Sadctus: random, sad-looking cactus.

So I had intended on taking pictures documenting the repotting process for this poor guy, and totally forgot in the haze of warm sunshine and plant-caring-frenzy.

This cactus has been kicking about my parent's house for as long as I can remember - minimum 15 years, possibly as much as 20. Almost all of that time has been spent dusty in a poorly lit corner, getting watered twice a year if it was a good year.

My parents? Kind houseplant guardians they are not.

I've basically forgotten about this guy all summer, even as I've been blogging about other plant rescue projects and fancy new additions. Finally realized today that in spite of the layers of dust and strange brown bits, the thing has defied all odds and is mostly still green.

Cactus = green = alive.....right?

So he is now repotted, in a bright window and will be getting some water.

I wonder how he will do?

Faucaria paucidens flower!

So the other day I was making supper, when I heard THV yelling at me to come outside asap. I rushed out thinking that 1. something had died or 2. something extra adorable had shown up in our backyard, like maybe a megalodon or something*.

Instead it turns out my Faucaria paucidens has flowered! Got this one as part of a group of mesembs and lithops earlier this summer and really wasn't expecting anything out of them. What a lovely surprise. The flower looks a lot like a dandelion though - not particularly worth of poetry or song.

* Sadly, a megalodon in our backyard is almost an impossibility given that we live in the middle of the freaking continent....and a million years too late. Sigh, why do all the cool creatures have to be extinct?

Bowiea volubilis seedlings!

 

The much-anticipated Sea Onions have germinated! So exciting! These guys were so much easier to germinate than I expected. Sowed 12 seeds, 6 in cactus soil and 6 in mesemb soil and barely covered the seeds*. After a week 6 of 6 came up in the mesemb soil, 4 of 6 came up in the cactus soil (one later died). They even survived a short bout of damping off, during which they suffered through cinnamon dusting, chamomile tea spraying and the constant blowing of a fan, which finally seemed to do the trick.These pictures were taken at ~20 days old.

I have no idea how these things are supposed to progress or what their growth will look like. hopefully they are working on adorable little caudexes underneath the soil.

 New tendril growth maybe?


*my mesemb soil is really just cactus soil with a baked clay soil added for extra coarseness and draining capability. I still feel like I have no idea what the fuck I'm doing when it comes to soils.

A lithops called Storm's Albinigold

Full name: see photo, I don't want to type it out....again :P

I have no idea who Storm was or what he ever had to do with lithops, and I have even less idea what an Albinigold is, but man what a badass name for a plant!

Sounds like the name of the weapon of some baller Norse god...or a racehorse :P

And look at that, already you can just barely see that a new pair of leaves is forming. These should hopefully turn out to be some really neat, greeny-yellow lithops.

Stunted lithops?

I haz a puzzle.

Take a good look at the above picture. Four pots of lithops seedlings, two pots with much larger and healthier-looking seedlings than the others. The pots on the left contain 4 types of 'thops, all sown on May 27th, 2011. Top to bottom they are: L. aucampiae ssp. euniceae v. fluminalis (C54), L. lesliei 'Storm's Albinigold' (C36B), L. salicola 'Malachite' (C351A) and L. dorotheae (C124). The pots on the right contain two types of 'thops, all sown on April 3rd, 2011. Top is L. optica 'maculate' and bottom is: L. schwantesii.

Yup, that's right, the seedlings on the left are almost two months younger than the ones on the right. My mesemb mentor planted some opticas and schwantesiis at the same time I did, and his are much bigger and happier looking.

So what did I do wrong with the first batch? (my first lithop seedlings ever I might add). I've tried feeding them some dilute fertilizer to no avail. My soil makeup hasn't changed much - mostly I just added some Schultz Aquatic Plant Soil to later batches to keep the soil nice and loose and well-drained.

Should I try and pull the stunted ones out and repot them? Some are only 3mm across, I'm afraid I'll kill them; but then they obviously aren't happy where they are. Should I use more fertilizer?

Only one, this little L. schwantesii has even tried to change it's leaves:

Poor thing, it's only 6mm across.

Pleiospilos nelii, or holy mackerel these things grow fast!

Sown on August 7th, and already over 2cm across* and getting their first set of true leaves. Seems super fast for mesembs, even compared to my other mesembs on crack.

* although I may have killed one when I went to measure it for you guys. Metal ruler + small plant + measuring in haste = bad for the plant

Tenacity

What is this bit of greenery amongst a pot of dead pansies*?

A little jade plant - not a commen sight in random flower pots here in Canada. Earlier this spring I went and rooted a pile of cuttings from our big jade plant (since deceased), and then threw most of them out in a fit of de-cluttering my seedling collection. And when I say "threw" I mean literally: I pulled the seedlings from their pots and kinda pitched them randomly in the backyard. Fast forward several months and it appears that this guy has managed survive my cold-hearted attempts at succulenticide, avoid getting eaten by Henry and get comfortable amongst the pansy-corpses.

My cold heart is cracking just a little: the to-do list for the weekend now includes digging this little guy up and bringing him inside to a warm and happy home....hopefully he forgives me for casting him out. I promise it wont happen again.

*Pansies are dead due to persistent mowing by my most beloved Henry: