Presentation Schedule | Location | Vendor List
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Don’t miss the largest succulent show & plant sale in Northern California!
June 13-15 2025
At the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park.
( Directions )
Members-only early sale access:
Friday 3 pm – 7pm
Saturday 9 am – 10am
We will check memberships at the door.
Members can also skip the entry line all weekend!
Free and Open to the public:
Saturday 10 am – 5 pm
Sunday 9 am – 5 pm
Succulent plants embody resilience – storing water to survive during long dry periods. Our 2025 event theme “LEAF, STEM, BASE” focuses our attention on the kinds of physical adaptations that make this water storage possible.
Detailed show information and weekend presentation schedule below.
Featuring
- 40+ Plant vendors selling unusual species of succulents & cacti you can’t buy at stores.
- Hand-made pottery created for succulent plants
- Plant Hotel (store plants while you shop)
- Exceptional specimens on display in the “Leaf, Stem, Base” plant show
- Expert growing advice, live planting demonstrations.
- Habitat & conservation info.
- Proceeds support the SF Succulent Society’s monthly programs and further our mission of education, conservation, and propagation
- Our friends from the SF Bromeliad Society will also be participating.
Did we mention it’s a large sale? This video of the sale gallery was shot on Saturday morning before we opened last year.
Make your experience more enjoyable
- BYOB – SAVE TREES: Please bring your own box to shop and take plants home
- Please plan to pay by card or tap for quicker checkout.
- Use the plant hotel to store your plants while you enjoy the show
- Pro-Tip: Saturday morning is always the most crowded and longest lines
- Sunday and afternoons are always less crowded, so come then if you can.
- More space and more registers + additional day (Friday, members only) mean less crowding.
Special Presentations
We will be hosting several programs in the show auditorium over the course of the weekend. These are free and open to the public on a first come first seated basis.
Saturday @ 11:00 AM
Show Judges Table Talk
The Leaf, Stem, Base show judges discuss this year’s winners and their personal favorites
Saturday @ 1:00 PM
Discover the Crassulaceae and Agavaceae of Jalisco, Michoacan, and Colima
Julia Etter and Martin Kristen
Botanists, field explorers living in Mexico – (Agavaceae.com, Crassulaceae.com)
Discover the spectacular wild agaves and echeverias of southwestern Mexico with two of the world’s leading experts on these succulents. These two intrepid travelers live in Jalisco, and they have spent the last 25 years tracking down wild succulents found in their adopted country,
Saturday @ 2:00 PM
Succulent Bonsai and Staging Plants for Showing (Live Demonstration)
Presented by Al Klein
Proprietor of Botanic Wonders
Learn more about this fascinating intersection of botany and art! Many succulents exhibit features of mature old specimens at a young age. While true bonsai has very specific rules and parameters that can be difficult to replicate with succulents, we are still trying to capture the look of mature plants from the wild with a smaller plant in a container. Careful care and container selection help us achieve “dwarfing, and that “fat” compact look we are seeking when exhibiting succulents at shows. Learn more about this fascinating intersection of botany and art!
Sunday @ 11:00 AM
Cactus Grafting (Live Demonstration)
Presented by Andrew Hazlett
President of the Cactus and Succulent Society of San Jose, Proprietor of JunesCactus
Maybe you’ve seen grafted cacti in the store or have some in your collection, but have you ever wondered how it works? Andrew Hazlett will show us the basic techniques for successful grafting, including the tools, root stock and scions needed. The basic process is easier than you think! The second half of the presentation will dive into advanced techniques that push the limits on grafting rare cacti for propagation or art.
Sunday @ 12:30 PM
Succulent Propagation, Potting, and Gardening (Live Demonstration)
Presented by Walker Young
Assistant Curator, Ruth Bancroft Garden
Walker is returning to the Expo this year to give this popular demonstration. Topics will include soil mixes, light levels, potting techniques, differences between growing in pots and in the ground, propagation, and some of the common pests that attack succulent plants. Much of the talk will be in Q&A format, so bring your questions!
