Muiria hortensae

I have been very lazy about blogging lately. I’m not thrilled with the changes to WordPress and Flickr so that is part of the reason. It isn’t difficult to post a single picture though so at the very least I can do that from time to time.

I haven’t had an update on my mesembs in a while so what do you think of this adorable little Muiria hortensae? Supposedly one of the more difficult ones but I had reasonably good luck growing them from seed and still have a few little plants left. Not bad considering they are grown outdoors year round and don’t have optimal conditions or care. This is the nicest of my remaining plants and I was happy to notice that it has split into two plants. Once I buy a house I hope to have space for a small greenhouse and then perhaps my collection of succulents and other little plants will be better protected from the elements.

Be sure to click on the image to enlarge it for a more detailed close up. Muiria is even more adorable up close.

Succulent Macros

I haven’t really posted any little succulent pics in a while because many of them are dormant during the spring and summer and don’t look like much. After our recent rain storm they are springing back to life so it is time for an update.

All of them are plants that I started from seed except for the Fenestraria. Most of them are in two or three inch pots so that should give you an idea of their size.

Frithia pulchra

Frithia pulchra

Titanopsis primosii

Titanopsis primosii

Fenestraria rhopalophylla subsp. rhopalophylla

Fenestraria rhopalophylla subsp. aurantiaca

Stomatium alboroseum

Crassula barklyi

Crassula macowaniana

Cheiridopsis cigarettifera

Lithops optica ssp. rubra

Mitrophyllum dissitum

 Mitrophyllum dissitum

 Mitrophyllum grande

 Monilaria pisiformis (I am not convinced that any of my Monilaria are going to survive dormancy. There is a bit of green in some of them but they are not doing much)

Cheiridopsis glomerata

Gibbaeum comptonii

Oophytum oviforme

Muiria hortenseae

Muiria hortenseae

The last four – Cheiridopsis glomerata, Gibbaeum comptonii, Oophytum oviforme, and Muiria hortenseae were left in their original seedling containers way too long. For little mesembs (especially tricky ones like Muiria and Oophytum) it is a balancing act on potting the plants up into individual pots. Too soon and you may kill them. If you wait too long, however, they become overgrown and their roots are so entwined it is difficult to extricate them from each other without doing damage or even killing some. I had planned on potting them up in September, after returning from a trip back east, but while I was gone the drip irrigation on my nearby container plants had sprung a leak and water was shooting up like a geyser a few times a week.  It filled the tray they were in with water so they were soaking for a few days. Not ideal for any succulent!  I let them dry out for a bit and then proceeded with potting them up and happily most of them are looking pretty good. The Oophytum are still a bit dodgy but those are tricky plants to begin with. If they fail I’ll try again and be more careful next time.

April Mesembs

If you remember from last month from now on I am just going to post updates on my mesemb seedlings at the start of each month.

My newest babies.  Cheiridopsis glomerata started 3/11/12.

Gibbaeum comptonii are a little creepy looking at this stage.  They remind me of Surinam toads which are probably my number one phobia in the world.  /shudder

Stomatium alboroseum

At just three months old I think these Monilaria pisiformis are ready to be transplanted into their own pots.

Mitrophyllum grande also need to be repotted.  They are overcrowded and starting to show signs of stress.

Oophytum oviforme

Muiria hortenseae are growing very slowly compared to the others.

Lithops optica var. rubra were sown last June.

Dactylopsis digitata are supposed to be a bit difficult to grow. Only three seedlings (sown last June) survived and this is the biggest.  It seems to be doing OK.  They have grown inside on my windowsill all this time but I think this week they are ready to go outside.

This is the mystery Cheiridopsis (I think) that was mixed in with the Dactylopsis that I didn’t have the heart to thin out.  It has grown huge and looks quite different from all the other Cheiridopsis I am growing.

Cheiridopsis cigarettifera is over a year old.

While I was photographing my mesembs I noticed these little mystery insect eggs neatly lined up on some bird netting.  Anyone have any idea what they are?  Hopefully something friendly.

Mitrophyllum dissitum is over a year old.  This is my nicest specimen.  Some of the others are a bit damaged as they try to shed their old growth and one looks like it might have slug or snail damage.

Frithia pulchra

This Cheiridopsis caroli-schmidtii is not one I grew from seed. I bought it a few years ago at a Cactus and Succulent show.  I noticed yesterday that it had started flowering though which is good news.  It is the first time it has bloomed in two years.  Conditions for all my succulents are much better than they have been while I was apartment living so I can expect to see lots of new growth and blooms.

Cheiridopsis purpurea was started last June.  Yellow is probably the most common flower color in mesembs so I try to find species with purple flowers if I can.

Titanopsis primrosii was also started last June. I had really high germination with these and they were so cute I didn’t have the heart to thin them out too much.  So I probably have about twenty of them. They have been growing very nicely.

Finally I just wanted to give a little update on my post last month on pinching seedlings. A few days after the post I went back and pinched again and now about ten days later they look like this:

Helipterum roseum ‘Pierott’ started 1/13/12

I’ll probably plant them out next week.

 

 

March Mesembs

Remember back when I lived in West Hollywood and I only had a balcony and the only pictures I had to share were my Mesemb seedlings?

Well things have obviously changed but I still love my babies.  From now on I am only going to take pictures of them on the first day of each month though.  Should be more fun to see how they change from month to month.

First batch is of the 3 month old babies that were started January 1st when I had just moved in to my new place.  Photos were taken with my (slightly) better camera so you can see the juicy water cells up close.  They look like little lizard scales made of translucent green pearls.

Mitrophyllum grande

Stomatium alboroseum

Gibbaeum comptonii

Monilaria pisiformis (so cute!)

Oophytum oviforme

Muiria hortensea (ignore the Mitrophyllum that snuck in on the right)

Haworthia truncata

 

My Mitrophyllum dissitum are over a year old and were recently potted up into their own little containers. Normally mesembs like this would have a dormant state (either in winter or summer) where they either rest or completely whither away and dry up and then when the rainy season begins they burst forth with new growth.  Seedlings seem to go through accelerated growth though and shed their old leaves fairly often.  I guess now that these guys are over a year old it might soon be safe to let them go through their seasonal dormancy but I need to research it further.  Recently a few of them have started developing new leaves and they look a bit like a lizard shedding or a butterfly coming out of its chrysalis (or hell maybe even some sort of alien parasite bursting out of its host).

Mitrophyllum dissitum new growth emerging.

For some reason instead of the normal two leaves this one only formed a solitary, silly, phallic leaf.  I’m curious to see if the new leaf will be the same or will it be normal.  Can’t really tell yet.  It does have two new branches forming at its base which is pretty neat.

And finally this one has completely emerged.  The old leaves should shrivel up over time.

My Frithia pulchra are either sort of dormant or just unhappy.  Apparently they want acidic soil and water.  They got regular cactus mix and whatever my tap water is.

Cheiridopsis cigarettifera. I highly recommend Cheiridopsis if you want to try mesembs from seed.  Very high success rate from seed and very easy to grow on.  Look how branched they have become in just over a year.  They are already becoming sizable little clumps. Most of them don’t seem to have any tricky cultural requirements as adults either.

I’m eager to see what changes next month brings. All the babies in the first pictures are currently growing in a western windowsill in my office and the yearlings are all outside. I did harden them off the first few weeks by bringing them in every night.  There is a frost threat tonight so hopefully they will be OK.