Flowering season of sorts (7 pics)

Winter is coming. It's dark when I go to work, it's dark when I come back home. Oh and the sun is rarely shining on weekends. That's a bit annoying after the rainy summer we've had here. Still, some lithops and conos have been flowering and there are currently 4 more lithops buds growing. That's not bad considering the conditions they had to endure this year. Strangely (or not?) the lithops that grew flowers this year are all the usual suspects, the plants they are flowering for me every year, L. bromfieldii 'Sulphurea', L. fulviceps 'Aurea' and L. dorotheae. If not for them I would not have any flowers at all. I'd recommend north-earopean growers to have those in their collection if they want to see flowers.

L. bromfieldii v. insularis 'Sulphurea' C362

L. fulviceps v. fulviceps 'Aurea' C363 

L. dorotheae C300

I kept last year's seed capsule to see if the plant will grow flowers out of the same head every year. This is what it's been doing for several years now. This year however the usual flowering head is resting while the other two are growing flowers.

Conophytums were more eager to flower. I could even catch flowers on the plants that have not flowered before.

Conophytum meyeri 'Leopardium' - that's one very yellow flower!

Conophytum verrucosum 

And of course Avonia quinaria ssp. alstonii was so kind to show some flowers as well. Good timing too - I was able to catch them on camera. I really want to grow these plants from seed. So far I was not successful.

Transplanting some older seedlings (14 pics)

I've been transplanting some plants that probably didn't need any transplanting. What started as "these seedlings are kinda small for their age, better check the roots" ended up as "let's check them all!" I have ordered pumice from ebay lately and it was a bad idea. Now I'm back to my usual supplier. How great his stuff is in comparison! Transplanting is so much more fun when you are using good quality pumice. 

I'm generally proud of my seedlings, all of them. No matter how well-grown the plants are we buy from someone, plants grown from seeds always seem to be the prettiest of all to me. Not partial at all! ;D But, to be honest, the plants that have germinated and grown under the same conditions all their lives, really do appreciate it. You also have good control over their shape if you watch them closely and treat them accordingly. You know how big a fan I am of plants that are small and really flat to the ground. It is not easy to get such plants as adults. But with seedlings hatched and grown in pumice without any extra food, that is how they will eventually turn up looking. Not much effort involved. They grow very slowly though. And show their true patterns quite late. I'm not growing them for sale so that's okay.

The seedlings that appeared small-ish to me are the L. lesliei ssp. burchellii (C308), sown back in 2011. It's been 5 years! You might remember them from here, here or here. Cute kids they were. Well, I'm not sure if that's it with their size and they won't grow any larger but they seem to be fit and strong with nice root systems. So maybe fresh substrate will give them a bit more energy. They show a variety of patterns and I tried to regroup them according to their looks. You would probably not notice the difference but I did have a system.

They also like to dig themselves in. Here is a "before" picture.

Squeeze and pull! That is why clay pots are not recommended, btw ;)

Also, it's absolutely okay to remove half of the fine roots, or even more, along with the rests of old substrate during transplantation. The fine roots grow back in no time. I think the trimming actually stimulates them.

The others I spontaneously decided to re-pot are the L. aucampiae ssp. aucampiae v. aucampiae 'White Flower' (C002A) seedlings I got from seeds of the plants I got from Mr. Shimada when I was living in Japan. Well, the parent plants were way too huge to survive long under my conditions. But at least I got seeds and this is what I have to show for it now. Back in 2012 they looked so week and ugly and strange. Then they got better and better and now they are such beauties! The uniform color, the perfect shape, the manageable size. I do mean to brag!

The size of Mr. Ingenwepelt's plants is what I'm going for so if we compare the L. aucampiae head size, mine should not get any bigger.

I've refreshed the substrate for some other seedlings too.

Some nameless L. lesliei seedlings.

The Ventergreens (C001A), from own seeds. They look all grown up but never flower. That's my curse :) At least the leaves look very pretty.

This L. lesliei ssp. lesliei v. lesliei 'Storms’s Albinigold' (C036B) is two-headed but tiny, sown sometime 2008. One of my first.

This L. bromfieldii v. glaudinae 'Rubroroseus' (C393A) went a bit too far in its flatness. I have a bunch of "kinda small" Rubroroseus seedings while their siblings are already adult looking. New substrate it is.

Rubroroseus seedlings (5 pics)

I think I remember complaining that these Lithops bromfieldii v. glaudinae 'Rubroroseus' (C393A) seedlings weren't red enough back when they first hatched. Now they are 3,5 years old. And, yes, this is how small 3 year old lithops are if you don't push them. Just after leaf change that is. They will double in size after a season of growing. Anyway, about the color. I've made a selection of most magenta plants last year and they really are "rubroroseus" and quite impressively so.

The rest of the seedlings bunch from back then is more regular looking, with a couple of magenta kids among them. But they are all individually beautiful of course. Nothing to complain about.

New year, new life for lithops - part 2 (6 pics)

I just felt like posting a small regenerating lithops lesliei selection :)

L. lesliei v. minor 'Witblom' C006A x L. lesliei 'Fred's Redhead'

L. lesliei ssp. lesliei v. venteri C001

L. lesliei ssp. lesliei v. venteri 'Ventergreen' C001A 

L. lesliei ssp. lesliei v. lesliei 'Albinica' C036A 

L. lesliei ssp. lesliei v. lesliei (grey form) C008 

To be continued

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.

Newcomers - Lithops (13 pics)

Firstly, I'd like to introduce the new lithops I got from Klaus Ingenwepelt. I bought a couple of plants of each kind so there are actually more plants than the photos below and they are still in their original pots and substrates. Normally, lithops have it more cozier at my place, growing in groups of at least two in one container. But I'm generous with room these days and it can wait.

I was not very successful buying adult white-flowering lithops before but I think I have more experience now so I decided to get mostly hallii, karasmontana and julii this time, knowing that they were grown perfectly shaped which will give them a good start on my windowsill. They all have nice and sharp patterns and the best size. Even the aucampiae, that tend to grow huge in commercial nurseries, are so wonderfully small and round. This is definitely the goal for us hobby growers :)

Among the yellow-flowering lithops I really liked L. hookeri v. lutea and would have bought several but there was only one plant left. It has a nice dark color, in contrast with the usual light-green or orange.

And this strange guy is a Conophytum verrucosum, the only cono I can show you as all the others I bought look like the C. ectypum ssp sulcatum below. Photos will follow in the fall.

I'll post the pictures of other mesembs soon, too.

Small plants (5 pics)

I'm fond of small plants. I guess that's why I'm growing lithops. But also among lithops I like the smaller, more compact plants and, in truth, the smaller the plant the easier it is to care for it under windowsill conditions. I'm often using the word "downsizing" with the meaning of letting or making the plant reduce its size to the manageable minimum. And I don't have in mind an unhealthy shrinking and slowly withering. A small plant can be fit and healthy and strong. It can be grown to be small from seed or, with a little bit of luck and patience, made small by strict watering and poor substrate. Not all plants can go from fat to slim (fat plants tend to die during regeneration before they get a chance to downsize) but those that can will thank you with more intense color and sharper pattern.

I've had success with these L. lesliei and L. hookeri in this regard. Over the course of about 2 years they went from bloated to flat and tiny and now don't have any troubles regenerating like it was the case at the beginning. With the Albinicas below I had serious doubts they will make it at all. The plant heads on the pictures go from 7mm to 15mm in size.

I'm not a friend of L. julii or karasmontana but I found out that I can only grow them if they are kept small.