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Since I've been documeting this kind of thing before here's a new report on the seedlings from 2010 and 2011. The conclusion so far is that it isn't a good idea to sow in summer. Depends on the summer, of course. I read about it but now I can tell from experience. The one year old seedlings are doing much better than those I sowed during the very hot April or in summer. That's why the next bunch will probably follow in January. But now to the report. :) You can tell how C382 bromfieldii v. glaudinae (sown 29.10.2010) have grown since August . The largest are about to change their leaves for the 3rd time. The rest of them have just done it for the 2nd time, while the one on top of the photo is taking its time. Same pot, same conditions, different outcome. Lithops are funny like that. Next to the C141 lesliei ssp. lesliei v. mariae (sown 23.10.2010), which are getting their 3rd pair of leaves. Summer kids, C308 lesliei ssp. burchellii (sown 24.06.2011) are in some k...

It didn't take long.

Just a little sunshine and the flowers open. This C271 helmutii is in bloom for the first time on my watch :)

I'm going to repeat myself but these helmutii are my constant source of joy. :) They've been blooming like crazy last year. This year the situation seemed to be different. After all the bugs, aggressive root-washing, transplanting I didn't expect them to flower and stopped watering sometime in September. Now, two months later, they look like typical winter-lithops, wrinkly and slowly growing new leaves inside. Or so I thought. Instead they've decided to surprise me! At least three out of five heads are pushing flowers right now. And the flower on the four-headed one is about to open any day now. Bought them 2010 in Japan because of the unusual beige coloring and spotted pattern for a helmutii.

Otzeniana has flowers.... for the second time this year . :)

Well, relatively new tenants. Several weeks ago I bought some plants from Kakteen-Haage and Atomic Plant Nursery but didn't have a chance to take pictures. Since I didn't have any schwantesii in my collection it was about time to get a couple of those. Unfortunately because of the bad light and their winterly-wrinkly condition it is hard to see the pattern but they are really quite interesting. C249 schwantesii v. marthae (from KH) have a red core and a light green crown around the lobes. I got them with flower buds and pollinated them once the flowers opened. C248 schwantesii v. urikosensis (syn. kunjasensis) (from AP) have very distinguished karasmontana-ish dark lines. Two two-headed C55 olivacea (from AT). Didn't have those before either - such unusual windows. C53 hookeri v. marginata (from AT). I've had some losses among my own hookeri and obviously needed more :) Fun fact: the famous 'Shimada's Apricot' cultivar originates from C53. C224 kar...

Eleven months old Fred's Redhead lesliei present their first 'true' leaves. They are a little dusty but you can see  how unusual the color is: more violet than red and very dark. Looking forward to see them all grown-up one day.

I'm late with a new post again. It's winterly cold and dark outside, we've been having heavy fog since two days. No sunshine can break through it. I feel bad for my plants. As you remember I was fighting mealy-bugs a couple of months ago, leading to the fact that, even though many plants have developed flower buds, most of them didn't have the strength to develop them fully and they've dried out half-finished. Them being weak might be partly my fault, I just forget to fertilize (need to work on this next year). Still, several of those were flowering and some I considered too weak anyway are still pushing flowers! Unfortunately it is a bit to late now that there's no sunshine, but I see it as a good sign for the plants themselves. This helmutii had 11 heads last year, but after heaving been nibbled on and transplanted two times last year, there were only seven left. The plant looks much better now and develops flower buds very quickly at the moment.

Sorry for not writing for so long. I'm still around, as well as the plants. They haven't been watered since some time preparing for winter and are wrinkly and weird now, even though some are still pushing flowers. Meanwhile I've visited the oldest cactus nursery in Europe - "Kakteen Haage" in Erfurt which made me wish I had more room in my appartment and less room in my wallet. I've only bought four lithops there and will show them later along with other new tenants. There are several greenhouses in the nursery with lots and lots of cacti. My knowledge of those is quite limited so please check out the pictures.  Click "read more" to see all of them: The entrance doesn't look like much but the greenhouses are huge. The succulent section. The lithops table. Some amazingly big and expensive caudex plants. How old might this dioscorea be? The cacti greenhouses. Didn't know what to make photos of so here are some cute tiny plants (mostly Ariocarpu...