Marshmallow leaves (3 pics)

What is it? That's right. Delosperma sphalmantoides, a miniature species that grows more neatly than others of its kind and thus allows us to grow it on the windowsill. Even though it's really mini it does spread. Just like with Neohenricia I hope to have them grow in a big bowl like a carpet in the future. I don't have room for that yet but hopefully sometime soon.

The leaves are quite amazing. They are oddly soft and if you want to keep them marshmallow-like you should probably be careful if you touch them. And I don't have to say anything about the color, see for yourself. :)

T. calcarea seedlings roots check (4 pics)

These Titanopsis calcarea seedlings are now almost 3 months old. Even though they are so young they already have several leaves and the leaf surface is just as nicely textured as the adults. The roots are of an appropriate size compared to the plant size. After the inspection I've planted them more evenly in the pot and can now only hope they don't hold the dig-up against me.

They spend their whole days in the full sun but, compared to Stomatiums, rarely look thirsty. I like that.

Prepodesma's late flower

Well, this week I started my new job. :) 

I'm doing something completely different from what I did before and it's all still odd and sometimes frustrating but I hope I can learn quickly. The office is 1,5 hours away (by bus), in a different country actually. It's a strange thought that I'm crossing the border two times a day going from Germany to Luxembourg and back. But this way me and my plants don't have to move just yet, and even if we do I'd only change appartments, not the town. Going from 4 to 40 working hours a week is also something yet to get accustomed to. 

To celebrate my first weekend as a person with a job the Prepodesma orpenii opened its flower yesterday at 7 pm: intense yellow color with reddish tips.

When I think about it, Mesembs flowers are quite job-friendly, opening in the evening like this for us to enjoy. Another reason to grow them.

Aaaand two more flowers :D

Today's photo shooting is all natural. :)

No staging with black background or anything. Even though the flowers open after the sun is gone they light up the windowsill themself, it seems.

And to give you some sense of the scale:

You can see that the already closed flowers still stay there and look just like those that about to flower. It makes it more difficult to catch them open. 

And more Avonia flowers! (2 pics)

I'm going to flood my blog with them. XD But I don't have a choice, do I? Too pretty.
Two more flowers opened (ca. 6 pm), another five to go.

Other regeneration problems

Generally speaking there are two problems with regeneration lithops can have. First is being too slow. Second is being too quick and doing to two times in a year. The second one isn't very problematic though as long as the leaf changes go safely. But you can forget about flowers.

I read somewhere that in case of lithops new bodies and flower buds are very similar in the early stages of development. Might the second regeneration be flower buds that have been "re-directed" at the early stage?

Btw, this schwantesii's pot-mate is doing it, too. Just like a bunch of my fulvis last year.

One grateful mesemb, Stomatium (2 pics)

My Stomatium trifarium looks great nowadays, especially from below the leaves where the warts shine through. One day when I have more room I want to grow all different kinds of them from seed. For now I'd like to repeat myself - dividing this plant into cuttings was the best idea ever! You can practically see the plant brim with new life force now without all the dead weight of dried up leaves and stems and roots. All new and fresh. I'm trying to restrain myself from watering it as much as before, even though it wrinkles fast. But I really want the leaves to stay compact and with less water not only the color is more vivid but also the teeth and warts are much more prominent.

Same goes for the seedlings. These two grow really fast. They now have three branches each! I'd like to start watering them less but they look thristy very quickly in this heat and I'm still afraid it might be too early to treat them like adults.

Prepodesma about to bloom in July?

Well, this is strange. Shouldn't Prepodesma orpenii be done with flowering by mid-spring? Or could this already be the result of the valerian flower extract I'm trying out this year? Not that I'm complaining of course. As long as it's not a swan song it's okay with me.

First Avonia flower opened today

I've been live-blogging the event on twitter today and here it is! Opened approx. at 5 PM and should stay open for a couple of hours. The sun is already gone from the windowsill but I tried to do my best with the photo. 

Good thing you can usually tell in the morning if the flower bud will pop in the evening. This way you can make arrangements like cancel all your appointments. ;) Still, it's only one flower for now with seven more to come. Amazing for such a tiny plant to find so much strength for it.

Aloinopsis schooneesii seedlings update

My A. schooneesii are now ca. 5 weeks old and they really do look like spheroid mesembs at this stage. It'll change with the next pairs of leaves. Even though it's awfully hot on the windowsill these days they don't even seem to notice. I try to keep the soil moist so that they can enjoy full sun.

My windowsill this year (2 pics)

Here are two of my mesemb trays, the neat ones. :D

I really like it when pots with lithops alternate with other mesembs (and Avonias, of course). It makes it into a mini garden with lots of things to discover.

More room for burchellii (3 pics)

I kept my two year old lesliei ssp. burchellii C308 in three 5x5cm pots, ca. 16 plants in each. As they started to touch and squeeze each other (No touching! -George Bluth) I've decided to make it 9 plants per one container. It also was an excuse to make some pre-celection and arrange them according to size and looks. The markings should get more distinctive with time but there are some promising specimen already. This is my take: larger windows in the first pot, "lines" in the second, others I like in the third. The rest went in the 4th pot for further contemplation.

