Mini-Show Cactus of the Month:  Epiphytic Cactus
Mini-Show Succulent of the Month: Haworthia, Astroloba

This program will bring you up to date on new developments at the Huntington, notably the upper Desert Garden renovation. This includes new, accessible paths opening another half-acre of garden to the public. Also, the Desert Garden Conservatory renovation will have been completed in late 2022. Plants will be moving back in before winter after their summer vacation back in the nursery. Meanwhile, the collections have been carrying on with their usual, and some not-so-usual, activities. This program documents some highlights of all this activity with fascinating flowers and forms of some of your favorite plants as well as some that may be new to you. I look forward to taking you on the tour.

John Trager is the Bernie and Miyako Storch Curator of Desert Collections at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California where he has worked since 1983. Prior to that he worked with master propagator Frank Horwood at Abbey Garden Nursery when it was located in Carpinteria. Trager’s horticultural writings have appeared in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, the Euphorbia Journal, and various other horticultural publications. He is also known for his photography — over 3000 of his images have been published in numerous textbooks and horticultural journals. Book projects include co-authorship and photography for Dry Climate Gardening with Succulents produced by the Huntington (1995), principal photographer for The Genus Conophytum (1993) and a contributor to other works by Steven Hammer: Lithops, Treasures of the Veld (1999) and Dumpling and His Wife  (2002, a revision of the The Genus Conophytum) and Mesembs of the World  (1998, Smith, Hammer et al.). He has also contributed photographs to works by Gordon Rowley: The Succulent Compositae (1994), Anacampseros, Avonia, Grahamia: a grower’s handbook (1995), Crassula, A Grower’s Guide (2003), as well as the multi-authored six-volume reference The Illustrated Handbook of Succulents (2001-2003). He continues to contribute images for new editions and new publications as opportunity and demand arises. The annual ISI introductions published in the C&S Journal also provide a venue for his writing and photography. John has traveled widely in search of plants (and insects) including China, Costa Rica, Israel, Mexico, Namibia, South Africa, Thailand, and Venezuela. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Horticulture from Cal Poly Pomona (1992) and earlier studied Botany at Santa Barbara City College and UCSB.