HSCSS Meetings Go Live for 2022

(November 2021)

After a long hiatus due to COVID-19, Henry Shaw Cactus and Succulent Society’s monthly meetings will return as in-person events at a new venue beginning in January 2022.

Meetings are currently scheduled for January 9, February 13 and March 13. Additional dates will be finalized in early 2022, but likely will fall on the second Sunday of successive months.

Continued COVID-related limitations at Missouri Botanical Garden, the club’s longtime meeting location, forced the move to a new home. In answer, Jerry Jost, founder and president of Jost Chemical Co., offered the use of meeting space in one of his company buildings.

“I was recently at a member’s plant sale and overheard that HSCSS would start in-person meetings, but needed a site,” said Jost, a society member for several years. “So I volunteered our space.”

Located at 8195 Lackland in Overland, the facility is just east of I-170, about half a mile north of St. Charles Rock Road. The parking lot can be reached by turning sharp left off Lackland between the small lake and the interstate. Jost’s crew is currently completing renovation of a portion of the building as an event venue.

“We have about 350 employees and were having difficulty finding a venue that would hold the entire group for annual Christmas parties,” Jost said. “So I decided to convert the space to an event center.”

Jost has already hosted the Missouri Aquarium Society and will welcome ballroom dancers later this year.

“Henry Shaw Cactus and Succulent Society is especially grateful to Jerry Jost for allowing us to use his warehouse for our meetings,” HSCSS President Ralph Olliges said. “By using the large space, we will be able to spread out and hopefully keep our members safe.”

Olliges said he remains in touch with Missouri Botanical Garden regarding the possible return of in-person meetings and/or a plant show to the garden later in 2022.