I really like the one in the middle of this pic.

And another Frithia humilis post (3 pics)

It's nothing special, I've just been doing some transplanting und snapped some "root" pics. I think I removed 2/3 of their root system along with the stones even though I tried not to. Now my 9 seedlings have a little more room to grow again. Well, not much more but still.

Troubled L. julii & Avonia update (2 pics)

What would you do with them? Without water since Oktober and still not done with the leaf change. I have no idea how to help them. I can see that the ones in the front grew two heads, the third one isn't even trying. The old leaves are still too meaty to try anything surgical, too. I guess I'll just wait...

At least Avonia's flowers develop nicely. Can't wait!

Frithia pulchra flower

I only have this rather big plant since several weeks. It wasn't grown at my place but it's still nice to see the flowers. My own Frithia pulchra unfortunately doesn't want to bloom.

Aloinopsis malherbei seedling

This is the 3rd time I'm trying to grow Aloinopsis malherbei from seed. And only now I realize that I should have been more patient. Apparently they germinate one month after sowing under my conditions (They probably germinate at the regular time under artificial lights, I don't know). Last time I've waited for a month and as nothing happened put one of the seeds (that I still could find) in the pot where I've just sown the new malherbei bunch. It hatched shortly after. And now, another month later, the seeds from the new bunch are starting to hatch. This way I have one seedling growing first true leaves and all the others just one day to one week old. The leaves look like Faucaria at this stage but it's normal. :)
Ah, I think I got it! I germinate different species in one pot and make a moist environment during they hatch. After a month I let the substrate dry a little because the other seedlings don't need it anymore - and that's when the A. malherbei hatch. They don't need as much moisture to germinate as others. Took me a while to get it. XD

2012 lithops seedlings report (addendum)

My blog is interactive so, as requested, here come the pics of the L. aucampiae C2A, the white-flowering C2. These seedlings had beautiful parents (click, click) but they died on me back in 2010. I can only hope the kids will be stronger. Sown in October 2012 they are now busy changing leaves for the first time. While some of them show more color (adult plants have reddish/pinkish lines and windows) others are still patterned very vaguely and hide perfectly in the moist pumice stones (there are 14 plants).
They are spread so evenly because I had to transplant them after knocking over the pot... twice. XD

Now that I think about it, I'm not very good with aucampiae in general. Might be their size but they often don't make it through the regeneration safely. I'm trying to grow them from seed now. 

2012 lithops seedlings report (2 pics)

These guys hatched in October 2012 and most of them are changing into first true leaves these days. Yep, they're that slow. They share one 5cm pot as a space saving measure. To the right you see bromfieldii v. glaudinae 'Rubroroseus' C393A - amazing germination and first year survival rate of 25 out of 27! I doubt they're Rubroroseus (those show much more magenta) but several seedlings have very attractive orange/red color and lovely markings so that's okay. The greenies are aucampiae ssp. euniceae 'Bellaketty' (4 plants out of 5 seeds). The one in the middle has its second real leaves while the other still have their first. Very promising!

*Zoom*

PS: I can't take a proper photo of the other October seedlings, aucampiae 'White Flower' C2A from own seeds. They look just like the pumice stones, perfectly camouflaged. Will have to wait until they're a little bigger.

A. schooneesii seedlings

I don't use artificial light when I make mesembs hatch, that's why they do it depending on weather conditions. I don't mind as long as they do germinate. The oldest on the pic are one month old and are getting first true leaves, the youngest hatched a couple of days ago. Reason for a photo session.

Recent developments (2 pics)

Things are happening on the windowsill.

My Avoina quinaria ssp. quinaria is growing flowers. Such a surprise! I got it last year as this tiny wrinkled something (click!) and now it's going to bloom! Its white-flowering pal is resting this year though.

And, as another one of 2013 baby pictures, here's the amazingly fast growing Stomatium with a first side-branch. Reminder: It's around 2 months old. :) I think I'll try to water them less from now on, they can take it.

Any takers? part 2

I just wanted a couple of plants but had to take the whole lot again. Is there anyone out there willing to give these plants a new home and help me with the costs? :)

40 cents for larger, 20 cents for smaller plants, 3,45€ for shipment, Paypal, EU only. Please email me if you're interested! If you like you can point out which ones exactly you want. They are all well-grown, clean and healthy.

L. fulviceps (UPD: all gone! Thank you guys!)

L. localis (syn. terricolor) (UPD: all gone! THANKS!)

New: Nananthus aloides

Got this one from ebay because it looked weird. I like weird. On the pic it seems to be bigger but the pot it 5x5cm which makes it even more attractive to me - the smaller the better. :)

Steineckeana seedlings these days (2 pics)

The steineckeana are only a couple of months younger than the bromfieldii from the recent post. They look weird and looking weird is actually what we like about this species. Tiny fissure, strange marble like pattern going from top all down the sides and sometimes some pseudotruncatella pattern as if breaking through the marble.

They've grown a lot since March, don't you think? :)

Neohenricia's open flowers

Yesterday I had to wait until 23:30 to see fully open Neohenricia flowers! Looks pretty and smells nice (in small quantities) but you can't enjoy it much if you're sleepy. Photos help with that. :)