1. home and garden

At our April 21 Meeting
(at the library)
Charter KCCSS member and former club
president Allen Duncan will present
“Rolling Out the Barrels: Rare Ferocacti.”
Refreshments
Our thanks to these folks who have volunteered
to cater our refreshments in 2015:
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Natalie Fagarason
Bill & Cheryl Wildfong
Buddy Weaver
Bob & Kay Savage
Dorothy Coppinger
Mary & Wayne Davis
Jim & Cathy Barkley
Brian Mantz & Patrick McDaniel
Bonnie & Bob Taylor
Paul Vitale
Shirley Lathrop
CHRISTMAS PARTY—Dutch treat
March 17 Meeting Minutes
Allen is known to many as a cactus dealer,
regularly offering plants at the Fredericksburg Market Days. His great variety of winter hardy cacti are on display and for sale at
our KCCSS Show & Sale every year He
regularly receives plants from Arizona to
augment his stock.
As usual, we hope some of yʼall will bring
a spare plant to donate for the raffle—
and please label it.
KCCSS newsletter!
April 2015!
The meeting was opened at 7:00 p.m. by President
Bob Savage. This meeting was held at Wells Fargo
Bank rather than the Library. Larry Fagarason introduced the speaker, Bob Howells, a member of
KCCSS. Bob is a fishery biologist who taught at
Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He has also
worked with an environmental consulting firm.
The topic of his presentation for this meeting was
“Living Stones, Botanical Chameleons.”
The genus is Ariocarpus, which was discovered in
Africa about 1811 by William John Burchell. They
thrive in bright light and little or no water. Many
look like a rock with a smooth, rounded surface.
The Ariocarpus do not have thorns or spikes, so to
keep from be eaten by predators; they are round,
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flat and spineless, with the appearance of a rock on
the ground. some have a root similar to a turnip.
The growth pattern is a pair of stems or leaves for
one season. Then a new pair sprouts from the central base.
In the family, Lithops, these plants like long
droughts and no rain. They bloom in summer and
fall with white or yellow, daisy like flowers.
Lithops like to grow close to the ground. Bob
showed slides of the following examples. The Argyroderma has a silver skin and different colored
flowers. The Gibbaeum has 2 succulent leaves, turnip like root, and prefers the southern hemisphere.
The pleiospilos has bright yellow flowers. Faucaria, or Tiger Jaws, has a rosette pattern. Fenestraria, or Little Baby Toes, has toe shaped leaves
with yellow or white flowers. Cone plant or conophytum have very small heads. Lapidaria, or Karoo
Rose, has sharply angled leaves and may have more
than two leaves with yellow flowers. The Mimicry
Plant has rosette shape, rough leaves. The Fairy
Washboard also has a rosette shape with long stem
with flowers. They may withdraw to below the surface of the ground when dry. Frequent watering or
freezing weather is not tolerated. They can get sunburned and be scarred. They should be planted in
well-drained soil.
Announcements: The next meeting will be on
April 21, 2015 at the Library, unless notified otherwise. The annual sale for the KCCSS will be over
Mother’s Day weekend, May 8 and 9, 2015. The
club needs volunteers to be at the sale, mostly to
tell visitors about the club and what we do. Bob
will have a sign-up sheet at the next meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Cathy Barkley, Secretary
Kathy Freeman sent Larry Fagarason this photo, and gave us permission to use it.
Did you notice the hummingbird?
KCCSS newsletter!
April 2015!
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Howard Platte 1933–2015
We're very sad to announce that
KCCSS member Howard Platte
of Kerrville passed away at age
82 on March 31, after a long
illness.
Master Gardener. Howard especially enjoyed nature, yard activities, building things, travel and
walking his big black dog, Gus.
Howard was born in New York
City on March 4, 1933. He was
the only child of Harry C.
Platte and Augusta Braun
Platte. He grew up in White
Plains, New York and graduated from White Plains High
School. His father died when
he was 10 years old and his
grandparents, Elizabeth and
Jean Braun were an important
part of his life. Howard graduated from St. Lawrence University and received his P.H.D in Organic
Chemistry from the University of Florida in 1962.
