BASIC INTRODUCTION
 
I mentioned in my recent, last post that an introduction would follow. To honor
that promise, here is a basic introduction. Of course I have introduced myself
before, but since we have had so many new members join since then, it is always
a good idea to follow-up occasionally.  For those "old-timers' who already know
about me, the delete button is but a short distance away!
 
Ray Cone and I started this Yahoo Haworthia Group many years ago, and in the
last few years, Ray's personal life has required most of his time.  So he is
really not an active Moderator.  That leaves me to help with the Group's ongoing
needs.
 
I began my interest in haworthias much as many of you may have.  I liked the
unusualness of succulents in general and haworthias are pretty much a normal
part of the succulent plant inventory of most shops.  I got my first haws from
retail shops and some nurseries either near where I lived or in places I
visited.  This was back in 1994.  At that time I lived in a cold, USDA Zone 4b
climate and being accustomed to almost gardening outside year-round in my native
Texas, I found the long, cold, dark Northern Winters pretty disheartening.
 
So I set up a "grow room" in the basement and outfitted it with metal halide
lamps and reflective, mylar sheets to reflect that light.  The "grow room" was a
pretty bright place I'll tell you!  In it I grew an assortment of succulents:
cacti, haworthias, various crassulaceous things, euphorbias, and so forth.  My
interest in haworthias grew and I made the acquaintance of the Burks, who at
that time had the best selection by mail order of haworthias in the U.S.A.  They
put me in touch with a private individual in the States who had even more
haworthias than they.  And it was through this kind old gent that I really began
to move forward in my haworthia hobby.  I bought what books were then available
on haws, such as Pilbeam and the early Bayers.  I also learned about the
existence of the genus Gasteria shortly thereafter and purchased the newly
published book The Gasterias of South Africa by van Jaarsveld.
 
In 1998 we moved from northern Utah to Tucson, Arizona.  There I could grow my
succulents outdoors year round (something I couldn't do in Texas).  I really got
into growing and studying gasterias and moved away some from haworthias.  I made
the acquaintance of Ernst van Jaarsveld over in South Africa at some point and
got some new propagative material from him and began to grow Gasteria species
never seen in America (such as G. croucheri).
 
In 2003 I applied for a travel grant awarded each year through the Cactus and
Succulent Society and won!  This laid the foundation upon which I raised more
funds, and in March 2004 I flew to Cape Town, South Africa for a three week
field trip from west to east, ending up in Port Alfred and other parts of the
Eastern Cape.  Upon my return I wrote up this trip in an article that was
published in the Cactus and Succulent Society Journal (2005 - q.v.).  At this
time I also had a website devoted to gasterias.
 
But shortly after returning to Tucson, my family and I had to leave, and we
re-located to my current residence here in the Inland Pacific Northwest, in a
place called Spokane, Washington - back basically to the whole northern climate
with attendent long, dark, cold, snowy winters.  So, not being able to any
longer afford massive amounts of electricity to run massive amounts of lumens, I
sold off most of my collection of gasterias to a man in the Philippines, and
what didn't go there was sold to keen collectors throughout the World.  Today I
only keep a representative collection of Gasteria batesiana (always my favorite
species) and a few of the gasterias I collected in South Africa (such as my G.
vlokii).
 
These days I have apparently begun to experience something like a second
childhood in that 50 years ago I kept anole lizards and today I have begun to do
that again.  I have a small, female anole, Anolis coelestinus, from Hispaniola
that I have been having fun with.  I still keep my hand in plants though and
designed and planted a large terrarium for her.  I still keep one 1000 watt
light going each winter and keep my current small collection of succulents under
it.
 
So that's where I'm at.  I am sure that we'd all like to here from other
members.  There is alot of experience out there.
 
Cordially yours,
Breck Breckenridge, co-Moderator
 




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