2025 San Francisco Succulent Expo, June 13-15 (this weekend!)

Folks in Northern California, what are you doing this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday? If you don’t have plans, come to the giant San Francisco Succulent Expo at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park, put on by the San Francisco Succulent and Cactus Society. And if you have plans already, change them! This is an event you don’t want to miss.

Click here for a recap of last year’s event. This year will be very similar: 40 vendors selling plants and pottery, a show full of spectacular succulents, as well as educational talks and live demonstrations. There is no event in Northern California even remotely like it.

Succulents are able to survive long periods of drought by storing water in their leaves, stem, or base. That will be the focus of this year’s event. The show judges will select the plants that best embody the theme “LEAF, STEM, BASE.” And the speakers will give talks centered on these three categories:

LEAF –
Julia Etter and Martin Kristen (botanists and field explorers living in Mexico; operators of the websites Agavaceae.com, Crassulaceae.com)
Discover the Crassulaceae and Agavaceae of Jalisco, Michoacan, and Colima
Saturday, 1 pm

STEM – Andrew Hazlett (President of the Cactus and Succulent Society of San Jose)
Cactus Grafting (live demonstration)
Sunday, 11 am

BASE – Al Klein (Botanic Wonders)
Succulent Bonsai and Staging Plants for Showing (live demonstration)
Saturday, 2 pm
Growing Succulent Caudiciforms
Sunday, 2 pm

In addition, Walker Young (Garden Manager at the Ruth Bancroft Garden) will give a demonstration on growing and propagating succulents (Sunday, 12:30 pm).

🌵🌵🌵

The 2025 Succulent Expo will run from Friday to Sunday. Admission is free.

Members-only early sale access

• Friday, June 13th, 3 pm – 7 pm
• Saturday, June 14th, 9 am – 10 am

Members also skip the entry line all weekend. If you’re not a member yet, you can join for $15.

open to the public

• Saturday, June 14th, 10 am – 5 pm
• Sunday, June 15th, 9 am – 5 pm

🌵🌵🌵

Here’s a list of vendors at this year’s Succulent Expo:

Northern California’s top rare Cactus and Succulent sellers

• Gardeners Home (David Calebo)
• Planta Seca (Bill Munkacsy)
• PB & J Cacti & Succulents (Peter Beiersdorfer and Jaan Lepson)
• Radiant Cactus and Succulents (Cassidy Roberts-Yee)
• L&J Plants and Things (Lesley Shores and Jerry Slayter)

Returning favorites and new surprises

• Gardenia Gardens and Design
• Cloud Hidden Plants
• Succielife
• The Succulent Addict (Justin Thiel)
• Succulents and Beyond
• Vivid Root (Amie Frisch)
• RDD Succulents

pottery vendors

• Peety Pots
• Rowe Clayworks
• Cherney Design
• Rene Rosso
• Kim Manfredi
• SFSCS Member Potters

Specialized local botanical growers / hybridizers

• Artisan Plants
• Agavoides (Brian Kemble and Walker Young)
• Dunne & Parisi
• Epiphyllum World
• Jim Smith

Vendors from the Monterey Bay Area and the Central Coast

• JC Succulents (Watsonville)
• Desert Rose of Santa Cruz
• Jorge Quiñónez (Monterey)
• Grow (Morro Bay)

plant vendors from Southern California

• Kyles Plants (LA)
• Botanic Wonders (San Diego)
• Thorn Oasis (LA)

Other growers

• Bromeliad Society of SF (air plants and bromeliads plants from 12+ members)
• Casper’s Landscape
• Karen Casino
• Sus’s Succulents
• Dana Gardner and Michael Chin

This video from the 2024 Succulent Expo gives you a good idea of the enormous selection of plants that are for sale:

For more info, go to the 2025 Succulent Expo Page on the SFSCS website. Please pay particular attention to the parking situation in Golden Gate Park and adjoining streets. I saw three illegally parked cars getting towed last year!

© Gerhard Bock, 2025. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.