San Gabriel Valley Cactus and Succulent Society

Join us for our November 14th SGVCSS meeting:

Our Speaker is Steven Hammer

Program: Hybrid Swarmping

Our meeting starts at 7:30 pm in Ayres Hall of the LA Arboretum

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Program:

Steven Hammer will discuss his plant-breeding efforts in several families. Failures outnumber the successes by a thousand to one, but this is also true for novels, watercolors, perfumery, politics, and cuisine.

In his own words:

“My cabbage leaf found its particular destiny in Indianapolis, Indiana in July 1951. Just eight weeks old, I was spirited west to Eagle Rock. CA. In 1962 my father and I met Harry Johnson (a large commercial grower in Paramount) and a large gaggle of small Lithops lesliei. Life was never the same again.”

Brief Biography:
Steven Hammer, born in 1951 in Indianapolis, moved to Los Angeles as an infant. His passion for plants started early, sparked by visits to Johnson’s Cactus Gardens and the Huntington Botanical Gardens. After earning a degree in music from UC Santa Cruz, Hammer pursued his botanical interests, particularly in mesembs, joining research trips to South Africa. He has discovered and described numerous plant species and contributed extensively to succulent literature.

His works include Conophytum: A Conograph and Dumpling and his Wife, and he has received numerous accolades for his botanical contributions.