Mites and darkness (9 pics)

It has not been the best year for succulent growers in my area. It has not been cold in winter, it hasnot been hot in summer. It has been just dark and gloomy all year. When sunny days are rare it means there is not much watering. If waterings are rare there's not much growing. Except for spider mites. Those grow nicely when it's dry. At some point I moved Delospermas outside (those are the most tasty) which improved the situation. But I still find mites on my plants occasionally (and kill them on site with my bare hands) and the damage is visible: nibbled leaves, weakened plants. I hope next year is sunnier and better all in all and the plants can recover.

My favorite and oh so perfect Frithias I was so proud of look like this now. It takes them so long to grow those leaves. Much time will pass until they've outgrown the bite marks. Assumed the attack is over. And yes, I've been spraying a lot which has contributed to the damage on some plants I think.

But Aloinopsis got the most of it. The below two are goners.

This one might recover (very big might) but judging by the size of the newest leaves it is extremely weakened by the overall conditions last year. Maybe I should stop growing Aloinopsis all together or just keep a couple of plants as mite-distraction.

The Antimima pumila started very well and then got bitten. I think it will recover though, after the next resting period. It's a bit elongated, too...

Same as these Titanopsis seedlings. Bugs plus spray plus sudden sunlight equals burn marks in addition to everything else. They should be fine with the new leaves coming. But it pains me to see them so ugly.

I know I might be exaggerating. After all it's just a couple of plants that are beyond saving, out of hundreds. But the lack of sunlight is visible to me in all the green-ness everywhere.

Sure, this cute Titanopsis calcarea is growing flowers (thank you planty!) and I did my best to keep it compact through this dark dark year but the green color says it all. 

PS: Sorry for the dusty pics.

PPS: This got too depressing. I'll be posting about my feel-good plants Anacampseros next :)

Avonia quinaria (4 pics)

I feel like I need to read up on Avonia's (as well as Anacampseros) yearly growing cycle again. It

seems they are in an active growth phase now, having flowered for the last time in October. I thought they are supposed to be resting in winter. Maybe they will. It's not winter yet.

Avonia quinaria plants are not very difficult to grow on the windowsill (in pure pumice) and they will flower for you, too. The main cause of death is overwatering. I made a mistake once - I thought the thick root will increase in size if I buried it. The only thing that came out of it was a dead plant, rotten from the inside, and a resolve not to do this ever again. You see, the only clear way of telling whether an Avonia quinaria needs water, at least for me, is to squeeze the raised root a bit. Sure if the plant needs water the branches might drop a little. But depending on the time of the year those branches might be too short to drop visibly. So from now on they all will grow raised and looking like palm trees. Much safer this way.

This Avonia quinaria ssp. quinaria (that's the one with pink flowers) is particularly pretty this year. It has grown many new branches and looks very happy. 

Argyroderma crateriforme flower (6 pics)

I'm so happy and excited that this plant has decided to flower! :)

It is gorgeous and a bit crazy. Does the name crateriforme come from the inside of the flower?

I have never watched an Argyroderma flower bud develop and I found it very curious how different it is from the usual mesemb flowers I've had so far. Okay, maybe it's not that different but it definitely looks different to me. 

The mesemb flower buds I've seen on my windowsill so far were elongated with tips of the petals showing at some point before the flower opens. The Argyroderma bud started as something round and flat, almost looking more like a seed pod than flower bud. 

It grew larger and when the sepals parted a bit you could see that the petals are actually curved inwards, folded with their tips toward the "crater". 

It stayed like this for a while and then yesterday suddenly it "erupted" and the petals darted out. It stayed like this until today.

It was sunny today and the flower finally opened. I'm so glad I could witness it!

Adromuschus clons (5 pics)

For a while now I have been wondering about price development for succulent plants these days. Prices are skyrocketing for no apparent reason. It's not like the plants have gotten more rare or have grown indestructible. Plants are not an investment. They die. Quite suddenly, too. No regular size plant that's not even old, even if it is extremely rare, should cost more that 20€ and seeds more than 5€. Why would you pay more? Some prices are ridiculous! Out of curiosity I've recently checked Ebay for Adromischus and saw a small plant that was visually nothing special going for 4500€. Why? And especially for Adromischus. It multiplies easily from a leaf, no effort required from the grower.

Fellow growers, let's share our passion, not kill it by making plants and seeds unaffordable.

So, apparently, I am not buying new plants anytime soon. More time to enjoy those I have, am I right? ;) In September 2013 I got one Adromischus marianae v. herrei (green form) and now I have three thanks to the convenient propagation method - leaf cuttings. Sure it takes time and sometimes it can take months for the new leaves to appear even if the root system is fully developed. But the result is a new perfect plant. The below plant looked like this in February 2014, like this in April 2014 and like this in August 2014. Now it has a size of an adult Adromischus and might bloom next year.

The smaller cutting still keeps it's mother-leaf and is a bit slower. In its defense, looks like it is growing two branches simultaneously.

After a time I acquired others but they were not growing too well. I have decided to get rid of them and try anew from their leaves. The one to the right on the above photo is a young cutting of something called Adromischus marianae v. herrei CR1263 and below are my newest cuttings of Adromischus marianae 'Little Sphaeroid'. Hopefully they will develop well in time.

Oh, and here is the initial plant I got the little greenies from. It looked like this back in 2013.

