Lithops Stories

January is almost over and I feel like I'm doing really well with my new year's resolutions. Let's see.

I wanted to eat less and move more (that's one very typical new year's resolution, haha) but I'm glad to report that I lost 4 kilos just by walking and hula-hooping everyday and by reducing chocolate input. I wanted to watch less TV shows and spend time more productively. Well, I found a loop hole in this plan so now I'm watching TV shows while simultaneously hula-hooping (I can go for an hour or more). Also, my apartment has never been cleaner (productivity plus calorie loss).

Unfortunately I'm still awfully slow with replying to emails. I'm trying though! Also, my plans for being more creative are still just plans. I cook my own lunches 2 or 3 times a week, if that counts...

In terms of weather the new year so far has been cold but mostly sunny. Lithops are regenerating, conophytums seem to be already getting ready to sleep. I'm not watering the adult Anacampseros but some of them are showing new green leaves. Maybe they feel the spring coming closer? Haworthias look the happiest. Look at those fat leaves the H. limifolia has grown!

All in all, it is a sleepy season. Nothing is happening. Everything is waiting for the spring.

It has been some time since I last updated and I must say it was mostly due to my disappointment with my inability to get rid of mites. No one likes to admit defeat. I am even losing my beautiful Anacampseros seedlings. Although I have so many it is not quite that dramatic. Lithops are unaffected which leads me to the conclusion that I might wanna go back to the roots and grow more lithops again, while reducing the amount of other, mite-friendlier plants. Speaking of "reducing", I am down 7 kilos and have reached my goal. Now I can fill myself up with chocolate again! :D

In other news, Mila has developed some food intolerances and gets super healthy hypoallergenic food these days. Unfortunately that's the food she finds rather yucky. She does not understand meat and meaty smells (where are those predator instincts?) so that I have to trick her into eating it with "fastfood" smells on top. Luckily there are grain-free treats and tasty liver cremes around to help me.

Back to the plants. Now that spring is here and the sun is shining almost all lithops have regenerated. Hopefully we will have a warmer and sunnier year. The plants are a bit too small and I think I need to fertilize. I normally don't do that. The conditions do not allow the plants to get bigger without losing their shape. I need to time it right or I'll have cucumbers instead of lithops in no time. Also, I really need to continue transplanting and putting things in order on the windowsill. Lots to do. But not today.

Let me first focus on positive things. I really need some motivation. Rather then whining about mites all the time here are the pretty pretty lithops plants that are doing great and show their fresh new faces. No claw marks yet this year! Forgive me the dust and cat hair on the plants. Pretend it is the "natural" look ;)

And by the way, if you click on a picture you will not only see it xxl size but also see the name of the plant in the file title.

And here are my own seedlings. Some of the youngest have grown 2 heads this winter.

I hear that the Adromischus price bubble continues to grow, going up to hundreds or even thousands for one plant. This is just too crazy because, as I said before, plants die. There is no way to buy a new plant of a small variety these days. Until the bubble bursts all we can do is propagate what we have.

Several years ago, before the prices exploded, I bought some Adromischus marianae plants. What I got was one f. herrei green form, one f. herrei red(-ish) form, one f. herrei CR1263 (with narriw red leaves) and a "Little Spheroid" cultivar. CR1263 and the Little Spheroid have died on me. But not before I could harvest leaf cuttings for propagation. Now I have a new red plantie and the below two spheroids are doing very well, too. It took them a long time but the new leaves are almost of the size of the cuttings making them into nice compact plants.

As for the next pic, the initial greenie has been growing and flowering and I have grown 2 more plants from its cuttings before. Last year I removed the older leaves and buried the mother-plant deeper to keep the compact round shape. The leaves were planted to re-grow. It took them at least two months to root and another three months for one of them to start growing the first leaf. That's actually quick. It might even take one year in other cases. But what a welcome sight it is!

Btw, I know it is always suggested to root cuttings in dry soil which is a very good advice to prevent rotting. This time however I made sure to keep the soil moist at all times. How rebellious! Very small pot and pumice reduce the danger of rotting though. That's why, I think, it all went quicker. The logic in my mind was basically "Hey guys, it's safe to grow, water is always available." Yes, I talk with my plants and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

I'm also very happy to report that the "kinda" red Ad. marianae f. herrei plant I bought from a guy saying "I sold out all red plants but I have one with a bit of red, will you take it?" has developed a real red color this winter.

