General Information:
- calendar /events
-meeting schedule-times & locationmeeting experience-officersHistory:
- Cactus chronicles
-biographies-articles-Life members profiles-past eventsPhoto Gallery:
- events
-plant files-by name-typeResources:
-Our library
-Local nurseries-Landscapers-Cactus Mall????-material suppliers"How To"Membership:
-membership form
-about memborship-MentoringPlant files:
-plant of the month links
-photos/ information-members plantsLos Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society
Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society
Meeting in the San Fernando Valley.
LACSS CELEBRATES 80 YEARS!
Welcome to the website of the Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society. Our nearly 200 members come from throughout the southland and share a passion for cacti and succulents. This year, LACSS is celebrating its 80th birthday with special events and publications. Throughout LACSS history, many of the most prominent researchers, authors, and collectors of the succulent world have been leaders and members of our society.
LACSS meets monthly in the San Fernando Valley to enjoy stimulating presentations, hands-on workshops, plant sales, mini-shows, raffles, trading, and other activities. In addition, LACSS offers field trips to member gardens, nurseries, and private collections. We serve the greater community by offering free educational activities, upgrading the Succulent Garden at the Sepulveda Garden Center, and presenting an exciting annual show.
In order to share the joys and benefits of collecting and cultivating cacti and succulents, we invite you to check out our general meetings at 7:00 pm on the 1st Thursday of each month at the Sepulveda Garden Center in the San Fernando Valley. Attendance is FREE, and each visitor receives a free plant! We hope to see you at a meeting soon.
Joyce Schumann
President
Mission Statement
The Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society (LACSS) cultivates the study and enjoyment of cacti and succulent plants through educational programs and activities that promote the hobby within a community of fellow enthusiasts and among the greater public.
Thursday, July 6, 2017 Program
LACSS meeting begins at 7:00 PM .
The Sepulveda Garden Center will open for set-up
at 6:15 pm
Speaker July Program: Q and A Session
Presented by: Sandy Chase, Artie Chavez, Tim Harvey and John Martinez
You may have heard.. Rather than our usual Individual Speaker presentation, we will be presenting a Q & A session for our members on July 6, 2017. We haven’t done this in a few years, but being that we had such a wonderful turnout at our Festival…signing up thirty NEW individual members and twenty NEW family member- ships, our first Monthly meeting following our Festival, it seemed like an appropriate time for this.
At our Welcome/Hold Area tent, we received many questions regarding our Festival, our Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society club, upcoming events, and more. The idea came about as a suggestion by member Sandy Chase. Therefore, I chose four of our member-experts, feeling that they represent a great cross-section of all things drought resistant plant-related. I am confident that a number of our other member-experts will happily join the various Q & A conversations, as the topics fly! All in all, I believe this will stimulate a multitude of interesting topics, and discussions satisfying our members concerns… especially for the benefit of our newest members.
Ron Behar
V.P. Programs
Sandy Chase
Sandy entered into the Cactus and Succulent world in 1984 when she purchased 20 plants, each in 2 1/2 in. pots, for 50 cents each. She still has one of those plants to this day. Sandy has amassed quite a collection of cactus and succulents over the years. Through the years she has held every office in the Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent
Society, and she calls herself a “life member.” Sandy was privileged to be a co-chair for the 2001 convention hosted by the Los Angles Cactus and Succulent Society, held in Woodland Hills,California. It was also her good fortune to be part of a 3+ week trip to Africa, with eight friends from the club, where they saw many plants in habitat in 2010. Sandy has put together many educational displays for the LACSS, the CSSA ,and Inter-city shows. Sandy looks forward to serving many more years in any capacity that will help our society grow.
Artie Chavez
Artie has been a collector and grower of rare and unusual succulents since the age of 14. He has held numerous board positions for the Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society for over 30 years, he is a member of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America, and numerous other local clubs. With extensive travels to Mexico, Africa, and throughout the United States, his knowledge of plants and habitat make him an excellent grower. His staging of Cactus and Succulents have been featured in the Daily News and his style has influenced the art of staging in the Cactus and Succulent Shows throughout California. He is a co-owner of a Cactus and Succulent nursery, Desert Creations in Northridge, CA. Artie is the creator of one of the most unique cactus and succulent show sponsored by the LACSS each June at the Sepulveda Garden Center in Encino.
Tim Harvey
If you haven’t heard Tim speak, you might not know that he is originally from England. He moved across the pond in 1992, falling a little short, working at the Ontario Cancer Institute in Toronto for a couple of years. He completed the trip to California when he went to work in the Biotechnology industry. He was also able to relocate his cactus collection, started 20 years earlier,to a more favorable climate. Escaping with his morals intact in 2006, he enrolled as a full-time propagator and pollinator of his favorite plants, as well as becoming Editor of the Cactus and Succulent Journal in 2011. He makes frequent trips to his adopted country Namibia, as well as appearances at clubs in Southern California, either as a Speaker, or as a Vendor. Never able to walk past a plant in flower without trying to pollinate it, he is also a keen hybridizer, with the pachycauls, Aloe and bulbs in his collection being defenseless subjects for
experimentation.
John Martinez
John currently lives in Moorpark with his wife Linda and is a retired Los Angeles Fire Department Battalion Chief. He is a member of several local garden clubs, and a past volunteer at the Huntington Botanical Garden. John has a deep fondness of nature and has been growing xeric plants most of his adult life. Over the past six years he has shared a co-operative succulent growing compound in Somis with three like minded growers of cactus, succulents, and other exotics. Aside from maintaining his plant collection, John’s time is divided between gardening, golf, photography, occasional fly fishing, and grandchildren. As a native of Southern California, John attended California State University of Northridge where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in art.
July Plants of the Month
Cacti: Stenocactus (a.k.a Echinofossulocactus)
Succulents: Pachypodium Africa
Public
Welcome
Need a passcode
