IT’S BEEN A BANNER YEAR!

Once again we look back on a great year of Cactus and Succulent Society activity. We continue to grow; we continue to be
successful at everything we do, and we continue to set new standards for having fun in the society.
Highlights abound. We should probably start by remembering all of the great programs we have had throughout the year;
programs are the mainstay of our society.
Cory Martin, "Backroads and Big Boojums" Greg Star, "Agaves"
Vonn Watkins, "Le Jardin Exotique de Anton Ellert, "Aloes of Zimbabwe"
Monaco" Anton Ellert, "Euphorias of Zimbabwe"
Libby Davison, "UA Campus Arboretum" Dylan Hannon, "Natural History of Socotra"
Larry Grammer, "Staging Plants for Richard Felger, "South American and Sonoran
Exhibition" Desert Connection"
Patrick Griffith, "Rancho Santa Ana Woody Minnich, "Cactus of Brazil"
Botanical Gardens"
We treated ourselves to a trip to Desert Botanical Gardens on April 5.
The outing included a spectacular picnic lunch and a visit to Arizona
Cactus Sales where member Jim Ellis not only gave us a group discount,
but made a donation to the club as well. Many members ttended the
Cactus and Succulent Society of America Symposium in St. Louis in
May and the Huntington Symposium in Los Angeles in September.
We participated in two plant
shows this year: the El Con Mall
Fiesta de los Flores February 22-
23 and our own Cactus and
Succulent Exposition May 3-4.
We have gradually increased our
participation in the February show
Larry Grammer
to include show plants and
membership information in addition to plant sales. The Expo was our great
innovation success. Taking advantage of the perfect location and site we have at the
Junior League buildings, we added what will surely be a biannual event: great
Spring Exposition
exhibits, massive
plant sales, and a
major opportunity to promote ourselves to the public.
This is a wonderful activity for the years that we don’t
have a Sonoran Conference.
Cactus rescue activities continue to be a major driver of
our growth. Who would have thought so many people
would be anxious to drag themselves out at 6:30 am to
collect cactus, cactus spines, cactus scrapes, and “cactus”
aching backs. The enthusiasm of the rescue teams is so
infectious that we just keep doing it. This year was slow
by comparison to last year, but we probably couldn’t have Desert Botanical Garden
kept up the frantic pace of last year even if the sites had been available. Our crew of active rescuers grew by almost 50%
to 68. We did nine rescue trips to 5 different properties, and saved almost 1800 cactus from the developer’s blade. It is
estimated that we have saved 12,000 cactus over the years of this program. Wow!
A natural outgrowth of the rescue program
is the need to hold plant sales. Many of the
plants rescued now grace our own yards,
many have been donated and appear in
public gardens, and some have been sold
for resale at nurseries. But the bulk of our
plants were distributed at our plant sales.
In addition to the two show sales, we
attended two Pima County Fairs on March
16 & October 19, the Weird Plant Sale at
the Tucson Botanical Garden on June 14,
and had a special sale in November.
With our rescue success and the cash flow
for our sales we have been able to sustain Four Man Barrel
our School Grant Program as well as add some new assets for club use. We acquired a
state-of-the-art LCD projector to support the increasing number of programs that are
presented in digital format; bar code scanning cash registers to support our sales; added
Multi-headed Barrel substantially to our stellar library, and
purchased tables, tents and equipment to
make our rescue more enjoyable.
Innovation is a great part of our
success. Rolling book cases
now allow our most popular
books to be available at every
meeting. Our web site is greatly
improved and is well on its way
to being an important
community resource. We
continue to team with our great Rescued Mammillaria
member-growers: the expo is only one of several new sales teaming ideas
we have come up with. Scanning cash registers will make all of our sales
easier and quicker, giving growers more time to discuss plants with their
Rescue Mascot customers. We certainly aren’t standing still!
There’s always some sadness, too. The year saw some good friends pass on; Mary Church, Jim Kueger, and Denny
Ladwig. We will miss them.
We continue to grow; our newsletter mailing has exceeded 300 addresses; almost
450 people are proud to be members of the society. It’s hard to believe that
eighteen months ago we were still fitting into the meeting room at the Tucson
Botanical Garden!
If I was to select one thing as the
highlight of this year it would be
member participation! We are not a
society of members who just mail in
our membership dues and attend a
couple of meetings a year. Close to Ferocactrus wislizenii
a hundred members participated in
one way or another in the Spring Expo; sixty-eight have done cactus rescue
this year; more than fifty made the trip to Desert Botanical Gardens; meeting
attendance is well over a hundred. Congratulations to all of those who have
discovered the magic formula: participate more, and enjoy more!
Echinocereus fasciculatus