useful websites

If you look to the right there will be a link list I called "useful websites". There are not many but there will be more with time, I'm sure. These are websites I use very often: for reference, identification or as a shop for plants, seeds and pumice. As for shop websites, I'm aware that there are many good shops out there but I chose these two for the link list, because I've already tried them out. ;)

Lithops Info

This website has the best lithops locality data list or LLD (C001 - C416). It's very easy to use and very helpful if you happen to know the Cole-number of a lithops but not the proper name. This way you can look up its looks (roughly) and flower color all in one step. You can change the order settings as well. Of course it also has a gallery. But I wouldn't recommend it for plant identification because the most pictures only show one single grown-up plant at only one particular time during the year, neglecting the variations within a species and changes in color and pattern throughout the year. For proper identification check several websites, not just one. ;)

Cono's Paradise Shop

I think this is the best way to lay your hands on plants and, most importantly, pumice stones if you live in Germany. Uwe Beyer has a large assortment of succulent plants and seeds. Buying plants you can select the age and size, and the prices are very reasonable. The search function is also very helpful. (Paypal is accepted, worldwide shipping)

Francois Hoes Shop

I've only discovered this shop for me recently and the variety of the offered lithops seeds is amazing. You can get cultivars as well as seeds with Cole-numbers (or just with features you might find appealing), so if you're looking for rare seeds Francois Hoes is probably your man :) You can place an order by writing him an email. (Paypal is accepted, worldwide shipping)

Lithops pictures (Francois Hoes)

If you stay on Francois Hoes' website you'll find a lithops gallery that I personally prefer for identification: the photographs are realistic, naturally lit and show different plants of the same species side by side illustrating the range of variations quite nicely. For artistic pictures - see below.

Lithops Gallery (cactus-art.biz)

This was the first website I looked through and thought "I want this one, and this one, and this one!" I'm not sure whose plants they are, but they are shaped and colored so perfectly it took my breath away. There is also a plant shop there, but I haven't tried it out yet.

木易可儿 Flickr Gallery

Nando (haworthiaplanet) Flickr

You can really meditate browsing in these lithops galleries using the 'slideshow' feature. 木易可儿 is mostly showing beautiful photographs of individual plants, while Nando takes you for a walk through the collection. Also, make sure you're on holidays, because you might get stuck there for quite a while.

소리야 Lithops gallery

This website is in korean so that I can only guess how it works (unfortunately it's full of flash (?) and restrictions most korean websites sadly have). If you scroll down and click on the tag "lithops" you'll get to a gallery with really big beautiful macro photographs. Often one plant is being portrayed during all the phases it goes through in one or more years. It's quite interesting, even though the browsing is inconvenient.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you'll find these "useful websites" useful for you as well.

I'll be home in 5 weeks!

Word from home is that my plants sadly aren't getting enough light this summer and some are growing misshapen. I won't be able to do anything about it until they're in my own place again (where there's lots and lots of light throughout the whole year!). Also it means there's some fixing to do before the next growing season. Still, from what I hear, this year wasn't as bad as I expected: there were very few losses. To be honest, I feared the worst as I went to Japan. I really shouldn't complain. :)

Forgot to show you this picture. It's this hookeri with an open flower. I took the picture the day I left for Japan - the flower just had opened for the first time. I'm glad I was able to see it. :)

PS: I got a playmate for the beige helmutii. If there's a chance I always try to buy two plants of the same species.

marmorata

Here's another one from the Succulent Expo: lithops marmorata v. marmorata (syn. diutina) C260. Is it me or does the island pattern look like chromosomes? :)

Steven Hammer - Lithops, Treasures of the Veld

It's a real shame that "LITHOPS - Treasures of the Veld" by Steven A. Hammer is out of print nowadays, because I'd buy it right away. But at least there are .pdf files floating around the internet so that we are able to enjoy this great book digitally. I've had it for a while, but only just read it. It's truly amazing. Not only very informative - it answers so many questions I had on my mind! - but also a fun read. I had to laugh a lot while reading it. :) You can feel how dear these plants are to the author, he notices all those little things about them and writes with such passion - reading it was a delight. I'm sure I will re-read it often enough in the future. (How wonderful it would be to have it on the bookshelf and not on the computer. They need to re-print it, seriously.)

Both Mr. Shimada and Mr. Hammer refer to "Lithops: Flowering Stones" by Desmond and Naureen Cole as a standard work on lithops. I'll have to put my hands on this one, too. So far the former has the tons of pictures, the latter - tons of information. Desmond Cole probably has both. :)

PS: if you want a .pdf of this book feel free to drop me a line in the comments.

Gunsenen Nursery Catalogue

I'm so excited! Yesterday I received the new catalogue from Mr. Shimada's Lithops Laboratory (Gunsenen Nursery/群仙園). I'm a big admirer of Mr. Shimada and his lithops collection and wished I could go visit the nursery but can't afford it. From the numerous pictures in "The Genus Lithops" I can tell how utterly amazing it would be. Well, at least now I'm able to purchase several of the plants I couldn't find anywhere else (not many, but they still seem to cost a fortune). I'm going to place the order sometime next week and post an update here as soon as the plants arrive. Can't wait, really. :)

And of course, I want to thank dear Abe from the TSIN blog for all the help. I really appreciate it!

slightly different helmutii

I was quite intrigued by this plant, so I had to have it. :)

Apparently it is a regular lithops helmutii like the one ←on the picture to the left, but it has pretty beige colors so different from the blue-green C271. On the label it says something about 'new locality' but it's probably just a slight (and lovely) variation. I know that helmutii 'Albiflos' have a different color and even a different pattern from the regular ones, but the former owner of this particular plant says it had yellow flowers. Well, maybe its color will go away with the next annual change, but I sure hope it stays. I will send it home soon.

Lithops helmutii (4-headed plant)

what are you?

I've been doing an inventory lately based on the pictures I've got saved on my netbook. Looking at the time stamps I can say when a particular plant was bought or re-potted, had flowers, got two-headed, etc. I have quite some plants from way back, bought in unspecialized stores. Still, I can tell whether they are lesliei or aucampiae or hookeri (these three species also seem to be the most common in german stores). With this little guy I've got no idea whatsoever! But it has a story.

I got it back in 2008 from a hardware store. Actually it was in a big pot with what looked like a big lithops "family", but the most of them were already dead and left behind only dried up skin. This lithops was one of the three still left in the pot, and also the smallest. I brought them home (It took a lot of convincing to get them half-price - even though it was clearly a rescue operation) only to see that all the help was too late for the other two: mealy bugs. This one survived but it's still a mystery because with every annual change it had a new color and pattern.

Any idea what it is? :)

(same plant the years before)

filler post

Two months to go until the Big Lithops 2009-2010 Change Comparison!! I really am excited to see my plants - I'm sure they've changed a lot since the last time I saw them. :) There are going to be quite some before-after posts here when I'm back, haha.

Having nothing new to show yet I only can go for archive pictures or unrelated ones for now. Like this old photo of my first ever lithops flower. This lesliei belonged to the second bunch of plants I got in a store. I didn't know anything about lithops back then but was eager to lern. The reward was my first lithops flower ca. one year later, that inspired me a lot. Like it happens, from what I hear, I lost this plant to the mealy bugs this year, but I'll keep it in my heart as the first one to blossom on my watch.

On an unrelated note, I just couldn't keep this photo to myself. There are swallow's nests everywhere here in Nara. They are so near you can touch them (but you don't!). These cute babies will soon be ready to fly~

Please click to enlarge!