New Lithops

So it hasn't been a very plant-y or blog-y summer. Between my thesis, cottaging, camping and the sadness from losing 2/3 of my lithops collection this spring, I just haven't had the heart to blog :(

I'm still pretty disheartened over the beating my collection took. We've had a much drier and hotter summer here than last summer, but also so much more humid. And I was stupid and put one tray of lithops outside on a bench that critters could easily climb. And climb they did, climbed and nommed a bunch of plants. Poor plants.

On the positive side, I have a ton of lithops, mesemb and caudiciform seedlings just waiting to be planted.

So why haven't I planted them yet? Well, THV and I are moving in a few weeks. Super excited to have our own place again. Once we are settled in I'll be planting like mad. No point in have fancy seeds if you don't at least try to turn then into fancy plants.

My local nursery finally got in some lithops plants this week (after a year and a half of waiting!). Surprisingly the plants are of much better quality than you usually see for nursery lithops in Canada. They even had L. dorotheae! The top picture is what I brought home with me - three dorotheae and a mystery lithops that I haven't identified yet. I'd have gotten a few other pots, but at $20 each it was too expensive, particularly with the upcoming move.

I did bring my camera with me and took some shots in the nursery:

L. marmorata (I think):

More L. dorotheae:

A whole pot of the mystery 'thops (sorry for the poor picture quality), can anyone identify it?:

Hopefully this post will break my blogging slump. I've missed it!

A visit to Humber Nurseries: the lithops section

The title of this post is kinda misleading, since there really wasn't a lithops section so much as a tray of sad, over-watered 'thops. I didn't find any gems that I wanted to risk my money on this year, although looking at the picture I kinda wish I had picked up the middle one on the far right row.

Maybe next year I will get lucky and arrive when the tray is new and not picked-over. I don't know why I have this urge to hunt for adult lithops when I've managed to amass a huge seed collection in the past year - far more than I can possibly grow with in my current setup. Must be the thrill of the hunt and the desire to rescue the poor things....but only if they look worth saving.

There was also this bigger pot, with a multi-headed clump:

Not bad, all things considered, but still overfed and over-watered. At $20 I just couldn't bring myself to go for it with so many other plants to tempt me.

A visit to Humber Nurseries

Spring is returning to Ontario, and with it my urge to garden, grow and generally think about all things plant-y.

Last weekend we made our annual trip down to Brampton for family visiting, a trip that has gotten even better since I realized that one of the largest nurseries in the province is only 15 minutes from our hotel! I had great success during last year's visit and was exited to see what I would find this year.

I was positively vibrating at this point!

The Tropical House - by far my favorite place! Also pretty much the only place I've seen at Humber, since we always seem to be really pressed for time when we visit. 30 minutes just isn't enough time to take in even a fraction of the nursery grounds!

Inside the tropical house! It's huge! Many times the size of the tropical greenhouse at the one nursery in our area that actually bothers to carry tropicals. And the plants at Humber are much healthier and cheaper.

A whole shelf of air plants. The grey ones in front are huge!

Bonsai section. I didn't linger too long here - my New Year's resolution was to not take up any new hobbies this year!

I'm not sure these guys would really qualify as "rare and unusual" since you can buy them at Home Depot and Wal-Mart pretty easily.

Tucked at the back of the tropical house - rows and rows of herb seedlings, waiting for warmer weather.

Love the maroon patterning on this guy!

An agave! I'm not usually an agave fan, but this one appealed to me and I really wanted to take it home....

until.....

$25?! Yikes no!

Now, I'm a bit of a hypocrite here, since I did end up buying a plant that cost $33, but it's all about spending your money on what you really want. Right?

It's alive!!!!!!!

We were eating supper the other day when THV excitedly pointed out that two nearby plants weren't dead.

So much faith in my horticultural abilities that boy has :)

I'm thankful I was warned by the lovely lady who started these seedlings for me that Jatropha podagrica loses it's leaves in the winter. I was a bit surprised they did it while still so young and likely would have tossed them out at Christmas time without the advice.

I wonder if they will get very big and fat this summer?

Lithops fulviceps lookin good!

L. fulviceps, a bit dusty after a winder indoors, but looking healthy!

The weather here has be unusually warm....like 10 degees (Celsius) above normal. The snow is melting, the geese are coming back and the wonderful smell of warming soil is getting me excited for spring!

I took all of my lithops out from under the grow lights for the first time in months and inspected each one. A few seedlings have died, but it looks like all of my adult plants have made it through their first winter with me just fine. Most are busy changing their leaves and getting ready for another summer basking in the sun.

Can't wait until I can put all the lithops outside and free up room under the lights for starting seedlings. I've amassed a big collection of lithops seeds over the past year, and have no room to plant them!

Stubborn Lithops pseudotruncatella

So this guy has been done changing his leaves and sitting around encased in a dried wrapping for, oh, a good 4 months now. I've given him two good drinks of water and he has been completely uninterested in breaking free.

I finally noticed why this morning.

The little bugger was busy making another set of leaves. Wtf plant? Kinda like Rika's confused fulviceps.

I got out my finest tweezers and cleaned off the old, dried leaves. Not sure if I really should have, but I really don't think the plan needs them anymore.

Voila:

Hopefully he doesn't die.

Well crap.

Looks like my sago palm is on its' way out.

I've never had any luck keeping these plants alive. This is probably the 4th one I've tried to grow over the years. Just can't seem to figure out what the trick is with these guys. This one was outside all summer, the leaves stayed green and healthy-looking, but it never grew any new leaves. Just noticed it starting to brown up and die the other day.

Any advice?