Never seen such a thing before!

My 5-headed helmutii monster has gotten huge this year and will get a strict diet this winter. BUT this post isn't about that. ;) Look on the second pic - the plant develops side shoots! They look a bit weird but they are there and they're growing. How is this possible? Lithops never fail to surprise :)

meaty helmutii leaves

My helmutii are the the only ones left with still a lot of meat to work through. This could take a month or two.

Btw, this is my 200th post :)

regeneration continues

Proceeding on the regeneration report 2012, a lot is going on these cold sunny days.

One of the flashy karasmontanas 'Top Red' gives a glimpse of its new leaves.

The new lobes of the schwantesii C248 are very beautiful as they shine in the sunlight.

Fulviceps 'Aurea' are almost done.

Gesinae is far along as well.

Helmutii has a long way to go though.

last flowers for this season

Came back just in time to see the helmutii bloom :)

new flower

It didn't take long.

it's helmutii-time

Just a little sunshine and the flowers open. This C271 helmutii is in bloom for the first time on my watch :)

more to come

I'm going to repeat myself but these helmutii are my constant source of joy. :) They've been blooming like crazy last year. This year the situation seemed to be different. After all the bugs, aggressive root-washing, transplanting I didn't expect them to flower and stopped watering sometime in September. Now, two months later, they look like typical winter-lithops, wrinkly and slowly growing new leaves inside. Or so I thought. Instead they've decided to surprise me! At least three out of five heads are pushing flowers right now. And the flower on the four-headed one is about to open any day now.

Bought them 2010 in Japan because of the unusual beige coloring and spotted pattern for a helmutii.

weak plants, no flowers

I'm late with a new post again. It's winterly cold and dark outside, we've been having heavy fog since two days. No sunshine can break through it. I feel bad for my plants. As you remember I was fighting mealy-bugs a couple of months ago, leading to the fact that, even though many plants have developed flower buds, most of them didn't have the strength to develop them fully and they've dried out half-finished. Them being weak might be partly my fault, I just forget to fertilize (need to work on this next year). Still, several of those were flowering and some I considered too weak anyway are still pushing flowers! Unfortunately it is a bit to late now that there's no sunshine, but I see it as a good sign for the plants themselves.

This helmutii had 11 heads last year, but after heaving been nibbled on and transplanted two times last year, there were only seven left. The plant looks much better now and develops flower buds very quickly at the moment.

Update on the other helmutii

Here is the guy that got me worried in winter. Old leaves have grown too big so I've cut them open to prevent the new ones from doing so as well. It all went well but I see now that this helmutii family tends to get fat and needs a diat from time to time.

And here is the one with a weird head I've shown you before. 

helmotzeniana

The five-headed helmutii has gotten huge compared to April.

L. otzeniana wasn't that lucky this year: it had to deal with mealy bugs, was weakened and lost a couple of heads. It is about to bloom at the moment but I'm not sure if it's a good sign or a swan song.

three and a half heads

No, these are not the remains of an old leaf, this is the 4th head. Its other half is way down by the roots for some reason.  :)

not there yet

Wondering how much this helmutii has changed in one month? The answer is not much... and a lot. :)

helmutii update

Almost two months ago I've promised you an update on a helmutii that has grown way too much in height last year (picture with huge old lobes). I doubt it would have corrected itself. So I've cut it open from the top down to the new tiny leaves inside hoping they would stay low while the old ones dry out. That is exactly what happened. Method approved. Now it only has to stay this way. :)

This is actually a problem I normally have with salicola: they grow in height and nothing can stop them, it seems. (photos soon)

more heads

I've counted 17 plants getting more heads this year. They're mostly lesliei from the bunch I bought as young seedlings back in 2008, but there is also a couple of salicolas, julii and helmutii.

Both julii v. fulleri 'Kōsōgyoku' I bought from Mr. Shimada a year ago are getting two-headed. It looks like this plant had some timing troubles and tried to flower out of the new leaves. I guess, it means no flowers this year. What do you think?

The renewed Ventergreens have just the most wonderful green tee color. I could stare at them for hours haha. Will try to sow more in about two weeks.

The helmutii aren't far along yet but if you look closely you'll see the fifth head!

