Al’s interest in the natural world started in his childhood. Growing up in Chicago he would make regular visits to the Field Museum of Natural History, and read books on the natural sciences. His favorite hobbies were growing exotic plants like cacti, and collecting fossils, minerals, and insects.
Tag Archives: Speaker
Woody Minnich | March 1st Speaker
Gates October Meeting, January 4th at 7pm PST. Breslin will explore multiple connections between contemporary and emerging research methods in plant conservation and the ways we raise our plants.
Peter Breslin | January 4th Speaker
Gates October Meeting, January 4th at 7pm PST. Breslin will explore multiple connections between contemporary and emerging research methods in plant conservation and the ways we raise our plants.
Dean Karras | November Meeting Speaker
Dean Karras began collecting and growing cacti from seed as a hobby in 2008. He has been a member of the Palomar Cactus & Succulent Society since 2017, and a member of the San Diego Cactus & Succulent Society since 2019
Karen Ostler | October Meeting Speaker
A brief look at the Genus Mammillaria, focusing on both the beauty and the oddities of one of the cactus world’s favorite plants.
Kelly Griffin | August Speaker
Kelly Griffin is a succulent plant hybridizer, propagator, and avid plant explorer. Like many of us, his interest in plants and particular succulent plants started at a fairly young age.
Ernesto Sandoval: June Meeting Speaker
Ernesto Sandoval has been wondering and seeking questions and answers to why plants grow and look the way that they do for nearly 40 years.
May Meeting Speaker: Stefan Burger
Stefan Burger is an Australian naturalist and environmental consultant living in Chile. He has an academic background in Applied Sciences and developed a fascination for cacti and other exotic plants from a young age.
Buck Hemenway: Introduction To Survival of the Fattest
Join us Wednesday, April 6th at 6:00 pm PST Buck and Yvonne Hemenway Buck Hemenway and his wife Yvonne are enthusiastic growers of succulent plants. Their one-time hobby turned into the Prickly Palace nursery, which supplied cacti and succulents to the retail nursery trade in Southern California for 15 years. He is Past President and LifetimeContinueContinue reading “Buck Hemenway: Introduction To Survival of the Fattest”
Wolfgang Borgmann: Succulents of the Canary Islands
Join us Saturday, March 5th at 10:00 a.m. PST for the next in our series of webinars featuring Cactus and Succulent experts from around the world. Presented By CSSA Register Here The Canary Islands consist of 8 volcanic islands and some uninhabited rocks, located just over 60 miles off the Western African coast. They are oftenContinueContinue reading “Wolfgang Borgmann: Succulents of the Canary Islands”
Gates Cactus and Succulent Society 