Transplanting for those who live dangerously (4 pics)

Okay, what I'm about to describe below is not the correct way of transplanting, in fact it's very risky and I would never do it with lithops and other mesembs because they rot easily. Yesterday however I was facing a challenge of transplanting over 60 Anacampseros seedlings (An. retusa fa. rubra, An44) from the 5cm container they were growing in. Basically it looked like this:

My goal was to give them more room to grow but at the same time not to use more than 4 new 5cm pots. Also, I wanted to do it quickly. Anacampseros are easy and don't rot when young (rotting sometimes happens to adult plants with thick roots) and I have way too many of them to worry.

The method is simple: fill up the new container with dry pumice, then water the top layer (really just as much as necessary, don't make the whole thing wet), poke holes into it and stick in the plants. 

This way you can fit up to 25 plants all neatly into one 5cm square pot quickly and with little effort.

Remember, if you're not afraid to lose plants and need to do the transplanting in a hurry this is the method to go for. BUT if you use it for mesembs the risk is very high - the seedlings might turn to mush the next day. I warned you! In case of Anacampseros, I have transplanted all my seedlings (hundreds of them) using this method a couple of months ago and had zero losses (you've probably seen the LQ pictures of my huge plantation over on Twitter). Young Anacampseros are low-maintenance.

The new Anacampseros free seed list! (2 pics)

Hi guys!

I finally found time to compile the Anacampseros seed list. If you are fascinated by these plants as much as I am make sure to check it out here or to the right under "new!"

Also, this is my 600th post. Congratulations to me :D

Transplanting in general (7 pics)

I've been doing some transplanting. And there is more to be done because I really want to sow again very soon, all the seed rests that are probably not viable anymore, some of my own seeds (Avonia!), and some conophytum seeds I bought this year.

So this is how it goes. 

Step 1. Squeeze the container from all sides. This is why we use plastic and not clay ;)

Step 2. Pull out the plants. If they don't come out easily, stop pulling and squeeze the pot again.

Step 3. Now fill a pot with fresh dry pumice, up to the top.

Step 3.1. Examine your plants for bugs and remove all old soil from the roots. It's ok to pull off some roots as long as the main root is intact. Don't be squeamish. I usually rip off some of the main root as well if it's too long. If you are transplanting from dry soil into dry soil the plants won't mind (roots inactive).

Step 4. Use a stick to plant the seedlings into the container by dragging them down by the root (in case of adult plants you will need to wiggle the stick to let the pumice stones collapse around the plant and drag it down on their own). You can arrange them to your liking and put really a lot of plants all in one pot this way, saving precious space.

All done.

PS: I actually thought I could put a couple more trays on the windowsill but it looks like it's occupied now :D

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.

Avonias lifting branches: a theory (3 pics)

In the latest post I casually mentioned my observations regarding the behavior of Avonia albissima branches with ripe seed pots. I find it quite interesting. Apparently, the branches that otherwise lie flat on the ground at all times suddenly lift when the seed pod has ripe seeds in it. I've been watching the flowering Avonias closely since then and it happens regardless of whether they've been watered or not. Recently a couple of my Avonia quinaria plants have been flowering, too. They are normally not self fertile but it still happens from time to time that a seed pod develops. This time it happened again and look at that! The branch with a ripe seed capsule goes way up while the other one lies on the ground. 

I've developed a theory as for why Avonias are doing that. Completely unscientific of course!! :D You know, ripe Avonia seed pods workings are the opposite of Mesembs. The seed pods close up when they are wet and open when they are dry. Not only lifting the pod up to the sun makes it dry quicker and throw off the rests of the old flower it also surely helps distribute the seeds better with the wind. Moreover, if it happens to rain and the seed pod is on the ground it will be much wetter and therefore sealed for longer time. If it's in the upright position when it rains the pod can dry quickly in the sun and the seeds fall out before the ground dries ensuring better germination chances. What do you think?

Some flowers (10 pics)

My lithops are usually quick to show flower buds but there's still nothing, not even a hint. I doubt I'll see any flowers this year, there has been very little sunlight and warmth for that. But at least some of the other plants don't mind. There have been several conophytum flowers and there are new buds visible.

Conophytum fulleri 

Conophytum pellucidum ssp. cupreatum v. terrestre

Conophytum angelicae ssp. tetragonum

Conophytum uviforme ssp. decoratum

Avonia albissima multiramosa has been flowering, or rather producing seed pods as I'm pretty sure the flowers do not open. I might have missed them but, really, I've never ever seen them open in my life. It always goes from bud to seed pod.

Funny thing is that the branches are normally lying flat on the ground, but when the seed pods are almost ripe they get pushed up and the branches suddenly lift into upright position, just for a day or so. I wonder what is happening there chemically that makes them do that.

The seeds are all viable and I've been sowing them a lot over the last couple of years. They germinate perfectly but then grow so slowly they die before they can gain any weight. I currently have several seedlings but it looks like only one of them is going to survive. It took it 2 years to get to this size. FML.

Anacampseros namaquensis (An17) has grown one flower only with much effort this year. As most Anacampseros flowers are pale rose-white I was really looking forward to this bright pink flower. But it never opened. Hope it has at least produced some seeds. I really like this plant.

Ah, and this young Avonia quinaria ssp. quinaria has opened both its flowers this weekend! Here is one of them.