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I started growing cac-tus and succulentplants as a young boyin the mid-Willamettevalley area of Oregon.My Grandfather was a

farmer and my parentsalways had a passion-ate interest in gardeningand planting interestingshrubs and trees, so theappreciation of florawas one that was in-stilled over and over in

he course of my formative years. My first cactus gardenied in the family attic during it's first year of growth (Iehydrated everything in it). I remember clearly thevery other day jaunts up the ladder in the garage toheck on my little mini-desert up under the eaves.

0 years later, I found myself surrounded by 1000's ofiving things that were constant companions and inspi-ation over the years, things that offered more questionshan answers that I couldn't seem to shake. While myarious education paths were never really agriculturallyriented, there were always elements of the natural sci-nces involved with summer jobs and other activities. Iccidentally flowered some cactus one spring and

wanted to learn more, which is when and where I wasirst exposed to the Cactus and Succulent Society of

America, and the Oregon Cactus and Succulent Society.everal years later I was obsessed with studying north

Americancacti in habitat and growing as many differentlants as possible. As luck or fate had it, one of myeighbors at the time had a little business called Banana

Gardens that was an overgrown backyard nursery oper-tion, and was soon to be moving into new quarters onome acreage, called "Rare Plant Research" which waspecializing in Lewisias, cold-hardy succulents, and rare

tender succulents. I had a part-time job that was feedingthe obsession. I tried to launch my own backyard nurseryand actually got very close to success with it. I was verydedicated to the Oregon C&S Society, and served officiallyfor several years.

Fast forward another decade or two and time finds meworking in a good corporate job, relegating my passionto "well-developed hobby", and still devoted to studyand experimentation. The "dot-com burst" of 2000placed me in a challenging position after having relo-cated to San Diego where I married the girl of mydreams and settled down a bit. Moving to southern Cal-ifornia after almost 4 decades in the Pacific Northwest,I got to relearn everything I thought I knew about grow-ing plants, especially succulents. In between consultinggigs and chewing on the notion of buying a nursery, Istruck a deal with the owner of C&J Cactus Nursery todo some temporary grafting work. After a month or so ofworking there, they made me an offer to come on as amanager of sorts, a propagator of sorts, someone to po-tentially buy the place and learn the ropes. Now in my5th year here, this program will be an overview of whatit's like to bring several hundred species of cacti andsucculent plants from seed-production into plant-pro-duction, some of the successes and failures, and someof the neat anomalies we encounter along the way. I lookforward to meeting with you all on January 3rd!

Be sure to come and welcome Mark to our first meetingof 2008!

Meetings are held on the firstThursday of each month.

C a m p

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Junior League of Tucson, Kiva Bldg.2099 E. River Road

River Road

January 3, 2008 at 7pm"A View From the Bench - trials and tribulations in succulent horticulture"

Presented by Mark Fryer

Newsletter of the Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society January 2008

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Presidents MessageWelcome to 2008 and the 49thyear for the Tucson Cactusand Succulent Society. Yes,we are fast approaching ourGolden Anniversary. That cel-ebration will be capped off bythe 33rd Biennial Conventionof the Cactus and SucculentSociety of America in Tucsonon April 10-15, 2009. One of

our activities will be the introduction of a golden spinedvariety of our native Ferocactus wislizeni which we aregrowing for that event.

Sonoran VII is fast approaching on May 9, 10 and 11,2008 at the InnSuites Hotel. This is our celebration ofthe Sonoran Desert with speakers, workshops, a show,auctions and a huge sale with twenty plus vendors.

You will here much more about this event next month.Mark your calendars now.

Every year at the Holiday Party some one says whydont we do a recipe book of all the great dishes thatare prepared by our members and the answer has al-ways been thats a great idea, do we have a volun-teer?. Well, this year we do. Actually, we have severalvolunteers who are really excited about this project.They will be meeting in mid January to decide how thiswill be accomplished but I can tell you now to start

writing down your recipes and looking through yourcactus, succulent plant and Sonoran Desert photos forpossible inclusion into this book. This is going to be anexciting project and will become a great gift to give onall occasions.

