I have loved cacti since my childhood because I grew up in the Southwest. I have been growing succulents myself since about 1976, when I was in graduate school. My husband bought me a planter with four cacti that were set in some sort of porous material like plaster of paris. One of them was already faltering and dying and I knew that the material was bad for their root growth, so eventually I tried to chip it off the plants. Most of the roots were severed as a result. The weak one and another one died after, but two cacti survived, one of them for about 40 years.
It was hard to maintain them during winters in Chicago, my home after graduate school. Fortunately, my husband and I bought a house with a large sunroom so that I could give them enough light. As time went on, I acquired more cacti, especially during my visits to Tucson, where my mother lived. (My favorite cactus sources there are Tanque Verde Greenhouses and B&B Cactus and I have plants from both of them that are 20 years old or more.) I also bought some seeds to start and was thrilled at the advent of the little seedlings. I had a few succulents other than cacti, but most of the plants I had were cacti. An epiphany came when I visited Arid Lands, a succulent plant nursery outside of Tucson: I was blown away by the variety of euphorbias they had. I bought a bunch of non-cactus succulents and I have embraced the whole range of succulents ever since. (Well, not literally embraced…..)
A few years after my family moved to Tennessee, I saw a notice in the newspaper. (Yes, kids, that’s how people announced events back in the old days.) It stated that the Greater Knoxville Cactus and Succulent Society (GKCSS) was hosting a talk by the famous missionary and botanist Dr. Alfred Lau. I attended the talk and I was hooked on the GKCSS. It is a wonderful thing to have folks you can talk with about an interest that most people don’t share. In about 2003, following the receipt by our then-president of a diagnosis of terminal cancer, I became the president of the GKCSS. Our group dwindled over time as older members aged and had to quit, but in 2018 several new people joined and we have recovered our esprit de corps. I love all my fellow members and I think frequently of those who have passed on. Growing succulents is meaningful both for connecting one to nature and for creating an opportunity for social interaction. But that would be true of many pursuits, e.g., belonging to a hiking club. The thing that draws me to succulents is what I have stated in my many talks on succulents: they are survivors in the face of harsh conditions. Because I have had a difficult life in many ways, for example having polio at age 2, I find inspiration in succulents’ perseverance, year after year.