All in all, growing Adros is satisfying and bugs don't like them much. It takes them a long time to grow but on the plus side - so cute!

I continue to tidy up the windowsill. Today it's make-over time for the Crassula rupestris. This is actually this same plant only that the big main plant is at my parents home and what I have are cuttings. As you see, this one got completely out of hand. The "last year of darkness" has been tough on it. You can tell its story simply by looking at it. All the stretching when the sun wouldn't come out for weeks. Then I gave up on it. As usual, neglect is the best thing that could happen to succulents. And so, without water, the upper parts grew dense and pretty again this winter like they should. Even with a nice red tan.

Having limited space, I can not be growing this monstrosity. And so it's time to pick up the scissors and prune it into something better. Good thing Crassula rupestris plants (or maybe all Crassulas?) grow roots with no problem and are low-maintenance in general. So let's remove the stretched middle part then. I've done it several times before.

What I like to do is separate all "good" parts with dense growth from the ugly stretched, dry or damaged parts. You have to make sure that there is enough stem with a free node where the new roots can grow from easily. So you cut well into the stretched part, under the first node with leaves. Those leaves you can simply pull off, you don't need them.

If there is a nice cluster of leaves and branches close to the root you can keep it too. Argh, this pic is really out of focus. Sorry about that. Can't re-do it now.

After you remove all parts you don't want you will end up with a bunch of smaller good parts.

Some of them might be really good.

If you want to keep as much of the plant as possible you can also keep the slightly stretched parts if the leaves are meaty. Those will branch out and look much better soon.

And then you'll have some random parts because why not.

Stick all of them into the soil in an arrangement of your liking and that's it. They will soon be rooted and will grow into bushy little leaf balls. Good light and little water will keep them dense and bushy. But if things go wrong again - repeat the procedure.

It is very cold outside but the sun in shining and you can see positive changes in lithops every day. All past hardships are forgotten and they are ready for this new season.

Lithops steineckeana are probably the least lithops-looking of the genus. Supposedly, they are a cross between L. pseudotruncatella and some conophytum, and their looks do seem to support that, but who knows?

I grew below plants from seed. They are now 6 years old but they have never flowered for me. This year they have regenerated beautifully as always but have been nibbled on by mites a little bit. (The question is what has not been nibbled on by mites on my windowsill this winter?) Good thing lithops are not bothered by that much and get over it by the next regeneration.

The elongated form is the normal shape they grow in and the patterns lithops have only on top of their leaves actually go all the way down L. steineckeana's sides.

I do have one that is shorter. It is currently sharing its container with some L. gracilidelineata.

Same as their shape, the pattern is also not very stable. The below plant originated from the same batch of seeds, maybe even the same seed pod, but it almost looks like L. pseudotruncatella. If you have many seedlings you will see some completely white, others with little windows of L. pseudotruncatella patterns, and yet others that are fully patterned as L. pseudotruncatella. I only have 5 plants and they are all different.

Lithops lesliei 'Fred's Redhead' (more like Blackhead) I grew from seed back in 2011 have not escaped mites either. They're doing fine though. The color is so crazy dark when they are freshly changed! Too bad they also never flower. Only when the sunlight falls on them in a specific angle the red comes out. Otherwise they are all dark purple.

While lithops are plumping up like this L. bromfieldii v. glaudinae 'Rubroroseus'(5 years old)...

... most of the Conophytums are already deeply asleep. Make sure you don't bother yours until late August!

I know, I have just posted something on Adromischus recently but I'm kinda into them at the moment so here is another update.

I have decided to give the older leaf cuttings of Adromischus marianae v. herrei (green form) more "leg room" and check the roots while I'm at it. Look at that root system! They have as much going on underground as above it. And not only the root "beard" but also those fat water storing parts. What amazes me is that such an extensive root system develops from a leaf cutting. I'd rather expect it on a seedling.

This one has two branches but is still attached to the mother-leaf since 2014.

Now the greenies can all grow side by side. The one to the left is the mother plant. I grew the others from its leaves.

The most recent cutting is currently growing really fast. I swear it was just one tiny new leaf a week ago. Now I see three! And they are getting bigger every day. The other leaf cutting is still just sitting there but its time will come eventually (even though sometimes it doesn't).

Not all of them are as fast. This Adromischus marianae v. herrei CR1263 is rather small-ish. The roots are okay in proportion but I believe it needs more water to grow bigger.

I have now put it together with other little ones where it will be watered more often. Hopefully it will increase in size some more this year.

