New year, new life for lithops - part 1 (12 pics)

These past several days it was sunny at last and lithops are known to react to that. They're not wasting time. All of a sudden new shiny faces started popping up here and there. What was taking months to prepare progresses very quickly when spring comes. Some still have lots of resources to recycle, others have regenerated completely and are just sitting there, waiting for their first watering to start growing. Most of the plants below are my good friends since years and it's always a relief to see them go through their annual cycle timely and in a proper manner. The shapes and colors are all I can wish for, too. It really is absolutely possible to grow short and flat plants on a sunny windowsill in Europe, don't get discouraged! The trick is in watering timing, substrate and maybe in the small size of the pots, too. But it IS possible to grow them well year after year without artificial light, and if you like these plants you should try it ;)

C363 L. fulviceps 'Aurea' and C384 L. pseudotruncatella v. dendritica sharing a container. I should probably separate them but they're such good neighbors. 

Aureas are very pretty indeed.

So are their milky relatives C222 L. fulviceps v. lactinea.

This one is a bit shy but will spread its wings once watered.

C006 L. lesliei ssp. lesliei v. minor are from the bunch of my very first seedlings, sown in 2008. New leaves are glistening in the sun. Love them!

These C382 L. bromfieldii v. glaudinae hatched in 2010 and are always a beautiful, natural sight during leaf change.

C362 L. bromfieldii v. insularis 'Sulphurea' are supposed to get new heads every year. Mine doesn't go beyond four.

C392 L. aucampiae 'Storm's Snowcap' are changing nicely but only when they are kept small. In my experience any fat aucampiae (normally one from a hardware store) will choke on its old leaves. 

L. dorotheae have accumulated a lot over the year, as always, even though I barely water them and never fertilize. Nevertheless they regenerate without a problem every year (good metabolism? :D ) so I don't mind.

C300 L. dorotheae

L. dorotheae de Boer (photobombed by a Braunsia)

I'll post more photos soon!

Anacampseros obsession part 2 (8 pics)

I was waiting for the sun to come out to take more pictures of the Anacampseros bunch but it's not happening and who knows when we'll see the sunlight next, if at all. Two days ago it was snowing in Luxembourg. In Trier it's always warmer so that we don't get even that. It just keeps on raining, all day long, every day.

I have a bad itch to water some of the lithops but I can't for - it looks like - several more weeks. Gotta be strong. At least the Anacamp-seedlings are developing wonderfully and are able to distract me. I have now 14 pots of tiny green beads. It's amazing how well they germinate when fresh. If you see someone selling Anacampseros seeds harvested 2015 you can sow them with great results. Just as a test I've tried sowing rests of 2014 seeds. None hatched. Zero. They stay viable one year tops. I'll probably be offering free seeds later this year again so please keep this in mind.

Back to the grown-ups introductions. In my last post I have shown you none of the An. arachnoides which are truly lovely with their small pointy heart-shaped leaves. Here they are!

Anacampseros arachnoides, An106, s Roineck Pass

Great brownish-red color which in my light conditions might get greener later. Will try to avoid that.

Anacampseros arachnoides, An9, Besemkop, n Calitzdorp, ES3046

The fluff in the middle looks like a mealy bugs nest but it's not, I've checked. Detecting mealy bugs on these plants will not be easy.

Anacampseros arachnoides, An35, Dysseldorp 

I don't know what the deal with those branch-towers is. Do they grow like this or are those rests of the inflorescence? 

Anacampseros arachnoides, An208, Hoogstaan

This one is a bit different. Rounder leaves of dark green. Looks a little like an Aloinopsis schooneesii.

Anacampseros lanceolata, An48, Rietkloof, w Steinkopf

This and the next plant are quite young and still have to develop some distinguishing characteristics (maybe). Cute though.

Anacampseros lanceolata, An83, Harras

Anacampseros lanceolata, An33, w Spitsberg (e Nuwerus)

This one is pretty large and should have large flowers, too. Looking forward to growing it.

And here comes the hatchery!

Anacampseros obsession (11 pics)

You've probably noticed that I've developed a keen interest in Anacampseros recently. Not sure what triggered it but after having grown several plants (adults and babies) for a couple of years now I want to have them all! Well, at least all of the compact ones. Their shapes, their colors, their flowers, their hairy-fuzzy-fluffy-ness - in all diversity - I decided they belong on my windowsill and sooner rather than later.

All the googling and picture swooning resulted in a large order of plants and seeds mostly from my favorite dealer and a subsequent sowing party of not less than 14 different species and subspecies and locality bound varieties. By the way, it does seem that Anacampseros don't have proper field numbers so that they have to be separated by knowing exactly where they grow or the catalog number of a particular nursery. Not the easiest way for collectors and quite confusing, too. Also, I have not realized before that Anacampseros (and I don't mean Avonia) can have white flowers or white flowers with pink center. And the pure pink flowers can be truly huge. This is all very exciting :)

The care seems to be straightforward and fresh seeds germinate instantly. I'm fairly positive it will be a wonderful adventure. Will post more pictures soon!

