We're moving into the new year with an expanded inventory of plants to be added to our website and a plan for additional space to continue offering the best selection of plants we can.

We've purchased another greenhouse to be built over the coming year. This is particularly necessary given our expansion in stock plants, which we need to become less dependent upon plant imports and seed purchases. Producing our own seed from plants that we can verify as real species is important to our ability to offer our customers the best plants that we can, and we have a strong commitment to that goal.

We were featured in an article in the October 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living. Check it out for some interesting photographs of caudiciforms. We wish all of the plants pictured were available for sale, but someday perhaps they all will be.

International Travel

Last May, we went to southern Africa, notably Namibia and South Africa. We obtained seeds of some rare species, some not in cultivation, and some common species. This adds to the cache we've been getting from various international and US sources. In December, we went to Kenya and Tanzania to attempt to sort out a really confusing group of Sansevieria centered on the S. suffruticosa complex. We established a firm business contact with a Tanzanian grower, so expect some really nice plants from that region to be offered soon. In addition to the Sansevierias, we saw more readily identifiable Euphorbias, Aloes, and other interesting species. As our business contacts increase in Africa, we should continue to offer very interesting species, some not in cultivation, to our customers.

This upcoming year may see a return to Kenya and Tanzania, since that was so much fun, or perhaps we'll finally make our first trip to Madagascar. Either way, we hope to use our travels to benefit our customers, who are always interested in new species from interesting places.

New Plants: Imports

As 2010 begins , we have imported large numbers of plants, primarily from South Africa but also from Germany, the Czech Republic, Senegal, and Tanzania. Most of the plants we brought in were various species and varieties of Haworthia that came with collection data. We continue to offer a limited number for sale on our web site and to walk-in customers. Our overall goal remains to have as extensive a collection of Haworthia to offer our customers as is offered anywhere, and we're well on the way to doing just that. We just received another shipment of Haworthia, and these plants may become available next spring depending upon how they fare this winter. We're well aware that everyone wants H. magnifica splendens, and they are coming. However, we also increased our offerings of Tylecodon and Pelargonium, among other species.

New Plants: Our Seedlings and Cuttings

Our production of seedlings of everything from rare Euphorbias to relatively common Adeniums has overwhelmed our greenhouse. In 2009, our plant production has been even better, and we have extremely high hopes for our 2010 seedling production as well, given our current stocks. We have released some of new species on our web site in 2009 , and some merely increased our currently available stock. Toni has put considerable energy into seed production, particularly on rare Euphorbias and Monadeniums, so we anticipate have a whole new lineup of rare species starting in 2010 and extending into 2011. What should be especially interesting to some of you is a new commitment to propagation via cuttings, which we are now doing to increase many rare species, notably Euphorbias and Commiphora. Stan has been particularly busy with production of various pachycauls from cuttings. Finally, we are repotting all the old flats of cuttings, and there are some major surprises. Expect our offerings of Euphorbias to increase, particularly related to plant size and quality.

Our Continued Commitment

We are working with the extensive collection of stock plants that we have at Arid Lands Greenhouses and in our personal collection, trying to provide old favorites as well as new or unusual introductions. We are increasing the number of plants that we offer with collection data, which enables serious succulent plant collectors to know the origin of their plants with some certainty. At the same time, we are attempting to increase the breadth of our offering. It is our commitment to offer the broadest selection of succulent plants to our customers, and it is clear that you want that selection. It is startling how fast we filled up our 14,000 square feet of greenhouse space, and our additional new greenhouse space will increase that level to around 18,000 square feet. The only way we can create space is by selling plants, so we hope you like what we are producing.