When and Where
Why Attend Our Meetings?
Why Attend Our Meetings?
We'd love for you to join us. Visitors welcomed!
Why Attend Our Meetings?
Why Attend Our Meetings?
Why Attend Our Meetings?
They are fun, educational, and you will leave with more plants!
CSSM Recorded Programs
Why Attend Our Meetings?
CSSM Recorded Programs
Check out our latest recorded programs on YouTube.
CSSM Monthly Programs
In-Person October 2, 2021 - Outdoors at the Ouch House
Rain Date October 9th
We'll be taking advantage of the mild days of autumn to hold our October meeting outdoors and celebrate CSSM's 30th Anniversary!
Agenda
Plant Giveaway:
Bring your extra plants, offsets, pots, and gardening paraphernalia to share with other members (please check for critters). As with our other giveaway days, you'll need to bring any that are not adopted back home with you.
Minute Clinic:
Have a question? Need an ID? Curious if that plant is dead or alive? Our Doctors are In!
Auction:
There will be special donations, and unique plants from Steve Hammer & Miles To Go, all for your bidding pleasure & entertainment.
Anniversary Cake!
Time: 12:00p Picnic; 1:00p-4:00p Meeting
Location: Carlisle, MA (Members must RSVP. Location details sent to members who RSVP)
Via ZOOM Meeting November 20, 2021 - Paul Carlberg: Sansevierias
Paul Carlberg is a founding member of the Cactus and Succulent Society of Massachusetts, a long time plant show judge serving in that role at the
prestigious Philadelphia Flower Show, guest speaker on succulents to other plant societies, and an expert grower with special interests in Haworthias, Gasterias, Sansevierias, orchids and a smattering of caudiciforms.
Paul has been growing Sansevierias for over 30 years. He became
particularly interested in the genus when an otherwise ordinary plant San.
Hyacinthioides awarded his care with a wonderfully fragrant two foot
inflorescence and over 50 blooms. Since that time he has added over 40
plants to his collection (mostly species) while remaining on the look out for new additions. Paul grows his plants under lights during the cold months and outdoors in the Summer.
Paul will introduce us to various types within this succulent genus and discuss their habitat, care and propagation. He will discuss the challenge related to nomenclature and give a brief propagation demonstration.
Time: 1p-4p
Location: ZOOM Meeting (Details will be sent to all members)
Via ZOOM Meeting December 11, 2021 - Steve Hubbard: Huntington Gardens Virtual Tour and Holiday Party
The Huntington Gardens in San Marino, California are among the most beautiful Botanical Retreats in the entire United States. Don’t miss this up close and personal tour of the gardens narrated by our own past President and accomplished photographer, Steve Hubbard.
Time: 1p-4p
Location: ZOOM Meeting (Details will be sent to all members)
Via ZOOM Meeting January 15 , 2022 - Ernesto Sandoval: Feeding Succulents: How Fertilizer, Water pH, and Soil Can and Should be Adjusted!
Perhaps you’ve heard that pH is important for plants? Ernesto will summarize why you want your plants to receive slightly acidic water and various ways you can adjust it for your succulents. How is this similar and different than fertilizing “regular” plants? Ernesto will discuss all of this plus the importance of soils/container media and the details of how you can maximize the root potential for your plants!
Time: 1p-4p
Location: ZOOM Meeting (Details will be sent to all members)
Via ZOOM Meeting February 19, 2022 - Woody Minnich: The Secrets of Growing Quality Cacti and Succulents
Woody Minnich will be returning virtually on Zoom by popular demand after his visit with us during his 2019 northeast speaking tour, when he spoke about "The New, Rare, and Seldom-seen Cacti and Succulents of Mexico.”
How do you find out what the secrets are? They are important strategies about how to grow plants well and they can be accomplished by doing five easy things: visiting habitats, traveling from garden to garden the world over, participating in shows, accessing numerous cactus and succulents books, and most importantly, talking with the growers of these wonderful plants. It is your awesome opportunity to learn from these various experiences!
With these experiences, it doesn’t take long to learn the many different approaches on how to grow quality cacti and succulents. Like most things, years of experience help, but seeing cacti and succulents in the field (their natural habitat) gives one incredibly valuable insight. Also, visiting numerous collections and gardens around the world helps add an even greater dimension to the understanding of cultivation in various environments. Participating in cactus and succulent shows is another great way to give one a full perspective on how to present and grow quality plants. Last, but not least, read the books! Don’t hesitate to use all of these available means to add to your information bank, and mostly, don’t be afraid to ask questions. “Why” is the biggest word in the world! Many of the factors for growing quality plants aren’t really secrets, but often, only the stories not shared or observed!
