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 ♥

Conophytum uviforme ssp. uviforme waking up (3 pics)

I went by the book and started watering my conophytums around August 1st but not all of them have woken up yet (or at least not very visibly). Interestingly while the conos I bought this year are quite slow the ones I've had for more than a year were ready for water and immediately started growing.

Here is one of them.

I'm trying to document the waking up process so there will be more pics soon.

26 July

5 August

16 August

Lithops experiment part 3

Well, this is not at all what I expected XD

Lithops experiment part 2 (2 pics)

It has been five weeks since I started the experiment to see if badly etiolated (is this the term for a plant out of shape due to a lack of light and too much watering?) lithops plants can be saved and corrected. Well, this is how far the plants are now. My initial plan was to make them wrinkle and shrivel to a better size to make it easier for the new leaves to come out next year. The pot was exposed to lots and lots of sun and heat and was not watered at all. In fact, I am not going to water them until next year. I was worried since they've never seen this much sunlight they'd get burnt but there was no problem with that.

Their current state is definitely an improvement. The two less longer plants are slowly nearing the "mark of shortness" I've set for them. The mark being as close as possible to the substrate level. The substrate level shortness is what I want for the long monster as well but it is not realistic within this year. It just needs to shrivel enough for the new leaves to come out of the side and all the "top" to be safely removed. At least that's my optimistic plan for it. Anyway, so far so good. Still alive!

Newcomers - other Mesembs (15 pics)

The other Mesembs I got in Essen mostly have familiar names but also some that are new to me. I'm very excited to grow them all on the windowsill.

My experience with Cheiridopsis was positive so far so I got more of them. Actually, thinking of Cheiridopsis, I imagine rather large plants but the ones I got are so small I could confuse them with Conophytums. I'll try to keep them in this size and shape.

This one is a Cheiridopsis, too! Who would have thought!

There are also two quite different Antimimas. The first one looks just like the Antimima fenestrata I already have now, all covered in dried up leaves, which is a relief. The second one I'd never take for an Antimima at all. But it's a cute little tree.

The young Nananthus margaretiferus came with a promise of beautiful flowers.

The Glottiphyllum neilii is the most compactly grown and intensely colored Glottiphyllum I've ever seen.

I also got a couple of tiny Trichodiademas. I'm still figuring them out. They seem to grow very slowly here.

The Ruschia unidens should become bushy in time.

The other plants are completely new to me and I'll have to read up on them first. The Hereroa looks like a pigmy version of an Ebracteola.

Chasmatophyllum musculinum seem to have beautiful see-through dots but the color is more of a Rabiea.

Erepsia lacera is something completely different with those razor blades for leaves.

And the Drosanthemum I can't even properly get into a picture. It looks very delicate and I'm afraid it might dry off those tiny leaves easily. Not sure if it means it should be watered more or not.

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.

Cactus & Succulent Market in Essen on July 5th (6 pics)

Back to business :)

I have spent such a wonderful day in Essen. I think my friend was pretty bored but I needed to see all those lovely plants in detail so I was just wandering from table to table, letting the impressions sink in. I was also trying to listen to some conversations among cacti growers - those people can be quite eccentric! And I mean it in a best possible way.

Well, I knew where my journey was taking me from the start - to the Klaus Ingenwepelt's mesemb table. So, after I got myself a Sinningia (leucotricha?) and an Albuca spiralis at a very reasonable price (I wanted both for a while) I went straight there. I thought Mr. Ingenwepelt was a little skeptical towards me last year when I told him I grew my plant on a sunny windowsill. I was pretty sure he didn't take me seriously after that. But in fact he remembered me! And, as I reported to him that all his plants have survived and are doing fine, even the conophytums that were back then new to me, we started talking and I learned so much about his way of growing mesembs. Also, I didn't even know his book "Mittagsblumen, Eiskraut und andere Mesembs" has been released this year and now that I have it I'm going to study it cover to cover. As I've probably mentioned several times in this blog already - the way his plants are grown is my absolute goal. I was walking around for a while and when I came back to pick out the plants I wanted to buy from him (I got two boxes!) there was another grower at his table who made me blush very badly when he recognized me as Rika from the Lithops Stories blog right away. I still can not believe this. How did you do it? :) Thank you so much for reading my blog, please email me, I really want to stay in touch and I'm seriously thinking of going to Blankenberge this September. 

We started talking about our plants and all possible things and it was such an amazing experience. I think it was the first time for me to actually actively talk live with mesemb enthusiasts. Thank you so much for this!