In other news, my old Frithia pulchra is growing flowers again this year. Flowers can not be taken for granted on my windowsill. They are rare and don't occur every year. This Frithia however is going to flower 3rd year in a row. It is an old plant and the exposed stem looks almost like some kind of caudex which makes it even more attractive to me.

And, to finish me off, one of my own seedings is growing a flower as well (not visible on this photo but it's there). This one is something called Frithia pulchra f. rubra and I'm very curious to compare the flowers of these two.

Exciting!

It's spring for everybody!

I wanted to grow more Crassulas several years ago but was not very successful in it. I'm not that good with bigger plants. The only plant that stayed with me in its initial form is this Crassula ausensis ssp. titanopsis. There is a good and a not-so-good side to this plant. The good side is that it is flowering a lot. And by that I mean really a lot. Like going on for half a year, at least. It's wonderful and beautiful and makes me happy. Unfortunately all this flowering leaves the plant very weak when it ends. The poor thing gets yellow and sad. And then the winter comes and it stays yellow and sad. I'm always worried it won't recover.

But then, when it gets sunnier and warmer outside, it starts pushing all those fresh green leaves with cute red tips and snowflake patterns. What a sight! All plumped up and pretty. The more leaves it grows during this short period of time the better. Because once it starts pushing flowers, almost no more new leaves will grow.

Luckily the growth spurt is usually massive and you can easily get cuttings as backup copies. Mine have been flowering, too. And looking miserable afterwards. But like their mother plant they have recovered in the spring and are now perfect cute little planties, growing more branches out of their sides.

You know how we all try to grow lithops in a short flat shape with dense colors that are less watery-green and more defined and brownish-dark (depending on the species of course)? But what about the actual greenies, you'd say. Shouldn't those be of a real intense green color?

Well, not if you grow them on a windowsill somewhere in Germany. There you have to decide between the healthy shape and the vivid green of the cultivars you've seen online and in books. In my experience, under such conditions, we can't have both.

The idea for this post belongs to Mila, by the way. My kitty shows great interest in gardening and sometimes waters my plants when I'm not at home (by overturning the water can on them). Thanks to her some of my Sulphureas were recently flooded. Luckily we have had several sunny (yet cold) weeks and the result is not quite that dramatic. It is enough to give you an idea of what happens though.

Lithops bromfieldii are not the flattest species to start with so the goal is to keep them as close to the ground as possible. This way they regenerate by the book every year. I haven't had problems with them yet and I believe it is mostly because I keep them small by very strict watering. And so, here is a typical specimen of Lithops bromfieldii v. insularis 'Sulphurea' (C362) in windowsill captivity.

The shape is nearly perfect, the head size is spot on. The color is yellow though, not vivid green. Strong sun and very little water will do that. I find it very attractive but it's not how this cultivar is described or how it appears in greenhouse environment.

Now check out this flooded plant. I got way too much water in the beginning of the growing season. And here's the typical green!

Unfortunately with the shiny green comes stretching. The plants shoot up in search of light that is just not sufficient for this kind of watering practice. Don't kid yourself, even several weeks of sunlight are not enough if it's only for half a day (that's the reality of a windowsill growing). And the affected plants would have completely turned into cucumbers if we had rainy weather all this time.

So those are the choices: yellow and compact or green and stretched. I know what I choose. The above plants will soon correct themselves, with a little diet. And the color will return to yellow.

Same thing applies to other greenies. Here is a yellow Lithops lesliei ssp. lesliei v. lesliei 'Albinica'(C036A) and I love it.

Spider mites and other annoying bugs are no strangers to my plants. Luckily, lithops can deal with bugs very well. Even if their epidermis has been damaged by mites or roots have been nibbled on by mealy bugs it is not tragic and they get over it quickly. Also, it "helps" to have other mesembs around as those seem to be softer and tastier. Too bad that those are much less tolerant to bugs and it is difficult to get rid of them on such plants as Trichodiadema or Delosperma or Anacampseros or any other branchy plant with lots of hiding places. The damage also stays for what feels like forever. Once damaged and the plant survived it there's no going back to being pretty. I am in the process of getting rid of all those tasty plants and focusing more on lithops and conophytums. At a certain point it is okay to admit defeat.

But let's get back to lithops. If you notice that your plants don't absorb water when they clearly should be doing it (during the period of active growth) don't wait too long and check the roots. You will most certainly find mealies sitting there. Clean and wash the roots (it is ok to remove most of them in the process) and put the plant into fresh clean substrate. It will be as good as new shortly. New roots grow very quickly.