The naming is tricky so I'll just post all info I got.

Anacampseros sp., SB684, Springbok, RSA

This one kinda shows how Anacampseros is related with worm-like Avonia species - the leaves are getting shorter, the stems thinner, the hairs turn into scales. These are actually 7 plants that can only be held upright by clinging to each other, locked by hairs.

Anacampseros telephiastrum, An97, Witberge

Looks like an Adromischus and...

...can be just as red.

Anacampseros telephiastrum, An85, nw Barrydale

Anacampseros lanceolata, An1, Matjiesfontein, ES3043
They can have pointy scissors leaves that remind you of Rabiea's and...

... pointy inwards growing ones.
Anacampseros lanceolata, An124, Skitterykloof

They can be hairy columns.
Anacampseros baeseckei, An139, 3km n Pofadder 

They can be round and cute all over.
Anacampseros namaquensis, An17, Karrachab Poort, ES167

They can be fluffy rocks.
Anacampseros filamentosa ssp. namaquensis

And they can be eager to start the new season with fresh new growth coming out everywhere!
Anacampseros vanthielii, 1 km van Springbok

And you got to love them all.

L. schwantesii's new faces (6 pics)

I really don't like taking pictures in this cold, dark winter light but all of the L. schwantesii are showing their beautiful new faces these days and I just had to take a couple of close-ups. L. schwantesii are not easy to capture because their surface is blurry by nature and the camera refuses to focus. But they are oh so pretty! So here you go, first lithops portraits of the year :)

Titanopsis calcarea: First flower (2 pics)

So, looks like I've raised this one to adulthood :)

There was a flower on another seedling of this bunch but I either missed it or it never opened so I'll consider this one as the first. It seems like a miracle! I've grown it from a seed collected from my own plant and now it's flowering!

You can see these Titanopsis calcarea plants as newborns, nearly newborns, 2-month-olds, 3-month-olds, 15-month-olds here in the blog. They hatched in May 2013.

Carefree seedlings (3 pics)

Recently I feel like I lost my touch with seedlings and I think that's because I don't have time to care for them these days as I had before (also, I've been trying to use up all old seeds I have and viability is low). I kinda expect them to grow on their own without any support (mostly psychological anyway) from the grower. And when they actually do that it's worth a blog post. Anacampseros vanthielii seedlings have turned out to be very low maintenance. They just grow as they grow, in their cozy big group, green and hairy and fresh. No help from my side at all. Can only recommend them to all of you. There will surely be seeds again next year so make sure to get a free pocket ;)

When they grow up they should look like their mother.

In other news... no news. The windowsill is a bit boring these days. Waiting for the days to get longer. 

Beautiful ugliness (2 pics)

This is what I want to see when I look at my lithops in winter and L. bromfieldii never disappoint :)

Lithops experiment part 5 (4 pics)

Continuing the series about three overgrown lithops and an attempt to save them and get them into proper shape, here is the most recent development.

The lithops were shrinking as expected, however I fear I noticed way too late, that the tallest one had grown the new leaves inside to a size that is definitely too long for them! Actually, I wanted to cut it open before this happens, even though I understand that the'd be immature at that time, so it might have been bad either way. Now that I noticed, I've ripped the old leaves open to get some light upon the new ones and prevent them from growing even longer. I'm pretty sure I was too late but we'll see. I was afraid to miss the "point of no return" with the other plants so I've ripped another one as well. The third one doesn't show any signs of new leaves though, which is even more worrisome. Oh well, it is an experiment so we'll just have to wait and see. I guess, if they survive, it will be another year until they look normal.

For your future reference, if you buy cucumber shaped lithops, prepare to spend 2 years correcting them - in a best case scenario! It's really not worth it. In 2 years you can grow your own perfect little lithops kids from seed ;)

Thirsty lithops (6 pics)

I'm posting some pictures of thirsty lithops on demand :)

I have just taken them so these are examples of thirsty lithops that do NOT need to be watered. It's November and this is how they should look like this time of the year. No need to feel sorry for them.

However, if you see them like this in the time period from April to September (October, if still sunny), and the surface is soft to the touch, it's a clear sign that the plant needs and should get some water. There is an exception when it's very very hot in Summer and the plants get wrinkly but the surface stays hard as stone - this means they went into a heat induced sleep and should not be bothered. They can be watered when in doubt but they most likely will not react until the heatwave is over so they better be left alone.

Here are the typical signs of a thirsty plant:

1. The sides get wrinkly. Easy to see on those that grow in a longer shape naturally (olivacea or dorotheae or julii)

2. The plant tries to bury itself. This you can see on short-bodies plants (lesliei or bromfieldii). They look like pies with a crust from above. You'll see the wrinkles on the sides if you dig them up a bit.

Of course in Summer you don't need to wait for this level of dehydration and can water much sooner if it's sunny. However, a grown up plant can take it and you can go on a 3 week vacation no problem. Once watered they will return to their normal shape in a day or two.