Jeff has a penchant for agaves, as well as other exotic cacti and succulents. He brought along two mystery cacti from his collection and asked the members to help him identify them. One was a melocactus, a tropical growing rare cactus from Brazil. Westerners have fits trying to grow this plant well in their temperate climates, but these melos, just like other South American tropical cacti, present less culture problems over here in humid Luzon. The other was an Astrophytum ornatum-asterias hybrid, and it was in bud too. The plants were both quite impressive. Nice growing, Jeff!
Another new member, Danny Go, brought along a beautiful offset of a flowering, rosette-forming sanseveria species. He took some excellent photos of his plants but unfortunately, I forgot to turn over the photos to our Lifestyle editors. I promise to publish Danny’s photos in my next column. It’ll be worth the wait.
Getting back to the meeting. Chit and Sally decided to hold a mini-contest on who would have the smallest succulent dish garden, and who would have the weirdest- looking succulent. There were some excellent entries, as the pictures here will attest. What was pleasantly surprising for me was to see that another new member, Bimbo Vergara, would steal the show and walk away with first place for his "inch or less" dish entry containing four or five tiny succulents. Bimbo, who’s a landscaper and architect by profession, brought along a few other very beautiful miniature dish gardens. I was particularly attracted to the ceramics he used. Most were antiques, one dating back to the 16th century, if my memory serves me correctly. For his efforts, Bimbo walked away with the grand prize, a nicely grown Agave potatorum shoji-rajin cultivar.
Chit Rufo also had some very impressive succulent miniatures. Her mini works of art were complete with beautifully arranged rockery to heighten her mini-desert landscapes. Looking at the miniature dish gardens of Bimbo and Chit, one can see how truly decorative and aesthetically appealing succulent subjects can be. For my next column, I will feature how one can put together a normal-sized succulent dish garden, step-by-step, from planning to execution.
In the weirdest succulent category, Delia Chuan’s "phallic-symbol-runs-amok" entry was the runaway winner. This succulent, which our resident expert Peter Bangayan identified as Lophocereus schotii monstrose, is truly weird and wonderful. From the picture, it seems to have lost its way, curling into the strangest positions and directions! Something as spectacular and seemingly "sensual" could only come from Madame Delia’s collection, beautiful yet grotesque.
As a final note, the photos depicted here are courtesy of our photo bug member Joey de Castro. Joey, together with Peter Bangayan, gave a lecture on how best to photograph one’s plants. I must say Joey’s photos here really heighten the intricate beauty, shapes and visual effect of the miniature succulent dish gardens and the other plants on display. I’m sure we’ll all look forward to his future photographic efforts and contributions.