maxxima

Nice photos! Thanks for sharing.

congrats, looks wonderful ! i love this species.

congrats Rodrigo, it looks beautiful.

Wondering how this went!

I've never been to Britain so I wouldn't know how dark it can get in winter, but here in Istanbul drosophyllum survives low light conditions for a pretty long time. It just looks weak and suspended until the spring time but certainly doesn't die.

Time of the year has no effect on it if you provide additional lighting. 5 of mine germinated in December/January 2011 and they are still alive. My opinion on vermiculite is different as well. I use it in all my pots without any problems. My mix is vermiculite, peat and perlite - 1:1:1 I find this to be a hardy plant. The only sensitive part is the roots. When you damage a small part of the root, you will see that a part of the plant wilts immediately. If you damage more roots, a bigger area will wilt. This is what happens when you transfer, if the damage is too great, the plant can not recover. Just use peat pots or sow them in huge pots from the beginning. I sow them in small plastic pots but cut the lower half of the pot while transferring, I never take out the soil.

Hehe Gary I have to admit I'm a bit reckless with my plants, even my tropical drosera get snow during the winter. It is mild here though, snow never stays more than a day or two, at least not at the coast where I live. Cacti and succulents in general seem to do much better after a period of cold, so I leave them all outside throughout the year.

Hello, I have both huernia and hoya carnosa. My hoya bloomed a few times this summer, there should be some pictures around here somewhere. It has an awesome smell! Anyway, my hoya carnosa is kept inside on the windowsill facing southwest. I keep it pretty dry. I water it perhaps once every 10-15 days. It's a very hardy plant. You can water it more often, it won't complain. My huernia is outside throughout the year. It even gets some snow. I water it very rarely during winter about once every month. I don't fertilise during the winter, I start doing that around April/May. You are growing it inside so your conditions are like spring/summer except the light of course. I water my huernia regularly in the warm months, about once every 10 days. I fertilise freely as well...It's very hardy and almost never stops blooming.

Argh, I've never sown or grown ceropegia seeds Andreas, sorry Come to think of it, I've never sown any succulent / cacti seeds, not even the seeds i've collected from my own plants. My ascleps are doing fine, we're finally having some sunny days after the snow storm. No addition to my asclep collection but I have a San Pedro cactus now :) Oh and I finally have a "true" lithops I will take its photo soon. Oh! My cymbidium has just bloomed for the first time, the flowers haven't opened yet though. Pics coming soon.

Best surprise ever :)

Hi dear Andreas! Yes I have had a bad experiene with Edithcolea Grandis. It grew perfectly during the summer, got really big and vigorous but rotted immediately during fall. The rot came so quickly that I couldn't even notice it until it was too late. I got cuttings and managed to get them all to root on top of the radiator. Sadly none of them survived after I potted them individually, I failed again. I think I get it now though, Edithcolea really loves the heat. It should be able to survive the winter indoors near the radiator so that's what I'm gonna do when I get it again... Growing lithops from seed sounds very fun. You and Will have peaked my interest in this family, I will get a few new species soon. Best of luck with your seedlings!

Hey guys! Of course, please feel welcome to post anything. Those are great plants and some valuable info. I love your plants Will, you have definitely increased my interest in conophytum and lithops. I can't wait to get more species this winter. Ps. Feel free to post pics of your collection if you feel like it, I would love to see them.

Will thanks much for the information. I don't know about these plants, it's interesting to learn they are different species. I remember reading they are wintergrowing but that's all I knew. I will also make some research after this and get myself a real lithops :) Iyi geceler Andreas :) this one is an Orbeopsis Lutea. it was the only one who didn't flower and now that i've finally seen its flowers, i can safely throw it out nothing new in my cacti/succulent collection, but i gave some of the old ones away. s hirsuta, orbea v., s gigantea, orbeopsis lutea and 1 more unid are all i have now. my final aim is to get an Edithcolea Grandis. after that, my cacti/succulent collection will probably be complete. as for CPs; i got rid of the drosera/sarracenia bunch and increased my nepenthes collection. it was for the best as i don't want to buy pure water anymore. my nepenthes collection is complete as well except Robcantleyi - that's the final one i need. and my d. lusitanicum plants are doing good, still got 5 plants. how are things with you ? i am curious about your succulent collection, anything new ?

wow, i didn't know they are different. i thought conophytum is a lithops. thanks for the correction Will.

this one didn't bloom last year. i thought it was going to skip this summer as well but here it is...very late bloomer. it has a strong scent and little pointy hairs (like pins) that sway with the wind...very interesting! closeup of the hairs (a fly has already left its larva...silly thing) and here's my lithops after the summer break,

Hey there, I don't think your plants are getting enough sunlight, they are way greener than mine. I keep mine on a southern balcony where they receive almost full sun. Check out my thread 'Summer Blooms', they bloom throughout summer. You should also start fertilizing them around April/May, feed them once every two weeks and increase the watering but not too much.

By the way, here's my lithops splitting in two. Never seen this before, kinda cool.

Wow Andreas! First of all, congratulations about the new flat, I hope you can grow even more species there. I love C. Ballyana the most, very interesting flower. Carnosa looks interesting as well. Can you please take a photo of the whole plants when you can some time ? Your growing corner would be great. Istanbul is very hot and humid, I do believe now that the end of days is getting near heh. But of course my nepenthes and cacti&succulents are doing very fine. Even truncata x veitchii is pitchering outside on the balcony which was a big surprise. I have no Ceropegia species now and my succulent list has gotten much smaller, trying to keep things tidy and make more room for nepenthes.

Hey guys, I find something amazing - don't you ever suffer from thrips ? They find their way in as soon as I open the bag to let in some air.

Oh Andreas, I don't know whether we are lucky or not - Hottest summer in Istanbul EVER, it's crazy...I can barely sleep. Sometimes I go two days in a row without sleeping, that's how bad it is...Supposedly it's coming down next week, we can't wait... But yeah, as you can imagine, the cacti and succulents are having a blast. Most of mine are setting seed pods right now so they are making few flowers.

You know you love it Noah :) Did you spot the maggots in the flower yet ? The smell is so strong that various flies lay eggs in it immediately, they think it's rotting meat. I do find a use for their larva though; nepenthes food :)

Stapelia Gigantea in Bloom. I have to say the smell is the worst of all yet... And fresh seeds of S. Hirsuta and Orbea Variegata! (lemme know if you want any)

A shout for Gert again...I'm so pleased with his nepenthes. Has anyone seen his greenhouse? I am very curious about his growing conditions. His nepenthes are the only ones pitchering at window sill for me, they are very hardy. Any others I buy from other growers have a very difficult time adapting, some of them even lose almost all leaves in the process.