Xuan, I'm so glad to hear that you enjoyed the show and sale. We have it every year at the same time (4th weekend in July) so if you get back this way again come and see us. If you come back in a different month send me an email and I'll let you know what other C&S sales are going on. We have nine C&S societies here in Northern California, and there are shows/sales almost every month from April through October. Now I know what you meant about changing the soil. I have purchased plants from certain vendors before and if I didn't change the soil they would die. It had nothing to do with the quality of the vendor's soil; it had everything to do with the differences (however slight) in our climates. Since you're taking the plants back to Vietnam I would repot when I got home. This is because of your high humidity if nothing else. I would add more rock, perlite or pumice to the mix. I would also NOT move the plants into terra cotta pots since the plastic pots dry out faster and that's what you want, especially for Vietnam. Once you've learned how to grow them in your climate you could adjust the pots and/or soil to that which works best for you. I think you will find that you WILL have to water on occasion. Also, many succulents like having filtered light; others need to stay out of the afternoon sun. I don't know where you're staying, but there are a couple of places in Berkeley where you can buy more succulents - The Dry Garden on Shattuck Avenue and the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden on Centennial Drive (http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/). Of course our home improvement stores also have succulents at reasonable prices although many times they don't have names on them. If there's a Home Depot (http://www.homedepot.com) or a Lowe's (http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=home) near where you're staying you could check them out too. Good luck, and have a very safe trip home! Marilyn

Hi Dawna, I really seem to have a problem emailing thru gw so will answer you here. I am so glad that the plants I have sent you have prospered and done well. Yes, the E. platyclada is one of my favorites and so easy to take care of. My most recent passion are sarracenia but have a hard time finding anyone to trade me for these. Carnivorous plants in a bog in Oklahoma has to be love because keeping the plants wet during our dry spells is rough and my bog is big. At our sale I mostly sold winter hardy palms, kiwi and poncirus. I suppose it is just to early to think about cactus. We will probably start selling again on ebay in the next couple of weeks. I am parnoid about sending plants out into cold areas of the country. Anyway, if you find something of ebay of mine or my trade page that interests you, I would prefer to trade that sell.Good hearing from you, Paul

I swung by the show/sale and was VERY impressed with the vast assortment of cacti & succulents. Wish I had had about $150 to blow on plants.

It was an ok sale. We really didn't advertize enough and were kinda unprepared. A bad time of year really to think about buying or selling cactus. I sell mainly winter hardy stuff and that went surprisingly well for that time of year. I only purchased one plant (a record for me). It was a crested pachypodium (pachs are my favorite succulent). It was a crested P. succulentum. I have never seen or heard of another one and the price I paid reflected that. Our next sale is the first week of April and hopefully we will get the word out better. Paul