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A little update on the gesinae C207 from before , even though this pic is from June. The strange magenta color is gone with the old leaves (will it return?), but now it has other properties. Doesn't it look just like the substrate it's living in? It's such a cute little plant :)

If you look to the right there will be a link list I called "useful websites". There are not many but there will be more with time, I'm sure. These are websites I use very often: for reference, identification or as a shop for plants, seeds and pumice. As for shop websites, I'm aware that there are many good shops out there but I chose these two for the link list, because I've already tried them out. ;) Lithops Info This website has the best lithops locality data list or LLD (C001 - C416). It's very easy to use and very helpful if you happen to know the Cole-number of a lithops but not the proper name. This way you can look up its looks (roughly) and flower color all in one step. You can change the order settings as well. Of course it also has a gallery. But I wouldn't recommend it for plant identification because the most pictures only show one single grown-up plant at only one particular time during the year, neglecting the variations within a species an...

Word from home is that my plants sadly aren't getting enough light this summer and some are growing misshapen. I won't be able to do anything about it until they're in my own place again (where there's lots and lots of light throughout the whole year!). Also it means there's some fixing to do before the next growing season. Still, from what I hear, this year wasn't as bad as I expected: there were very few losses. To be honest, I feared the worst as I went to Japan. I really shouldn't complain. :) Forgot to show you this picture. It's this hookeri with an open flower. I took the picture the day I left for Japan - the flower just had opened for the first time. I'm glad I was able to see it. :) PS: I got a playmate for the beige helmutii . If there's a chance I always try to buy two plants of the same species.

Here's another one from the Succulent Expo: lithops marmorata v. marmorata (syn. diutina) C260. Is it me or does the island pattern look like chromosomes? :)

It's a real shame that " LITHOPS - Treasures of the Veld " by Steven A. Hammer is out of print nowadays, because I'd buy it right away. But at least there are .pdf files floating around the internet so that we are able to enjoy this great book digitally. I've had it for a while, but only just read it. It's truly amazing. Not only very informative - it answers so many questions I had on my mind! - but also a fun read. I had to laugh a lot while reading it. :) You can feel how dear these plants are to the author, he notices all those little things about them and writes with such passion - reading it was a delight. I'm sure I will re-read it often enough in the future. (How wonderful it would be to have it on the bookshelf and not on the computer. They need to re-print it, seriously.) Both Mr. Shimada and Mr. Hammer refer to " Lithops: Flowering Stones " by Desmond and Naureen Cole as a standard work on lithops. I'll have to put my hands on th...

I'm so excited! Yesterday I received the new catalogue from Mr. Shimada's Lithops Laboratory (Gunsenen Nursery/群仙園). I'm a big admirer of Mr. Shimada and his lithops collection and wished I could go visit the nursery but can't afford it. From the numerous pictures in "The Genus Lithops" I can tell how utterly amazing it would be. Well, at least now I'm able to purchase several of the plants I couldn't find anywhere else (not many, but they still seem to cost a fortune). I'm going to place the order sometime next week and post an update here as soon as the plants arrive. Can't wait, really. :) And of course, I want to thank dear Abe from the TSIN blog for all the help. I really appreciate it!

I was quite intrigued by this plant, so I had to have it. :) Apparently it is a regular lithops helmutii like the one ←on the picture to the left, but it has pretty beige colors so different from the blue-green C271 . On the label it says something about 'new locality' but it's probably just a slight (and lovely) variation. I know that helmutii 'Albiflos' have a different color and even a different pattern from the regular ones, but the former owner of this particular plant says it had yellow flowers. Well, maybe its color will go away with the next annual change, but I sure hope it stays. I will send it home soon. Lithops helmutii (4-headed plant)

I've been doing an inventory lately based on the pictures I've got saved on my netbook. Looking at the time stamps I can say when a particular plant was bought or re-potted, had flowers, got two-headed, etc. I have quite some plants from way back, bought in unspecialized stores. Still, I can tell whether they are lesliei or aucampiae or hookeri (these three species also seem to be the most common in german stores). With this little guy I've got no idea whatsoever! But it has a story. I got it back in 2008 from a hardware store. Actually it was in a big pot with what looked like a big lithops "family", but the most of them were already dead and left behind only dried up skin. This lithops was one of the three still left in the pot, and also the smallest. I brought them home (It took a lot of convincing to get them half-price - even though it was clearly a rescue operation) only to see that all the help was too late for the other two: mealy bugs. This one survived b...