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I know I’m a little late posting this collection of photos of this year’s Connecticut Cactus and Succulent Show. It’s just been a busy time and a number of daily events have gotten in the way.  These photos have been on the ‘back burner’ along with a LOT of others. I’ll try to get them out and posted soon.

These are some shots of the show as we saw it on April 10th. Colman and I drove up to the show with Tibor. I didn’t photograph any of the vendors this year even though we went to that part of the show to see friends and search for unusual plants. I bought a couple of echeverias and a sedum home with thoughts that they would be grown outside in the ground this summer.

Here are a few of what I thought were the highlights of the exhibition. I’ll keep my comments to a minimum.

This is a very nice rhipsalis in bloom, it would be dramatic even without its tassel flowers.

The buds on this gymnocalysium are especially nice. It wouldn’t have to bloom for me if it just made more more of those scale covered buds.

My lithops keep getting higher and higher out of their soil, this is how they should look.

I’ve never seen a crested sedum before this.

This crassula has been very difficult to grow let alone  get it to bloom.

The next two photos are of a seed grown tylecodon, the likes of which are entirely new to me.  If this one is as difficult to grow as some of its cousins, this plant with its blooming stalk is a horticultural feat worth more than a blue ribbon.

Echeverias, along with lithops are my favorite succulents.

This tacitus is  very well grown and it will be spectacular when all the bright pink stat flowers are open.

I end this entry with a shot of this charming gibbaeum about to bloom.

The show this year seemed a little smaller than in past years. The plants were beautiful and it was again a quality show.  My only complaint is the use of those terrible red tablecloths. Not very dignified and terribly distracting, especially for photographing the plants. I would also like to see them use smaller entry tags for the plants, it seemed particularly messy, long scraps of paper strewn all over the display tables (also a major distraction when combined with the ribbons).

Some of the first things seen as we entered the show were tufa tub gardens on tables in the center of the cactus part of the show. This one was so nice to see with all of the pink buds announcing Spring.

Naturally we went to the sales area first, we were a day late and the best  plants had probably already been bought and taken away.  It was nice to see Judy Becker  with all of her plants; cactus, succulents, gesneriads and  some unusual begonias (that’s what I bought).

I really like these gesneriads but I just don’t have the space and time for them anymore.

After shopping we went to see the exhibits, starting with the thorny plants.  There were some really well grown fasciated specimens.

This is a particularly nice variegated plant.

Another favorite, but nearly impossible for me to grow plant, a tylecodon.

This conophytum was in bloom, a rare feat for a show, the grower deserves the blue ribbon for his excellent growing.

Another nicely grown conophytum.

A sinningia with a crusty tuber.

Two beautifully grown euphorbias.

A varigated haworthia.

A tight little gasteria.

A festively colored, variegated gasteria.

Two more plants rarely displayed with flowers.  The one on the right is a massonia.

Some plants in the caudex section.

Crested succulents.

A crested echeveria pulvinata.

My trichocaulons never looked like this,  thisone must have been carefully pruned for YEARS. . .

This is a spectacular varigated haworthia.  It won all the top prizes in the show.

This cucurbit has a magnificent caudex and was bearing fruit.

Someone planted this exuberant mix in a birdbath. A wonderful arrangement,  the star of which is the red echeveria.

Part of the educational display.

A gymnocalycium.

A couple of Ubelmanias.

A budded astrophytum.

A shot of the auction in progress, Dr gerry Barad is  up front to the right of the auctioneer.

A boweia.

The furry cactus display.

This is a grand adenium.

A note, May 2100:

This entry gets a lot of visits. I have also covered the 2010 show and have just published photos of the 2011 show.  Search the calendar on the right of this entry or look for cactus related words in the word cloud and you’ll see more photos of the newer shows.

 

Last Sunday we went , with our friend Tibor, to the annual  cactus and Succulent Show in Connecticut.  Our first stop is always in the sales area, the show could wait but rare plants and bargains might just vanish before we get there. We were attending on the second day, I’m sure the best specimens went within the first few hours of opening on Saturday. This is just a little glimpse of part of the sales area.