In case of mites (and similar biters), the result of their work is not as quickly removed. You do the same, clean and wash and transplant, but the damage will only go away with the next regeneration. But that's fine. Lithops growers are patient people. Even if you don't notice mites in time and the whole surface of the plant is damaged and covered in white dry shell the chances are still good that it will make it.

What happens is that the bugs start with the softer epidermis on the sides. Those parts are under ground and you might not notice anything at first. Keeping old leaves protects the plant to a certain extent but the bugs will find the spot above old leaves and beneath the top part. Once they are done with the sides they move up above ground. That's when you normally notice the damage done.

Some of my younger seedlings have been affected this year. All the sides and outer margins are damaged now. Some tops, too. See the typical white spots?

Hopefully next year it will be better for them. At least some of them are still looking pretty.

I have a great example of lithops that got over biting-bug damage in the past. I am very proud of them. The below are photos of the same plants, 7 years apart. I wrote about the damage here, here and here.

I don't have many winter growers and most of them are conophytums. Having had them for 3 years now I'm clearly not an expert. But in terms of seasonal watering schedule they seem to indicate what they want much better than lithops. Or rather they just insist upon doing what needs to be done in a way lithops often can't manage. Of course my observations are just that and I don't have that many plants to say they are all like this but let me try to explain what I've seen so far.

You know how lithops just go into stasis and completely shut down during a heatwave? You think that would be a great time to catch up on some quality growth with lots of sun and water but they just won't accept it. They stay wrinkly as if thirsty. But the difference is that instead of going soft they become hard as stones. And no amount of water brings them out of it until the heat is over. This indication of "leave me alone" is really great and helps the grower. Unfortunately they don't do the same during the important phase of regeneration, mainly because it IS the time of active growth. It just happens invisibly. And so if watered in winter they will just keep expanding until they rot. Would be nice if they just shut down then as well and didn't accept waterings.

Luckily for conophytums, the period of stasis and the period of absorption of old leaves overlap. And so when conos refuse water it happens at a strategically important time. This makes things easier. My plants looks like this at the moment and will stay this way until late August.

The thing is, young cono seedlings are doing it, too, it appears. I am currently having my first experience with them. My seedlings are 1 year old and very small. That's why I'd like them to continue growing and gain more weight before they start going into sheaths for half a year. You know, with lithops, the first couple of years they regenerate whenever and if you keep watering they will keep growing. I thought cono seedlings would do the same but no, they went to sleep timely with the others. I kept watering but they just stopped accepting it. Now I kinda gave up and am letting them go to sleep in a hope they will eventually wake up. I have my doubts about that... We'll see.

The young Oophytum nanum seedlings are doing the same, by the way. I see the green shining through but the plants are completely inactive. I don't think they have enough resources to go through with it though. They are still very young.

Before I post more on lithops I just wanted to make a quick update on some other things going on.

You might have seen some of it over on Twitter where I usually post small updates and random photos from the windowsill. Sometimes I'm excited about something but feel like it's not newsworthy enough for the blog. But I like writing here much more.

Remember the Crassula rupestris I was pruning and dividing into cuttings last month? All the pieces have rooted and started to grow new leaves and branches.

This one is overdoing it with the roots.

As you can see the roots are quickly growing. I pulled this one out just to make sure.

I am still waiting for the Frithia pulchra and Frithia pulchra f. rubra seedlings to bloom. Very curious to see if there is a difference between the flower colors.

And two of the Delospermas on my balcony are flowering beautifully. Cold overwintering outside was really beneficial.

Delosperma sp. 'garnet'

Delosperma sutherlandii

It feels like we haven't had a real Spring this year. It started just recently, if at all, and will probably just jump into Summer directly. Maybe because of that or maybe because of reasons of their own my Anacampseros plants just recently woke up. While somewhere else there are already buds and flowers, mine are still pushing new leaves to compensate for Winter losses. Anacampseros are inactive in Winter. They don't grow at all and look very scruffy, dead even, drying off leaves and leaving dead twigs. Same goes for seedlings, I had to find out. I was starting to worry because they were so brown and lifeless, and then I saw bugs on them and thought I'll lose them all. I'm still quite new to this.

But then the sun was shining and they were getting watered regularly and then fresh green appeared on the old leaves, new leaves started growing. And with them even some flower buds.

Anacampseros lanceolata

Anacampseros lancifolia

Anacampseros sp.

