New "Cactus Chatter" now online

As the editor of the Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society newsletter this is a note to let people know that the latest newsletter is now available to download in pdf format here.

The cold weather is hanging on, record cold for this time of year. This is more like the weather we sometimes get in January.

Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society Succulent Plant Fest

Our summer show and sale is scheduled for July 18, 19 & 20 at Portland Nursery, 5050 SE Stark St. in Portland. I design the flyers each year, usually 2.  The first one this year is this:

 

It's available as a pdf here.

OCSS Picnic and Open House

Consider this an open invitation to anyone in Portland and the Northwest to come to our home and nursery for an evening of food, plants and conversation this coming Sunday, August 18 beginning at 3 pm. The fried chicken and cold, non-alcoholic beverages will be provided by the club and the rest of the picnic will be potluck. Plants will be available to purchase beginning at noon.
Also, on the day before, Saturday, August 17, we will be open for plant sales from 9 am to 5 pm. Come by to check out the plants on Saturday if you can't come on Sunday.

Enjoy your plants!

Report on OCSS Show and Sale

This year's show and sale is over and it was a success. Thank you to all of you in the Portland area who came to the event. It was good to meet you. I'll get back to posting to the blog this week. Thanks for your patience.

Succulent Plant Fest 2013: OCSS Show & Sale

Succulent Plant Fest 2013:
A Weirder Portland & Northwest
One Plant at at Time

July 19-22, 2013
Portland Nursery on Stark St.
5050 SE Stark St.
Portland
Store hours (9 am - 7 pm), except on Sunday when we will close early (9 am - 4 pm). 

I haven't had much time to take photos or post anything for a while. We're busy potting up plants for the annual Summer show and sale of the Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society. If you're in the Portland area we hope to see you there. In the meantime, I'm preparing the sermon and worship service at Woodlawn United Methodist Church for tomorrow evening. Never a dull moment.

Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society Holiday Party

A local announcement: The December meeting of the OCSS is the Holiday Party being held this coming Saturday, December 15 at 2 pm. Location? -  7875 Blinkhorn Way, Gladstone, OR. Directions are a little complicated: Take I-5 south toward Salem. At exit 288, take the ramp right for I-205 toward Oregon City/West Linn. At exit 11, take the ramp right toward DMV/Gladstone and turn right onto 82nd Dr. Go about 1/2 mile, passing Ruhl's Honey, a spa place and a furniture consignment shop. Take a left on Strawberry Lane, which crosses back over the freeway. Strawberry is a small street and is hard to see. There is a turn lane and look for a low wall built by "The Wall" company on the NW corner where you turn. Take the left onto SE strawberry Ln. Go about 1/2 mile. Watch for "yellow, curve in the road, speed sign" which tells you to be on the lookout for SE Stanhelma Dr. and turn left. (If you pass a small park on the right or if you reach Webster, you have missed the turn to Stanhelma.) Go up the hill, bearing right. Turn right onto Blinkhorn Way. Destination is on the right side, a low, brown house, paver driveway, and a Pacific Northwest salmon on the door. Questions? Call 503-655-7038 or 503-913-7123. The society will provide baked ham and non-alcoholic drinks (if you wish to bring wine, that's OK). The rest of the meal is potluck. Hope to see you there.

Oregon Cactus and Succulent Society meeting

The next meeting of the Oregon Cactus & Succulent society is scheduled for this Sunday, October 7 at Rare Plant Research, the home of Burl Mostel. The address is 11900 South Criteser Road, Oregon City, OR. We'll gather at around 2 pm. Directions are here on Google maps. Anyone in the greater Portland area is invited to join us. (Please park near the greenhouses.)

Echeveria 'Lola'

I've posted 'Lola' before - probably many times - but it's worth it. A Dick Wright hybrid of E. lilicina & E. derenbergii, it's stood the test of the years, and - happily - we now have enough of them that are mature enough to sell. So, it'll be going back up on our nursery list any day now.

Thus ends day 2 of shameless advertising...
On another note, if you're in the Portland area - defined broadly - you're invited to come to the OCSS (Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society) picnic and open house at our place (7009 N Fiske Ave., Portland) on the afternoon of August 26. This is a correction so, if you put it on your calendar for July???, please correct it also. And thanks for calling it to my attention :)

Fat Plants 2012

Roxanne, one of the members of the Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society, welcoming people to Fat Plants 2012 this past weekend. The weather cooperated and a good number of people showed up. If you were among those who were there, we thank you and hope you'll return for the July event, July 20-22, at the Stark Street location of Portland Nursery.

Thanks to all of you who helped out in one way or another.
Back with more plant pictures tomorrow.

