The Cactus Patch Opuntia basilaris var. treleasei Volume 20 September 2017 Number 9 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE BAKERSFIELD CACTUS & SUCCULENT SOCIETY This Month's Program "Cactus Seeking in Bolivia" Hybrid @ Castroville Cactus Echinopsis x glorius St. Paul's Church, 2216 17th St. pollypearl@hotmail.com The Bakersfield Cactus & Succulent Society % Polly Hargreaves, editor Gary Dukes September 12th @ 7:00 Meet the Speaker! SHOW & SALE Dinner at Sizzler 5:00 PM 900 Real Road Oct 14 & 15 St. Paul's Church 2216 17th St.
The Cactus Patch Volume 20 Number 9 September 2017 The Cactus Patch is the official publication of the Bakersfield Cactus & Succulent Society of Bakersfield, California Membership in the Bakersfield Cactus & Succulent Society costs $20 per year for an individual and $25 a year for a family. CONTACT INF ORMATION President: Paul Bowles corvis797@yahoo.com Membership: Maynard Moe lmmoe44@gmail.com Newsletter: Polly Hargreaves pollypearl@hotmail.com Website: Stephen Cooley thecactuspatch@bak.rr.com Visit Us On the Web! www.bakersfieldcactus.org ~2~ September 12th MEETING "Cactus Seeking in Bolivia" Gary describes his travel with Guillermo Rivera through the Bolivian altoplano via La Paz, Cochabamba, Sucre, Potosi, Carmago to Tarija. He has pictures of over 50 species of Echinopsis, Lobivia, Weingartia, Rebutia, Sulcorebutia as well as several tall columnar species. He even found Cintia and Blossfeldia along with several species of Puya, Dykia and Tillandsia. Of course he includes scenic views of the Bolivian Andes and a bit the Bolivian culture. Gary Duke has been collecting cacti and succulents since he was 10 years old. He is a retired Air Force officer with a doctoral degree in physics. During his military career, he moved his original and ever expanding collection of less than about 30 plants from Illinois, where he grew up, to Omaha, NE, Dayton, OH (where he started their first C&S Society, which is now defunct), San Pedro, CA, Montgomery, AL and Albuquerque, NM where he had been show chairman. He has also been President of the South Coast Cactus and Succulent Society and the Long Beach Club in the southern California area. He was recently elected to the Board of Directors to the Cactus and Succulent Society of America. Following his military career, he worked as a program manager for Boeing for 16 years. He's an avid collector of cacti and also collects Tylecodons and Dudleyas. He has over 1000 different species in his private collection and enjoys propagating them. He frequently gives slide presentations throughout southern California. ~3~
th August 8, 2017 The Succulent Garden at Cal State. Golden Fishhook Barrel Dinner at the Old Hacienda on Olive Drive They rescued us when the other restaurant suddenly closed! The manager even add grilled cactus to everyone's plate! SHOW & SALE October 14th and 15th Our Show and Sale is our club's major fund raiser for the year. We use this money to pay expenses for out of town speakers, room rent, the newsletter and any other expenses that pop-up. We need volunteers to help set-up and help our vendors organize on Friday afternoon. We also need helpers and cashiers during the open hours both days and more to dismantle it all on Sunday afternoon. Without this effort we can do little in activities the rest of the year. ~4~ Golden Fishhook Barrel is a cultivated form of the Compass Barrel Ferocactus wislizenii. A golden spin ed, bright yellow flowered form of F, wislizenii was discovered near Tucson and seedlings from it selected for brighter flowers and brighter spines. A suitable cultivar was created and free plants were given away to attendees of the 2009 CSSA convention in Tucson. As it turns out, Bruce & Polly Hargreaves were at the convention and on their return donated their Golden Fishhook Barrel to the club garden where it has been growing these past 8 years. You might ask Isn't there already a Golden Barrel Cactus? Yes, there is, Echinocactus grusonii. E. grusonii is a spectacular golden spined landscape plant seen as the focal point in many a cactus planting. Golden Fishhook can't really compete but it does have the advantage of being hardier, both to cold and heat and its flowers are much more showy. It is also more garden worthy than the drab 'regular' F. wislizenii. Our Golden Fishhook has gotten old enough to bloom a little and the flowers are eye catching especially for a barrel cactus. More about this cactus can be discovered at: http://www.tucsoncactus.org/html/2009_april_meeting.html http://www.tucsoncactus.org/html/growing_succulents_in_the _desert_column_september_2011.html Stephen Cooley ~5~
Big Trees and Other Adventures A Letter From Bruce On the 27th of July we set off for Sequoia with Lora, Anne and two kids Lora was baby-sitting. Why? Because it was just announced that Senior Passes for National Parks would go up from $10 to $80 in August! Lora and I had never had one and Polly can t find hers. (Anne had obtained a replacement for hers when she went to Grand Canyon, but went along for the ride.) The trip was uneventful until just before the Park. Then traffic slowed to a crawl. As we rounded a corner we could see there was a continuous line to the entrance! And this was on a weekday. I d hate to try on a weekend or holiday. Our first stop was at the museum/shop for the foothills. Then we continued to Hospital Rock where we had a picnic lunch prepared by Lora. I was happy to see the rock art is still OK. I had heard that the place had been ruined. I guess this was a reference to all the adjoining development. The buckeyes were brown and the yuccas past blooming