I called the kids of that first plant above "weeds" last year. This year, after a dry winter, the new leaves look much better. Instead of being floppy like those grown last year they are short and meaty. Hope to keep them that way.

The rest of the seedlings have grown into little round rosettes with neat fluffy fur. It is quite exciting to see them slowly develop the features of adult plants. I can even attempt some individual portraits.

Anacampseros baeseckei will grow into long fluffy towers with short leaves. At the moment they are just round. They all are from different localities. If you want to know the catalog number and other info click on the pics. The details will be in the file name.

Anacampseros namaquensis should be larger and bushier. Lots of fluff there! Can't even see the leaves on those MG7042.

Unlike these Anacampseros retusa fa. rubra. The kids have very little hairs but the flat heart-shaped leaves are the more interesting.

Anacampseros arachnoides should later have short pointy leaves with cobwebs kinda stuck to them.

Anacampseros telephiastrum should have large round meaty leaves. Mine are still small.

These Anacampseros sp. (albidiflora) look very promising with the pointy leaves.

Not sure how Anacampseros filamentosa are supposed to look like later. We'll see. They are cure little kids.

These are some of the older seedlings. I had hoped they would flower this year but no sign of it yet. I'm very fond of their overall shape.

Anacampseros rufescens can get sloppy easily, from what I see. I should keep them on a strict diet.

Anacampseros rufescens 'Sunrise'

I don't know what these are (An. rufescens?) but the color is great! The new leaves have not managed to get the tan yet.

In my excitement of seeing Anacampseros seedlings revived like this after watering I kinda overdid it with An. vanthielii. Diet!

I also have some younger seedlings (6 months old). I've been watering them though the Winter.

As a conclusion, growing Anacampseros is very rewarding and fun and I can recommend it to everyone.

PS: Hope the cat hair is not too noticeable on the photos. Mila regularly walks on them. It does not seem to damage them though. She also walks on lithops. Which is yet another reason to keep them nice and flat.

Do you remember the two Delosperma plants I was training to be bonsais?

I gathered the seeds on the side of the road in 2010 and grew these plants from those seeds back in 2012. There are a bunch of posts on that: little bunnies, new leaves, new branches, getting in shape, first time being beautiful, messy forest, a total mess after spending a year at my parents and the first haircut, bonsai phase 1 and phase 1.2. Last fall bugs were biting them badly and so I banished them on the balcony where they spent the whole winter. It killed the bugs and the shape on one of them has improved a lot. It looks now exactly like I imagined it to look like. Thick trunk and a full crown. Love it!

The other one however, which I considered more promising, does not look well. Branches all over the place. I need to cut some parts off for sure. Just need to figure out which... Something's not right there.

And here's another small update!

The sun is shining and my old Frithia pulchra finally opened its flowers. They only open completely around 11 AM and close again by 1 PM. My second F. pulchra is growing flowers too, but it'll be too late for pollination.

I think the camera overreacts when faced with so much lilac. On the photo it looks like most of the flower is colored in lilac and pink while in reality there is much more white inside and lilac is mostly at the tips. I couldn't catch that. It's beautiful nevertheless. Wonderful plant!

Here is a photo of part of my garden for scale ;)

One of the most common questions I am asked is about the size of my lithops plants and pots. While the part about pots is easily answered - 5 x 5 cm and 8,5 cm deep - it doesn't exactly clarify how big the plants are. I'm always writing about "the smaller the better" under windowsill conditions but how small is "small" exactly?

After having grown lithops for 10 years it is very clear that in order to grow them successfully under my conditions they absolutely need to be small. If watered (or fed) slightly too much they will stretch into unhealthy shapes and choke on their leaves during regeneration. If a plant is grown from seed by me it will increase in size extremely slowly. If I buy a large adult plant it will reduce its size at least by half during the next 1 or 2 leaf changes and stay like this (unless it dies). To get to the exact size of the plants I grow, imagine a 5x5cm pot and then imagine 8 adult plants growing in it. Or let's say rather 4 two-headed plants which would be more accurate. That's the limit that works for me without them squeezing each other out of the pot. It doesn't mean I follow through with it though. Sometimes I don't want to mix different species in one pot. Sometimes a plant looks great when it's presented individually. They do grow better I believe when potted in clusters but that's a story for another time.

According to various sources, L. aucampiae, L. pseudotruncatella, L. gracilidelineata and maybe L. hookeri belong to the larger species. And I'm talking about size of an individual head, not the ability to branch out. Let's see how this holds up on the windowsill.

