VERY SHARP, NEVER FLAT; CACTUS AND SUCCULENT GROWERS SING PRAISES OF SPIKY, DROUGHT-TOLERANT PLANTS.

Byline: Carol Bidwell Staff Writer

Trying to find a blade of grass in Duke and Kazuko Benadom's yard - front or back - is like trying to find ice cubes in a mirage.

Every inch - save for foot-wide gravel walkways - is crowded with cactuses and succulents from every continent on Earth except Antarctica.

``There are plants that grow in Antarctica, but they're not succulents,'' said Duke Benadom, 54, a mechanical engineer for a Valley medical products company, ``or else we'd have plants from there, too.''

The Simi Valley couple is one of hundreds of fanciers of the unusual plants celebrated by the Valley-based Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society.

And, like most cactus and succulent aficionados, they understand that their hobby isn't for everybody. After all, even a thorny rose is a lot more friendly looking than a cactus with deadly spikes 3 inches long that seems to reach out for you as you walk by.

Succulents - which store water in their fleshy leaves, thick trunks and roots - can look like anything from a rock to somebody's finger, from a tiny tree to a dead branch. Cactuses - which have spines or thorns growing out of regularly spaced areoles - can be barrel-shaped, tall and branching, or irregularly shaped and close to the ground. Both have flowers, but cactus blooms are the brightest and showiest.

However the unusual plants look, somebody loves their shape and color.

``They're not ordinary plants,'' said Gene Oster, 62, of Chatsworth, who with his wife, Laura, also 62, tends between 500 and 600 plants protected from the harsh sun by a fiberglass and shade cloth cover over a wooden backyard pergola. In the evening, the two often turn on a system of overhead lights, sit in their hot tub and admire their potted garden, which sits atop redwood tables.

``They're so pretty to look at,'' said Laura. ``You look at the detail, at the structure, and you see so much - such beauty.''

They began collecting cactuses and succulents in the 1960s, when the house they lived in had a pool that filled the back yard. Friends who were fans of the plants recommended that the Osters pot some up to enliven their yard - and soon they were hooked. Now, the couple shares vice presidential duties for the local cactus and succulent club.

Artie Chavez, 34, of North Hills, president of the organization, said he fell in love with succulents and their spiny cousins when he was a teen-ager. He wanted to plant a garden, but the only spot he had to plant in was too shady. His father, a landscaper, and an older brother who worked in a plant nursery, suggested he try succulents.

Soon Chavez, now a movie studio carpenter, was working at several nurseries after school and on weekends, trying to learn about these strange new plants.

``Whatever money I made, I spent on plants,'' he said. ``Actually, I pretty much traded (work) hours for plants. I spent about $30 a week; for every $20 I spent on plants, I'd spend $10 on books. And because I was so young, people would take me around and explain things to me. That's how I learned. I'm still learning.''

The Benadoms became interested in the drought-tolerant plants nearly 30 years ago, when they owned a pet shop that specialized in reptiles.

``We were constantly in the desert looking for reptiles - and we kept backing into cactus,'' said Duke Benadom, who's president of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America. ``One thing led to another ...''

That was 22 years ago. Today, the reptiles are gone, given to Moorpark College's exotic animal program, and 15 desert tortoises amble among the plants.

Duke and Kazuko, 53, said they stuck just one cactus in the ground at first, then another and another, gradually replacing grass and junipers.

``It grew a plant at a time,'' said Duke Benadom. ``Or a flat at a time. Now, it just engulfs us.''

He figures they have at least 5,000 (``give or take 1,000 or 2,000'') of the unusual plants crowded into their yard, plus a makeshift greenhouse, a seedling ``nursery'' and a cold frame for drought-tolerant plants that can't withstand the rain.

``We have a problem,'' Duke said. ``When we get a new plant or propagate one, we don't know where to put it.''

All succulent and cactus growers seem to have their favorite varieties of plants or facets of the hobby.

Both Gene Oster and Chavez prize succulents called caudiciforms, which have above-the-ground, tree trunk-like roots that are sometimes gnarled and intertwined, sometimes swollen and bulbous, sometimes peeling like an onion, sometimes resembling a giant decaying sweet potato. But out of what many would consider an ugly base spring delicate leaves and even more delicate flowers.

The Osters also love both succulents and cactuses that have genetically mutated into ``crests,'' which resemble a crest on a rooster's head, or ``monstrose,'' literally plants that have grown knotty and swollen like monsters.

``Something like that is a genetic accident,'' said Gene Oster. ``You can't make 'em do that. Nobody knows why they do it. But out of every 100 plants, one or two will be goofy. We like goofy. They're one of a kind.''

The Benadoms love exotic cactuses and succulents - the more exotic the better, like one plant with an impossibly long Latin name that bears gorgeous peach-colored, bell-shaped flowers that have a stench like rotting flesh. Or others, which fill half a small greenhouse, that are poisonous; break off a branch or a spine and brush against it, and the milky liquid it exudes will raise an instant blister on your skin.

There's a major drawback to gardening with cactuses and succulents, which can have spiny protuberances, too.

A trip into the garden of a cactus grower - especially the Benadoms' crowded one - can be a perilous proposition. Back away from one dangerous-looking plant, and you impale yourself on an even more threatening specimen. Accidentally knock over a pot, and there's no way to right it without heavy gloves to protect your hands.

Asked if she ever hurts herself while working with the spiky plants, Kazuko Benadom shows forearms criss-crossed with scratches, scars and scabs.

``You get used to it,'' she said with a shrug.

Plenty of garden shopping opportunities (get the point?)

This weekend, fans of cactuses and other succulents can see exotic specimens and shop for small plants for their own gardens at the first big plant sale and show ever staged in the Valley by the 64-year-old Los Angeles Cactus & Succulent Society.

The sale will be at the Sepulveda Garden Center, 16633 Magnolia Blvd., Encino, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission and parking are free. For more information, call [phone] or [phone].

On Fourth of July weekend in San Marino, the Cactus and Succulent Society of America will sponsor its annual sale and show of plants from prize-winning growers nationwide at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens. The event runs from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. July 3 and 4.

Admission - which includes entrance to the gardens, galleries and exhibits at the library, 1151 Oxford Road - is $8.50 for adults, $7 for seniors 65 and older, $5 for students 12 to 18 with student identification, and free for children younger than 12. Library members will be admitted free. For more information, call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

5 Photos, Box

PHOTO (1--Color--Cover) Prickly pursuit

Exotic cactuses are right at home in Valley's desert climate.

Phil McCarten/Daily News

(2--Color) A Hoodia gordonii is at home in the Simi Valley garden of Duke and Kazuko Benadom, where literally thousands of cactuses and succulents grow.

Phil McCarten/Daily News

(3--Color) Duke Benadom's cactus and succulent collection ``grew a plant at a time. ... Now, it just engulfs us,'' says Benadom, who is president of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America.

Phil McCarten/Daily News

(4--Color) Artie Chavez, president of the Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society, fell in love with the unusual plants when he was a youngster, spending every spare minute - and dollar - learning about and collecting them.

Evan Yee/Daily News

(5--Color) Gene and Laura Oster display a rare succulent - a notocactus uebelmannius crest - from their collection.

Evan Yee/Daily News

BOX: Plenty of garden shopping opportunities (get the point?) (See text)