It was the summer of our discontent... (7 pics)

I've been prevented from writing new posts by a wild animal that confiscated by laptop :D

Not really. She is being fantastic! :)

What really bothers me is this terrible weather we are having this year. We haven't had any spring and still no summer. It just rains all the time. My plants are lucky if they get one hour of sunlight a day. I'm being very careful with waterings but several lithops are stretching nevertheless. I wonder what makes them do that exactly. If it's dark and they've been watered shouldn't they all stretch?

In this L. schwantesii container you can see that one plant is growing too long while others stay flat.

In this L. lesliei v. hornii (C15) container, one head (!) of a plant is stretching while the other does not. What makes it do that?

L. karasmontana likes to stretch no matter what, no surprises there. It is quite small and the shape will correct itself next year.

What I find strange is that another L. karasmontana (v. aiaisensis C224) in a nearby pot is as flat as it can be.

So what triggers it really? Unlucky watering timing? Or is there something more to it?

In other news, my Frithia pulchra has grown flowers again this year. Unfortunately I still have not seen them fully open because, as I said, there is no sunlight. They open just a little without it, and then close again...

Catching Anacampseros flowers proves to be difficult as well. I keep missing them! It's so annoying. I've missed the biggest and prettiest ones so far.

I'm complaining a lot today XD

Conophytum herreanthus (4 pics)

Sorry for not posting much, I've been a little preoccupied lately by an acquisition of a rare mesemb of a feline variety :)

The weather is terrible here. It's like we've had fall weather since October, all darkness and rain. These days the sun comes out in the mornings (huge improvement) followed by heavy thunderstorms in the afternoons. How my plants are not cucumbers yet is a mystery. All my watering schedule is confused. I've watered almost all of the lithops by now but only once or twice to let them know they can start growing but also to prevent them from stretching towards the rare sunlight. If that makes any sense. I think it does not. Better dry than growing under these circumstances. I just feel bad seeing them shrivel. 

You know which plants don't care about all of that? Winter growers, especially conophytums. They are in sheaths and asleep. Who new German weather would support their resting schedule so well? You know who else doesn't care? The strange plant below. It's not sheathed as others but it's clearly resting.

I got it in February under the name of Herreanthus meyeri (H-637, Umdaus) and it's still listed as such at Mesa Garden. But it's actually a Conophytum herreanthus. Hard to believe this giant is a conophytum. Apparently Schwantes has considered it a separate genus but has not taken into account the behavior of seedlings and the flower structure. Also, back then the non-sheathing conophytums (like C. khamiesbergense) have not been well described, it seems. And so, as a revision, this plant is now a conophytum. Crazy. I haven't watered it since February and it doesn't show any signs of distress. The only thing it did is drying of the big floppy old leaves. I guess, it best be watered around end of august, with the other conos. 

Hope that proper summer will reach us soon.