CSSA Show At The Huntington 2015

 It was hot!  We normally avoid the Huntington in the summer.  It can be 15 degrees hotter there than at home, which is closer to the ocean.  But plants called.  Cool plants for a hot day. 

A highlight for me at the Huntington show is this trophy.  The winning pot is a bit disappointing this year:  should not the pot be cracked, scuffed, dirty?  Beautiful Dyckia, though I'm not a big fan, having grown one that turned into a big nasty clump that slashed the bejezus out of me.  I gave it to a neighbor.

 The trophy table:

 A crested Stapelia leendestziae.  I don't think I've ever even seen a regular Stapelia leendestziae.  Compared to some photos one can search up, this beauty seems to have been grown slightly too hard, as if I know anything. 

 The big winners

 A beautifully grown Leuchtenbergia principis.  Look how fat, sleek, and spotless the leaves are:

 Best Aeonium.  Which species, you ask?  I took a photo of the tag...

 ...but it wasn't my best photo of the day.

 Utterly gorgeous Gasteria:  Gasteria 'Shining Star'.  And it is.  It looked as if it had been buffed up with paste wax.  It looks so happy, healthy, pampered. Mr. de Mille, she's ready for her close-up.

 Portulaca group.  The one trimmed like a lolli-pop is kind of fun. 

 Is this a Euphorbia platyclada, or a pile of sweet potato fries that has been run over by a truck?

 Lovely, lovely Aloe suprafoliata.  Loved this one.  So elegant!

 Cool Stapelia with amazing color.  Blue ribbon winner.

 Another cool Stapelia.  Didn't win a thing, but so nicely grown. 

Pseudolithos cubiformis, even cooler than the Stapelias.

 The Sedum group.  Yes, that tall, tree-shaped plant is a Sedum.

 There's that beautiful Aloe suprafoliata again.  Not 100% apparent, but the blue/green/grey in the pot exactly matched the color of the foliage. 

 Aloe krapohilana

 I thought I photographed the tag on these two,  but I didn't. 

 Those blue splotches around the Epiphyllum flower are shadows.  This photo came out cool, because of how the light blued up in the camera.

 Yet another cool plant for a hot day, a monstrose Pedilanthus macrocarpus, and loved it in that footed pot. 

 Fun show:  enjoyed it despite the heat. The rooms were nicely air-conditioned--an excellent reason to linger!

The sale was somewhat small--since it was the last day, the best stuff was long gone.  

 Came away with two pretty small pots and Tricocereus 'Flying Saucer', aka Echinopsis 'Flying Saucer'.  One pot got an Aloe suzannae that's been in a plastic pot for years.  

 The other pot is ivory, brown, and green.

 'Flying Saucer'.  Maybe flowers next spring, if I grow it well.  A plant I have wanted since I first saw it in bloom in 2010. 

Beloved has a new phone.  He and his phone got some good photos of the transition from lawn to xeric landscaping by the front entrance.  The past in the foreground, the new, beyond.  The Huntington is in the process of transforming nine acres (half) of their lawns into more xeric plantings. 

 And a wide-angle shot of the entrance with the monsoonal clouds in the sky.  All the marigolds are gone from the rill planters.

 Great job, sweetie!