Karen Ostler | October Meeting Speaker

Gates October Meeting, October 5th at 7pm PST
Redlands Church of the Nazarene
1307 East Citrus Avenue
Redlands, CA 92374

A brief look at the Genus Mammillaria, focusing on both the beauty and the oddities of one of the cactus world’s favorite plants.

Who is Karen Ostler?

“I have been growing cactus since I got my first ‘real’ cactus; a Gymnocalycium friedrichii, now G. stenopleurum, in the spring of 1979. That same year, in the fall, I purchased 6 Mammillarias in 2 1/2”pots. I still have two of those plants, M. albilanata ssp. tegelbergiana and M. lloydii.

In the years since I have been involved with both the CSSA and Intercity Shows as a general 2 helper and have been Show Chair for the Sunset Succulent Society for at least the last 15 years.

Originally, I was living and growing both cactus and succulents in the San Fernando Valley but since moving to the high desert, I decided to concentrate on growing cactus only, focused on Ariocarpus and related genera, Mammillarias, North and South American Opuntias, and Gymnocalycium.”