Avonia flowering (22 pics)

It's that time of the year again! No, not the cherry blossoms time. It's Avonia quinaria time!

But before we get to that, there's more Avonia news I'm probably even more excited about. This year, for the first time, I was able to catch the worm-like Avonias flowering, too. I was convinced they would never open their flowers under my growing conditions, producing seed pods out of flower buds directly. I don't know what happened but this year I could witness the actual flowers. Maybe I was not paying enough attention before (I thought I did!) or maybe this time the heat wave was bringing my windowsill closer to the growing conditions of a greenhouse. Or maybe now that I have more Avonia plants the chances of catching one blooming are higher. Also, while Avonia quinaria open their flowers around 6pm, other Avonias seem to open them around 2pm or 3pm, reducing my chances of seeing them further. Luckily I was on holidays :)

My old Avonia albissima ssp. multiramosa apparently has small, greenish flowers. Good to know. In all those years I'm seeing them for the first time.

This other Avonia albissima has rather large and showy flowers. The fact that the sun is shining on these flowers means they opened before 2pm. 

Avonia grisea (Av133). Very delicate.

Avonia papyracea. The round white petals look like scales. No wonder the flowers are difficult to spot. Especially if they are facing the light source and not the beholder.

Now to the quinarias. Their flowering is always an event! 

The two of the pink-flowering Avonia quinaria ssp. quinaria plants have flowered a while ago, of course not at the same time, that would be too nice of them. And even now I have one pink plant growing flowers. So much for synchronized flowering.

One of them is producing flower with different number of petals within the same flowering season. It's been doing that last year as well. But hey, I've had Avonia quinaria flowers with 4 petals before, too. The regular number is 5. 

I could still get some seeds out of them. While passive self-pollination is very unlikely, I find that brush-assisted self-pollination leads to seed pods more often than you'd think. I even have one seedling to show for it. It's not the only one that germinated but the only one left. I'm not that good at this yet. But seeds produced by selfing are definitely viable.

Speaking of abnormalities. I have this really strong and healthy white-flowering Avonia quinaria ssp. alstonii. It has grown all those branches and I was expecting it to flower nicely. Weeks go by - nothing happens, no buds. You see, normally, the buds would grow from the tips of the branches and then those branches would fall off. Just when I thought there will not be any white flowers this year, the plant started growing buds from its stem! Well, not  from the stem, but from the new and very short branches it grew just so that it can grow flowers. For some reason it wanted to keep all the long branches and that's kinda clever. Why grow long branches for flowers just to drop them off afterwards? That would be wasteful. Better to quickly grow something short instead. Well, it grew 11 flowers in the end and I got my white flowers after all.

And here's another strange thing - one flower opened completely without anthers.

I tried to take some artistic photos, with a proper background. Too bad I didn't have anything black :)

Flowers in August (12 pics)

It's been too long! I've been mostly ignoring my plants this past month and consequently the blog. But I was still taking photos of the flowers whenever I could catch them. They are a rarity on the windowsill and always deserve attention. Luckily lithops flowers are still fully open when I come home from work (resulting in some dark and eerie photos as usual). And conophytum flowers last for several days making it possible to catch them on weekends. 

Conophytum flowers are a welcome change to the usual white and yellow of the lithops.

Here is some orange I've never seen before. Conophytum x marnierianum (MG1430.35)

Conophytum fulleri was flowering beautifully. 

Conophytum pellucidum v. pellucidum 'pardicolor' ex. de Boer. I've had other C. pellucidum flowering but didn't catch them.

Conophytum bilobum ''deodum'' (MG1419.3)

As for lithops, I've had some flowers on L. bromfieldii lately.

Lithops bromfieldii v. insularis 'Sulphurea' (C362)

Lithops bromfieldii sp.

Lithops gesinae v. annae (C078) was growing 2 buds but aborted them for some reason (a rainy week might have changed its plans).

Two Adromischus marianae v. herrei (green form) had grown impressive inflorescences that are hard to capture on a photo. 

Anacampseros are still flowering from time to time. These An. retusa seedlings, for example, growing more flowers now. Unfortunately they don't seem to want to open them. But they do produce seeds. 

And Crassula ausensis ssp. titanopsis is going crazy. The flowers are normally underappreciated so here are some close-ups :)

Sunday flowers to lighten the mood (7 pics)

I wanted to post something on Crassula cuttings but in the end decided in favor of a flower post. Just some light Sunday afternoon entertainment :)

Lithops gracilidelineata I grew from seed has opened its first flower today and it's small and neat like the plant. It took it 8 years from seed to flower. I'm not complaining. Flowers are an exception, not the rule here. I never expect them but they are very welcome. 

Avonia quinaria ssp. quinaria has opened the only flower it produced this year. It had too many petals and I ripped one to allow it to open fully. Beautiful flower as always. I'm glad it opened at all... unlike other Avonias.

Avonia ustulata are producing many seed pods but the flowers never open. Any idea why? I assume not enough sunlight or maybe the fact that there is no direct sunlight in the afternoon. Unfortunately the same thing happens to the An. retusa flowers I was looking forward to. They open just a couple of millimeters wide and then close. The seed pods are nice and full though.

Anacampseros karasmontana, the greenie, has been flowering. Very very cute flowers. The round edges and the spread petals look similar to Av. quinaria's, a simplified version. And I really need to show you pictures of the roots underneath. They are quite remarkable! 

And of course the Frithia pulchra! Such intense colors.

In other news, Conophytums are starting to wake up. Every year it's a relief.

Breaking news (2 pics)

This just in. The first lithops flower of the season!

Quite early. But L. gesinae v. annae (C078) always is. I had one blooming in June once. The precious little sun 💗

Also, one of the Delosperma cooperi seedlings (one of those bonsai guys) has flowered for the first time. It's kinda a big deal for me. I've been waiting for this for years! Finally!

Desert flowers (8 pics)

We're having a real Summer here. Yesterday on the windowsill the temperature went up to 43°C and the plants are loving it!

One of the Avonia quinaria ssp. alstonii plants has opened 2 flowers and I could catch both for a photoshoot. I tried to self-pollinate them but these plants are not that easy and normally two specimens are required. 

Avonia quinaria sure have beautiful flowers. They are the same size as, say, An. lancifolia, but the stamens make all the difference.

Other Anacampseros are still flowering but the little guy below has caught my attention. It is an An. sp. going under Am258 in the atomic-plant catalog. A slow growing little fuzzball with a short inflorescence and cute pink flowers.

Also, I am very excited to see this nameless Anacampseros bloom for the first time here (FYI, it is listed as SB684, Springbok). I have 5 plants. They all seem to grow side branches this year. And one is growing an inflorescence out of such a branch. The branch is barely visible which makes the whole appearance really strange. As if flowers are coming out of the plant's side where they don't belong.