exchanges at the meetings. Please respond to or comment on these items if you can, and add any of your own for the June newsletter by early June. Looking for small cacti (also cuttings, seedlings) from Escobaria, Echinocereus, Pediocactus, Rebutia, Sclerocactus genera. Also interested in selected Lobivia (Echinopsis), Echinocereus, Mammillaria, Coryphanta spp. etc. George Grozev. george. grozev@nl.rogers.com. Wanted Euphorbias, especially anything unusual or so ugly it is beautiful! Mike Gibbins michael.gibbins@ ualberta.ca. Katrina Hodgson: Here s a Canadian mail order source for succulents. They also do custom orders, which might be attractive for some requests in this section. I don t have any experience with them, though. Blue Fox Farm, Grand Forks, BC (www. drought-smart-plants.com/). George Grozev: There s a free online book on Coryphantha at Cacti-Coryphantha. Editor s note: If you are trying to identify a cactus, there are many websites to try. One good one is cactiguide.com Wanted to buy plants (or seeds), virtually any Echinopsis (small Lobivias or large Trichocereusare fine), but would prefer varieties with colors other than white. An to let us know what s available would be very much appreciated. Amy & Darrel Allen. darrelamy@xplornet.com. Some interesting links suggested by George Grozev: (a recent newsletter is at pdf); xerophilia.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/issue_ pdf; xerophilia.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/xerophilia-nr pdf George also asks if anyone has some Pereskiopsis for grafting. george.grozev@nl.rogers.com. Beaver Creek Greenhouses ( is an excellent and speedy source of winter-hardy cacti, alpines and some native plants, plus cacti that have to stay indoors in Edmonton. Several of our members have bought numerous plants from Beaver Creek. Doug Grobel: Valley Succulents, out of Comox, BC. They offer some nice coloured Opuntias, listed as hardy for Zone 4 so maybe good starting material for a breeding project. The pads are healthy looking and a nice size. Phone Doug also reminds us to check Ellerslie Gift & Garden out because they periodically get good shipments of cacti and other succulents. Amy Allen: I ve found a very interesting blog written by a woman in California, with some excellent ideas for the tools of the trade in a recent posting: blogspot.ca. Also, I ve started putting pieces of plastic screen in the bottom of pots to hold the dirt in. Seems to work well. 8

9 Photo gallery In case anyone in Alberta complains about the snow, it might help to remember that it snows elsewhere, even on the BC coast. Here are two photos by Sandra Ericson of her cacti in Victoria this winter! Member Amy Allen sent a couple of wintertime blooms from her collection in Lacombe. A Mammillaria hahniana and an orchid cactus, each making a great photo! We have been corresponding with a cactus collector from Bradford, England: John Cox. He collects cactus art and other memorabilia and bought some blank membership badges from us for his collection. Here John is with some of his plants, plus a recent closer photo and some humour! 9