Mites and darkness (9 pics)

It has not been the best year for succulent growers in my area. It has not been cold in winter, it has not been hot in summer. It has been just dark and gloomy all year. When sunny days are rare it means there is not much watering. If waterings are rare there's not much growing. Except for spider mites. Those grow nicely when it's dry. At some point I moved Delospermas outside (those are the most tasty) which improved the situation. But I still find mites on my plants occasionally (and kill them on site with my bare hands) and the damage is visible: nibbled leaves, weakened plants. I hope next year is sunnier and better all in all and the plants can recover.

My favorite and oh so perfect Frithias I was so proud of look like this now. It takes them so long to grow those leaves. Much time will pass until they've outgrown the bite marks. Assumed the attack is over. And yes, I've been spraying a lot which has contributed to the damage on some plants I think.

But Aloinopsis got the most of it. The below two are goners.

This one might recover (very big might) but judging by the size of the newest leaves it is extremely weakened by the overall conditions last year. Maybe I should stop growing Aloinopsis all together or just keep a couple of plants as mite-distraction.

The Antimima pumila started very well and then got bitten. I think it will recover though, after the next resting period. It's a bit elongated, too...

Same as these Titanopsis seedlings. Bugs plus spray plus sudden sunlight equals burn marks in addition to everything else. They should be fine with the new leaves coming. But it pains me to see them so ugly.

I know I might be exaggerating. After all it's just a couple of plants that are beyond saving, out of hundreds. But the lack of sunlight is visible to me in all the green-ness everywhere.

Sure, this cute Titanopsis calcarea is growing flowers (thank you planty!) and I did my best to keep it compact through this dark dark year but the green color says it all. 

PS: Sorry for the dusty pics.

PPS: This got too depressing. I'll be posting about my feel-good plants Anacampseros next :)

Antimima starting to grow (3 pics)

So far I've only had one Antimima plant (fenestrata) and, it seems, to see any kind of development in its growth you have to take last year's photos and compare. Basically, it's a good thing. It means all goes as it should. The growth period comes, the plant grows a couple of leaves and then goes to sleep again (I'm consciously not mentioning flowers. On a windowsill? Come on!). So I'm trying to find satisfaction in seeing that within a year this plant has grown a bit. 

The Antimima fenestrata has really gotten bushier compared to last year and is now slowly waking up.

The other Antimima (pumila) is quite a small plant yet. I got it in July and back then it was all covered in last years's sheets. A short while ago I started watering and it woke up to show beautiful see-through windows! What a cutie!

Newcomers - other Mesembs (15 pics)

The other Mesembs I got in Essen mostly have familiar names but also some that are new to me. I'm very excited to grow them all on the windowsill.

My experience with Cheiridopsis was positive so far so I got more of them. Actually, thinking of Cheiridopsis, I imagine rather large plants but the ones I got are so small I could confuse them with Conophytums. I'll try to keep them in this size and shape.

This one is a Cheiridopsis, too! Who would have thought!

There are also two quite different Antimimas. The first one looks just like the Antimima fenestrata I already have now, all covered in dried up leaves, which is a relief. The second one I'd never take for an Antimima at all. But it's a cute little tree.

The young Nananthus margaretiferus came with a promise of beautiful flowers.

The Glottiphyllum neilii is the most compactly grown and intensely colored Glottiphyllum I've ever seen.

I also got a couple of tiny Trichodiademas. I'm still figuring them out. They seem to grow very slowly here.

The Ruschia unidens should become bushy in time.

The other plants are completely new to me and I'll have to read up on them first. The Hereroa looks like a pigmy version of an Ebracteola.

Chasmatophyllum musculinum seem to have beautiful see-through dots but the color is more of a Rabiea.

Erepsia lacera is something completely different with those razor blades for leaves.

And the Drosanthemum I can't even properly get into a picture. It looks very delicate and I'm afraid it might dry off those tiny leaves easily. Not sure if it means it should be watered more or not.

Braunsia, Ruschia and Antimima (3 pics)

I've been reading up on some species in Mesembs of the World (strange name for a book about plants that naturally grow in only one part of the world) and Succulent Flora of Southern Africa. Both books have wonderful illustrations telling more than words but as usual there is next to nothing about care in cultivation. A book on that has yet to be written. Still, using the discription you can try to guess and then handle the plants accordingly. That's when experimentation under carefuly observation begins.

Intrigued by the looks of the Mesembs below I bought them at the recent C&S market in Essen. I've never grown Ruschia, Antimima or Braunsia before and know nothing about them so at first I waited to see how they'll react to the new conditions (they are greenhouse grown). I haven't seen any big changes in the looks except for getting wrinkled in the sun and returning to the old shape when watered. Carefully watered. Because I really don't know what I'm doing here. So let's see what we can interpret into something useful from the articles in the books.

The articles on Braunsia are pretty short (same as others). The specimen I have is Braunsia geminata (SB1397/MG1353.4). Combined with The New Mastering the Art of Growing Mesembs by S. Hammer this is what I learnt that might be useful: It can get up to 30cm tall, grows primarily in winter (in SA or here?), flowers pink or white (there are way too many "or"s in Succulent Flora of Southern Africa, not helpful), dries out quickly (the photo in Mesembs of the World shows a very very wrinkly plant). According to S. Hammer it flowers in winter to spring (which is basically all year long?), in Mesembs of the World they (probably also him) write "flowering from midsummer to early winter (Jan to Jul in SA)". So no idea, will have to find out myself. In fact, every indication of time of the year in the books is unclear because you don't know whether it's southern or northern hemisphere. Can be propagated from cuttings.

Moving on to Ruschia, a significant part of the articles is about how it's been mixed up with Antimima before (irrelevant to me). Mine is Ruschia sp. (MG1852.222). As per S. Hammer, "watered amply, they retain more lower leaves while adding new ones on top; starved, they will favor the new, and abandon the old yellows" which is quite good piece of information meaning that we can regulate the looks depending on what we as growers find more attractive. I guess the former will look better throughout the year while the latter will increase chances for flowers. Daytime flowers seem to be mainly pink and sweet-smelling and can be expected anytime in the year with peaks in spring and fall. No useful info in SFSA.

Antimima seem to be winter-growers (meaning kept dry in summer), flowers pink-red before spring, strongly scented and sometimes growing on "sticks". The whole "1-to-3-type leaves" got me confused. The one I have is Antimima fenestrata (MG1319.42) and the sheaths are wrapped around the new green leaves. Accordning to MotW the "leaves are either of one type only, or of two, rarely three" but nowhere is indicated which species is which. It says, the first leaf pair forms a sheath which tells me that mine must have two. Okay then, it might be Monilaria-like so it should start growing soon. It says in SFSA "attractive genus which deserves more attention". Right. Then why not write something about it? No useful info in SFSA.

That's what I got so far. I wished the articles had less descriptions of plants' looks. The plants are right there on the photos! We can see how they look like. Why repeat it? To fill the pages? Fill them with more photos then :D

In this sense, do you have any tips and tricks for me? :)