Several individuals throughout the country have givengift memberships to TCSS to their friends and familyduring this holiday season. We will make this easier inthe future and will customize gift memberships for alloccasion. More than 100 of our members live outside

of the Tucson area and many outside of Arizona. Thats just wonderful!

If you havent renewed your membership you will begetting a reminder very soon. I know how the Holidaysget us out of our routines and things get misplaced sodont be offended by our reminder notices. This yearwe have produced a decal of our logo that you will bereceiving with your renewal as our gift to you. We willhave more available for purchase at meetings and Iknow you will find many uses for these to promote the

Society. Also, many of you will be receiving cactusbucks. This is a thank you from the Rescue ProgramCoordinators for your participation. The number ofbucks represents your participation in actual rescuesand can be used for the purchase of rescued plants.Your Board is already planning exciting trips, outings,sales and other events for 2008. Information will beavailable on the website, in the Desert Breeze and your

mailbox.Finally, I want to welcome our new Board of Directorsfor term ending December 31, 2010, who were electedand announced at the Annual Holiday Party. They areLinda Bartlett, Marty Harow, Bill Hicks, and Karen Keller.

Thank you for a great 2007 from the Board of Directorsand Officers of the largest local cactus and succulentsociety in the World.

Dick Wiedhopf, President

School Grant Awardedto TUSD Brichta Elementary

TCSS has awarded a $400 School Grant to teacherKatie Eddleman for her "Brichta Reconciliation EcologyProject". She is a fifth grade math and environmentalscience teacher. Her students will develop a microhabitat to determine the effect on ground squirrel pop-ulations using various native plants. Students will par-ticipate in plant, animal surveys, habitat design and

community outreach so that students can experiencefirst hand that humans can have a positive effect onnature. Students will get a great exposure to the Sci-entific Process of developing questions and conduct-ing experiments to gather data and perform analysisand summarizing results.

We applaud teachers like Katie who develop great stu-dent projects and are pleased that we can help makethe project a success by providing some funding.Twenty five percent of our Cactus Rescue Crew profits

are earmarked for the TCSS Educational Outreach Pro-gram which includes School Grants.

Joe Frannea

Cactus Rescues - Nine Years StrongThe TCSS Cactus Rescue Crew Program just com-pleted its' ninth year and bringing the number of plantssaved to over 37,000. We had 20 rescue trips at sevendifferent sites this past year saving about 6,000 cactiand other succulents. Our volunteer crew is as strong

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TCSS BOARDOfficers

President: Richard Wiedhopf885-6367

Vice President: Vonn WatkinsSecretary: Nancy ReidTreasurer: Joe Frannea

Board of Directors:Peter Hubbell (2008)

Joie Giunta (2008)Keimpe Bronkhorst (2008)

Bill Salisbury (2008)Dan Birt (2009)

Chris Monrad (2009)Mark Sitter (2009)

Linda Bartlett (2010)Marty Harrow (2010)

Bill Hicks (2010)Karen Keller (2010)

CSSA Affiliate Rep: Helen Barber

Cactus Rescue: Chris MonradEducational: Joe Frannea

Free Plants: Norma BeckmanLibrarian: Joie Giunta

Programs: Vonn Watkins Refreshments: Patsy Frannea

Sales: Jack Ramsey

Technology: Kevin BarberResearch Grants: Gerald Pine Volunteers: Nancy Reid

volunteer@tucsoncactus.ehost.com

Editor: Karen Kellerrunbunny@cox.netDeadline for copy:

15th of each month

TCSS Web Page:www.tucsoncactus.org

Webmaster: Keimpe Bronkhors t

January RefreshmentsThose with family names beginningwith A to F, please bring your choice

of refreshment to the meeting.

