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now there's no room for more

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Here is the report on the new purchases. Considering all those many lithops species being sold at Kakteen-Haage my choice wasn't that special. After all you have to stay in your budget and think about how little space you have for new plants. Having to buy at least two plants of one species (known as the collector's curse) is also a restricting factor. I'm really glad I could choose the plants myself though - a privilege you don't have very often having used to ordering online. This way you can go for plants you find most interesting or feel curious about. However, it is a bit difficult this time of the year when the plants are badly wrinkled, the patterns are blurred and the colors faded. You need to imagine the potential ;) First a couple of   C136 hallii v. hallii "brown". I have a weakness for cocoa-colored hallii and already have a couple of ochracea seedlings which are just starting to show their true colors. As I mentioned before I just had to get the...
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Acclimation

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I just realized that I haven't yet addressed the acclimation issue here directly but it is something all of us have good or not so good experiences with. Obviously not every Lithops or other succulent we grow is the one we grew from seed. A lot of them were acquired as seedlings, cuttings or adults. You probably also have noticed that the plants you grew from seed are stronger and healthier and don't die that easily. They hatched in your particular conditions and are used to the care you give them. They accept what they get without complaining while the plants we receive as adults first need to learn and get accustomed to the new situation they find themselves in. If you receive your new plant in the mail it's normally "bare-root" and you have no choice but to pot it. But also if you buy one in the local shop or at a nurcery, in its own pot and substrate, the first step should be re-potting. Even though it appears to not be helpful in terms of "easy transitio...
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Neohenricia flower

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Well, this is a surprise. I didn't think it would flower in the summer, unless it can do that at different times a year. Winter was my guess for two reasons. First, I got it with a dried up flower. Second, Steven Hammer writes he has successfully created hybrids of Neohenricia and Titanopsis (Neonopsis) which would mean they flower simultaneously, i.e. in winter. Maybe the plant is just confused like the fulviceps, it's only one flower after all. So far. Nevertheless I'm excited to see it. :) The flowers should be odoriferous. But I guess there need to be twenty of them to notice something. Here's a picture with my finger still in it to show how tiny it actally is! PS: Avonia alstonii has developed flower buds, too. I'll be away next weekend - hopefully both plants will bloom before (or after) that. 
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