He married Edna in 1959 in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Howard was an organic chemist and research leader
with Texaco in Port Arthur, Nalco Chemical in
Sugar Land, Baker International, and Agua Process
Chemicals in Houston.
Howard and Edna enjoyed living in Kerrville for
thirteen years. In addition to his KCCSS membership he was a Texas Master Naturalist and a Texas
German genealogy was his passion
and he spent many hours developing his family tree.
He is survived by his wife Edna,
their daughters Elizabeth Reyes
and Caroline Hill, and son Fredrick
Platte, who was his major caregiver during his illness; and six
grandchildren.
A Celebration of Life was held
April 11 at St. Peter’s Episcopal
Church in Kerrville. Memorials may be donated to
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 320 St. Peter St.,
Kerrville, Texas 78028 or Riverside Nature Center,
150 Francisco Lemos St., Kerrville, TX 78028.
The family invites you to leave a message or memory at www.kerrvillefuneralhometx.com/.
Paraphrased from the Kerrville Funeral Home
website. Clicking on the above link will take you
directly to Howard’s obituary.
Watch them bloom!
Thanks to Claude Townsend, we just found a fabulous website, <echinopsisfreak.com/>, with timelapse videos and high-resolution photos of nightblooming cacti. Here’s a sample photo, at right. The
photographer, Greg Krehel, also shows his works as
“EchinopsisFreak” on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
We’ve added a link to Greg’s website on our KCCSS
website, including this link to his montage of videos
on YouTube:
<www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hwDdE0Gu4E>.
KCCSS newsletter!
April 2015!
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TACSS Executive Directorʼs Message, by Mike Rupe
A lot has happened since the last TACSS Newsletter hit the internet in August of 2012. In case you
were wondering, the TACSS Newsletter Editor did
not fall off the face of the Earth. I’ve just been busy
with job and other extracurricular commitments
that prevented me from sitting down at my computer long enough to put together a formal newsletter. I do apologize for the hiatus. During this break
in communication, the Austin club hosted a very
successful CSSA Convention in June of 2013. It
was a lot of work for those of us on the local planning committee, but it was definitely worth the effort. The North Texas, Central Texas and Austin
clubs have hosted well-attended TACSS Fall Seminars as well.
There have been some changes on the TACSS front
since last we communicated. Four new officers
took their places at the helm of our organization.
Bob Savage (KCCSS) moved from his previous
position of TACSS Secretary into his new job of
TACSS President in January of 2014. Joining him
in leadership roles were Bobby Crabb (KCCSS) as
Vice President, Pete Stankunis (NTCSS) as Secretary and Gene Feit (ACSS) as Treasurer. All of
these guys have served for many years at their local
society level and the state (TACSS) level. They are
old pros and I’m looking forward to working with
them through this year.
The 2015 TACSS Spring Business Meeting was
held in Austin on Saturday, April 4th. Topics to be
discussed included plans for the 2015 TACSS Fall
Seminar in Fort Worth on Saturday, October 3rd.
Bill Utley, of FWCSS, is working on venue arrangements for what promises to be another enjoyable weekend of cactus and succulent camaraderie.
Condensed from the TACSS Statement 3/15
Look Whatʼs Blooming in April
We don’t have anything special going on with our succulents, but look at these roses.
They are quite happy even though we’ve been neglecting them for years!
—Bill & Cheryl
KCCSS newsletter!
April 2015!
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Apr 23-25: San Antonio, TX: San Antonio Cactus and Xerophyte Society’s Annual Show & Sale, San AntonioGarden Center, 3310 N. New Braunfels (parking is located off of Funston Street); 9:00 AM until 5:00
PM daily. This is a State Non-Juried Show. Rare Plant Auction on Friday and Saturday @ 2 PM. Admission
is free; www.sacxs.org/
May 2-3: Houston, TX: HCSS Spring Sale; Metropolitan Multi-Service Center, 1475 W Gray St;
www.hcsstex.org/
May 8-9 Kerrville, TX: Kerr County Cactus & Succulent Society’s annual show & sale;
River Hills Mall, hwy 16 (Sidney Baker St.), just south of the river.
home.windstream.net/wildfong/KCCSS.html
KCCSS MEMBERS: We need volunteers both days to greet visitors.
