difficulties with comptonii?

The first sentence on comptonii in Lithops - Treasures of the Veld by S. Hammer reads as follows: "Small plant, usually 1-2 headed or dead." This isn't very encouraging, is it? I've bought two plants recently and am ready for the challenge. One of them is already showing the new head, the other isn't yet. I've read some tips but will probably just watch them closely and act on it.

The dark grey and rose combination looks very lovely even on the old leaves.

now there's no room for more

Here is the report on the new purchases. Considering all those many lithops species being sold at Kakteen-Haage my choice wasn't that special. After all you have to stay in your budget and think about how little space you have for new plants. Having to buy at least two plants of one species (known as the collector's curse) is also a restricting factor. I'm really glad I could choose the plants myself though - a privilege you don't have very often having used to ordering online. This way you can go for plants you find most interesting or feel curious about. However, it is a bit difficult this time of the year when the plants are badly wrinkled, the patterns are blurred and the colors faded. You need to imagine the potential ;)

First a couple of  C136 hallii v. hallii "brown". I have a weakness for cocoa-colored hallii and already have a couple of ochracea seedlings which are just starting to show their true colors.

As I mentioned before I just had to get the julii ssp. fulleri v. fulleri 'Kikushōgyoku'. The wrong spelling common in western nurseries is kikushogiyoku and it's 菊章玉 in japanese in case you'd like to google it. The dark color of the wide windows and the patterns are very beautiful. See here and here.

Next are two comptonii. I didn't have any before. They are of a lovely shade of dark blue and violet.

Dorotheae C300 isn't rare per se but I went for a couple of plants with unusually scarce markings.