A little bit of luck

Some background:

I have all of my mesembs under one 2 bulb, 24" fluorescent light fixture. You can fit a lot of 'thops in a small space, but things are really tight under there right now. I was barely able to fit everything back inside under the lights once the weather started cooling down. If some plants hadn't died over the summer I would have been in a real pickle.

Needless to say I've been coveting this:

image from: http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?cat=2,44716&p=10549

The three-tiered one of course.

Actually I've been wanting one since high school.

The price has always stood in the way though: at $525 that is far outside what I can ever justify spending to light my plants.

So my plan was to make a do-it-yourself one when I move out, a la Gayla

And then I got lucky: the lovely lady mentioned in this post also had a three-tiered Floralight she was looking to sell.

For $100.

I might have squealed.

The bottom light fixture wasn't working, but my wonderful, talented dad had it fixed in 15 minutes.

And now it sits in pieces, in the garage with the rest of my life. Waiting for the day when THV and I move into our own house. I get giddy thinking about all the seedlings I can start in this thing. And all the lithops that will fit on it!

One day.....

White lithops flowers! finally!

Sorry for the disappearance - am in the middle of finishing up my M.Sc. thesis and headed to the cottage for a few weeks of quality writing/editing time - with no distracting internet. Or central heating. Or running water.

I actually took these photos before I left, just haven't had a chance to post them. My L. juliis have white flowers! So beautiful. Today the flowers are all shriveled and dried, but I'm hoping my attempts at paintbrush pollination worked and I'll have seed pods.

Another one of my 'thops flowered while I was gone, also white. I'm not sure what species it is, but white flowers seem to be rarer so maybe it will help me narrow things down. I'll try to get a picture of it this weekend.

Another pic, cause they are so pretty:

More lithops flowers to come!

L. juliis starting to show flower buds

More lithops flowers to come. I am particularly excited about these juliis. Both are developing flowers, which means I can try and pollinate them and get a seed pod. Mind you this plant came to me with a seed pod, which I saved, so I'm not sure I need more seeds...but what the heck.

Also if I peer deeply into the maw of my L. marmorata v. elisae it looks to be developing a bud too.

Crevasse of L. marmorata v. elisae.

I hope one of these plants have white blooms!

Lithops flowers!

L. terricolor "localis" in flower

WOOT!

Came home from a thesis hideaway to find that my three lithops have flowered! Took the pictures right at sunset; I really like the quality of the light at this time of day, will have to try sunset picture taking again.

I swirled a paintbrush (aka surrogate insect) around the flowers for the heck of it. I know hydrid lithops aren't supposed to be very vigorous or interesting, but I figured what the heck, why not try to get some sort of a seed pod.

L. dorotheae flowering, but stubbornly closed

My L. fulviceps has already finished flowering - I didn't take a picture of him since the flower was shriveled.