Name: Verica Jovanović
Born: 5/18/1962. in Brežani near Požarevac, Serbia
Currently in: Stari Banovci, Serbia
Few words about myself:I graduated on Facultity of Agriculture in Zemun, Plant and food protection department. On that occasion I bought myself a book 'Cacti Growing' from Fleischer-Schutz. I lived and worked in Pozarevac, Serbia, for a long time.
Cacti have attracted mine attention in high school, after I bought one that brought me beautiful yellow flowers that opened at 10AM and closed themselves at 4PM (that particulary fascinated me). Much later I found out that its name was Eskobaria misuriensis. During years, I collected plants carefully, thou I lost some of them because of lack of space. On the other hand, it was not so easy to get new plants and I was dreaming to reach number 100.
On 2001. I moved unexpectedly to Boljevce, near Surcin and there I met an experienced cacti grower - mr. Sreta Kokar. That was my first meeting with a big collection of carefully collected and selected plants. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Uncle Sreta, as all cacti growers know and call him, introduced me into world of cacti and cacti growers unselfishly. I picked up a lot from him, he gave me many plants and we shared excitement with every new plant. So, number 100 passed long time ago and I stopped counting - on the other side there are many new friendships.
Nowadays, I keep my collection outdoors with a rain protetcion during warm months, and when winter comes I bring them into house. I give plants that lack space to my friends, or I sell them rarely.
My wish is to create a covered space outdoors for my current and future plants, big and well-organized, because I think they become stronger and look better that way then if they were in greenhouse.