I will measure the heads across the longest side. It will represent the plant size as of today, during active growth and regular water intake, not directly after regeneration when they are the smallest. I believe this is the average value even though they might increase in size a little bit until Fall (1-2 mm max).

The largest plants I have are Lithops gesinae v. annae (C078). They reach 2.2 cm constantly every year without any trouble regenerating and without any fertilizer or excessive watering. I've grown them for several years and it's always the same. I'd actually recommend them for beginners. My first plant came in 2008 when lithops were fairly new to me.

This below plant is two-headed and each head measures 2.2 cm.

As a contrast to that, L. gesinae v. gesinae (C207) are really small. The larger plant's head size is 1.3 cm while the smaller is 0.9 cm. It also seems to be a constant value every year. They don't get bigger at all and are slow to regenerate.

L. aucampiae are considered large but on my windowsill they are no bigger than the regular L. lesliei (in fact some of my L. lesliei are larger than L. aucampiae). The largest plant I have is this L. aucampiae sp. at 1.9 cm. I got it from a gardening store rather bloated but it came back to this size after a couple of leaf changes and it works for it.

L. aucampiae 'Storm's Snowcap'(C392) plants I got from a specialized grower a couple of years ago measure 1.4 cm per head, which is the same size as my own 5 year old seedlings of L. aucampiae ssp. aucampiae v. aucampiae 'White Flower'(C002A). 1.4 cm is also the size of my L. aucampiae ssp. euniceae v. fluminalis (C054)

Let's check L. gracilidelineata. My mixed seedlings are from 2009 so you can say they are of adult size. I have 3 larger plants and 3 smaller. The larger plants measure 1.8 cm.

The smaller specimen are 1.4 cm.

Moving on to L. dorotheae, as they seem to be quite large. All the below are 1.7 cm

L. dorotheae de Boer

L. dorotheae (C300)

This L. dorotheae (C300) however is slightly smaller, measuring 1.5 cm across. It compensates with its 3 heads I guess.

I only have one L. olivacea v. olivacea (C055) so it's not exactly representative. The head size per se is not very large but this two-headed plant is massive all in all and occupies one pot by itself. Same as L. gesinae v. annae, it regenerates into the same size every year and maintains it without any help. The head size is 1.7 cm.

To sum things up, it seems that the average head size of larger specimen of lithops on the windowsill is around 1.7 cm. I will continue this topic and review the smaller plants next time.

Avonia and Anacampseros are closely related, both belonging to the family Portulacaceae. They even were considered as sub-genera of the genus Anacampseroteae at some point before giving them generic status. It seems that's why the naming is such a mess. Even though there are many similarities the overall look of Avonia is very different from Anacampseros. Where Anacampseros have their fluff Avonias have scales. The fleshy leaves and the round bushy shape belong to Anacampseros while Avonias have worm-like branches and the leaves behind the scales are so tiny that you won't even see them.

Both do well in windowsill environment. Same as Anacampseros, the less water you give to Avonias the better they'll look. My Avonia dealer pointed out to me I need to show more tough love but it's hard. Let me introduce you to my plants. The naming details are in the file names as usual.

Avonia ustulata are very interesting to me. According to the internet picture search these can grow into little bonsai trees. They grow a thicker stem and then branch out mostly from the same point. It would be nice to get them to a size when they look like little trees.

The above plants are last year's purchases but I also have one I've had longer.

By the way, Avonias dry off old leaves which appears to be normal. Not very pretty though. The above plant is sharing its pot with this Avonia recurvata, for example. I really like the messy look of its scales. It would look great if I had several. Unfortunately it doesn't give me any seeds and the branching is very slow. It has just started with a second branch at the base.

Then there's this tiny thing called Avonia harveyi. Is it growing at all?

Here is another strange one. Avonia ustulata, with a different locality than those above. It does not look very happy but at least I can see new branches starting.

The below Avonia albissima v. grisea plants look nice. Very white and dense. That's how it should be.

And of course the Avonia albissima multiramosa (there are 2 plants in there if I remember it correctly). Always growing flowers and converting them into seed pods directly without ever opening them.

And of course there are the Avonia quinaria. It doesn't feel like an update on them because they look the same every year to me.

For me, worm-like Avonias look the best when potted in groups of same age plants (or when a plant is very old and branched). This is something you can only achieve when you grow them from seed. I've been mostly failing at that so far. Good thing my Avonia albissima multiramosa is providing me with seeds every year to practice. And embarrassingly I only have these 2 seedlings to show for it. But how cute are they!!