Time: 1p-4p
Location: ZOOM Meeting (Details will be sent to all members)
Via ZOOM Meeting March 19, 2022 - Jamaal Nelson: Hoyas
As a teen Jamaal spent much of his time building computers, which led him to work for the chain store CompUSA, where he made a great connection with a frequent client. Jamaal freelanced for them until they offered him a role as graphic designer at their men’s fashion company. Working closely with the head designer, he eventually got promoted to head designer himself. By the age of 19, the company sent Jamaal to live in Shanghai, China to do his designing while aiding and overseeing production. In his time there, he learned Mandarin and developed an eye for photography. He traveled from city to city working and observing lush green landscapes and rice paddies. This planted the ‘green’ seed in him, which later led him to be a plant enthusiast AND eventually find his ultimate love… Hoyas!
In his presentation, Jamaal will cover the origins, growing, propagation and medium of Hoyas. He’ll speak from his personal experimentation with different mediums and some unconventional methods as well, while sharing high resolution imagery and video footage of his boutique collection.
Some of the Hoya varieties covered will be: Carnosa, Grey Ghost, Wilbur Graves, Callistophylla, Jeniffer, Dasyantha, Wayettii (Variegated), Obovata, Kerrii, Publicaylx, Sigillatis, Meredithii, Australis Lisa, and Vitellinoides.
Time: 1p-4p
Location: ZOOM Meeting (Details will be sent to all members)
Via ZOOM Meeting April 16, 2022 - Steven Hammer and Oakes Austin: A Guided Tour of Sphaeroid Institute's Spectacular Succulent Collection
CSSM Member Emeritus Oakes Austin, now on staff at Steven Hammer’s Sphaeroid Institute, will give a tour of the greenhouses and plants, together with Steven himself, pointing out choice individuals, giving care tips, and answering questions.
The Sphaeroid Institute has been described on the Dave’s Garden website as "probably the most stunning and diverse, and massive collection of African succulents you will ever have the chance to see in one place… mainly Lithops, Conophytum and Haworthia, with others ranging from Gibbaeum, Pleiospilos, Glottiphyllum, Tylecodon, Andromischus, Titanopsis, Pelargonium, and Sarcocaulons. This is a Baskin and Robbins store of succulents with 10,000 flavors."
Oakes started going to CSSM meetings with his mom sometime between the ages of 8 and 10. Now a college graduate, Oakes continues his love for xeric plants. In late 2020, Oakes was introduced to Steven Hammer of the Sphaeroid Institute in Vista California. After a long email correspondence, Oakes ended up traveling to Vista in the summer of 2021 for a month-long visit to Steven's nursery. After that fateful visit, his services were requested for a somewhat longer term, and now Oakes finds himself living in Vista and working at the venerable Institute.
Steven Hammer has done extensive work on several of the genera Mesembryanthemaceae, and has traveled to South Africa 32 times in pursuit of taxa both new and old.
He is regarded internationally as one of the foremost authority on the mesembs and the foremost authority on Conophytum. He maintains probably the largest collection of mesembs at his home. His extensive articles on Conophytum and other mesemb genera, published in the society's journal, ALOE, the journal of the Mesemb Study Group (UK) and in other international succulent plant journals, are well known.
He is in demand internationally as a lecturer on the subject of mesembs. A research fellow at the University of Cape Town, he has been responsible for the official description of over fifty new species of succulents and has discovered many more. He holds a B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz and lives in Vista, California.
This live presentation will include pointing out choice individuals, giving care tips, and answering questions.
Time: 1p-4p
Location: ZOOM Meeting (Details will be sent to all members)
In-Person May 21, 2022 - Bonsai & Succulents CANCELLED
**05/19 Update**
This afternoon the Executive Board voted to cancel the meeting due to the excessive heat forecast for Saturday. Members should refer to the club email sent out ~8pm this evening for further details concerning the club-organized plant order, library books, and our next meeting.
Can a cactus be a bonsai? Can anything be a bonsai? What are the similarities between growing Bonsai and growing cactus and succulents?
What even is Bonsai? Professional Bonsai grower Joel Mullen will answer all of these questions in the May CSSMA presentation. Joel will explain the complexities, as well as the myths, of how to easily grow a bonsai tree using succulents as well as other tropical plant species. He will lead several demos that will help explain both the artistic structure to growing bonsai as well as the finer horticultural points. Joel encourages anyone with a tree or plant that they would like advice on to bring it to the meeting.
Joel has been the tropical grower and head of education at New England Bonsai Gardens since 2019. He currently teaches the Kaikou School of Bonsai and is a past president of the Kaikou Bonsai Study Group. Joel also teaches bonsai at Tower Hill Botanic Garden and he has given lectures and demos for clubs and nurseries throughout New England.
Time: Cancelled
Location: Cancelled
In-Person June 18, 2022 - Picnic and Meeting
End-of-Year Meeting and Picnic at the Ouch House.
Picnic, Raffle, Auction, Gift Plants!
Members Only. RSVP required.
For more info go to info.cssma@gmail.com
Time: 1:00p-4:00p
Meeting Location: Carlisle, MA