Austin Cactus 
& Succulent Society

ACSS Meeting

  • 21 Jul 2016
  • 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
  • Austin Area Garden Center at Zilker Botanical Garden

Registration

7:00 pm - Refreshments and Conversations
7:30 pm - Program: Seeking (and Finding) Succulents in all the Wrong Places (Central Asia, Alaska, Patagonia)… by Panayoti Kelaidis

Most people associate succulents with the deserts of the Southwestern USA, Mexico, the dry parts of South America and especially South Africa: in fact, thgere are succulents that thrive in a wide variety of habitats throughout the world including the alpine tundra. Panayoti has been fortunate to have opportunities to explore mountain ranges in Central Asia, through the Mediterranean, and some of the unlikely parts of both South America and South Africa where cold hardy succulents that have revolutionized our Southwestern American gardens originate. This talk hopes to shed a light on some of these Delosperma, showy sedums, and exotic succulent violets that may one day grace our gardens.

Panayoti Kelaidis is a plant explorer, gardener and public garden administrator associated with Denver Botanic Gardens where he is now Senior Curator and Director of Outreach. He has designed plantings for many of the gardens at DBG, he is particularly noted for the plantings of the Rock Alpine Garden. He has introduced hundreds of native ornamentals from throughout the Western United States to general horticulture. He has taken seven collecting trips to Southern Africa researching the high mountain flora there, as well as travels to the Andes, the Himalaya (from both Pakistan and China) as well as travels throughout much of Europe, and Turkey. Many of his plant introductions are available through Plant Select®, (a plant introduction program he helped launch along with staff from Colorado State University and nurseries across America). He has lectured in over 130 cities in seven countries, and has been featured in dozens of television, newspaper and magazine pieces. He has published widely in popular and technical horticultural journals.

In recent years Panayoti has been honored with the Boulder History Museum’s 60 Year Living History award in 2004, in 2003 by being inducted into the Garden Club of America as Member-at-Large, in 2002 he received the National Garden Clubs Medal of Honor and in 2000 he received the Arthur Hoyt Scott Medal from the Scott Arboretum at Swarthmore College. He has received four awards from the North American Rock Garden Society. In 2004 he was inducted into the Colorado Nursery and Greenhouse Association’s Hall of Fame. In 2009 he received the Liberty Hyde Bailey Award of the American Horticultural Society.

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