4 
CACTUS PETE 
TTITIiTiTiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiitii illite ELLE LEE LE LLL LL llsbbaletletadeelebedldatltleellaelaehetehllaetelackatieetaatlasiheactasetacheeleeeeeeleele 
EE a 
dark red flower . Kermicinus being de- 
rived from the name of a deep scarlet dye 
made by the cochineal insect, with no men- 
tion made in these early descriptions of any 
other coloring or of a two-tone, or two-color 
effect in the flower) ‘Florence Houghton” 
was quite similar, but with narrower petals 
and lighter color tones . pinker on the 
edges and softer orange in the mid-stripe. 
At his death, the doctor’s plants were mixed 
up and these names were given to other 
varieties, however, there are still many of the 
original plants of “Dr. Houghton” in culti- 
vation . plants which were purchased di- 
rect from the doctor before his death. The 
original “Florence Houghton” was a rather 
weak plant and it does not seem to have sur- 
vived in any of the local collections. 
We soon moved to our present location 
on Valley Blvd., Los Angeles. We had very 
little space in our small cactus-house for 
plants which needed “storage’’ most of the 
year. We had an opportunity to rent some 
large lath-houses (quite near us) and so, for 
several years, we stored most of our Epis out 
there. Each year, when blooming season ar- 
rived, we sold our plants to the Chain Stores 
NTH 
and we soon found that what we thought 
was a fine collection, was not half adequate, 
so when we made our contact with a large 
Department Store, to make a yearly exhibit 
of “Orchid Cactus,’ we began to buy plants 
wherever we could find them, and through 
this one store, for eight years, we continued 
to sell our entire out-put, plus all we could 
buy. 
All this time, we sold but few Epis at re- 
tail as we were personally in charge of our 
store exhibit and that took most of our time 
during the blooming season. We put out 
several Hektographed price lists on the plants 
because we began to have requests for them 
through the mail. In 1943 we put out our 
first real catalog. It was half cactus and half 
Epiphyllums. In 1947 we put out our first 
“Orchid Cactus” catalog, 32 pages devotetd 
to them, and were we proud of it! 
In 1947, we again went back to our first 
“selling spot,” the Chain Stores, for, by so 
doing, we would be able to open our Nursery 
to the public during the height of the 
“Orchid Cactus” season and our Nursery is 
now visited by thousands each year at that 
time. 
ANNUAL SHOWING OF 
AMY RHIOS. 


Display table—part of our yearly exhibit in a leading Department Store in down-town Los Angeles. 
