Magnificent Obsessions: Succulents
printed May 1993
TLDR
Speaking about his passion for euphorbias, Dr. Herman Schwartz says, "It's a benign obsession." Euphorbias are a varied group of plants of remarkable forms and habitats, and flowers that are the gems of succulent collections.
"I started out with 10 plants on my windowsill in 1972 and today I have between 300,000 and 400,000 succulents, housed in the largest private greenhouse in North America."
Before Schwartz became an oncologist and one of the primary organizers of San Francisco's Kaiser Permanente Hospital, he was a botanist in New York City, an authority on ferns. After becoming a cancer specialist, he moved to Mill Valley in 1954 but left his complete collection of United States ferns behind. He didn't start collecting plants again until 1972 when a patient suggested he "take 10 succulents, put them on your windowsill and don't water them for a month." At the end of the month they looked better than when he put them there and he said, "This is for me!" Within a year he had a thousand plants and he now has the largest collections of both euphorbias and aloes in the world, housed in three inter-locking greenhouses on a half acre in Bolinas. The greenhouses will be a highlight of a July visit by the 450 members of the International Cactus and Succulent Society.
In addition to readying his extensive reference collection for these visitors, Schwartz is completing the ninth of a 10 volume series, The Euphorbia Journal. Not only does he write and edit these unique and gorgeously photographed hardbound reference books, he publishes them as well. The publishing started after he saw a need for reference materials on succulents. When he began collecting succulents in 1972 he looked for books, and found only a few: one written in German, and another two volumes, published in 1932. So, while still practicing at Kaiser, Schwartz began publishing what is fast becoming the world's most complete succulent library. The 10 volume Euphorbia Journal is the first definitive reference since 1932. “I’m not publishing for profit," says Schwartz, who has had a succulent named after him. "This is something I do for pure pleasure, information and wonderment." Schwartz personally corresponds with the 2,000 "maniacal collectors" who write to him, including diva Beverly Sills.
Schwartz laments the limits that publishing has placed on his travels. With six books promised in the next year and a half, he must confine himself to one collecting trip a year to the countries where he discovers succulents, including India, Madagascar, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Libya, Mexico, and South America. But living in Strawberry since 1961 in a house designed by his wife, Leah, suits the 72-year-old euphorbia enthusiast just fine. With a gorgeous view outside, and wife Leah's paintings on every wall inside, it's easy to see why Schwartz says, "There's no place like Mill Valley. It's a wonderful, wonderful place. It's perfect." Even after all this time, Schwartz is still amazed and delighted by the "extraordinary succulent family. For me, the fascinating thing is the more I know, the more I want to know, and the less time I have. As you get older you learn more and more about what you'd like to do." And what Schwartz likes to do is discover, collect, nurture and write about his benign obsessions.
