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Seeing that my last post about the troubled L. pseudotruncatella was back in December it's time to update you on their progress. Yes, they are still quite ugly. My hopes of getting them into good shape within one regeneration cycle were too much but hey, no rush. Simple survival goes first. On the survival front I guess they are at 50%. The best looking plant out of three has perished - go figure! Another has lost one head. The balance is two plants, one and two heads. It's almost May and they've been watered twice so far. They react well to water and, even though they are still way too long, they don't get any longer but bigger and more substantial instead. I intend to be very strict with them so they'll need their strength later. Long way ahead of them. You can read up on the lithops experiment here: part 1 , part 2 , part 3 , part 4 , part 5 .

I have something to be excited about these days. This is my own Titanopsis primosii seedling :)

Plants can have very different appearances depending on the conditions they grow in. While potting the plant from yesterday's post I wondered at how different it is from its own cutting that has been growing at my place all this time when the other was at my parents'.  They are the SAME plant! Literally. The "piece" to the left was grown with little water (due to absent roots) and looks more like a H. limifolia to me, actually, long, thin, slightly curved leaves. No idea about the light conditions. The one to the right has been watered and repotted regularly while growing in a sunny spot. It has short thick leaves that barely "spin". If I didn't know better I would think they are different kinds of Haworthia. Can't say which appearance is better or healthier or more natural. Crazy plants.

A couple of days ago I got an inquiry from someone who was worried about their Haworthia limifolia 's wellbeing but only today I realized that I actually have a plant matching the description at hand! Every once in a while my mother, who deeply dislikes succulents because they are not flashy-showy enough, brings me back some plants she had in her custody during my last years at the university. She tends to unwittingly mistreat the plants she doesn't like, never listening to my suggestions. Her flower garden looks amazing though. Well, some of the succulents she brought were ready for the plant heaven. Among the others was a Haworthia limifolia I set aside to inspect further later, as it didn't look bad to me. In fact, it is the same plant I wrote about in this post . I followed my own advice and pulled it out of the pot. Actually I didn't even have to pull because the roots were all dead and it was not clinging to anything. I'd say this is how overwatering looks li...

This Cheiridopsis meyeri v. minor (MG 1385.9/SB766) is pretty different from the others. In fact, it is strange to me that someone named it Cheiridopsis at all. Maybe my information is outdated? Firstly, it clearly has type A and type B leaves like those of Mitrophyllum or Monilaria. One pair is scissor like, the other is conjoined at the top to form a round bead. Secondly, it seems to follow a Mitrophyllum-like yearly growing pattern. It grows scissor leaves in the fall, followed by the conjoined round leaves and then, in spring, it slowly dries all leaves and completely sheaths over in summer . My plants are a bit longish due to lack of light. And, since I realized its growing schedule is different from my other Cheiridopsis way too late, I only stopped watering recently, while I should have done it a couple of months ago if not earlier. For a long while I thought it needed water because it wrinkled, when in fact it was just preparing to sleep. Stupid me. It is really important to k...

I have mentioned before that Cheiridopsis grow very well on a windowsill, in my unexperienced experience. They don't make any troubles and, unlike other mesembs, are able to grow to a large size under insufficient light conditions without losing attractiveness or having growth problems later. They grow here in small 5x5cm pots in pure pumice (no plant food) with little but regular watering throughout the year. This last part is what confuses me. They do seem to be opportunistic and will grow without a resting period if watered. They also retain two to three pairs of leaves at a time and there seem to be no need to let old leaves dry off before encouraging new growth. That's all fine and well, but I'd be more comfortable if they were on a fixed watering schedule. Maybe I'm thinking too much and should just accept their growing pattern and simply care for them as I did so far. It surely does not hurt. Except for the fact that they never flower ;) There's a chance that...