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Getting better: Titanopsis calcarea

May 20, 2013, 4:22 am
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This was probably the worst case. One day this beautiful plant just decided to die. First it dried off all the new leaves so that the growing points looked like nothing will ever grow out of them again. Then it cast off  some of the old ones. All that remained looked brownish and more like a carcass than a living plant (you can still see it on the picture). A very sad sight.
But just like it spontaneously decided to die, it then found the will to live. "Hey I forgot that I don't actually need those old growing points to start growing again!" And there there were three new branches! I think it should recover now. :)

Its mate is doing fine, btw.

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Getting better: Prepodesma orpenii

May 21, 2013, 3:36 am
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If you remember I bought this plant with some kind of a leaf damage. Now it completely changed its appearance and is "wearing" only the new leaves while the old ones have slowly dried off. It is now all smooth and spotless. :)
It seems to grow new leaves explosively: They appear "out of nowhere" and grow very quickly and then the plant takes a pretty long rest before the next growth spurt. 

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Titanopsis seedlings update

May 24, 2013, 12:28 am
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My first experience growing non-lithops Mesembs from seed was growing Delosperma and Frithia. I don't have much room here but just couldn't resist sowing some more. Looks like I'll be posting a lot of baby pictures, bear with me. :) Here are the young Titanopsis calcarea seedlings from before (own seeds). It's fun watching them - so tiny and already all the cute warts are visible. 

At the moment T. primosii is germinating, more pics soon.
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New: Delosperma sphalmantoides (3 pics)

May 25, 2013, 2:47 am
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I actually would have loved to grow this species from seed but, given a chance, who could resist. Being so fond of the D. cooperii I've been looking around for a dwarf version to grow on the window sill (even though this hardy D. sphalmantoides would rather grow somewhere outside). I haven't even realized how tiny and cute it would be! You just have to love these little cyan leaves with a marshmellow-like texture (click on pics for xxl) and how it grows low like a carpet (much like a Neohenricia in fact). If you think of a Delosperma you surely imagine something very different.

 

To draw a comparison, here are the D. cooperii and D. sphalmantoides on one pic!
Got these beautiful plants from cono's paradise along with a new pumice order.
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Apropos Neohenricia (2 pics)

May 26, 2013, 2:27 am
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I was looking for a post to link to Neohenricia sibbettii for my last entry and as I saw an almost a year old picture of my plant I was pretty surprised to see how it has grown. Check this out:

Now
June 2012
I tried to cut one branch off and implant it separately but it didn't take. Even though the parts hanging over the border have some sort of roots they are rather dry and don't soak in water. Anything I should be aware of when making them take root?
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Stomatium's baby pictures

May 27, 2013, 7:02 am
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Among other things I'm currently watching two Stomatium trifarium kids grow from seed. I do have an adult plant but it's gotten huge and weird. Anyway, here are the bunnies. The see-through dots are the best thing!

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L. bromfieldii 'Sulphurea' (3 pics)

May 28, 2013, 12:15 pm
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The Sulphureas are currently the stars of my lithops collection. Got them more than two years ago and now they've all turned two-headed. The color is pretty intense this time of the year but they do get paler with time. The four-headed one on the last pic regenerated twice this winter and is kinda smallish. In fact they've been doing some untimely things last year but hopefully all goes well for them from now on.

 
 
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Nananthus transvaalensis (2 pics)

June 1, 2013, 4:10 am
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My new plants have arrived! Well, really new are only two, one of which is this Nananthus. I'm still trying to get familiar with more non-lithops mesembs, you know. Not a surprise but still a great sight were the wonderfully thick roots. I read that with the caudiciform mesembs the roots only grow larger when they're underground but I couldn't bring myself to bury them completely (a mistake?). While my Aloinopsis rubrolineata is completely buried (no idea if it helps), Avonia quinaria plants (not a mesemb) are above ground and don't get much bigger as far as I can tell. Maybe I should bury them all for now.

 
I heard that caudiciforms are grown underground untill they're large enough to be displayed as such...
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Update on the Aureas (4 pics)

June 4, 2013, 2:18 am
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It is the third sunny day in a row. Even though the wind outside is pretty cold the plants inside only notice the long awaited sun. Most of my bigger fulvi greenies have turned two-headed this year and are doing well so far. They were acting up last year with a flower in June and regeneration staring in July. I'm curious how they'll do this year.


The smaller ones are currently sharing their pot with two interesting greenies I've discovered in a local flower shop some time ago. They should be either julii or salicola greenies. I can't tell them apart so maybe you can. ;)


Also, here is that early leaf-changer I was talking about last year wondering how it'll work out. This is how: It regenerated fine into two heads and then one of the heads regenerated into something ugly. I'll keep you updated on this plant with a weird sense of time.

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Stomatium's first teeth

June 7, 2013, 2:01 am
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Late Lithops (3 pics)

June 7, 2013, 2:41 am
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While most of the lithops have finally regenerated and started growing I still have several that don't make much progress. They seem to be stuck at some stage and won't go forward with it. I'm generally bad with julii so no surprise there. The only julii I was able to keep alive for several years now is this brunnea. The others - no idea what they're planing. At least summer is finally here. Hopefully it will make them use up their accumulated resources soon.

