Last weekend I attended the Cactus and Succulent Society of Australia’s 2022 Spring Show at the 2.0 Vintage Market in Scoresby, Victoria. I had been to one of the CSSA’s plant sales before, which had so many sellers with great plants. This time, as it was the Annual Show, it also had competition entries from their member’s personal collections, so I was really looking forward to it.
It was already busy when I arrived, but it was a large building, so there was plenty of room inside.
The competition entries were sectioned off from the sales area so I decided to go there first, as I wasn’t planning on buying too many new plants anyway.
The competition entries were divided into categories with entries from novice CSSA members (who I think had been members for 5 years or less) and then Open entries for those who had been members for longer.
There were a few names that I saw repeatedly, so some members obviously have very large collections.
My collection is relatively young, so most of my plants are quite small, so it was great to see more mature plants to see how they look as they fill out.
As well as the actual plants, there was also a photography category. I thought these photos looked amazing, so it reminded me that I still want to find a course to teach me how to photograph my plants better.
I decided to sign up for membership of the CSSA, so hopefully, I’ll meet more people who I can learn from and who are willing to share their expertise to help me to keep my plants as healthy as possible.
I hope I have some suitable plants to exhibit in next year’s show.
After seeing all the amazing competition entries, I moved on to have a look at the plant stalls. As I mentioned before, I wasn’t planning on buying many new ones as I still have quite a few waiting to be potted up at home still. But I went prepared with my tray to carry any new purchases, so I think I was just kidding myself!
There was so much variety available, from the common species to the much rarer (and more expensive) ones. I’ve been actively growing succulents for a couple of years now, but I still get a few casualties, so I don’t like to spend too much on individual plants. I like to buy smaller-sized plants (which are usually cheaper), as this means I can afford to buy more different varieties to add to my collection.
I managed to find some of the ones on my wish list at very reasonable prices so I was very happy. However, as usual, I have come away with a wish list longer than I went in with!
In my next post I’ll show the new plants I decided to buy.