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I think I've mentioned that I bought several beautifully grown Conophytum specimen at the C&S market in Essen recently but haven't shown them yet. Now one of the plants is flowering and this is a good reason for an introduction. I have almost no own experience growing Conophytums but I've read a lot about them and I'm going to do my best to keep these as healthy and beautiful as they are now. They are used to a greenhouse but I'll do what I can. The previous owner warned me to water extremely rarely and just a little at a time. Please note that the pots are 5x5cm and the heads are very very small! Conophytum pellucidum v. pellucidum 'pardicolor' ex. de Boer Conophytum ricardianum SB1116 Conophytum uviforme ssp. decoratum Conophytum uviforme ssp. uviforme SB952 Conophytum bilobum 'christiansenium' (2 plants). These look like Cheiridopsis to me :)

Looks like this year is the year for Lithops fulviceps to shine on my windowsill. I was lucky to have two C363 flowering at the same time so that I could pollinate properly and here is the result. Another L. fulviceps v. lactinea is going to flower. Unfortunately too late to pollinate with the first one but welcome nonetheless. L. fulviceps seem to always be early here. The younger plants are already regenerating. Last year and the year before I was worried. What would they do in winter if they finish regeneration so early? But they seem to know themselves better than I do. Even if they start now they do it so slowly that by the time they finish it will be spring XD

These Fenestratia rhopalophylla ssp. aurantiaca 'Fireworth' seedlings are now 4 months old and getting touchy. Like teenagers they seem to hate everything I do and grow best when I just leave them alone. I can't quite figure them out. Being winter-growers Fenestrarias rest in summer. My understanding was that such young seedlings wouldn't have the resting period yet but they really really hate being watered these days. It's like 3 drops are barely okay but when it's 4 - they get suicidal. Watering results in immediate leaf loss. But they are so small and they need water, don't they? It's hot and sunny after all. Apparently what I think is best for them is the opposite of what they think. I guess I'll keep giving them those 3 drops of water whenever they get soft and hope they won't freak out.

I wanted to share this rare sight with you because, well, the seedling could die any day. My attempts to grow Muiria hortenseae from seed so far were all more or less "is it dead yet?" I was sowing them 5 seeds at a time three times this year and the seedling below is the most I can show for it. The next sowing is scheduled for this fall and when I run out of seeds I will buy more and try again. I'm still far from giving up. Anyway, this is how it went: The seeds germinate just fine (3 out of 5 mostly) and then they keep the cotyledons for months. I don't know whether this is how it is suppossed to be or the result of my conditions. Lithops seedings can keep their cotyledons for a long time too but depending on the species they are stronger, more resistent. In case of Muiria they are weeker and unfortunatelly wither before any true leaves can develop. The seedling below was sown in February (!) and is the only one that could develop first true leaves. This is the mos...

Check out these butts! :D I have sown these Adeniums in 2008 or 2009, sometime before I went to study in Japan, and never picked them up from my parents after that (no room and all). My mother has been taking very good care of them and the caudex part of the plants looks great! The green part however doesn't really want to grow properly so I took them back now to see if I can help with that. My parents don't really find them pretty so maybe they will once they see how they can bloom ;) The substrate I used now is a mix of cacti soil and pumice, the containers are deep to give them more "leg" room. If I remember correctly the one with narrow leaves is an A. somalense. The one without leaves will need some trimming but I read it is better done before spring (?). The largest is 13 cm in diameter. Any advise on how to get them to grow the upper part? 

Do you remember these little kids of mine? They started off as tiny bunnies in June 2012, went throught a beautifully compact phase and then just exploded . Since they got so big I only could grow them at the side of the windowsill where they weren't getting enough light. That's why I brought them to my parents where they might have received too much of it. Anyway, they didn't like it there either so I now brought two of them back home (the rest was too crispy already). I hope to grow them better now. Anyway, I've removed all the dead branches and gave them separate containers and I think they actually look cute like this. Like tiny bonsais of sorts. Maybe I could maintain the look somehow. I'd like them to have more leaves and be more bushy but not too much and only with the short kind of leaves they have now. It might be difficult to keep them compact. We'll see how it goes. Maybe with time I can shape them into something beautiful and hopefully flowering.

So pretty!! Got this plant as a present recently so the flower is not my achievement. Seeds are also available (check here for more info). This is my 500th blog post by the way :)

These Adromischus species are quite attractive. Unfortunatelly they are also fragile and slow-growing. And even though they can be propagated by rooting their leaves it can take months until the leaf will turn into a new plant. The two green forms below have been separated from the mother plant in September 2013 and this is how they look like now. While the roots came out quickly (in a month or so) it took half a year for one of them and almost a year for the other to develop new leaves. As you can see even the rooted leaves get quite fat roots. I might raise them in time... in ten years time most likely. This one has grown its roots to this size in two months :) In conclusion, if you got a dwarf Adromischus in the mail and some leaves have come off don't be sad - they will make new tiny plants if you're patent!

Don't know about you but I find these bunny ears simply adorable! :) Monilaria chrysoleuca is waking up from its summer sleep. You can clearly see the two types of leaves at this stage - round ones and bunny ears. Curious plant. I'd love to grow more of them but I keep killing seedlings at leaf-set number two. Will try sowing in the fall again. This is my first year growing Monilaria and I was very worried it will not wake up. What a relief.

Another one opened today. Every little drop of light is reflected in the petals. What a glow!

I've been reading up on some species in Mesembs of the World (strange name for a book about plants that naturally grow in only one part of the world) and Succulent Flora of Southern Africa . Both books have wonderful illustrations telling more than words but as usual there is next to nothing about care in cultivation. A book on that has yet to be written. Still, using the discription you can try to guess and then handle the plants accordingly. That's when experimentation under carefuly observation begins. Intrigued by the looks of the Mesembs below I bought them at the recent C&S market in Essen. I've never grown Ruschia, Antimima or Braunsia before and know nothing about them so at first I waited to see how they'll react to the new conditions (they are greenhouse grown). I haven't seen any big changes in the looks except for getting wrinkled in the sun and returning to the old shape when watered. Carefully watered. Because I really don't know what I'm ...

If you click the "Frithia" tag at the bottom of this post you can actually see these Frithia humilis seedlings grow from seed. Unbelievable but they are now over 2 years old and I still have all nine of them. They grow closely together so that one might think it's all one plant. Frithias never flower at my place but I do hope these kids will once they are more mature. For now I will just find my joy in their cat paw leaves. You might notice that one of them has the tentacles of their mother plant :) Too cute! (The color depends on whether they've been watered lately. They get really flat and compact between waterings.)

My Titanopsis calcarea seedlings are now 15 months old and branching out. The leaf texture and the overall appearance are everything I hoped for ♡ What makes them even more special to me is that they're the result of my own pollination :)

I know I'm astonished myself at the amount of flower pics I'm posting this year. I guess it's the fact that we've been having a proper hot and sunny summer this year. The plants love it! Now the pink flowering Avonia quinaria ssp. quinaria has opened its flower as well and I haven't missed it :) I'm getting heavily into Anacampseros/Avonia species lately, even ordered a book on them. My brain is preparing for the move into a new appartment with a balcony I haven't found yet XD Crassula ausensis ssp. titanopsis has been already blooming for a while now with the flowers opening gradually (and the smell getting more noticeable unfortunatelly haha). The bouquets are lovely though and I'm really glad the plant is feeling well and happy. Last time it was blooming in March so it looks like it's doing it twice a year. Today I also was productive harvesting the seeds from a couple of seed pods. I've cross-pollinated Aloinopsis rosulata and Aloinopsis ru...