The last lithops flower and a butterfly (2 pics)

Well, looks like this is the last lithops flower this year. There weren't many but I'm happy with any I can get. The next excitement is watching the winter growers waking up and maybe even flower as well as checking up on seedlings. I've sown a lot recently and plan on sowing more soon. Watching those tiny blobs grow is a very special joy.

In unrelated news, I finally went to the Butterfly Garden in Grevenmacher, Luxembourg (ca. 30 min away from Trier). Oh pardon, I meant of course Jardin des Papillons ;) It's quite small but nice and very very warm. Like a little piece of Summer. Too bad it closes in Winter or I'd go regularly just to warm up. I took great many pictures but it was difficult to take good macros because they move so much. Surprisingly the only pic of which I thought the camera would never focus was the quite sharp one below with this very friendly and curious papillon. I feel like a flower now.

Chasmatophyllum musculinum's singular beauty! (2 pics)

These two plants catch my attention every time I'm at my windowsill and the sun in shining. With such beautiful leaves who needs flowers? :)

These two Chasmatophyllum musculinum plants are this Summer's newcomers on the windowsill. I hope to be able to give them a good home. So far they look happy, react to water and grow new leaves and branches eagerly.

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.

More spheroid flowers (5 pics)

Conophytum flowers truly give variety to my windowsill. I'm so used to yellow and white flowers it's totally strange to see other colors. 

C. ectypum ssp. sulcatum is enjoying the rare sunlight.

C. uviforme ssp. uviforme is flowering at night when I don't see it (I sleep at night you know). But I'm glad it likes the new environment well enough to grow so many buds.

This is, however, the best I could do taking a picture of C. angelicae ssp. tetragonum...

The L. dorotheae de Boer is flowering for the first time since I got it in Japan 2010. Only one of them unfortunately, that's why I pollinated with the regular C300. If it worked maybe there will be some dark chocolaty seedlings among the offspring.

And one of the Tanquana hilmarii flowered for me again this year. It has the silkiest and shiniest petals but only to be admired "live" :)

PS: I decided not to put plants names directly in the photos. I don't think it's pretty. However you can still see the names in the file names when you click on them. I'll do my best not to forget to mention the names in the blog posts themselves in the future, too.

Shiny lithops flowers (2 pics)

I find it really hard to capture lithops flowers because the most beautiful part is the silky shine. It is tricky to catch it on camera. Fortunately by flowering in the afternoon the plants give us the best setting. The light from out of the window is barely touching the petals while the plant itself is in the shadows. And then the golden glow appears. 

I bet with better equipment the pictures would turn out much better but at least the shine is visible :)

Antimima starting to grow (3 pics)

So far I've only had one Antimima plant (fenestrata) and, it seems, to see any kind of development in its growth you have to take last year's photos and compare. Basically, it's a good thing. It means all goes as it should. The growth period comes, the plant grows a couple of leaves and then goes to sleep again (I'm consciously not mentioning flowers. On a windowsill? Come on!). So I'm trying to find satisfaction in seeing that within a year this plant has grown a bit. 

The Antimima fenestrata has really gotten bushier compared to last year and is now slowly waking up.

The other Antimima (pumila) is quite a small plant yet. I got it in July and back then it was all covered in last years's sheets. A short while ago I started watering and it woke up to show beautiful see-through windows! What a cutie!

Spheroid flowers (4 pics)

I was working overtime a lot lately thus missing all the flowers that were coming up. Not yesterday though!

The L. fulviceps flower opened pretty late and it was getting dark already. The photos have turned out kinda eerie but I liked them anyway. The petals are high-fiving the nearby D. sphalmantoides :)

There should have been another flower coming from the other head but it never developed. This happens a lot. The plants need to rationalize, I guess.

The C. ectypum is still not out of the sheets but is flowering a little. Cute flower of the color I rarely see on my windowsill.

This one,  C. angelicae, has a rare flower color too but flowers at night, it seems. I'll try to catch it tonight. I've removed the sheets myself from this one and badly damaged all the leaves (I was so careful!). People don't ever do that, it's a bad idea. Just let them do whatever they want and whenever they want it.

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)

Conophytum pellucidum flowers (2 pics)

I've got to get more C. pellucidum plants. The flowers are stunning! See-through leaves and huge white flowers ♥

Frithia pulchra leaf close-up (2 pics)

Just wanted to show you this because it's so pretty :)

(Click for XXL)

Recent flowering delights (4 pics)

I'm not even mentioning the Delosperma harazianum here which has been a constant delight. It is just flowering non-stop all year around! Any takers for seeds?

In fact, I have other beauties here that have to be encouraged with attention.

This Anacampseros vanthielii has very big flowers compared to A. filamentosa, they are as big as any Av. quinaria, I'd say. However the plant only grows them one or two at a time and you are lucky not to miss one when it opens. As with all Anacampseros and Avonia it opens only once for a couple of hours. Any takers for seeds?

Besides Neohenricia, Stomatium alboroseum has grown one nightly flower. I'd like to cross-pollinate the two species but the recent Neohenricia flowers are at a slightly different developmental stage. If they open before the Stomatium one closes I'll surely try.

Another plant that is filling me with joy is this Adromischus and even though the open flowers are not much of a sight the whole flower stalk is truly impressive! From the flowers you indeed can say it is a crassulaceae. 

I'm also very excited to see these Conophytum pellucidum flowers open. I've had this plant for over a year and the flowers mean that I could guide it through its yearly cycle well :) It's really encouraging. Conophytums are tricky.

Conophytum fulleri waking up (8 pics)

Today I had the pleasure of witnessing this wonderful conophytum flower! ♥

How did it come to this? I've been trying to wake the conophytums. Some of them are already far along like the one from the previous post, others are still not changing visibly. I keep documenting it though :)

Here is the Conophytum fulleri changing or rather changing while still hiding.
I started watering on August 1st when it looked like this.

On Aug 13 I started seeing some green coming through.

On Aug 16 both plants already started to get chapped. Such a fresh green beneath!

And then, only one day later.... the flower started growing.

From there it escalated quickly. Aug 18

Aug 19

Aug 22. Beautiful ♥