 

One of the members of the sponsoring local cactus group was selling rare aroid tubers.  I got three  which are now potted up and I am awaiting their emerging leaves.  The scope of plants available goes beyond the expected cactus and succulents. Bob Smoley was even selling some sea shells  and bromeliads along with his fine collection of succulent plants. A local potter was selling some of her pots  and tufa tubs which are used to grow hardy succulents outside.

Now, on to the show.  The first area is devoted to cactus.  This show always has a lot of exceptionally well grown plants. I don’t  generally like cactus as much as succulents but I have great admiration for a well grown plant and  a appreciate the skill and patience it takes to produce results like these.

These fasciated cactus are in perfect, immaculate condition. It was breathtaking to see them up close as individuals.

This copiapoa always gets my attention, it’s compact, black and has furry tufts instead of spines.

In the succulent side of the show this sculptural Kalanchoe bonneri made an elegant appearance. Haven’t seen this one before. The colors and form is really nice. It got a blue ribbon.

 

Here’s a nicely grown Sedum compactum.

A collection of euphorbia francoisii with different leaf forms.

A closer look at my favorite type of  Euphorbia francoisii.

Here’s a look back to the beginning of the succulent part of the show.

A look across the divider back into the cactus display.

And the rest of the succulent show further along the tables.

It’s not easy to get these massonias to bloom.  These plants were shown with their remaining dried calyx clusters, one has seeds in it.

This Adenium bispinnatum is a magnificent specimen combining bonsai culture and flowers in a great presentation.

A good display of large flowered euphorbias.  You don’t often see plants this large.

I was told that this table with its mixed collection of plants was an educational display.

a grand pachypodium in flower.

The center table held a number of special collections, this is a nicely grown caudex plant (trichodema?), it blooms with large daisy like flowers either white or pink.

These plants are gesneriads, but because of their large tubers which are usually exposed when the plants are grown in pots, they get into succulent shows  along with caudex plants.  The sinningia leucotricha in the far right of this picture and in a portrait shot below is the plant that got me to grow gesneriads a number of years ago. Its dramatic, fuzzy, silver coloring wins a lot of people over to this group of plants (which also include african violets and a number of succulent leafed vines).

These are caudex plants.

Here’s a last shot of a desert pelargonium (geranium) with a delicate yellow flower.

Wednesday I went into the city to deliver some work and pick up my order from the casters on 46th street. As I passed by the diamond building site, I saw surveyors working at street level through a window cut into the building site barricade.You can barely see their tripod through the mesh. 

 

This is the best view I could get of the foundation still being poured since my usual window was occupied. 

Thursday we left Staten Island for Danielson to go to Anja and Austin’s wedding over the weekend.  The traffic was unbelievable for a mid morning Thursday, there was a slow  but moving line waiting for passage on the Washington Bridge. Here’s what it looked like in Fort Lee, after the Washington Bridge traffic, before we got onto the Palisades parkway.

When we got to Danielson, we found out that Al’s show was being opened that night in Norwich.  We had driven north for the show two weeks ago but the show was unceremoniously closed by a Fire Marshall about an hour before people were to arrive. 

We got to Adi and Sabine’s where other family members had arrived from New York and the west coast for the wedding weekend. Colman and I were staying with our friends Pam and Marty. I noticed this inch long moth on the wall outside the kitchen door. It was an unusual shape.

I bothered it a little and it flew down to the deck. 

We had dinner with Pam, Marty and their daughter Kelsey in their home and then they drove us to Norwich for Al’s opening. Norwich is a beautiful place, the city is in the process of a LOT of renovation. Al’s show is in one of the newly renovated spaces. Taybin and Cat were standing just outside the doors when we arrived. 

We were not among the first to arrive, the large room was full of people. Here are Anja and Titian.

It was good to see Al’s work in a gallery setting. These are large ink drawings on acetate, here are a few of the pieces.   

 

This one is attached to a floor sculpture by a banded string, barely visible in this photo.

Here are Al and Linda. 

 Marty and Pam with Adi and Anja between them. 

 

It was twilight as we left the show, this is the side of a bank across the street from the show space. I was surprised by the way suburbs were immediately behind the impressive architecture.  

 

I like the way porches can be a transitional space between public and private places. This one has intricate wood work that was bright in the twilight.