The difficult part of growing them from seed is that they are slow-growers. In case of Anacampseros it takes months for them to start growing the 1st, 2nd, 3rd real leaf. Now imagine Avonia with the leaves so tiny you can barely see them. But the timing is the same. They stay very small for a very long time. You try to support them with watering and occasional food but for the smaller species it does not seem enough. I need to develop better skills in it. The larger species seem to be easier from seed. The Avonia papyracea ssp papyracea sown last November are doing very well and at the age of 6 months already have several leaves. Yeah, that's called "fast growth". Anacampseros telephiastrum sown the same time only show 2 leaves now so yes, that's fast.

Let's continue the plant size review! Don't forget to check out Part 1.

As mentioned in the previous installment, I wanted to put the size of my plants on record that "works" under my conditions (sunlight for half a day if any). In my experience, larger plants either die or return to this size after a regeneration or two. Trying to push them to get larger only results in elongated shapes and distorted patterns (and eventually death). I guess, keeping them at a particular (small) size does not give them enough resources to flower every year but that's the price I pay for healthy overall condition, long life and good looks of a plant. The size is being measured across the long side of one head.

I grow a variety of Lithops lesliei and from what I see the older two-headed plants (at least 7 years old) can get pretty large, measuring 1.7 cm per head. Here are some examples.

This one got a bit bloated after the recent watering and expanded to 2.1 cm. But you can see that that's not normal because the surface is rounded and smooth instead of being flat and furrowed like the ones above.

According to the books, L. lesliei ssp. lesliei v. mariae are the largest of the L. lesliei and my 7 year old seedlings are all at 1.7 cm if one-headed. The two-headed plants are slightly smaller (1.5 cm) but they'll get there. I believe that none of my mariae seedlings have reached their full potential yet. They grow very slowly.

However, the size of the above plants is not the rule and most of my L. lesliei, regardless of the head count, are at 1.4 cm in average. Some of the below are actually the same variety and age as the above.

This one is also C008 but the size of the heads is 1.1 cm, year after year. Petite.

The biggest of my 6 year old L. lesliei ssp. burchellii (C308) seedlings measure 1.4 cm. Most of them however are still uniformly 1 cm across the long side.

Moving on to L. bromfieldii. The adult L. bromfieldii v. mennellii plants I bought from a specialized local grower a couple of years ago measure 1.4 cm per head. I very much admire that grower so that's my orientation.

My own adult plants are the same size in general.

Some of the 7 year old L. bromfieldii v. glaudinae (C382) reach 1.7 cm while others of the same bunch are as small as 1.2 cm.

Here are some of the bigger plants...

... and here are two of the smaller.

L. schwantesii are also growing up to the size of 1.7 cm without regeneration problems or changing of overall shape on my windowsill. Although half of the plants I own (I have about 20) measures 1.4 cm. I guess anything in between is a good size.

Seeing how many photos I've already posted I will end here and continue the review of the smaller plants in Part 3!

This is Part 3 of the Lithops size analysis. Please also see Part 1 and Part 2 for a review of bigger plants.

I have realized a long time ago that white-flowering lithops are difficult on the windowsill. They just need more light than I can provide. Such species as L. julii, L. hallii, L. karasmontana or L. salicola seem to stretch no matter how little water they get or they have troubles regenerating or both. Because of that I completely gave up on L. salicola. Just can't keep them from stretching. I still have some L. hallii but I'm slowly giving up. No, they do not stretch. But they just can't get out of old leaves. In the case of L. julii and L. karasmontana, I think, it is still possible to figure them out. And the key is plant size.

The below L. julii sp. has survived 5 years under my care and came down to this shape. It's round and short and, being an older plant, it even reaches 1.7 cm per head.

This L. julii ssp. fulleri v. brunnea (C179) has been in my care for 9 years now and is also 1.7 cm. It looks normal and healthy but unfortunately it has not regenerated this year at all. Sometimes lithops skip a year but it worries me nonetheless. Maybe it did skip a year. Or maybe it's dead inside. I believe smaller size should be better.

These are L. julii ssp. fulleri v. brunnea (C179) as well. I got them 2 years ago from my favorite grower and they measure only 1 cm, despite being adult plants.

Even a little bit of untimely watering can mess them up. If you have a plant that looks like the below that's already stage one of stretching. Strict diet right away should still be able to correct it but no guarantees. I've seen this often enough to not get my hopes up.

