Balboa Park -- June 2
All cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti.
This was one of several thing learned by this Examiner regarding succulents during the first day of the 2012 Cactus and Succulent Show and Sale. The event will resume on Sunday, June 3, from 10 to 4 at Balboa Park’s Casa Del Prado.
The exhibition part of the event, presented by the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society, is in Room 101 of the Casa Del Prado Building. It features more than 600 spectacular succulent specimens, from miniature trees to hairy cacti. Sunday's show will reveal the winning entries as awarded by the judges.
The sale part takes place in the adjoining courtyard between Casa Del Prado and the Junior Theatre building. Thirty-eight vendors have thousands of cacti and other succulents of all sorts, including plants "you won't find at Home Depot or Lowes" or even local nurseries, according to Society President Chris Miller. Also available are ceramic pots with features especially conducive to succulent cultivation.
Miller, who looks just like you’d expect a friendly home gardener to look like, first became interested in succulents as a way to ensure the survival of her Santee garden while on travel. “Fluffy” plants – her term for non-succulents—tended to wilt in the Santee sun. Succulents, which store water in their fleshy and thick leaves and stems, are much more suited for arid conditions.
She gradually became more enamored of the wide variety of shapes and textures in the succulent world; her front yard is now planted solely with cactus.
A knowledge of succulents will become more important to local gardeners as San Diego faces a future of possible droughts and certain watering restrictions, Miller believes. She knows of some established succulent gardens that only need watering two or three times over a whole summer.
In addition to the vendor sale, Sunday will also feature an auction in room 101 of special select plants, including those on display, plants featured in past meetings of the society, and other unique and special succulents. One does not have to be a society member to participate.
The San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society, an affiliate of the national Cactus and Succulent Society and a member organization of the San Diego Botanical Garden Foundation, holds meetings on the second Saturday of each month in room 101 of the Casa Del Prado. Contact them at membership@sdcss.org@gmail.com.
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