Presented by the Los Angeles, Long Beach, and San Gabriel Valley Cactus & Succulent Societies, The Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia CA has been home to the Inter-City show for many years. And how many? Well, my first visit also happened to be its 30th anniversary. I'm so glad I did! Dateline Saturday August 8, 2015 at 10:45 a.m., here's the entrance:
Looks awfully dark in there, so I'll get in closer as I blow out brightness and contrast:
The sales tent from the outside looking in:
Once again blowing out the brightness and contrast for a better view of what's going on in there:
Under the tent, and in the background you're seeing a line of people moving along to pay for their purchases:
That line was long, and like the other pics you've seen so far, it can't do justice to all the activity going on in the sales tent. For that matter, the crowd made it pretty much impossible to photograph all the vendor displays the way I'd prefer, although I was able to point out 2 notable people. First, Miles Anderson of Miles' To Go:
The show opened at 9:00, and as we can see, 2 hours later there wasn't much left on his tables for buyers to snag. A popular guy for good reason, and it's definitely worth doing business with Miles whenever you have the opportunity.
The other notable person -- Woody Minnich. That's him on the left:
More than 40 years of fieldwork to back up his experience -- when he talks, people listen!
Long-time California collectors will remember a legendary place in the Antelope Valley called Cactus Data Plants. Interesting name, and there's quite a story behind it -- I highly recommend this 2005 article from the L.A. Times. It was quite a drive from West L.A. to Littlerock, but I made the trip out there once in the late '80s. Yep, the legend was true -- greenhouses loaded with cacti and succulents, and the vast majority of them so rare you'd be unlikely to find them under cultivation anywhere else. The experience included getting used to "not for sale" signs all over the place, although that situation changed when Woody decided to pull up stakes for New Mexico less than 2 years after the Times article was published. Unfortunately he had to leave most of his collection behind, which then led to the "mother of all cactus sales" when he sold it to the California Cactus Center in Pasadena. Didn't take long for CDP to be a going concern again in New Mexico, and when I went to the show it was no surprise to see that Woody's sale display would be the biggest:
Wish I had room to bring some of his cacti home with me, but it was a pleasure just being able to talk with Woody -- and especially because he knew about the Antelope Valley plants that made their way into my collection through the CCC as I got it going in 2011.
And now for the show, as we make our way into Ayres Hall:
Between everything I saw and the wonderful conversations I had with some of the attendees (Woody included, of course!), it really was a special day, and I'll most assuredly be back for the next Inter-City show. Will you be there too?