Everyone is Welcome!Bring your friends, join in the fun,

and meet the cactus andsucculent community.

s ever and contributed over 2,400volunteer hours this past year. Wewould like to especially thank Gran-te Construction and A.W. Marrs

Development for letting us makemany trips to rescue a large numberf the plants on their sites.

The TCSS Board and Cactus Res-ue Crew leaders want to thank all

who participated in rescues andales this past year. This very suc-essful program and the crew

members who show up to make allhis possible is a big part of what

TCSS is all about. Our annual Cac-us Bucks coupons for those whoarticipated in one or more rescuesr sales events this past year are

nclosed with this newsletter as apecial thanks for your contributions.

oe Frannea

AwardsFor the last several years, your Boardf Directors has authorized the Presi-ent to present awards to members forheir service to the society. Thesewards are announced at the annual

meeting in conjunction with the HolidayParty. There are two types of awards.The Presidents Award recognizes out-tanding service to the society and the

Presidents Special Service Award rec-gnizes individuals for their Special

Dedication and Outstanding ServiceContributions for the success of ourociety. The awardees are recom-

mended to the President by the Boardnd committee chairs and the deci-ions are made by the president. Eachecipient received a special engravedrophy and an award certificate.

ome of the recipients were not inttendance and their awards will beresented at the next regular meeting.

This years Presidents Awardwinners are:

ALICE & ED CAMPBELLFor their consistent volunteerism forrescues, sales and committee activities.

DAVE MOYER A regular rescue volunteer, who assistswith tagging and collecting money, assistswith set up and helps cashier at salesevents. He is a great inspiration to othersdue to his work ethic despite his wheel-chair challenges.

NANCY REID As a regular rescue crew member, vol-unteer coordinator, Secretary, and forincreasing the plantings at the Univer-sitys Joseph W. Krutch Gardens with

many or our donated rescued plants.JOYCE THOMASWho is a consistent volunteer at salesevents and rescues

JAMES THOMASWho is a regular volunteer at rescues,sales and contributes his talent forframing botanical art for monthly raffles.

Presidents Special Service Award

goes to BARRY MCCORMICKFor his six years as Newsletter Editor-creator of Biennial Cactus Expo and twoterm member of the Board of Directors.

Presented by theTucson Cactus and Succulent Society

Inn Suites Hotel465 North Granada Ave.

Tucson, AZ 8570 1

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Holiday Party FunLaden with plates and dishes of gourmet food and festive mystery gifts, nearly 140 TCSS members and guestsgathered in December for our Annual Holiday Potluck Lunch and Celebration.

A team of loyal volunteer elves set to work early Sunday to transform our meeting room into rows of colorful redtables and hungry guests were treated to nearly 100 feet of tempting food choices as they went through the buffetline. TCSS provided turkey, ham, shrimp and drinks and members filled the tables with delicious and exotic recipesthat would challenge any fancy restaurant in town. It was quite the gourmet spread ... encouraging a renewed call

to publish a TCSS cookbook for all to enjoy, watch for upcoming details on this project.

After everyone was more than well fed, the party continued with recognitionof special award recipients and the traditional mystery gift exchange.

Each person who had brought a wrapped gift was given a ticket toreceive a gift. As the numbers were called they could either accept

a random gift or could exchange it for someone else s gift thatlooked interesting. The fun, games and exchanging went on forset limits until everyone was allowed to open their gift.... followedby many oohs and aahs as new plants and related accessorieswere unveiled.

The party was a fun and festive conclusion to yet another great year forTCSS. Many thanks to all who helped make it such a huge success.

Patsy Frannea

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Presidents Award winners

NANCY REID

Dick Wiedhopf presentingPresident Award

to JOYCE & JAMES THOMAS

NewsletterSpecial Service Award

BARRY MCCORMICK

Awards

Special Service AwardNORM DENNIS, BARRY MCCORMICK

JACK RAMSEY