Frithis pulchra blooming
My Frithias definitely like the new apartment more than the old one :)
Posts
Lithops experiment part 1 (7 pics)
Today I went to a hardware store in Luxembourg and did something I would not normally do - I bought three Lithops plants that are in such a bad shape I very much doubt they'll survive. The reason behind this is an idea I got from my previous post and the question if it is possible to not only save but also correct a plant that has been treated very badly for a long time. I will try this and document it here in the blog. I'm pretty sure the next entry will be "they all died" but this will at least tell you to avoid this kind of purchases ;) So this is how they look like. All three are L. pseudotruncatella. They are bloated and cucumber-shaped. This one has grown so long that the only solution I can see for it is that, if it survives until fall, the new leaves will break through at the root and the old ones can be cut off. No water until then. The other two look slightly better and I'd say there is at least a chance of survival. They will not receive any water ever ...
More thoughts on "downsizing" (4 pics)
I've been thinking further on the topic of getting our nursery-grown plants adapted to the windowsill conditions. And the more I think about it the more I am convinced that, well, size matters. I was instinctively accepting the reduction of size in my plants as a good thing in the past and was actively contributing to it with poor soil and withholding of water. But it wouldn't hurt to contemplate on this matter a bit more. In the comments of my previous post Bob Stewart and I were elaborating on this while Bob has provided insight and explanation as well as established clear correlation with the light situation on a windowsill that has to be compensated. Please read this when you have time :) I was thinking about my previous experience with greenhouse-nursery-lithops and could name five instances in which the plants I bought were way too big although probably normal for commercially grown ones. The L. dorotheae and L. aucampiae I got from Mr. Shimada were in fact so huge I ha...