 A couple of the lesliei seedlings I mentioned before. Maybe this year I can finally persuade them to flower.

shape vs. growing conditions

Looking through pictures of those beautiful lithops plants grown in greenhouses by professionals, with their perfect sizes, colors and shapes, always makes me wonder if it is possible to achieve that at home on a windowsill. Surely the conditions are different which would affect the process of growth as well as the looks of the plants. But there must be a way to adjust the care to the particular growing conditions and keep the plants not only healthy but also authentically looking. Compact, flat, growing near to the ground, richly colored - that's how we all like them. Reading online about other grower's conditions and looking for tips in books helps a lot, but there's still a lot to figure out on your own, with the conditions and care you are able to provide in mind.

The problem hobby-growers like myself encounter first are plants growing too high, as if looking for the light. It's okay if it is just a little bit, and there are species for those it is absolutely normal, but it can get out of hand and end up badly for the plant (they burst and rot). Basically, the reason they do that is too much water and "food" with too little light. And knowing what 'too much' and 'too little' actually means isn't that easy - trying things out and watching the plants helps to determine what would be the best. Usually it means no water at all for grown-up plants from ca. October until the old leaves have completely dried out sometime in the spring. This way the new leaves can grow and emerge safely, without any unwelcome growth spurts. By the time the change is complete there should be enough natural light for the plant to not grow in the upward direction when watered. The long dry period may seem harsh but lithops have large reserves in the old leaves to bring them through winter. In fact, if watered regularly while the old leaves are still there, they will never dry out and will probably start to rot soon enough. They say that low temperatures in winter are important but I've never tried that (it is also impossible to do on a windowsill) and the plants don't seem to complain. 

To keep the new leaves "in shape" it is important to not feed them too much. Normally the lithops soil is very poor (if bought in a store they should be transplanted immediately), which makes it easy to control how much fertilizer to use. When in doubt it's always better to leave it. Same goes for watering. In the hot months you always see if they need more: they are getting wrinkles (small ones don't count: they'll go away the next morning without any moisture) and try to dive under the stones to escape the sun. This is how it should be. If they do that watering once a week shouldn't be a problem. During a cold rainy summer watering once a month or even less would be enough. Also, small pots can be watered more often than large ones. :)

Still, even if you watch them closely, adjusting your 'moves' according to every change in the plant's looks, some may grow too big over the summer. The 'correction method' you find online is quite invasive and risky, but I've tried it this year on a plant. Sometimes the plant corrects itself pushing the new leaves through the side. I guess, this method comes from this observation. Basically you cut the old overgrown leaves open to prevent the new ones from having to grow to the same height as the old body to emerge. I had an overgrown helmutii (even for a helmutii), which I've cut open a couple of months ago. The old body is now much smaller, really soft and wrinkly, while the new leaves are getting bigger without growing upwards. So far, so good. The plant won't get any water until the old leaves are completely gone (I will keep you updated on this one).

changing clothes 2

... Others are slowly getting there :)

 The fulviceps from before are already showing their true colors!

newcomers

More plants are letting me catch a glimpse of their new clothes. It's almost as if they were teasing me!  

little suns on rainy days

These helmutii are a constant source of joy. They sure deserve another post. The yellow-edged ones have been flowering for weeks now, and the last remaining flower is still at it. My guess is, if they weren't pollinated the plants would flower even longer. And you must admit, the flowers themselves are really beautiful, large and deap yellow with a lovely contrast to the white flower center and to the plant color itself.

Also, I need to record the fact that helmutii really don't seem to like much sun. The flower buds, for instance, only wanted to grow on rainy days and just stopped and waited when it was sunny. I have another (greener) helmutii that had big troubles standing in the sun: all soft and wrinkly and no water would help. Now it is in a corner where mostly only the morning sun can reach (not that we get much of it now in November) and within two weeks the plant looks as healthy and firm as it should. This is something I'll need to keep in mind.

not quite done yet

It is gloomy-rainy with temperatures from 8 °C to -2 °C outside. While one of the salicolas has given up on its last flower, the yellow-edge-helmutii's flower buds are growing quickly. These plants are strange!

yellow-edge-helmutii

I think these might be the last flowers this year. There are three more flower buds I can see, but they somehow stopped growing and with this weather I don't know if they'll develop all right.

Both yellow-edge-helmutii made it though, so that I can hope for seeds. :)