Palm trees might line the boulevards of Los Angeles. But when it comes to style and functionality — perhaps no other plant represents our city better than succulents.
They are great for our arid climate, almost impossible to kill and as trendy as they are commonsensical. Where once they were a rarity among the manicured lawns of Southern California, now they are a staple in yards and office cubicles.
And for the super fans, whose itch can not be scratched by cruising the succulent aisle at Home Depot, there are clubs built specifically around their botanical obsession.
"This is what we're talking about, people who go cross-eyed with lust when they see something that they would love to have as part of their collection," said Debra Lee Baldwin, a succulent expert in San Diego who runs a popular YouTube channel dedicated to the plants.
"We're talking about a whole different mindset here with these people appreciating the plants for different reasons from the stampede of the general public," she said.
Those are the folks who show up at the many local affiliates of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America. Perhaps unsurprisingly, according to Baldwin, Southern California is home to many of these meetups.
Succulent club in L.A.
Artie Chavez is a former president of the Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society, which meets the first Thursday of every month (except December) in Reseda. The L.A. affiliate has around 250 members, but anyone can attend their monthly meetups, which bring in more than 50 people each time.
These gatherings are where people talk shop, get plant care tips and earn bragging rights. " Each month we pick a certain genus or a certain type of plant, and people bring in their plants and show them off and it's judged," Chavez said.
One highlight of the evening is the invited speaker. This month, the talk focused on the botanical diversity of Baja California Norte. In March, it was about the cacti and succulents in the Bolivian Highlands.
The club also holds workshops, plant swaps and plant sales — the next one is happening in mid-May.
Los Angeles's love affair with succulents
Baldwin, who's been writing about succulents for more than two decades, says a variety of factors contributed to the spike in the plants' popularity.
"From the practical standpoint, you've got the drought," Baldwin said. "So people are, 'Let's get rid of the lawn,' but then nothing like that would've lasted if there wasn't a strong aesthetic appeal."
Then there is the cool factor. Baldwin said she knew succulents were going mainstream when she started spotting the plants at weddings.
" Brides like to have anything fresh, new and different. They want their wedding to stand out," Baldwin said. " So they're incorporating them in bouquets, and they're sitting on tabletops, and they're the things that people take home."
Third is the pipeline. "The rise in more varieties becoming more available out of South Africa, out of parts of Europe, and of course the local growers," said Baldwin, who lives in northern San Diego county, where the concentration of growers have made the area into an epicenter of the boom.
And as with so many things, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the plants’ profile into another league.
"Before it was mostly people growing for landscaping or a collection that they kept outside," said Chavez with Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society. During the pandemic, "many more people in apartments started collecting plants, and cactus and succulents blew up during that time."
Way back in the days
Our love affair with succulents may feel like a recent phenomenon, but the L.A. club dates to 1935.
The group was first called the Southwest Cactus Growers, before changing its name to Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society in 1947. The nucleus of the gathering started shifting north over the next few decades, said Chavez.
"When more people started to live in the Valley that were collecting plants and having nurseries, they started to meet in the San Fernando Valley," Chavez said.
The society was hobbyist in nature, but members were primarily in the nursery business. " There were people that were collectors and decided, 'Hey, we have all these plants. Let's start selling them,'" he said.
Chavez joined the club more than four decades ago, at age 14, after he landed a part-time gig after school at a nursery called Singers Growing Things near Cal State Northridge.
That business was hallowed ground for early succulent and cactus fans like Roxie Esterle. She and her husband were developing an interest in the plants when they walked into Singers one day.
" We fell in love with these crazy caudiciform plants, which we still really love. The other one was a Ficus palmeri," Esterle said.
Some 40 years later, she still has the receipt for the $7.50 they paid for one of the plants.
" That was like a lot," Esterle said of the purchase. "That was all we were willing to put out, you know."
But there was no turning back. Today, Esterle is the secretary of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America and a member of the L.A. affiliate.
This week, she's been in San Diego, hanging out with her compatriots for the national convention that is held every two years for its estimated 2,000 members.
"People have a collector gene and they genetically go to details and appreciate the minute differences between things. They like to classify, they like to organize," she said of the folks drawn to collecting succulents. "Another characteristic is I know a number of us like to take something that looks really scraggly and make it beautiful by cleaning it up and bringing it back to good health."
Like so many veteran collectors, Esterle has her “want list” to add to an already impressive collection of some 2,000 species at her home.
Plants aside, the one thing she really wants is for the succulent community to keep growing.
"One of my concerns is that it's hard to get younger people to join a group. They're used to everything being online," she said, even though younger succulent fans abound.
" Sharing information is really critical, and some of the senior members – I'm talking about 45-, 50-year members — have a tremendous amount of wisdom. So I would like to find a way to engage those people more."
Upcoming Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society events
Monthly club meeting
Date: Thursday, May 1
Time: Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Location: ONEgeneration Senior Enrichment Center at 18255 Victory Blvd., Reseda
Spring cactus sale
Date: Saturday and Sunday, May 17 and May 18
Time: 9 a.m. to 3p.m.
Location: Tarzana Community & Cultural Center at 19130 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana
Other SoCal clubs
- Long Beach Cactus Club
- San Diego Epiphyllum Society
- South Coast Cactus & Succulent Society
- Sunset Succulent Society
- San Diego Cactus & Succulent Society
its big summer sale is the weekend of June 7 and June 8