Please sign up at our April meeting, or give us a call at (830) 896-8940 —Bill & Cheryl
May 16-17: Oklahoma city, OK: COCSS annual Show & Sale; Will Rogers Garden Center;
sites.google.com/site/cocssok/
Jun 14-19: Claremont, CA: CSSA Biennial Convention; Pitzer College; internationally renowned speakers, plant & book sales, plant auction, field trips, tours, and more; online registration (before May 1) at
www.cssainc.org/
Oct 3-4: Fort Worth, TX: TACSS Fall Seminar; still in the planning stage— watch for updates.
ALL YEAR: Kerrville, TX: Riverside Nature Center: To keep up with what’s going on at
RNC, bookmark their website, www.riversidenaturecenter.org/ where you can read about their upcoming activities and download their newsletters.
Currently they have an incredible rock and fossil exhibit, “Hill Country Rocks,” dedicated to geologist
William E. Laing, an RNC charter and life member, and benefactor. The exhibit is open 9-4 Monday thru
Friday, 10-3 on Saturday, and 1-4 on Sunday.They plan to leave it up and further enhance it through August.
These photos show a portion of the huge exhibit.
KCCSS newsletter!
April 2015!
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Cold Hardy Cacti & Succulents, by Jeff Pavlat, Austin CSS
It is important to recognize that there are a number
of factors which influence how a plant will handle
cold. Plants placed on south facing slopes receive
more solar heat and tend to have a better chance of
being undamaged. Plants also fair better with some
overhead protection from a tree or shrub. It also
helps for them to be placed where they will not receive direct north wind. Generally, low-growing
plants receive more ground heat than taller plants
and are less likely to freeze. The state of the plant
as it enters freezing temperatures is an important
factor as well. For instance, many cacti and succulents will endure considerably colder temperatures
when dry rather than wet (In fact, cold and wet is
often a lethal combination for many cacti). Plants
of the same species originating from different parts
of the plant’s native range can also result in higher
or lower tolerances. It is possible to have two
plants of the same species placed side by side and
have one freeze, while the other survives. Often
some experimentation is necessary to determine
what plants will work best for your garden.
As you can see below, January is the time to renew our memberships— and dues are still only $10
for individuals or $15 for families.
NEW ADDRESS:
Please give Buddy your cash or check (made out to
KCCSS) at this month’s meeting, or mail your
check to:
The KCCSS meets in Kerrville on the third
Tuesday each month except December,
at 7:00 pm, in the conference room of the
Butt-Holdsworth Memorial Library,
505 Water Street.
Visitors are always welcome.
Membership dues are $10 for individuals
and $15 for families.
The membership year starts in January.
KCCSS newsletter!
From The Cacto-Files 3/15.
Buddy Weaver, KCCSS
PO box 905
Rocksprings TX 78880
If your address, phone, or whatever, has also
changed, please let us know.
President: Bob Savage: twosavages@centex.net, 325-622-4664
Past Pres.: Wendell Bingham: wbingham@stx.rr.com, 830-895-7010
VP-Programs: Larry Fagarason: larnat@ktc.com, 830-792-5421
Director: Larry Fagarason: larnat@ktc.com, 830-792-5421
Secretary: Cathy Barkley: cbarkley@stx.rr.com, 830-895-3359
Treasurer: Buddy Weaver: beweaver@swtexas.net, 830-683-3174
Historian: Natalie Fagarason: larnat@ktc.com, 830-792-5421
Newsletter: Bill & Cheryl Wildfong: (see note•• at left)
Webmaster: Bill Wildfong: wildfong@windstream.net, 830-896-8940
NOTE: revised 3/17/15 to update Buddy Weaver’s email & phone
Items for the newsletter are due the
first Tuesday of the month.
Send them to wildfong@windstream.net
or Bill & Cheryl Wildfong, 342 West Water St.,
Kerrville TX 78028)
phone: 830-896-8940
Visit the resource page at www.austincss.com for a
list of recommended plants for Central Texas gardens. [There’s also a list of cold hardy plants on the
KCCSS Website]
OUR CLUB’S WEBSITE:
home.windstream.net/wildfong/KCCSS.html
April 2015!
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