Drive by new guy: L. bromfieldii v. mennellii

Another yearling from Conos Paradise. Love his colouring.

Still quite small:

The Nydus Worm Plant

aka Pleiospilos nelii "Royal Flush"

My only non-lithops acquisition from Conos Paradise. I've got two seedlings of some sort of Pleiospilos hybrid, and have seeds for regularly coloured Pleiospilos nelii, but I just couldn't pass up this red variety.

From the side it reminds me of the Nydus Worm from Starcraft 2. Not so much a direct resemblance, but both plant and worm have a similar, om-nommy air about them.

Image from: http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Nydus_worm

Meet the new guys: L. hookeri and L. verruculosa

No time to set up a new plant-y blog yet, so I will continue posting here for time being.

I was going to post pics of my herb garden and the little luffah plant that keeps hanging in there (now planted in the garden), but it is pouring rain out. So instead today we have: MOAR LITHOPS!  Can never go wrong with a 'thops imho.

Two more from my Cono's Paradise order that I haven't introduced yet.

L. hookeris are some of my favorite lithops - love the texture and shape of their tops, and they are a nice size. I got two plants of C336 in the hopes that they will flower so I can try to pollinate them.

Sorry Heather, don't mean to freak you out with these very brrrraaaaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnnsssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!! lithops.

Next up is a L. verruculosa, only a 1 year old plant this time....and a tiny one at that. I have still green lithops seedlings that are bigger than this guy. Can you spot him in there?

He is less than 5mm across. Interestingly the old plant leaves were actually tri-lobed. I'm not entirely sure if the new ones still are - would be really neat if they were though. Just have to wait for it to get bigger. Although I have no clue how big verruculosas are supposed to get. Maybe they are micro-lithops?

Meet some more new lithops and mesembs!

L. julii fulleri v. brunnea C179

Sadly I wasn't able to addend the Toronto Cactus and Succulent Club's Annual Show & Sale on June 5th. Darn part-time job that gives me money to buy plants.

But I am a very lucky girl with great friends. The two other mesemb-nuts in my city drove down (and back in the same day!) and brought back some plants for me. So I now have 7 new lithops and a few other mesembs and succulents.

Through absolutely dumb luck I picked the above L. julii fulleri from a list ahead of time, and it turned out to be two fantastic plants (7 years old apparently).....and the super awesome best part?

One of them came with a seed pod!!!


*happy seed pod dance*


The pod has now been removed and tucked away in a little baggie. Does anyone know if it is better to store the seeds in the pod itself, or remove them for storage?

The 6 other lithops. Clockwise starting from the top left they are: L. dorotheae, L. pseudotruncatella (C70), L. karasmontana "jacobseniana" (C227), L. lesliei "Albinica", L. julii (C297) and L. gracilidelineata (C261).

The other plants, clockwise from the top left: Faucaria paucidens, Carranthus ringens, Titanopsis calcarea, Lophophors williamsii (peyote!!), Haworthia maughanii X truncata, and Escobaria vivipara.

I'm totally in love with the Lophophora - its an adorable green ball, apparently with hallucinogenic properties. The Faucaria apparently was a freebie plant...I already have ~20 seedlings growing like they are on crack and refusing to cull themselves. Definitely going to be giving some away in the future....not a plant I'm head-over-heels for. The cactus was another freebie, I'm not a huge cactus fan (read: die pokey fuckers! die!), but this little guy is tiny and has a pleasing spine arrangement, so he is growing on me. Now my cactus collection has doubled to a whopping two plants.

There are other, non-plant things going on that I want to write about, but this blog has gotten so plant-centric, and the only non-real life friend readers I've picked up are all plant people, I feel like I should keep it on topic. So I'm thinking of starting a plant-focused blog and returning this one to it's original intent of a place to let me write and take a break from thesis-thinking.

Of course that means I have to think of a new blog name...

Two baby Elephant's Feet!

This happy post is 100% a result of EllieT's posts about growing Dioscorea elephantipes and her advice in the comments section (don't bury too deep!).

On May 27th I sowed two pots of elephant's foot seeds (3 seeds/pot). The package says they can take up to 6 months to germinate, so while I was encouraged by EllieT's quick success, I didn't get my hopes up. Then, much to my surprise, when I was inspecting the pots a few days ago, there were two thin brown sticks poking up. Fairly certain that I didn't initially plant sticks, I removed the plastic cover and put it back under the grow lights.

And now the sticks have leaves!

*happy little leaf dance*

Nothing has sprouted in the other pot yet. I couldn't decide what orientation to plant the seeds in (they look like little maple keys), so in one pot I seem to recall planting the seeds flat, and in the other I slotted them in the soil before covering. Of course brilliant me didn't record which pot contained what. I'll give the other pot a week or so before going digging.

Note to self: "Self, start some sort of gardening notebook or google document. And actually use it. Otherwise your science-y brain just might have a fit at all this uncertainty".

Since my lithops are outside for most of the summer, there is lots of room under the grow lights and I'm considering planting more of these guys as backups. If I end up with extra I could always give some away. Spread the awesome caudex love around.

Teapocalypse

Sorry about the radio silence around here recently! I managed to dump a full mug of tea all over my laptop (right before a big meeting with one of my thesis supervisors too). Needless to say, the laptop is now very dead and I'm computer shopping. I'm actually rejoicing - it was 4.5 year old, slooooow and temperamental.

Going to get my camera software loaded onto THV's computer today so I can resume posting. Plant pics and otherwise.