Pictures from the 2022 Inter-City Show in Los Angeles

Why the happyangry face you wonder? As I was starting to work on my photos from the 2022 Inter-City Show held in early August at the Los Angeles County Arboretum, I realized that a whole bunch were missing. Not only that, all my photos from the Huntington taken that same weekend weren't there either. Then I remembered seeing a message on my camera indicating that both memory cards were full (I have two slots). I told my camera to format the card in slot 2, thinking those were old images. It turns out that slot 2 held the card with my most recent images, including some from the Inter-City Show and all from the Huntington. 

Grrrrrrr. As a result of my inattentiveness, those images are gone for good. I do have the photos taken of the show a day earlier because I'd copied them to my laptop—and I have the ones from my phone, although there aren't many.

Hence this:

Like any cactus and succulent show, the Inter-City Show accepts entries in dozens of categories covering the entire spectrum of what could be considered a succulent, including oddities like succulent bulbs. But looking at the plants displayed on the tables, it would be easy to think it's all about cacti and fat plants (aka caudiciforms). Because it mostly is.

Ribbons are given out in each category for honorable mention, third, second, and first place. The most outstanding plant in each category is displayed in the trophy area—unfortunately, all but two of the photos I took of the big winners are lost.

Rebutia heliosa

Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus, displayed the way this cactus would grow in habitat (below the ground)

Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus, same species as above but displayed in a more traditional way

Ariocarpus retusus var. furfuraceus, a decades-old specimen

Ariocarpus trigonus var. horacekii

Pediocactus peeblesianus, great marriage of plant and pot

Astrophytum myriostigma

Echinocereus ferreirianus ssp. lindsayi

There were a lot of cacti displayed in novel ways. One was in a flat cardboard box, another was partially covered with debris from a pine tree, including needles and even a cone. (I photographed many of them, but of course those images got wiped.)

I do have one photo of a cactus in a non-traditional container:

Like it or not, I appreciate the collector trying to do something different

The high-point winner—i.e. the member who racked up the most points across all the plants entered in the show—was Tony Marino. He's well known for his innovative containers made of rocks. Here are just some of them from this year:

Neoporteria floccosa (as per tag); as per CactiGuide.com, the current name is Eriosyce taltalensis var. floccosa

Copiapoa tenuissima

Oreocereus trollii

Epithelantha bokei

Thelocactus bicolor

Ferocactus lindsayi

The Aloe category was fairly well represented—“fairly” meaning a few dozen plants. The winner was this Aloe pearsonii, a plant I've seen in several shows now:

Aloe pearsonii

Agaves, sadly, were underrepresented. Not a big surprise, it's always that way. Maybe 10-15 entries. Here are few photos that survived my memory card mishap:

Agave oteroi

Agave utahensis var. eborispina

The category winner was this Agave albopilosa, a truly beautiful specimen:

Agave albopilosa

Here's proof that not everything is dead serious:

Winning entry in the Artwork & Handicraft category

A few random entries from the many caudiciform categories—plants that store water in their trunks, bases, or roots. From the sheer number of entries, there is a massive amount of interest:

Pachypodium bispinosum hybrid

Pachypodium bispinosum

And a few miscellaneous odds and ends:

Good old string of pearls (Senecio rowleyanus now Curio rowleyanus)

Haemanthus deformis, a South African bulb with large flat leaves

Gethyllis britteniana, an unusual bulb from the winter rainfall region of South Africa

Below is a good video of 2022 Inter-City Show. It gives a much better overview of what there was to see than my photos: 

This video presents highlights from the trophy table:

As a bonus, some photos of the outside plant sale area: lots of reasonably priced plants, lots of expensive plants, lots of common stuff, lots of rarities. Enough for everybody to find something. There were a lot of shoppers, so showing up right at opening time on the first day of the sale (Friday) is the way to go.

Matt Maggio (Rain Shadow Designs) brought a large variety of rarely seen dudleya species...

...as well as some exciting hybrids

Matt also had all kinds of rare aloes

Aloe omavandae, expensive and hard to pronounce

A few interesting agave hybrids involving Agave utahensis, including Agave utahensis var. nevadensis × attenuata...

...and Agave utahensis var. nevadensis × ovatifolia

Living Stones Nursery from Tucson had many reasonably priced seedlings, including Aloidendron ramosissimum, Agave parviflora, and Agave stricta

June Wong was one of several pottery vendors

I particularly like the tapered square designs. I bought a couple smaller ones last year.

Cyphostemma juttae, one of a dozen or so large specimens I saw, this one "reasonably" priced at $150

Big selection of stapeliads

Larryleachia cactiformis, not a cactus, but a stapeliad from Namaqualand

Astrophytums...

...and more astrophytums!

Did I say they had astrophytums?!?

Three variegated Astrophytum

Agave pintilla sold by two different vendors not 30 ft. apart. One was $100, the other $25; the plants were essentially the same size.

Agave isthmensis

Dudleya traskiae

Here's my fairly modest haul:

1. Agave isthmensis with subtle gray variegation
2. Agave parryi var. truncata with unusual twisted terminal spines—different and cheap ($10)
3. Agave pintilla with particularly good markings
4. Aloe excelsa with yellow flowers, rare and beautiful
5. Aloe hybrid from Tim Harvey with deep red teeth, small but not too small to go in the ground
6. Dudleya campanulata
7. Dudleya candelabrum
8. Dudleya gnoma
9. Dudleya saxosa from Joshua Tree

The cactus in the photo, Uebelmannia pectinifera, was actually a gift from a friend, so not a purchase.

My biggest splurge was the Aloidendron ramosissimum below. I rarely see beautifully branched specimens like that. I've already planted it in a metal container in the front yard.

Aloidendron ramosissimum (the other plants belong to Sacramento-area friends who were at the show)

I wasn't going to buy a lot this year (and I didn't, not really), but I tremendously enjoyed seeing such a variety of plants. And of course hanging out with like-minded folks.

© Gerhard Bock, 2022. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.