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Frithia humilis (2 pics)

June 7, 2013, 10:37 pm
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I've been reporting on these Frithia humilis seedlings since they first hatched in June 2012 (scroll down here for all the cute baby pics). I still have all nine of them so that I must be doing it right. However they do confuse me with sudden change from time to time: They react very quickly to sun, heat and water. When the sun is really intense they're all like Oh no! This is the end! Goodbye cruel world! and the next morning Sorry, false alarm, we're all fine, thanks for the waterbtw. Since the humilis species has small leaves and the plants are petit all in all I've been keeping track of the seedling's developent through counting the leaves. For a long while there was an average of 7 leaves (new grow, old dry up without an increase in number), now the biggest of them has 13. I so hope to see flowers next year.

Now that it's finally hot and sunny I've added some more pumice to the pot to allow them to retreat if needed. Not sure if it's a good idea so I'll keep watching them closely.
PS: I think I'll sow some pulchra seeds these days. I'm such a Frithia fan!
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Aloinopsis rubrolineata these days

June 9, 2013, 4:06 am
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It's such a wonderful plant. It grows leaves all the time keeping me at ease (I always get worried when there hasn't been any growth for a while). I really love the texture of its juicy leaves, so velvety soft to the touch. Underground it has nice thick roots which I hope to display one day. It might take several years though. The plant was trying to flower last year but didn't make it (a problem I also had with lithops). Maybe this year?
About the flowers, I've started using valerian flower extract lately that should support flower buds (among other things). It does smell but not more than the medical valerian extract (with alcohol) so it's safe for indoors if you keep the bottle open just as long as needed. We'll see if it's good when the flowering season comes.

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Titanopsis hugo-schlechteri

June 9, 2013, 9:40 pm
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Titanopsis hugo-schlechteri is new on my windowsill. Yes, I'm going through Aloinopsis and Titanopsis, they are just too pretty on pictures online. Looking forward to watching this one grow. I think the leaves might have grown too long but these things correct themselves quickly. The leaf surface is very promising and the color should get more intense with some sun.


PS: Sown some Frithia and Aloinopsis two days ago. 3rd try with A. malherbei: the seeds just don't germinate, hm...
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This year's Lithops portraits: dorotheae (2 pics)

June 14, 2013, 11:56 am
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Even after years growing these plants you still can't figure them out sometimes. I've had two dorotheae C300 specimens looking very similar in their size and overall health. One has regenerated in an exemplary manner and has doubled in size since. Perfect, fat and healthy looking plant! Beautiful markings, too. Meanwhile the other tried to grow two heads, then regenerated with only one head again and obviously failed to grow roots while doing so. Now it's refusing to drink and is slowly dying. Same pot, same conditions, same everything - different outcome. Go figure!


The other three-headed and large-windowed dorotheae is doing fine. I normally remove remains of the flower but this plant flowers from only one head every year and I'd like to know if it's the same one. :)

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This year's Lithops portraits: Ventergreens (3 pics)

June 15, 2013, 12:48 am
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I was really happy the Ventergreens have regenerated safely. I bought these plants from Yasuhiko Shimada back when I was living and studying in Japan and they were pretty expensive. I just had to have them. The color is amazing! Also, how come this Japanese cultivar isn't called "matcha"?! I think the green tee powder describes the light-green color perfectly.

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Neohenricia's tiny flowers coming up

June 23, 2013, 1:52 am
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Only several sunny days and it's mostly cold and dark again. Good thing Neohenricia sibbettii doesn't need sunlight to open its flowers. I've counted 5 flower buds so far, most of them growing out of the parts that went "overboard". I'll be checking on them at night.


The pot is definitely too small. If I had more room I'd put the plant in a large but shallow container and let it grow in all directions. A large Neohenricia carpet must look really pretty.
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Stomatium seedlings update

June 24, 2013, 11:44 am
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I had to transplant these two Stomatium seedlings away from the little Titanopsis because back in their common pot it was a battle for resources the latter couldn't win. I didn't expect them to grow that fast! Conclusion: If you're not patient with Mesembs in general just grow Stomatiums from seed and you'll have a couple of plants that will fill out a 5x5cm pot and almost look like adults, "starry night" see-through dots and cute little teeth, in only two months. ;)



Their mother-plant has recently had a surgery because it grew too big and weird. I've kept and rooted three branches while other five are now residing over in Portugal. I'm very happy all parts of the plant are doing fine. :) The "refreshing" surgery was a really good idea.
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Stomatium surgery (4 pics)

June 25, 2013, 3:44 am
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I've mentioned in the previous post that I've performed a surgery on my older Stomatium plant, mother of the seedlings I'm growing. As a result of wrong care over the winter (occasional watering) the plant had grown more than it should and went "overboard" while drying up old leaves and leaving ugly dry branches. It looked like this: Nice rich heads (with new branches and all) on brown sticks. Not a good look and these things don't get corrected by themselves. You have to act radically.

So why not get rid of the dried up branches? I've cut all the green parts and cleaned the stems. Eight cuttings all in all, which is way too many for me. So I kept three and gave away five to a good home. 

They took root very quickly and look healthy as far as I can tell. I'll try to be more careful with water from now on. Maybe this way I'll be able to keep the plants in a compact shape.

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Cheiridopsis candidissima

June 25, 2013, 12:04 pm
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These Cheiridopsis are new tenants on my windowsill. Thanks to Bob Stewart for pointing out that their proper new name is Ch. denticulata. :) I'm always very excited to grow new Mesembs so I'm looking forward to hopefully not killing them. These are winter growers and I'm still not sure about the watering schedule. It says you start watering in the fall when the old leaves have dried up and the new ones emerge. As I understand the old leaves are almost digested on these plants. But am I allowed to water them before fall or not? Many things to figure out... At the moment I just enjoy the view: beautiful velvety leaves with slightly see-through tips, very unusual rib-like shape and the shining cyan blue color.

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