I traveled to Fort Worth last weekend for the annual Texas Association of Cactus and Succulent Societies (TACSS) fall seminar and wound up also enjoying the Fort Worth Botanical Garden, the private garden of Ross and Karen Floyd, and had a glimpse of how the big boys show quarter horses at the Will Rogers Memorial Center.
My hotel was strategically located on University Avenue, across from the Fort Worth ISD Farmington Stadium, catty-cornered to the Will Rogers Center, and just down the street from the botanical garden, which was the location of the TACSS event. What a deal!
i arrived on Friday, a football night, and I watched cars filing into the stadium parking lot. But not enough cars parked to fill the stands with people. I never saw any spectators in that empty side of the stadium. Those of us from small towns can’t relate to that, can we?
The TACSS seminar began Saturday morning at the Fort Worth Botanical Garden a block down University Avenue from the hotel. Just seeing the entrance to the garden was impressive.
Inside, the vendors were set up for sales. Bill Utley from the host Fort Worth club helped me unload the plants I brought for the plant auction, and I checked out the plants and visited with fellow cactus lovers I see at these events.
Later, everyone who was interested traveled to La Madeleine for supper, so of course, I did, too. When I got back to the hotel, I couldn’t resist going over to the Will Rogers Center to see what was going on with all those big horse trailers I had seen parked around the building when I had arrived.
The National Reined Cow Horse Association was holding the Snaffle Bit Futurity which involved several events I was not familiar with, but I managed to roam around a bit looking for horses, most of whom had been tucked in for the night. The Center is huge and most impressive.
I did watch one horse compete, all by himself in this well-groomed, clean, fancy arena.
But I digress. I came to learn about cactus, not horses, but it was interesting to see what was going on.
So Saturday I went to the garden early enough to get a good shady parking space and time to look around a bit. I toured what I think was called the conservatory, full of lush, green plants that would love a rainforest, the very opposite of the cactus I came to see. This South American maidenhair fern caught my eye, since I have Texas maidenhair fern in my yard.
The first speaker was Nolan Bishop who talked about soils, fertilizers, cactus rescues, and demonstrated how to graft cactus.
Next was Richard Stamper, a member of the Austin club, who shared lithops and haworthias with us.
Next was Michael Douglas who showed us gardens in Mexico. Some of his pictures were taken from Google Earth, some aerial and some from ground level, making it an unusual way of looking at the gardens.
Steve Lovecky gave a quick overview of what he and some others are doing to rescue cactus that are in danger of being lost to TXDOT mowers on highway right of ways and in open areas around freeway interchanges.
The championship cactus and succulents had been voted on and were announced after lunch. Steve Lovecky won best succulent with his Euphorbia francoisii and Bill Lansing won best cactus with his Golden Barrel crest. Both men are members of the Central Texas Cactus and Succulent Society.
Everyone is encouraged to bring plants from home to be auctioned off as a fundraiser for TACSS. i took nine, and they all did quite well in the bidding. Some really nice specimens were in the auction, and the bidding was lively!
Three of the people who were responsible for getting everything organized for the seminar-Sara Sturtevant, Mike Rupe, both from the Austin club, and Jessica McCorkle from the Fort Worth group.
After the seminar was over, all were invited to end the day together at Heim BBQ, so off we went. While there, I was able to corner a few more people who helped make the seminar a success: Dick Hoban, Jacky Sylvie, Oteka Reed, and there’s Jessica again.
The next day was the day to explore the botanic garden and see their cactus garden. To get to it, the easiest route was through the large Japanese garden, which I wanted to see anyway. Josie Watts and Cindy Gray from the Houston club showed up at the same time to see the cactus garden, so we took the shuttle bus to the entrance to the Japanese garden leading to the cactus. We took our time wandering through it before arriving at the cactus garden.
My pictures don’t do the Japanese garden justice, but I will share a few in the hopes it will make you want to visit it yourself.
We made it to the cactus garden and Jacky Sylvie was there to give us an overview of the garden, which right now is a work in progress. The Fort Worth Cactus and Succulent Society, hosts of this year’s TACSS, is working with the botanic garden people on making the cactus garden an impressive spot in the botanic garden.
After the cactus garden visit, I walked back through the Japanese garden and other areas and came across this interesting rack of seedlings being grown in balls of peat moss, I am guessing.
I took a few more pictures when I made it back to the entrance, like this frog and water lilies in a pond as you drive up to the main building.
After the botanic garden tour, we were invited to Ross and Karen Floyd’s nursery in Weatherford. I had not planned on going, but when I realized their location was right on my way home, I figured I might as well go. And I am glad I did; it was impressive!
And I could go on, but you get the idea.
So it was time to head home, which was easy from their address which led right to Hwy 180 which took me to Hwy 84 and home.
Interesting and varied weekend. Can’t wait for TACSS next year to be held in Houston, close to my old stomping grounds.
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