Cactus Weekend: Mary’s Collections

As the nursery slowly but surely calms down, I find myself with a couple spare moments to have a life again. What a relief. I had a most excellent weekend, full of garden lounging and cactus “hunting”. I know I said I’d slow down on the plant hoarding, but it certainly isn’t easy. There is nothing more exciting then the thrill of the hunt, the last couple weeks have presented some unique opportunities to add to my collection. At the last VCSS meeting we were informed that the lady who started our club (some 20+ years ago) was moving to Kamloops and had to reduce the size of her collection drastically. Rather then sell her collection, with emotion held high, Mary generously invited the club over to pick out some gems. As I may have mentioned before, the true treasure lies in private collections. After it was all said and done, there were more specimens available then members to take them away and over the course of a couple hours (and much cactus gossip) my car became weighed down with many exciting old-growth & noteworthy desert plants. A heartfelt thank you to Mary for sharing so many outstanding plants with me, I promise to give them a good home and I wish you the best of luck with your travels.

A large 25+ year old Agave victoriae reginae, Agave Parryi, Agave patonii, Aloe karasbergensis, Aloe variegata, Aloe krapohliana, Aloe jucunda, Aloe aristata, Aechmea fasciata, Opuntia aciculata, Graptopetalum paraguayense, Leuchtenbergia principis and a Epiphyllum ‘King Midas’ .

Interestingly enough this wasn’t the end to my weekend of plant hoarding, my cactus weekend had only just begun. Before learning of Mary’s giveaway my girlfriend and I had already planned on driving up to Courtney on Sunday to visit the new cactus nursery, Valley Succulents, so off we went bright and early. To be continued.