30 Years & Counting-Kansas City Cactus & Succulent Show

yes. kansas city really DOES have a Cactus and Succulent Society. i know--i didn't believe it either at first. but this weekend, they proved it for sure. the 30th Annual Cactus & Succulent Show, no less. it is held each year at the very beautiful Loose Park Garden Center and i have to say that they did a bang up job. the sale was upstairs where there were locals who grew extras for sale and out-of-towners who had special tools and brought tablesful of cacti and succulents for sale to us newbies and seasoned collectors all. me and Val hit them up first thing saturday morning (well, she did--i was late) and proceeded around the sale with stealth and cunning, cash in hand ready to make deals with whomever it was that held our most desired objects. we saw so, so many pretties--large, medium and small--we almost didn't know where to start. each time around, we saw plants that we hadn't seen our first time around--aeonium, fishhook cactus (which my mom loves), opuntia babies. so many shapes and names and colors it was exhilarating and a bit overwhelming to see all of them in one room. val bought a boxful of lovelies and bought a bishop's cap (Astrophytum myriostigma) for my birthday--it's not for six months so she's going to take it home with her until then (sucks but still good). one beauty in particular left me completely breathless from it's color alone--pale green and fleshy. it was an Haworthia attenuata caespitosa with three offsets of various sizes (which was placed promptly into a 95 cent pot from DAV's Thrift). a lovely and very knowledgeable woman named Julie had grown several of them to share. turns out that she has been with the society since its inception! considering my own new feelings about these wonderful plants, i can absolutely see why she would stick around.


we made our way downstairs to the show and found more items that we had never seen before. lots of succulent trees with large caudex and the tiniest leaves. Eva submitted a plant that was so thin and weblike that if you didn't move very slowly past the table, you would miss it altogether. two 20-year-old specimens were entered by Dick who won both first and second prize in the classification. he was loads of fun and didn't seem to want me and Val to leave. ~wink~ by the time we had to leave, we were both completely exhausted from talking with everyone and learning so much new information about our succulent obsessions.

shout out to Eva, Linda, Sylvia, Barbara, Wanda, Judy, Jerry and all who worked to make the show happen. ps. i am hoping to help next year. (call me about a website.)

i have to aplogize for not having photos. i was so enthralled with all the plants--spiny and prickly and shiny, o my--that i forgot altogether that i had my camera. how do you like that, most people keep it simple and just forget the camera.