It is mid winter in southern Arizona,although unlike last winter temperatures are mild with few freezing nights. November through mid January has been rainier than expected for a La Nina year and we're likely going to have a banner wildflower season this spring. The rains seem to have stopped however, so we may be having an early spring, which of course could mean an early and hot summer.

The US Postal Service has again raised their rates on parcels, and we are determining how this might affect our shipping rates. Already we use FedEx Ground for heavy packages to save on shipping costs. UPS tends to be more expensive than either FedEx Ground or the US Postal Service. If USPS decides to eliminate Saturday deliveries, as they have threatened, we may change mostly to another primary shipping company.

Our Seedhouse continues to thrive, and we finished with around 100 flats of new seedlings to go along with perhaps 30 flats of new cuttings. We're particularly happy with some new Cyphostemma and Euphorbias that are coming up quite well. We've already potted many of the new plants up and are waiting for them to get well established before offering them for sale in the spring.

While we were in Tanzania in December and January, we developed a new business relationship with Bhwire Bhitala, a nurseryman who specializes in Sansevieria from Tanzania and Kenya. He is phenomenal at finding plants and maybe has discovered as many as 12 undescribed species. We already are offering several of those with more to come in shipments from Tanzania this spring, assuming we can work out some details and the USDA cooperates with our import permit. Look for his plants under a special entry in our catalog under Sansevieria>Bhitala Plants.

Because we have a large number of unusual plants with collection data, we are frequently asked about whether researchers can work on our plants or a variety of studies. Currently, we will participate in a study of Sansevieria DNA, particularly focusing on certain groups within the genus to look at relationships among species and possibly their evolution. Other past studies involve Euphorbia, Cyphostemma, and Agave, and we'd like to work on our large stock collection of Aloe.

We're currently adding a lot of plants to our sale list for 2012. We thank all of our customers for their support during the nationwide recession, which affected the succulent plant business as well as everyone else.

Our new stock greenhouse is up and full, again verifying the 1st Law of Greenhouses: they are full before they are built. We have added 3600 square feet of new heated and cooled space to house our stock plants and propagation facility, raising our total winter indoor space to about 18,000 square feet. This new house 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 are committed to that goal. We still plan on adding an unheated shade house for frost-tolerant species, probably in the middle of 2012.

International Travel

Bob and Toni are going to try and travel to Angola, Namibia, and South Africa in May/June in search of Sansevierias and other succulent plants. We're working on a new DNA analysis of the genus Sansevieria in a vain and probably unsuccessful attempt to learn something new about this complex group of plants. We may also end up describing a new species of Euphorbia from northern Tanzania, if we can arrive there at the right time. We will end up sending plants back to the USA under our USDA Import Permit, hopefully enhancing our offerings of Sansevieria and other non-CITES species.

Later in 2012, we're hoping to return to Kenya and Tanzania to continue to work with Sansevieria and see other parts of these great countries. It would also be a great year to finally get to Madagascar to visit.

New Plants: Imports

In 2011, we imported a modest number of plants from South Africa and Europe. We brought in many species and varieties of Haworthia with collection data, and we will once again be relisting those after it finally cools off a little this fall. 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 found anywhere, and we're well on the way to doing just that.

New Seedlings and Cuttings

Our production of seedlings of everything from rare Euphorbias to relatively common Adeniums has overwhelmed our greenhouse, prompting construction of the new stock house. Our 2011 seedling production was awesome, with a number of new species that we've never offered before coming up in droves.

Toni continues to put considerable energy into seed production, particularly on rare Euphorbias and Monadeniums, so we anticipate have a having many new or rare species starting in the spring of 2012. Bob has planted seeds of species that we never thought it possible that we could propagate, and we're now seeing little seedlings jump out of the ground. If they survive -- and they usually do -- expect some surprises in the next few years.

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 some Commiphora. 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. We're finally getting the senescent plants that once filled out greenhouse space to grow into decent looking plants, and we're getting happier about the quality of plants we offer for sale.

Our Continued Commitment

We are working with the extensive collection of stock plants that we have at Arid Lands Greenhouses and in our personal collections, now merged for the first time. We want to propagate old favorites as well as create new or unusual introductions. We keep 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. 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 18,000 square feet of greenhouse space, and we intend to use it efficiently to grow interesting plants. The only way we can create additional space is by selling plants, so we hope you like what we are producing.