Spring is here! (28 pics)

It has been some time since I last updated and I must say it was mostly due to my disappointment with my inability to get rid of mites. No one likes to admit defeat. I am even losing my beautiful Anacampseros seedlings. Although I have so many it is not quite that dramatic. Lithops are unaffected which leads me to the conclusion that I might wanna go back to the roots and grow more lithops again, while reducing the amount of other, mite-friendlier plants. Speaking of "reducing", I am down 7 kilos and have reached my goal. Now I can fill myself up with chocolate again! :D

In other news, Mila has developed some food intolerances and gets super healthy hypoallergenic food these days. Unfortunately that's the food she finds rather yucky. She does not understand meat and meaty smells (where are those predator instincts?) so that I have to trick her into eating it with "fastfood" smells on top. Luckily there are grain-free treats and tasty liver cremes around to help me.

Back to the plants. Now that spring is here and the sun is shining almost all lithops have regenerated. Hopefully we will have a warmer and sunnier year. The plants are a bit too small and I think I need to fertilize. I normally don't do that. The conditions do not allow the plants to get bigger without losing their shape. I need to time it right or I'll have cucumbers instead of lithops in no time. Also, I really need to continue transplanting and putting things in order on the windowsill. Lots to do. But not today.

Let me first focus on positive things. I really need some motivation. Rather then whining about mites all the time here are the pretty pretty lithops plants that are doing great and show their fresh new faces. No claw marks yet this year! Forgive me the dust and cat hair on the plants. Pretend it is the "natural" look ;)

And by the way, if you click on a picture you will not only see it xxl size but also see the name of the plant in the file title.

And here are my own seedlings. Some of the youngest have grown 2 heads this winter.

Recent lithops seedlings (6 pics)

I've been trying to germinate some old lithops seeds quite unsuccessfully over the last year. I barely have something to show for it. I even thought I lost some key skill until I tried sowing fresh seeds from my own plants that germinated perfectly. 

The only real success among the 2015 lithops seedlings are the L. lesliei ssp. lesliei var. rubrobrunnea that hatched last October. They are developing nicely in size and in color. The new leaves are actually quite red and very attractive. In my experience L. lesliei and L. bromfieldii rarely disappoint when grown from seed. 

The next seedlings, from around the same time, are nameless at the moment. I do have records of what was sown but these guys were transplanted due to bugs and I didn't care enough for them to label them properly. I was pretty sure they won't survive. Told you before, I was neglecting my seedlings badly. Well, now I can't connect their looks to any of the species I was sowing back then. The good news is they are strong and very uniform (I don't mean that couple in the front of the photo) and when they are bigger a name can hopefully be attached to them. 

A big surprise was to find some rarities among last year's survivors. These are L. lesliei "Fred's Redhead, L. salicola "Bacchus" and L. localis "Pinky" (one of them already two-headed).

Last year I could get some seeds from my L. verruculosa plants. Up until now I could never manage to grow them from seed. Maybe because they're touchy or maybe because they are normally sold in small quantities. I really like how these guys are developing though. Plump happy seedlings.

The youngest are these L. dorothea, also grown from my own seeds. They started germinating poorly (see those bigger ones) and then one month later everything sprouted! Looking forward to the natural variation in these plants. 

Even more spheroid flowers (7 pics)

This past weekend I could finally enjoy the lithops flowers and take some pictures. You're probably fed up with my attempts of setting up lithops flowers in a romantic but dark atmosphere but I like it. Also, it's best I can do without any equipment in the dark afternoons we are having these days :)

I got several L. verruculosa v. verruculosa C120 this summer. It never worked for me to grow them from seed so adult plants that are small in size might have a better chance. So far so good. And now even one flower has fully developed and opened. L. verruculosa is one of those rare lithops that have neither yellow nor white flowers, but these creme colored ones. Very pretty.

In contrast to that, here is one of my oldest plants flowering, L. gesinae v. annae C078. The first lithops flower featured in this blog was from this very plant. I've had it for 7 years. 

And here is one of the karasmontanas left that I purchased sometime in 2011, L. karasmontana ssp. karasmontana v. aiaisensis C224. It has produced many seeds in the past and I've recently sown some to give it a mate in the future.

I've mentioned before that the direction of my windows in the new apartment is slightly more to the east than in my old one. It means more sun in the mornings but it goes away earlier in the afternoons. Lithops flowers still open fine without it but it has an interesting effect on the stems. Some tend to grow into gramophones. I don't mind.

Other flowers are at their end and it has a certain beauty to it, too.

New pebbles 3 (3 pics)

I tried to grow L. verruculosa before but the plants didn't survived in the long run. This time I got some nicely grown specimen from Kakteen Haage nursery and they are such beauties, especially when arranged naturally. I love the "blood drops" and the color and the shape. It's gonna be difficult to keep them alive but I believe I have better conditions for my plants now compared to the old apartment so we'll see.

Lithops flowering season (4 pics)

Looks like my Lithops are heaving an early flowering season. I have 4 flowers at the moment and more coming soon. What a happy sight! :)

One of my own L. bromfieldii v. glaudinae seedlings has flowered for the first time and the flower is HUGE! In fact, this is one of these little kids. All grown up now.

Good thing they flower in the afternoon. This way I can catch them on camera even when I come home after six. And even though it is already getting dark the flowers are still brimming with sunlight they've soaked up during the day.

The L. fulviceps 'Aurea' flower looks very relaxed...

... and the one on L. fulviceps v. lactinea is already a week old. It has an interesting shape now but still such shiny petals!

The newcommer, L. verruculosa, decided to bloom, too. This is the first time I see a cream-colored flower on a lithops. It's so unusual. It looks more like red gold to me and fits the color of the plant leaves.

Lithops portraits 2014 - part 2 (9 pics)

For a blog called Lithops Stories I sure don't show many Lithops pictures lately. It doesn't mean I've forgotten about them! There's just too much to discover among Mesembs that gets my attention between the two times in a year when Lithops "do stuff" - flowering and changing leaves. Still, summer is more or less the time to show off the plants themselves, without the distraction of old leaves or flowers. Since I do post seedlings pictures regularely the adult plants have barely been represented this year. That's why I'll be making a couple of posts to show you my grown-ups.

Firstly, there's a new plant I got at the C&S market 2 weeks ago. The seller didn't know the name but I knew very well what it was so I just grabbed it as soon as I saw it. I didn't have much luck with L. verruculosa so far but let's hope I've become wiser over the years and can give it a good new home.

Secondly, the surprise I got this morning! One of the L. bromfieldii v. insularis 'Sulphurea' has unexpectedly grown a flower. Hopefully others will bloom in the fall.

Others are pretty much doing what they are supposed to do this time of the year - soaking up the sun.

I'm still calling these seedlings because they haven't flowered yet but they were sown 2008 and 2009 and are pretty much adults now. Maybe they will flower this year?

More photos soon~