Sunday @ 2:00 PM
Growing Succulent Caudiciforms
Presented by Al Klein
Proprietor of Botanic Wonders
Caudiciform plants have a swollen base used for water storage and from this part a thin vine or stem grows, often dying back each year. A perfect example of this is Dioscorea elephantipes, A broader use of the term can also include Pachycaul trees, such as Ficus palmerii. These magical plants have found a way to adapt to some of the most inhospitable environments our world has to offer, and as a result, it can be challenging to replicate their natural growing conditions in containers.
Location
The San Francisco County Fair Building
- On the southern edge of Golden Gate Park at 9th Ave. and Lincoln Way – Directions
- 1199 9th Ave, San Francisco, CA 94122
Muni:
Easy access via 7, 44 bus and & the N-Judah which will take you to BART in downtown SF.
Parking:
There is no public parking lot at the County Fair Building. If you plan to drive, carefully read and obey all posted signs on city and park streets, as they are STRICTLY enforced. You will have a better chance to find parking the earlier you come, otherwise plan on allotting additional time to park. Look for parking along the streets in the park (Martin Luther King Jr Drive and Nancy Pelosi Drive) or along Lincoln Way. There are hourly parking garages further away (Golden Gate Park Parking Garage North Entrance).
Get reminders and invite your friends
- Sign up for our free email announcement list.
- Help us spread the word on our Facebook event. Mark yourself as “going” and click “share” to send invites.
Get involved
Volunteering is a great way to meet people and have fun helping the Society.
Sign up for shifts and get no-line admission on the day you volunteer (including Friday early access).
On Saturday and Sunday we also offer $10 per 2-hour shift sale credit (“showbucks”) as a thank-you.
Show your plants or enter a display in the juried plant show. Check out our Show Participants Guide and contact the show chair if you are interested.
- There will be prizes for individual plants & individual display tables.
- There will be open theme displays with prizes for the best Leaf, Stem, and Pachyform/Pachycaul plants.
- Show plant load in for non-vendors is Friday 9am till 7:30pm and Saturday first thing in the morning 7:30–8am.
- Plants must remain on display till 5pm Sunday, and be loaded out by 6:30.
Vendors
Northern California’s top rare Cactus and Succulent sellers:
Gardeners Home
Planta Seca
PB & J Cacti & Succulents
Radiant Cactus and Succulents (Sacramento)
L&J Plants and Things
Returning Favorites and New Surprises:
Gardenia Gardens and Design
Cloud Hidden Plants
Succielife
The Succulent Addict
Succulents and Beyond
Vivid Root (Garden Valley, CA) – NEW
RDD Succulents
An epic selection of succulent pottery
Peety Pots (LA)
Rowe Clayworks (Morro Bay)
Cherney Design
Rene Rosso
Kim Manfredi
SFSCS Member Potters
Specialized local botanical growers / hybridizers
Artisan Plants
Agavoides
Dunne & Parisi
Epiphyllum World
Jim Smith
Vendors from the Monterey Bay Area and the Central Coast
JC Succulents (Watsonville)
Desert Rose of Santa Cruz
Q Cactus (Salinas)
Grow (Morro Bay)
And plant vendors all the way from Southern California
Kyles Plants (LA)
Botanic Wonders (San Diego) – NEW
Thorn Oasis (LA)
Partner society and co-organizers:
Bromeliad Society of SF (air plants and bromeliads plants from 12+ members)
And many more growers:
Casper’s Landscape
Karen Casino
Sus’s Succulents
Dana Gardner and Michael Chin
Vendor list is closed for this year. If you are interested in future years, the best way is to join the Society, come to meetings, and offer to be a featured grower at a monthly meeting.
Existing vendor links: Barcode order form (deadline June 1)
Presented by the
San Francisco Succulent & Cactus Society
Founded in 1984