Now to today's pics - all dark and gloomy and gray. That's what the plants have to put up with these days.
This Faucaria I got as a present almost 2 years ago definitely received wrong care last winter (even though I'm still not sure what the right care would be). Probably too much water while having it too dark (as usual): new leaves grew very slowly, badly shaped with almost no teeth; old leaves dried up quickly leaving ugly stems. In the spring I've cut off a couple of "heads" and rooted them hoping for a new start. The plant took it slow and didn't like the summer heat at all. But as it got cooler it suddenly started to grow new and very meaty leaves with nicely long teeth! Now I just need to figure out how to keep it this way. *headscratch
Beside it you can see two leaves of an Adromischus greenie I stuck into the soil to get new plants (gotta love this way of propagation). I've recently bought one - these plants look really interesting, how could I say no? - but two leaves fell off during re-potting, they are quite fragile. They already have roots but no new growth yet.
The "original" plant has to share its pot with a Gobbaeum and a Neohenricia cutting (I have those cutting growing everywhere I could find a free square centimeter XD).
Yep, the teeth make the Faucarias something special. You gotta have the teeth. :) Light intensity can affect the length and attractiveness of the teeth development on faucarias. The faucarias are very under appreciated mesembs. My faucarias have been flowering for almost a month now. They are outside in the over-wintering frames so they get 6 hours of direct sun a day and night temperatures in the 5 to 8 degree C. range.
ReplyDeleteI currently don't have any Adromischus plants. Your A. marianae v. herrei plant is a cutie. I kinda like the ones that get red coloration in strong light. When I did grow Adromischus (I lost most to the tornado in 2002) I found them to be very tough plants. They could take being dry better than almost any other small succulent. This fits in well with growing them "hard", lots of sun and on the dry side. You have a wonderful collection of plants and you tell their stories very well, even when the story isn't exactly what you would like it to be. I'm still going to comment on your post about dealing with your low light winter conditions; I haven't forgotten. :)
You're so lucky your plants get so mich sunlight. Neither my plants nor me see any sunlight around here. It comes out so rarely, no greenhouse arrangement would help with this.
DeleteThanks! I like the red ones too :) I don't know anything about them but will hopefully learn "by doing".