Delosperma's radical pruning (13 pics)

Brace yourselves! This is not for faint-hearted!

I have grown two Delosperma cooperi plants from seed in 2012 and when they were big enough the opportunity presented itself to grow them as little bonsai trees instead of letting them crawl around like Delosperma cooperi like to do. There's no room for crawling on my windowsill anyway. You can follow the development of these plants from the very start, if you are interested. 

They both started out very well, but while one of them has grown to be a real beauty (photos later), the other kinda got strange. In fact it has developed into this monstrosity.

Let's take a closer look. From certain angels it still looks roundish and okay.

But actually, those are just long limbs wrapped around themselves. That's not pretty. 

Let's see what we can do about it. It is going to be radical!!

Snip.

Snip.

Snip.

Here we go! Much better. It's like a summer haircut. I think the branch with those longer leaves will be cut eventually but I will leave it for now. Once the leftovers start growing it should be a ball of leaves on a thick trunk. I'll keep you posted.

Now, what do we have here?

Let's cut and clean them into some neat little cuttings.

I ran out of pumice so the industrial cactus soil will have to do. They will probably root in it better anyway.

Mila approves.

Breaking news (2 pics)

This just in. The first lithops flower of the season!

Quite early. But L. gesinae v. annae (C078) always is. I had one blooming in June once. The precious little sun 💗

Also, one of the Delosperma cooperi seedlings (one of those bonsai guys) has flowered for the first time. It's kinda a big deal for me. I've been waiting for this for years! Finally!

Delosperma bonsai (2 pics)

Do you remember the two Delosperma plants I was training to be bonsais? 

I gathered the seeds on the side of the road in 2010 and grew these plants from those seeds back in 2012. There are a bunch of posts on that: little bunnies, new leaves, new branches, getting in shape, first time being beautiful, messy forest, a total mess after spending a year at my parents and the first haircut, bonsai phase 1 and phase 1.2. Last fall bugs were biting them badly and so I banished them on the balcony where they spent the whole winter. It killed the bugs and the shape on one of them has improved a lot. It looks now exactly like I imagined it to look like. Thick trunk and a full crown. Love it!

The other one however, which I considered more promising, does not look well. Branches all over the place. I need to cut some parts off for sure. Just need to figure out which... Something's not right there.

Update on Crassula rupestris and other news (8 pics)

Before I post more on lithops I just wanted to make a quick update on some other things going on.

You might have seen some of it over on Twitter where I usually post small updates and random photos from the windowsill. Sometimes I'm excited about something but feel like it's not newsworthy enough for the blog. But I like writing here much more.

Remember the Crassula rupestris I was pruning and dividing into cuttings last month? All the pieces have rooted and started to grow new leaves and branches.

This one is overdoing it with the roots.

As you can see the roots are quickly growing. I pulled this one out just to make sure.

I am still waiting for the Frithia pulchra and Frithia pulchra f. rubra seedlings to bloom. Very curious to see if there is a difference between the flower colors.

And two of the Delospermas on my balcony are flowering beautifully. Cold overwintering outside was really beneficial.

Delosperma sp. 'garnet'

Delosperma sutherlandii

Delospermas on the balcony (8 pics)

Well, now I know, Delosparmas really like it on the balcony. All of the below plants have overwintered outside in the cold and are now enjoying direct unfiltered sunlight. No burns and lots of flowers and flower buds. I'm seriously thinking of moving all my Delospermas out there permanently. Except for D. sphalmantoides. And the "bonsais", I suppose. And D. harazianum is flowering just fine on the windowsill after a warm winter. But otherwise, these guys do enjoy fresh air :)

Delosperma sp. A variety called "garnet", I think.

Delosperma sp. A variety called "moonstone".

Delosperma sutherlandii

Delosperma lineare "golden nugget"

Plant similarities (5 pics)

I wanted to write something clever about how Neohenricia sibbetii and Delosperma sphalmantoides are similar in looks and growing pattern when in fact I just wanted to post a couple of pictures I recently took of these two plants. They have finally started growing after their winter rest and show off their beautiful leaf tips in the mild spring sunlight. 

Even though they don't grow new leaves in the fall and winter months I've been watering them a little once in a while when I felt they looked too sad. They reacted by getting firmer but never by proper new growth. It's nice to see them happier now that spring has come. Both species dry off patches of leaves in the fall making them look scruffy but it all gets better once they start growing and cover the bald spots. In fact they will grow out of their containers before you know it! Neohenricia goes "overboard" every year and within 3 years since I've had it it went from half a pot to two pots and several cuttings I gave away. D. sphalmantoides is slower. I've had two plants, one of which was spreading like crazy just to dry off leaves rapidly at some point without compensation. It died soon after. The one that is left is more compact and I try not to stimulate rapid growth. It is important that there is a balance between growing new leaves and drying off old ones. I reckon, when it grows too many new leaves it leads to problems later as it will have to keep it up. Better to have it grow few new leaves and dry off few. I'm still figuring out how to achieve that. Probably diet.

The flowering pattern is completely different for these two species. While Neohenricia flowers eagerly all summer long (at night!), D. sphalmantoides only sometimes graces me with flowers in spring. Does not look like it's gonna happen this year though. But, as with so many other plants, I am content with looking at their leaves and see flowers as a rare treat, not a rule.

Delosperma harazianum first to flower (3 pics)

Delosperma harazianum is opening the flowering season again. It has cute little flowers that produce seeds on their own. None of my other Delosperma plants want to flower, except sometimes D. sphalmantoides. But at least the leaves are pretty :)

Delosperma bonsai 2/2 (6 pics)

So, here's the other one :)

I think I find the shape of this Delosperma even more interesting. It grows small leaf-batches of a darker color and often develops curious 3-leaf-sets. At the moment I could count 9 sets of those. The pot is 5cm, for scale.

Delosperma bonsai 1/2 (5 pics)

I have two Delosperma plants I grew from seed back in 2012 and am now trying to form into bonsais. Surprisingly it works really well. I was expecting them to grow uncontrollably but they keep their shape since a year when potted in a small 5x5x8,5cm pot each. 

Actually I've wanted to post photos of them for a while now but it has turned out to be quite difficult to capture them due to their three-dimensionality. I could never focus my camera properly.  Below are my best attempts at a photo session with one of the plants. It looks much cooler in real life :D

As you can see it grows many short-leafed branches along the stems while not increasing in size all in all. But it gets thirsty a lot. It never flowers though. 

I have another plant to be featured in the next post and since it's fun to watch them grow here is a compilation.

Parents
2 months old
3 months old + one more
6 months old
10 months old (root view)
1 year
August 2014 (before and after the haircut)