Titamopsis primosii: first flower (3 pics)

Before I write a post on all the showy Delosperma flowers from my balcony I wanted to show you this one which is much more special to me. I grew this Titanopsis primosii from seed and am now very proud it has managed to grow such a large and beautiful flower. Or to bloom at all. The plant itself is quite tiny and I really wonder where it got the strength. After all, my grown up Titanopsis promisii have never ever flowered for me. 

It has been flowering for a week now but I couldn't see it as it only opened for a short time in the afternoon. Yesterday I could finally arrange a photo session with this beauty.

Titanopsis calcarea: First flower (2 pics)

So, looks like I've raised this one to adulthood :)

There was a flower on another seedling of this bunch but I either missed it or it never opened so I'll consider this one as the first. It seems like a miracle! I've grown it from a seed collected from my own plant and now it's flowering!

You can see these Titanopsis calcarea plants as newborns, nearly newborns, 2-month-olds, 3-month-olds, 15-month-olds here in the blog. They hatched in May 2013.

Aloinopsis malherbei fails to flower (3 pics)

Do you have any advise or explanation? I can't figure out what these guys are missing. They've been starting flowers, then drying them off and replacing them with leaves... And then start all over again. It's been going on for so long with both seedlings and my adult plant that I've come to see it as normal. Still, I'd really like to actually see the flowers develop and open someday. I water them well (no fertilizer since months though).

Titanopsis calcarea kids

My Titanopsis calcarea seedlings are now 15 months old and branching out. The leaf texture and the overall appearance are everything I hoped for ♡
What makes them even more special to me is that they're the result of my own pollination :)

Aloinopsis luckhoffii babies (2 pics)

I didn't expect my Aloinopsis luckhoffii seedlings to live this long but here they are, almost one year old. They've started developing side shots recently.

(Btw, I think my camera is making the plants look greener than they are.)

Under my conditions the adult plant grows in a pace that makes me wonder every couple of months whether there will be new leaves sometime in the future or not. There usually are but no guaranties. It looks well and everything but I don't feel that it's really flourishing. (Not a well focused pic, I know)

Another Stomatium alboroseum flower! (3 pics)

Before I come to the topic of this post I'd like to let you know that I have a lot of Anacampseros filamentosa ssp. namaquensis seeds to give away. They are only viable when fresh so don't let them go to waste! Seeds are free but I'd appreciate it if you could take care of the shipment cost (it's 0,75€ for international, email me for paypal info). Let me know if you're interested and thanks to everyone who already has given some of them a new home!

So, back on topic, my second Stomatium alboroseum seedling is flowering now! :D I tried to take a picture in the natural light (without a flash) this time... Or rather in the lack thereof since it was taken at 9.30 PM yesterday. Still, the flower is shining like the first snow. As you can see from the dried up flower on the Stomatium beside it it never actually turned "roseum".

I see these tiny 11 months old plants with their perfect flowers and can't help but think why the other bigger and older (14 months) and stronger Stomatium trifarium seedlings don't even try to flower. Look how much they've spread!

Stomatium alboroseum first flower

I'm still editing the photos from the succulent market and will try to post a report this weekend. But for now I need to share my joy over the Stomatium alboroseum seedling with you. This little guy is 11 months old and has only 6 leaves but it already could develop and open its very first flower! I'm very proud of it.

Funny thing, even though the flower opens at night and seemingly doesn't rely on sunlight for that, it opened just a little bit over the last few days when it was raining the whole time. Today it was sunny and hot and as soon as it was dark the flower opened fully. As if it got charged by the sun during the day to have enough energy to open at night :)

My Stomatium trifarium kids are several months older and really huge but not even a sign of a flower there.