OCSS Show & Sale Update

I haven't had much free time for the last few days and so I haven't posted. The is just a not that the first show and sale of the Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society is scheduled for the Portland Nursery on Division Street, June 16 & 17. More information, including a downloadable flyer, is available at the OCSS web site.

OCSS Update

The Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society (OCSS) will hold it's next meeting at the regular meeting place, Sacred Heart Villa, 3911 SE Milwaukie Ave. in Portland, Thursday, April 19, at 7 pm. A guest speaker from the distributors of Black Gold potting mixes will present the main program. In the following photos new member Dee shows off her new club tee shirt and Mark, our new president, listens to ideas from some of the members.

Also, we can now announce our June and July Show/Sale dates: June 16 & 17 at the Portland Nursery East parking lot at the Division St. store, and July 20, 21 & 22 in the West Parking lot at the Portland Nursery on Stark St. In either case, we will be under the big awning.

Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society meeting announcement

The next meeting of the Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society (OCSS) will be this coming Thursday, March 15, at 7 pm. the meeting will be held at the Sacred Heart Villa, 3911 SE Milwaukee Ave., in Portland. The plants of the month are Aloes and Rhipsalis, Lipismium, etc.. Bring a plant to the brag table. It should be a great meeting - with refreshments of course!

We also have some other special announcements regarding upcoming programs and the June and July Sales (with un-judged show at the July sale). Start planning for that special plant you would like to show to the public.

I look forward to seeing some of you there. [And those of you in other countries, Portland has an outstanding international airport :-) ]

Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society meeting

Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society meeting announcement: the date and time have been changed for this month. Now scheduled for next Sunday, January 22, 3 pm. Please check this link for more details and directions to the meeting site. Thanks.

Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society show & sale

The second show & sale of the OCSS in 2011 is happening this coming weekend at the Stark Street location of Portland Nursery. We'll be there Friday and Saturday, 9 am - 8 pm, and Sunday, 9 am - 4 pm. If you're in the Portland-Vancouver area, come by and say hello.

Back with a picture later tonight.

We're back...

We've been off on a road trip to Arizona and Southern California and just returned after driving Sacramento to Portland today, so I'm a bit tired. Just a reminder for those in the Portland, Oregon area that the next meeting of the Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society is Thursday night at the same place, 7 pm. I'll be back with more photos later this week. Missed you all.

Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society Information update

I've updated the information about upcoming events of the Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society at the OCSS link on our nursery web pages. If you're in the Portland, Oregon area, check it out!

Another Cactus Sale

The second summer Show & Sale of the Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society (OCSS) is coming up this coming weekend, July 16, 17 and 18. This time it's at the Portland Nursery on Stark St. (5050 SE Stark) in Portland, 9 am - 7 pm Friday and Saturday and 9 am - 5 pm on Sunday. Come on out and join the fun.


And a special "thank you" to those of you who showed up at the seminar on Sunday. There were 15 in attendance and I hope it was a good experience for all.

Echinocereus rigidissimus var. rubrispinus was blooming today but I didn't have the time to get a picture, so we'll just have to do with this one from the archives. 

Enjoy your plants.

Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society Show and Sale photos

Here's some photos from the sale. The weather didn't cooperate so we didn't do as well as we might have hoped. Today, of course, two days after the event, we're finally getting some appropriate early summer weather.

Of course we'll be back at it again in July and the weather should be OK by then. Last year it was in the 90s (F).

Tomorrow: Tephrocactus geometricus.

See you at the show

I probably won't have time to post much during the show & sale. I'll be loading plants out tomorrow afternoon; it'll take about three trips with our van (need to get a larger truck for this). The sale is then on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I'll take photos, but I'll really be beat each evening. Next week then!

Finally, a picture of Sulcorebutia canigueralii. It's been blooming like mad and putting on quite a show.

Getting ready for the OCSS Sale

I've been busy the last few days. I'm retired, but still do some things related to my profession. A friend had requested that I  officiate at the interment of her ashes, which I did on Friday, and today I filled in for a pastor who was out of town. But the real time investment has been in preparation for the OCSS sale next weekend. Lynn-Marie has been potting up cacti for the last few days (somewhere between 15 and 20 flats) and is just now getting to the other succulents. I kind of work in the background preparing potting soil, carrying things around, going for supplies, etc., but have also potted up a flat of Lithops and will pot up another flat tomorrow before going to my cardiologist appointment.

Getting ready for a sale like this is quite time consuming since, being an internet-mail order nursery, our plants are generally grown in trays and aren't individually potted. The Pleiospilos plants above look about as exhausted as we are!

Hope to see some of you locals out at the sale.