CSSA Presents: Steven Hammer on Plant Candy For Hallowe'en

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The Cactus and Succulent Society of America has been presenting free biweekly Saturday video talks. On Saturday October 29 at 10 am Pacific Daylight Saving Time (UTC -7, Los Angeles), the talk will be given by Steven Hammer, an expert on the ice plant family, Aizoaceae, which includes Conophytum, Lithops, Titanopsis and many more.

Steven Hammer: Plant Candy For Hallowe'en: An Examination of Undiggable Mesembs and the Breeders who Dig Them

Steven Hammer is owner of Sphaeroid Institute in Vista CA, His nursery is considered ground zero for thousands of rare mesembs and for many aficionados who travel far and wide to delight in his extensive succulent collection, personal charm, and knowledge.

His extensive travels to South Africa (often twice a year for many years) with Ernst van Jaarsveld, Bruce Bayer, Pauline Perry, Norbert Juergens, Steve Brack and many others, make him one of the elite mesemb experts in the world. His books, including whimsical titles such as Dumpling And His Wife: New Views Of The Genus Conophytum. Succulents: Conophytum: A conograph, Lithops - Treasures of the Veld, Nature's Sculptural Wonders, and Mesembs: The Titanopsis Group are well-known in the field.

Mr. Hammer is a Cactus and Succulent Society of America Fellow, and has received research grants from CSSA, the Mesemb Study Group, the National Geographic Society, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Huntington Gardens, Kew Gardens, and the Bolus Herbarium, of which he is an honorary fellow.

Steven Hammer's Bio in his own inimitable words: Mr. Hammer was born in Indianapolis in 1951 and, theoretically, grew up in Santa Monica. In 1969 he landed his most instructive job: summer dishwasher at the Berkeley YMCA. Since then, he has been a perennial flaneur in the piano and mesemb worlds. When not monitoring his collection of sphaeroids, bulbines, and hawgs, he likes to cook other vegetables. Hammer takes great interest in ornamental plant improvement, re-and-de-combination, and data deflection, believing that GPS arcana should be guarded as carefully as the Colonel's Eleven Secret Herbs and Spices. He was not always so cautious.

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This presentation is finished. Steven Hammer showed a lot of selected clones and hybrids of Lithops and Conophytum. He discussed the problem of recent extensive illegal collecting in southern Africa. For those wanting to know how to grow them better, from seed and as adult plants, there was extensive discussion in the Q&A.

The video will be available for all to view on the CSSA Facebook page until sometime Monday morning. You do not need to be a member of Facebook to view the video.