Greetings from CA

[Saxicola]

Hello everyone,

I just joined the forum and thought I'd make an introductory post before jumping into the main forum.

I live in the Los Angeles area (climate zone 21) and am getting back into collecting succulents again after living for several years in the frozen wastelands of the Northeast US (I'm not disparaging the people, just the climate as it goes for growing plants!).

I'm a botanist by training (I have a Ph.D in plant taxonomy), but no longer work in the field. Long story short I love plants and I love the travel opportunities I had, but I got tired of academia. I'll always be a botanist, I just make my living in a different way now. So you may notice that on the one hand I may ask some basic care questions for some plants and on the other I may have fairly detailed answers about obscure botanical questions!

In general I like very unusual plants... which is what led me here! I gravitate towards plants that look really interesting or are fairly rare, or because they have something really strange about them botanically. I'm not collecting any particular genus at this point, just whatever strikes me as interesting. If I had to pick one plant as my favorite of all it would probably be Welwitschia mirabilis. Still waiting to get that one though! I've gotten to the point where I rarely find anything I really want in regular nurseries, so I'm looking to start tracking down specialty nurseries or even trade with people who might have something I'm looking for. Though mainly I'm here to chat about plants!

[CoronaCactus]

Greetings and welcome!
The San Gabriel Valley club meets at the LA Arboretum, this is the largest club in LA. (The president happens to be a member here as well, Buck Hemenway)
Long Beach, Sunset, South Coast, Orange County and Gates (Riverside) also have clubs.

[peterb]

Welcome! It's great to have another taxonomist around. I'm not joking.

peterb

[gemhunter178]

Welcome! I've seen some Welwitschia mirabilis around on the web occasionally, but usually as seeds.

[Arjen]

welcome!

[Melt In The Sun]

Check Plants for the Southwest (www.lithops.net) for W. mirabilis. I know they have some for sale on the benches, and I bet they will ship them.

[daiv]

Hello from me as well. Thanks for the intro!