Welcome to the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society

An Affiliate of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America

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Group Sessions and Programs: Thursday. April 28, 2011
The Group Sessions and Programs are available for $30 per session. The sessions will be either at 7:00 or 8:30 pm Thursday evening. Payment may be made at the time of convention check-in. You may reserve a session by e-mail. The programs will be 1½ hours each with approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour of presentation and the balance for discussion. All will contain large question and answer sessions. Some of the presentations may have numerous example plants on hand to illustrate their talk. Sessions 1-3: 7:00 pm to 8:25 pm Sessions 4-6: 8:30 pm to 9:55 pm
Session:	Topic:	Presenter:

1.	From Nature to Nurture: Enchanting Agaves for Cultivation	Greg Starr
	A discussion of the qualities a collector looks for when determining if an agave would be great prospect for horticultural use. Greg graduated from the University of Arizona in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture. After working in the landscape industry he went back to the University to study Botany and further his education in horticulture. Greg worked for Warren Jones (co-author of Plants for Dry Climates and Landscape Plants for Dry Regions) and Dr. Charles Mason at the University of Arizona herbarium.
2.	Aloes: New and Unusual Aloes	Brian Kemble
	This presentation will focus on some interesting seldom-seen aloes, including species which have not found their way into cultivation, uncommon variants of more familiar species, and some new and interesting hybrids. A discussion will follow. Brian has been growing aloes since the mid-seventies, when he was first introduced to the world of succulents. He is the vice-president of the Institute for Aloe Studies, a board member of the San Francisco S& C Society, and curator at the Ruth Bancroft Garden. He has been to South Africa 5 times, Namibia 3 times, and Madagascar once to see the plants in their native habitats. He has an interest in aloe hybrids, and he has created many of these over the years.
3.	Field Work and Its Influence on Our Hobby	Woody Minnich
	“Field Work and Its Influence on Our Hobby” is a slide presentation and discussion of Mr. Minnich's 40 years of experiences and learning from traveling in the field. We will go to the cactus and succulent rich regions of the world to see what myself and so many other field workers have discovered. It is the opinion of many a field worker, that being where the plants grow and learning what habitats can teach us is everything!
4.	Micropropagation Session	Tim Harvey
	Tm Harvey has a passionate interest in ex-situ conservation through propagation, and was able to use his scientific training to enliven the micro-propagation facility at the Huntington library. Never able to walk past a plant in flower without trying to pollinate it, he is a keen hybridizer, with the pachycauls, Aloe and bulbs in his collection becoming defenceless subjects for experimentation.
5.	Madagascar	Gary James
	"I have had a fascination with succulent plants since childhood. Growing up just a short bus ride from the Huntington Gardens in San Marino my interest developed and I started a small collection of my own. I made my first trip to Madagascar in 1978 and have been back an additonal six times. The island is one of the most interesting places for seeing unusual plants in habitat due to its long isolation and extensive speciation of the plants as well as the animals that live there."
6.	Socotra, Isle of Bliss	Dylan Hannon
	Dylan Hannon's interest in succulents began in the 1970s in Santa Barbara, CA. Subsequent to work and school in San Diego, he worked for several years as a research assistant to Dr. Thomas B. Croat at Missouri Botanical Garden on aroids (Araceae). After returning to San Diego in 1991, Dylan focused on botanical surveys and report writing, followed by a brief stint at C&J Cactus Nursery in Vista as a propagator. From 1995 to 2004 he worked as Plant Propagator at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (Claremont, CA), and from 2003 to present as Curator of Conservatory Collections at The Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, CA. Dylan's current interests include the conservation of cultivated plants, writing, photography and travel..