so the foothills were a bit boring. We did stop to see the view of Moro Rock. Finally we reached Giant Forest and the big trees. Parking has become a real problem, even with shuttle services. The kids had a great time climbing the Sentinel Tree. (There is a line on the walkway that had the length marked out.) I was happy to note the redwoods looked healthy, although there were dead and dying pines next to them. After a look in the museum and shop we turned around and went back to the valley. At Porterville we had dinner at the Black Bear Diner. The kids were well behaved and sang most of the way back. ~6~ On the 31st we picked John up from the airport bus and heard all about his scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, visits to two caves (one with cave swallows) and, of course, the international convention of spelunkers. On his dives he managed to film a minke whale underwater. On the 2nd of August we went to the African art exhibit at the Martin Luther King Center. Sankofa Heartbeats was an eclectic showing of works which Bakari Sanyu has accumulated. The name Sankofa comes from the Akan of Ghana and means to go back and fetch. It was an unexpected treasure to see in Bakersfield. The refreshments were good, but the viewers few. On the 4th we ate at the Firehouse and then took part in a Plant Night which is similar to the Paint Nights we have been to. In this case we were given a small wooden box, gravel, soil, some succulents and some top dressing. It is not my cup of tea, so I merely watched and took pictures. On the 8th we went to the Cactus Valley, only to find a sign on the door saying they were remodeling the kitchen and were therefore closed! Polly had made reservations and given them her phone number, but they did not even have the courtesy to let us know!! Fortunately, we were able to move to the Old Hacienda for our dinner. ~7~
On the 16th we saw Al Gore s An Inconvenient Sequel. We had seen An Inconvenient Truth at our film club in Botswana where I gave an introduction and was told afterward by the secondin-command at the U.S. Embassy that I made America look bad! I m glad I didn t have to introduce this one as recent events have made America look bad on Climate Change with no help from me!! The July-August Cactus and Succulent Journal (U.S.) had two articles which especially interested me. The first by John Lavranos describes a new subspecies of Dracena from Saudi Arabia which is rapidly disappearing due to human activities. I find this interesting as it supports my contention that there were once Dragon Trees and other succulents right across what is now the Sahara and what we see in the Canaries and Soqotra (and Arabia) are remnants of widespread species. The second article by Graham Williamson describes how succulents survive in the moist Miombo woodlands of South Central Africa. I touched on this in my first succulent publication Succulents of Chitipa the Muddy Place which was published in a supplemental volume of the Cactus and Succulent Journal (U.S.) in 1975. [This was before Hazeltonia was started.] Did you see the diatribe by Stephen Montgomery regarding the Bakersfield Train Robbers logo? He said, What s with those saguaro cacti in that logo anyway? Except for those who may think if you ve seen one cactus you ve seen them all, being native to Arizona and not seen in any natural setting in California, those things simply don t relate. Saguaros may not occur anywhere in the Bakersfield area, but there are some natural to a tiny corner of California. Arizona does not have a monopoly on them. Bruce Hargreaves [Bruce's opinions are his own and are not necessarily that of the BCSS] ~8~ Plant of the Month Ferocactus viridescens This month I am continuing with plants that might work in a xeriscape in Bakersfield. I thought it was time for a cactus since I have been writing a lot about agaves recently. Ferocactus are native to California and about thirty species are known. Many of them are barrels. They are generally solitary and either a cylinder or barrel in form. Ferocactus viridescens is also known as San Diego barrel cactus or sometimes coast barrel cactus. It grows among chaparral species along the coast and on inland ridges in San Diego Co. south into Baja California. It is a threatened species due to habitat destruction. Plants are more or less globose often wider than tall, 6-18 in. (1850 cm.) in height and 8-15 in. (24-35 cm.) in diameter. There are generally 15-20 ribs, Areoles are well armed with 4 central spines 1.25-1.75 in. (30-40 mm.) long which often form a sort of cross. The downward pointing spine will be curved. There are 10-20 radial spines 0.75 in. (20 mm.) long. Spines are red when young fading to tan or grey with age. ~9~
Flowers are yellow with pink and green markings, 1.25-1.75 in. (30-40 mm.) across. Fruit is red, round and about 0.75 in. (20 mm.) in diameter. They can be propagated from seed or are available from specialty nurseries. A gritty soil is desirable. They are cold tolerant to about 30 F and should not be watered in summer as they are adapted to our two season year. I would think that full sun might be too much for them in Bakersfield so I would plant them near something that could provide shade in mid-day. September 9th and 10th Fresno Show and Sale 808 4th St. Clovis, CA 93612 September 12th Gary Duke Cactus Seeking in Bolivia October 10th Eunice Thompson A Journey to South Africa October 14th and 15th BCSS Show and Sale Jack G. Reynolds November 14th Tom Glavich Mutants Visit Us On the Web! www.bakersfieldcactus.org Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bakersfieldcactus ~10~ ~11~