By Carl Frederick
Tuesday, April 21, 2026 – 7:00 pm Pacific Time (California)

Members and visitors can attend in person in San Francisco,
or register or join the meeting in progresson Zoom.

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Program Description

Carl’s trip to South Africa was billed as an opportunity to see conophytums in flower after early rains. He doesn’t grow them, but he knew there woud be many other things to see—and anyway, who wouldn’t want to see flowering conos? The Northern Cape (including Namaqualand and the Richtersveld) delivered, as it always does. In addition to conos, there were many other mesembs, tylecodons, aloes, othonnas, pelargoniums, geophytes of all kinds, and plants from many families. Namaqualand contains about 3500 species in 135 families and 724 genera, with about a quarter of these endemic to the area. Carl was amazed to many plants he had not expected to see, plus many mysteries. As an added surprise, some of his fellow travelers were working on a documentary about Steven Hammer, the Conophytum expert, and to illustrate the severe problem of plant poaching, they were filming scenarios using marionettes.

About our Speaker

Carl was introduced to growing plants by his grandmother—she even sent her grandchildren boxes of little cacti from the southwest. It wasn’t until moving to California that he could really indulge an interest in succulents. He quickly met Herman Schwartz (publisher of many books on succulents) and Jerry Wright (owner of The Great Petaluma Desert nursery). From them he developed a keen interest in caudiciforms, rare euphorbias and Madagascar plants. Then one day he discovered the winter rainfall bulbs of South Africa, and things really took off from there. His ongoing plant projects include hybridizing geophytic othonnas for flower color and re-establishing Kumara haemanthifolia in cultivation. He has visited South Africa four times and plans to return soon.

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Meeting Agenda

7:00 Mingling and announcements
7:30 Formal presentation starts promptly with Society business
7:35 Show and Tell Table
7:50 Leg stretch
7:55 Featured presentation

Show & tell table: Mesembs on the succulent side, Thelocactus on the cactus table, and Beaucarnea & Calibanus  for the pachyforms, plus anything else that’s looking good or in flower.

Featured grower: Gianluca Bacci

Snack table: Some basics are provided by the club, but we suggest bringing something to share every couple of months if you partake regularly. As a thought, we are often short on drinks. 

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Watch Online

On Zoom: Register or join the meeting in progress.

We will attempt to simulcast on our YouTube channel.

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