April 10 - 15, 2009
Cactu-s-pectacular!
Dan Mahr
CSSA Past-President
I just returned last night from the April CSSA Board meeting. The
meeting was held in Tucson so that the Board could visit and
evaluate the venue for next year’s CSSA shindig … errrr… convention. And
I gotta say … you better be there!
The timing of the Board meeting coincided perfectly with the
convention schedule for next year – April 10-15 – so we had a good
chance to evaluate the weather and other relevant seasonal matters. I
arrived Friday evening and rented a car at the airport. (If you are
flying in, rent a car! Tucson
is huge and you’ll definitely want to do some exploring.) As I drove
north through town on major city boulevards, I couldn’t help but notice
the fantastic street plantings of cacti and succulents, native and
exotic. The native (but transplanted) hedgehogs and claret cups were in
full bloom, as were the heavily used
Aloe vera, all decked out in
abundant yellow blossoms. The red spikes of
Hesperaloe were just
beginning to bloom as were the magnificent yellow-flowered palo verde
trees. Hmmm… seems like the timing will be right!
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| © photo by Dan Mahr |
The Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa is nestled into the alluvial
soils of the south-facing slopes of the Catalina Mountains, which form a bit of a northern
natural border to Greater Tucson. The whole area is a gigantic natural
cactus garden, home to arborescent chollas, prickly pears, barrel
cactus, and various other succulent and xerophytic plants. It was dusk
as I turned into the drive heading toward the main hotel complex, and
was chagrined (or maybe delighted!!??) to see the drive lined with live
saguaros, all outlined with ropes of bright white lights as you would
see festooning trees during the holiday season. The hotel grounds have
maintained the natural theme and added to it, again with both native and
exotic cacti and succulents – golden barrels are in abundance! The
ocotillo were just beginning to bloom. Gamble quail, with their rusty
red hats and whimsical black topknots, were, well, I guess they were
gamboling throughout the property, and doves were softly cooing.
I won’t say much about the hotel itself – you can get more than
enough at the CSSA convention and La Paloma websites. But I will say the
place is quite grand, with tennis courts, a golf course and an exercise
facility. Cactus spouses can sign up for spa treatments or go golfing,
or hang out at one of the pools (even with a swim-up bar!). The
convention facilities are outstanding, with plenty of room for our
lectures, exhibits, and plant sales (outdoors!).
But what I really want to talk about is the bigger venue,
especially the great outdoors, so spectacular at this time of year
throughout southern Arizona.
For the four days I was there, the nights were cool and the days on the
warm side of pleasant (low 80’s); with nary a cloud to be seen in the
vivid blue skies. The serious slopes of the rocky, craggy Catalina Mountains
seem less than a good 3-iron shot away from the hotel.
And in those mountains….
Our Board meeting was all day Saturday, and Sunday I had an early
afternoon meeting with the guides for our post-convention tour of Sonora
(see additional article). I couldn’t schedule a decent flight back to
Madison
Sunday evening, so I chose an early Monday afternoon flight. This gave
me three chances to do a bit of exploring. Sunday morning I took a 20
minute drive around the western end of the Catalinas to their north
slope where Catalina State Park is located. This park is in a
beautiful setting and has an abundance of hiking trails and an abundance
of cacti. Hedgehogs, mammillarias, prickly pears, chollas, saguaros,
barrels all were common. And, thanks to a relatively abundant winter
rainy season, the wildflowers were fantastic in all shades of white,
yellow, pink, orange, blue, and purple. The hedgehogs were just coming
into bloom; the prickly pears appeared to be about a week away. My
camera got a workout!
After the fieldtrip meeting I headed to
Sabino Canyon Park
for my late afternoon hike. This is another fabulous park in the
Catalinas, and this one just 7 miles from the hotel. Again, there was an
abundance of hiking trails, beautiful scenery, and cacti. Monday morning
I decided to venture a bit further away, and headed south, first down
I-10 and then I-19 to Green Valley,
jumping off place to the Santa Rita Mountains and Madera
Canyon. When I was an entomology graduate
student in California,
Madera Canyon was
the place to go bug
collecting in summer, but I hadn’t been back in over 20 years. The Santa
Ritas, like the Catalinas, Chiricauhas, Huachucas, Rincons and others
are the famous “Sky
Island” mountain ranges of southern Arizona. They rise above
the surrounding desert grassland to elevations as high as 10,000 ft,
where there are oak, pine, and fir forests – breaking southern Arizona’s image of total desert. But in these
dry desert mountain woodlands are more types of succulents. In my short
visit to Madera Canyon I saw more barrels, prickly pears,
and hedgehogs, but also Agave
palmeri in abundance, as well as
Agave relatives such as
Dasylirion
and arborescent yuccas. And, at
over 5000 ft elevation, an entirely new assortment of wildflowers, and
very pleasant 70°
weather.
These are just a few of my favorite natural places in the
vicinity of Tucson.
I haven’t even mentioned
Saguaro
National Park, with
eastern and western sections book-ending the city, and just as lovely as
the places I’ve mentioned. Then there is the
Arizona
Sonora Desert
Museum, and the Tucson Botanic Garden,
and a ton of cactus and succulent nurseries. Do you like margaritas?
Cerveza? Mexican food?
No, I don’t work for the southern Arizona Chamber of Commerce. I
volunteer for CSSA, which means I work for you. And I really think you
need to attend the Tucson
convention next April. The Convention Committee has commitments from
over 25 speakers, and they are expecting 40 vendors of plants, pots,
books, and other goodies for all us cactoholics. Pre-, mid-, and
post-convention daytrips are planned. If you’ve never been to southern Arizona, this will be the perfect time to
come see one of the most beautiful desert environments in the world. If
you were at the last Tucson
convention in 1995 you’ll remember that it was fabulous, but it was
mid-summer hot. Tucson 2009 will be twice as fabulous but mid-spring
spectacular. Come for the convention, but stay awhile. You owe it to
yourself. See ya there….
More info? Go to
http://www.cssainc.org/ and click
on “2009 Convention”.