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Kitty Sabo |
the San Gabriel Valley Cactus and Succulent Society. |
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Kitty Sabo |
the San Gabriel Valley Cactus and Succulent Society. |
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by Bill Gerlach (Condensed and updated from an article by Larry Mitich in the Sep-Oct 1987 C&S Journal) |
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| Kathryn
(Kitty) Knight Sabo was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. During her last
year in high school, she won a talent contest and a scholarship to the
American School of Ballet in New York City. Following that, she and her
sister Betsy toured as the Knight Sisters with different shows.
She became interested in cacti and other succulents while touring the country. She noticed Woolworth dime stores carried a wide variety of cactus plants which she found absolutely fascinating. She discovered that the plants would tolerate a lot of abuse as she hauled them around from theatres to nightclubs on trains, buses and so on. The plants survived dark theatre dressing rooms for more than a year. Sometime in the 1940’s during an engagement at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles she visited the public library across the street. There she came across some copies of the Cactus and Succulent Journal, her chance to find out how to care for a growing collection of plants. While still “on the road” she made a garden for her plants at her mother's San Fernando Valley home. She became a member of the Los Angeles Cactus & Succulent Society in 1955. At present she holds membership in the San Gabriel Valley C&SS, the Monterey Bay Area C&SS, the Sacramento C&SS, the Santa Barbara C&SS, the C&SS of New Mexico, the San Diego C&SS and the CSSA . Kitty was president of the San Gabriel Valley Cactus & Succulent Society from 1977 to 1979. |
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| In
1957, with guidance and maps from Howard Gates, she made her first trip
to Baja California. Subsequently she visited the peninsula at least once
a year for many years. On many of these trips she traveled by plane, piloted
by her husband Joe. Charles Glass told her that this was the best way to
look for likely Cactus habitats.
In
1963 she went to Barranca de Cobre (Copper Canyon). On this trip, near
the Village of Terrero in southwestern Chihuahua, Kitty’s son Brian (then
10 years old) found a tiny plant in bloom which was described in 1966 by
Charles Glass as Mammillaria saboae in the Volume 11 of Cactaceas y Suculentas
Mexicanas. Later the description was published in Cactus and Succulent
Journal (39:149, 1967)
Kitty has had only one major garden. It was planted from scratch when she and Joe moved to Woodland Hills in 1961. Half an acre was tilled with decomposed granite and manure, contoured with rocks and planted with her favorite trees. She planted her succulents in the ground, constructing a landscape rather than an ordered collection. When she discovered that even the ideal southern California climate was not suitable for all succulent plants, she had a green house built. Kitty was elected to the CSSA Board of Directors in 1971 and served for over 12 years, including two years (1981-1982) as the Society's president. She served as the CSSA show chairman from 1970 to 1980. At the CSSA convention in 1987 she was given The Superior Service Award by the society. |
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| Charles
Glass featured Kitty’s garden in Cactus & Succulent Journal (41:72-73,1969).
He called it “… the finest succulent garden we have to offer in Southern
California.” When the Sabos moved to Paso Robles (where she still resides)
, many of the large plants with collection data in the Woodland Hills
collection were given to the Huntington Gardens as it was too cold in
Paso Robles for most of her cactus plants except those from the Southwest.
She still has a greenhouse (part of the house) and an outdoor cactus bed.
Although Paso Robles is a considerable distance away, she still manages to make it to the Inter-City show once a year to see her old friends. |
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