Upcoming flowers (3 pics)

The growing season barely started but there are already a couple of pleasant surprises lining up.

Prepodesma orpenii is quite oportunistic in its will to flower and this particular plant is flowering under my conditions all year around except for winter. Now with the touch of spring a new flower bud is coming up. Thank you plantie.

Even though Delosperma sphalmantoides looks a bit sad after the winter - lots of leaves have dried off and the color is not the best - I can see 3 flowers on their way! The looks will improve during the growing season I'm sure.

I can also see a flower bud on my Ebracteola wilmaniae but it had three of them last year that have never developed. So now I'm actively ignoring them. Sometimes this tactic works.

More flowers (2 pics)

The flowering continues! There are several 'Sulphurea' flowers opened at the same time this year so I'm going to pollinate. The little Prepodesma orpenii has decided to flower again, too. Compared to the A. malherbei from the previous post it always seems to find the strength for it.

Plant looks vs. flowering (3 pics)

I'm always preaching about how much you can tell about a plant's health and well being from its looks if you observe carefully but sometimes I really can't figure it out.
I have two Prepodesma orpenii plants of an approximately same age (both initially from Kakteen-Haage nursery). One is, even though a healthy plant, not particularly strong looking. It likes to dry off leaves and leaf tips and is sort of smallish. But it had the strength and willingness to develop and open three beautiful flowers in a row this year! (I'm so proud of it)
The other one looks strong and big and healthy with its perfect juicy leaves but it has dropped its two flowers at an early stage this year and didn't even try to repeat. I guess the meaning of this story is "don't judge by the looks" but that's not true because with plants you kinda have to anyway. Let's better call it "let yourself be surprised" :)

Prepodesma orpenii blooming

The flower is so kind to still be open every day when I come home from work :)

I'm not sure if the flowers on my other Prepodesma plant will ever fully develop and open but I've swept the pollen from this one and put the brush in the fridge for now. No idea if it'll work. 

Today's flower buds (3 pics)

The newest flower buds have developed to a considerable size by now and should hopefully open soon. Flowering is not very frequent occurrence for me so to have so many potential flowers this season is pretty exciting! Unless they drop... I saw it happen a lot, so... For now, fingers crossed.

Aloinopsis rubrolineata looks like its flower will make it on the first try this year. Should they actually flower in summer? I always thought they did it in the fall and winter but okay. The Titanopsis Group book says the flowering is in winter and spring. Last year this plant was growing and drying up flowers in summer until it finally bloomed in late November.

This Aloinopsis rosulata is relatively new on the windowsil, I got it in March. The acclimation is going very well so far, a lot of new growth and always good reaction to water. It needs a sunnier spot but it is unfortunatelly too big to stand in the middle.

And finally Prepodesma orpenii! My other plant is growing flowers too but they are way too small and it is uncertain they will ever develop fully. In case they do I'll try to gather and store pollen from this one when it opens.

Side-branch compilation (6 pics)

I'm always excited when my plants develop side shoots, doesn't matter if this is a new lithops head or a new branch on other mesembs. While with some plants it happens a lot and is almost overwhelming with my limited space (Rhinephyllum and Stomatium are going crazy) in the normal case, for me, is it is quite rare. Therefore I'm always on the look-out for new side shoots and when I find one it absolutely makes my day, if not week :D

I've shown you this Aloinopsis malherbei over on twitter before. Here it is again, 10 months old and growing a "secondary" set of leaves.

Here is a Prepodesma. Lately I've reduced watering to bring out the tan (photos soon).

Rabiea expanding.

Not a mesemb but there's a whole line of new growth along its side. I'm waiting for the flowers to develop :)

Younger Titanopsis primosii is also getting more bushy.

My older plant is already a "tree" and the color is amazing!

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.

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.

Getting better: Prepodesma orpenii

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. 

Prepodesma update

"Other mesembs" are doing well on my windowsill even though I've been growing them since only a little over a year and am still figuring them out. There were a couple of losses but way more success stories. The Prepodesma orpenii grows slowly but steady and looks much better now than back when I first got it, new leaves and everything. 

Prepodesma is growing

The Prepodesma orpenii has finally managed the two stages of settling in. The leaves are firm and wrinkle-less, showing some fresh green at the base, and there are new leaves coming beside one of the flowers (the plant ten days ago). Also I was suspiciously eyeing the dots on the leaves but they only seem to be on the parts visible back when I bought it and probably come from spraying with chemicals and such. They should go away with the old leaves.

The flowers stayed for a while but almost never opened again. Yesterday the half-closed flowers were the most beautiful, looking like flames (make sure to view the pic in full size). They've dried only a couple of hours after the photo was taken.

Prepodesma orpenii

The flowers have just opened. It's 8 o'clock in the evening, how amazing is that? This plant is almost night-flowering. :) I've bought it recently and it had flower buds already but I didn't expect them to develop after storing the plant in the dark for days, fransporting, transplanting. The buds tend to drop if the plant is stressed. Yet here they are.

It's also known as Aloinopsis orpenii but the proper name seems to be Prepodesma orpenii.