You might think "But this plant is kinda small if you consider head size from the top. You just said small is fine." Well, that's the thing. L. julii just don't get big without stretching. You water them more and they stretch into a cucumber right away. To keep them short and flat to the ground you're sort of forced to keep the head size small. It's a balance and that's what makes it so difficult for me. How those two plants further above got to 1.7 cm without stretching and dying is truly a mystery.

L. karasmontana are the same. If I buy a bigger plant from a greenhouse nursery (full day of sunlight), then under my conditions (half day of sunlight) they will stretch after the first time I give water to them and so I end up not watering at all until the plant either dies or reduces its size. The below L. karasmontana ssp. karasmontana v. aiaisensis (C224) is such a case and I still have troubles keeping it short (the bigger head is 1.5 cm). I had two of them initially and one didn't make it. These days, if there is a possibility to see the plant before ordering it, I never go for anything large.

Here's a good size. L. karasmontana v. lericheana (C330), 1.2 cm.

This beautiful orange one with no name is 1.3 cm. It still had big chunks of old leaves attached a couple of weeks ago when I took this photo but worked its way through them by now. That's very late.

I understand L. hookeri can get rather large under greenhouse conditions. I have a bunch of them and I can keep them flat and well-textured only at a size of 1.3 cm. The goal is to have them look like brains :D

Now we come to the smallest plants on my windowsill, L. localis (former L. terricolor) and L. dinteri. L. dinteri are indeed considered the smallest among lithops in general so there's nothing much to tell. Mine are 1.1 cm.

L. localis however I have killed in bunches over the years. Now I grow several and they all uniformly measure 1.1 cm per head. This is the only size that keeps them from stretching. And even at such a tiny size they are having a really hard time regenerating! I'm still not giving water to the late ones.

To all you windowsill growers, keep your plants small and short. That's your main goal. It will not guarantee flowering, probably the opposite, but you will have good-looking and healthy plants for many years. Luckily, with lithops, leaves can be much more interesting than flowers.

I could catch the first Anacampseros flowers of the season recently. Good thing these two seem to be opening their flowers around 6 pm. Perfect timing to witness them after work. Of course the light is not ideal for taking pictures but it's possible to take some eerie atmospheric ones. After all, as you know, Anacampseros flowers open only once and only for a couple of hours at most. You make the best of it.

Both An. lancifolia and An. lanceolata grow very big flowers on long flower stalks. It must be hard to hold them up and so they are a bit droopy. I tried to pollinate both. I think it worked for the white one. The pink one, I don't know. It looked to me like there were no pollen to use. Just look at the picture.

An. lancifolia

An. lanceolata

For some reason it seems like a good year for Frithias. Not only my old plants have grown flowers (one of them is still at it) but also my own 4 year old seedlings have flowered this year. This is amazing! The two seedlings are grown from seeds under a name of Frithia pulchra f. rubra (from Kakteen-Haage). I know there are red flowering Frithias out there, I saw comparison pics. Looks like what I've got was the regular kind after all. Seeing them bloom for the first time is fascinating nevertheless.

Completely the same color, right? :D I tried to cross-pollinate but don't know if it took. There's one more flower coming up on the second seedling and others growing on another older plant. But the timing is slightly off. We'll see.

Also, you remember these little guys? One of them is growing a flower now, too! It took 5 years!

UPDATE

This just in. The Adenium obesum I grew from seed has opened its first flower ever! Lots of firsts this year! Maybe the long dark winter was not as bad for the plants as I thought :)

Winter update (10 pics)

Spring is here! (28 pics)

Adromischus propagation (4 pics)

Crassula rupestris pruning (10 pics)

Lithops steineckeana and some others starting to grow (11 pics)

Repotting Adromischus (8 pics)

Frithia pulchra (3 pics)

Crassula ausensis ssp. titanopsis (3 pics)

Greenies on a windowsill (7 pics)

Lithops and bugs (9 pics)

The Sleeping Kingdom (7 pics)

Update on Crassula rupestris and other news (8 pics)

Last year's Anacampseros seedlings still kicking (35 pics)

Delosperma bonsai (2 pics)

Frithia pulchra enjoying the sun (4 pics)

Lithops plant size: Part 1 (17 pics)

Avonias (15 pics)

Lithops plant size: Part 2 (30 pics)

Lithops plant size: Part 3 (18 pics)

Current flowers (7 pics)