What a difference it makes when there is lots and lots of sunlight for weeks!
This must be what growers with greenhouses are getting all the time. Sure on the windowsill there are still fewer sunlight hours but it has been intense. After a long winter and gloomy weather until May we have had weeks of heatwave with no end to it. The plants enjoy it immensely. Forgotten are the mites and stretching and strict water rationing. Lithops are growing wider, not higher. The flowering season of Anacampseros is great. And Frithias are going crazy this year. I've never seen Frithias this happy. It's very exciting! Especially since something I've been waiting for for 5 year has finally happened. One of the Frithia humilis seedlings has flowered. Click on the "frithia" tag and go to the older posts to read up on their story.
Here is a photo of a one week old flower.
It is not visible on the fully open flower like the photo above but the color is actually pale peach which was surprising to me because I expected it to be exactly like its mother's. Here is a comparison: left is the same flower as above but at the time it first opened; right is a photo of its mother plant's flower. I didn't know it was so variable. Maybe more of them will flower next year so that I can pollinate.
While F. humilis is smaller than F. pulchra in general, proportionally the size of the flower is actually the same, I believe.
Can't help posting another photo of the beautiful F. pulchra (completely living up to its name).
And to finish me off, more F. pulchra flowers are coming. I have counted 6 (six!) buds on the below plant.
