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loukie
Realname Loukie Viljoen
Rank Site Editor
Location Johannesburg, RSA.
Subscribed on Dec 22, 2004 at 6:00.
Site Activity 85812 pageviews.
Proposals 2 comments submitted (2 rejected).
Images 2550 (
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Last Visit 15 Ago 2019 h.10:31.
Just a short story. Qualified as a Dental Surgeon 1958. My first touch or encounter with a Stapeliad was when I just started school, Grade 1, our teacher, Mrs Holtzhauzen, bless her soul, gave us some Stapelia nobilis or the likes, stems, by cutting them across, and dipping them into paint and stamping this over a clean piece of white paper, you could make a very patterned 4 star printing, that is most probably where it got stuck in the back of my mind. I have been collecting Stapeliads since 1961. I stumbled across a little brown book in the Central News Agency, "Succulents for the Amateur", From Passadena by Abbey Garden Press 1958. In the front was a note "Reserved for Mr. Otto" and a telephone number. I asked the assistant to please phone as I really wanted this book full of fascinating plants, Mr Otto said he had bought one and I can buy it. I went to see mr Otto, he was mad about Stapeliads, and referred me to Mr Akker Horsthemke, closer to my home, he happened to be mad about succulents, especially Stapeliads. It was not long before I was mad about Stapeliads. I met John Lavranos, judged shows with him, collected with him and Dr Jerry Barad way back in early 70s.The next major book in my life was the the little Stapeliad book by Edgar Lamb,we corresponded and exchanged plants via an air hostess, then I found Luckhoff's book on Stapeliads, and then the Bible at that time, White & Sloane, by then there was no cure for Stapeliatis. I got married and this Stapeliads collection was now becoming a threat to my wife Julie, and I had to get rid of my collection to John Lavranos, he shipped them to Dave Hardy at Pretoria Botanic Gardens. But the plants were gone but I still had each photo I ever took. One day I bought a Stapeliad from a nursey, we went to Namakwaland, I found some in the habitats, that was the end, back to Stapeliads Big Time. I had better camera equipment and carried on with my photography hobby, then formed sastapeliads@yahoogroups in 2003, and posted my photos, I had to do something with them. Then met late Darrell Plowes now we were in the DNA of stapleidas. Then out of the blue came this letter from Italy "can we not put the photos into a website?" - Fabio, I said, my Italian is bad, what if you move, what if you die. After a lot of letter writting, Fabio did the architecture, and at long last I could now put my photos on a safe place. The same applies to any photo we use on the site, it is there for all to see, I can almost say forever. Well, I must congratulate Fabio, he has and is still continuously shaping and changing the site, always for the better. What a computer BOFF. Now we are hard at work nearly 2 years and will open it soon. Enjoy the Stapeliads.

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