Glottiphyllum pygmaeum question mark

I got the seeds as Glottiphyllum pygmaeum (actually some fancy red-leaf form but whatever). Now they are 7 months old and I really don't know whether they are really what they were supposed to be. Do they look like Glottiphyllum pygmaeum to you? Shouldn't they have more rounded, sideways growing leaves? Are they supposed to be this poisonous green? I can't even take a proper picture because of the floppiness amd glossiness. Also, they've been growing huge long leaves before but now they're growing these short round blobs :D

Rabiea and Frithia seedlings (2 pics)

Time to update you on some of the seedlings. Rabiea albipuncta are now 6 months old and look much more mature than only 2 months ago. Glad to see that a couple of them still show the distinct red leaf tips.

They are currently having seven-month-old Frithia pulchra kids as neighbors. It is supposed to be a red (or redder) flowering variety but since Frithias never flower for me it's only theoretically different from the other Frithia pulchra plants I own.

PS: I really need to take some lithops pictures. I can't seem to be able to take any good ones lately...

Titanopsis primosii seedlings

These Titanopsis primosii seedlings are one year old now and one of them is starting to develop side shoots. I'll have to repot them soon. In fact, all of the last year's mesemb seedlings are in need of transplantation... 

Three-leaf-schooneesii update

Just a little update on the Aloinopsis schooneesii seedling, now one year old, that grows in three leaf sets. This is the 4th set so far ;)

(Click to enlarge)

Rhinephyllum muirii seedlings

I'm very surprised and excited to see what quick growers the Rhinephyllum muirii seedlings have turned out to be (there are 2 plants on the photo). They were very slow and weak during their first months but then had a growth spurt. And yes, they are that green ;)

Little A. schooneesii monster

This little guy is doing some serious out-of-the-box thinking :D

"Wait... I didn't know I could do that. Let's try it again.. Ha! Nice!"

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!

A. schooneesii growing (3 pics)

Here is another perfect seedling, ten months old. The others are doing well, too. Unlike the one tiny seedling you can see in the left corner of the photo below (same age btw) the others are only slightly smaller than this kid. Hope the root is getting fatter as well. Love the darker color! ☆

Can you spot the side branch? ;)

My adult plant is growing new leaves, too. It is slightly elevated to give the leaf-ball more room to spread. I guess the leaves would have spread more horizontally if the caudex was buried from the start but I've received it already as a ball last year and I kinda like it :D

Titanopsis seedlings today (4 pics)

My Titanopsis calcarea seedlings are almost one year old (sown 1st of May 2013) and look at this beauty! Perfect shape, perfect color, perfect warts - love it! ♡ 

But not every seedling had a chance to grow just as perfectly as the one above. Two of them had some difficulties during the winter and messed up the growing point, the spot where the new growth starts in the middle of the rosette. All the plants give up on some growing-points now and then and just use another (like a side branch) to continue. It is just a bit tricky if it only has one. I'm not sure what exactly goes wrong in these cases. The seedling below had a pair of really strange crippled leaves that didn't want to grow and then grew into weird shapes (trauma at a very early stage like an insect bite?). Luckily the seedling is healthy and strong and didn't want to wait until that growing point sorts itself out. It just grew a side branch and the new grows is healthy and well-shaped. By now I already can see new healthy leaves coming out of the messed up rosette as well.

The seedling below has just completely dried off the main growing point and focused on the side branch. A less strong plant would just give up all together as we probably all have sadly experienced. With these seedlings I'm pretty confident that they will be fine.

Just like their parent :)

Random shiny wartiness

Click to view the warts in all detail ;)

Rhinephyllum seedlings update

Sorry for posting about all the same seedlings again but I need to share my amazement. Only one week of intense sunlight and suddenly three side-branches are sprouting on one tiny seedling! After a long peroid of not doing anything it is really surprising to see these seedlings grow so quickly.

And more seedlings (2 pics)

Both Gibbaeum dispar and Rhinephyllum muirii seelings are now 7 months old. What a difference in size! Nothing out of the ordinarily though. Still, I didn't expect Rhinephyllum to develop side branches so quickly (there are 2 seedlings). A nice surprise :) Gibbaeum are slow but steady.

Aloinopsis malherbei seedlings today

These A. malherbei seedlings are now 9 months old. After a long time of growth-stop during the colder months they've recently started growing again and look how fat and meaty the leaves are! :)