"Baby Toes" Flowers Have Appeared!!

What a surprise! My first experience with the flowers of Baby Toes a.k.a. officially as: Ficoidaceae-Aizodaceae fenestraria, was a simple white, daisy-like flower, but boy was I surprised by the delicate shade of pink and yellow flowers that appeared on this one! You never know what you're going to get. I wrote about this recently here, and so far three flowers have appeared. In the picture below I only show two, but since then another has appeared, and if I'm not incorrect there will be a fourth one appearing shortly! Click to enlarge the pictures. The colors are unbelievable! Fairy tell like, if you ask me!

My "Baby Toes": Ficoidaceae-Aizoaceae fenestraria

Remember me whining a while back about how terrible my "Baby Toe" succulent plant was doing? Or maybe I only whined to Donna about it? Hmm.... Anyway, here's how it looked in between the bad stage, including a picture of the pretty white flower that had bloomed. Not too long after this it started going down hill. Probably due to overwatering. I was so bummed out, 'cause my plant was getting all "smooshy" and I really loved my Baby Toe succulent plant. After that one started going down the toilet, I decided to pick up a couple of others, just in case I lost the first one. Well, I left the plant alone and believe it or not it recovered. Here's a picture of it now, with lots of new "toes":
Okay, so that's great, right? But what really got me wanting to blog about this excellent succulent specimen was the fabulous flower buds that appeared on one of my other plants. Three buds, to be exact! I was really surprised when I noticed these the other day. Here's a pic that shows the new flower buds growing on the plant on the right:

And then here's another great plant I have that's doing fabulous:

Anyway, I just had to share this. I've got another post coming up real quick! I'm excited to share with you my latest purchase, which I'm really excited about. Someone better get me a nice big yard, real quick like!). I'll give you a hint...it is subtropical and it bears fruit. Any guesses???

Frogs, Frogs and more FROGS!

My Mom LOVES frogs. And when I say she LOVES frogs, I'm not exaggerating one bit. My daughter Micaela took pictures of all her frogs, and boy were there a lot of pictures of frogs. She lost count when she tried counting them all, but we will make a valiant attempt to count them all the next time we visit during the summer. It all started over me buying her one little toad. I know, it's not a frog, but that's what kicked off her HUGE frog addiction. Anyway, I found some GREAT frogs at the 99 Cent store. I was sure to pick up a couple for my Mommy, and a couple for myself, of course. So here they are along with some of my plants I haven't blogged yet (Click on them to enlarge if you like!):

And here's a close-up:

And here's another little friend. Ain't he cute?

And we can't forget this little guy either:

BABY TOES: Ficoidaceae-Aizoaceae Fenestraria Rhopalophylla

I'm up entirely too early this lovely Saturday morning, but I couldn't sleep. I have so much on my mind. I will be visiting some nurseries today, and I can't wait, plus I've been so caught up with my school work, that I haven't really had time to post any more articles on my nearly 30 specimens of succulents! It's been driving me bonkers! I got my school work done after 8:00 last night and now I'm kicking off my weekend of posts with my absolute favorite of all succulents:

The sweet and adorable Baby Toes!

This plant is bizarre and fanciful to behold. I loved it so much I had to have two of them, and picked one up for my friend Donna yesterday; a little beat up, but still salvageable! (By the way, I'm going through this plant rescuing thing, picking up prospective beauties and attempting to revive them at home). Okay, I've got to stop side tracking here. Anyway, the story goes that only the top portion of the plant leaf sticks out from the sand. It has this marvelous looking convex, bulging, somewhat translucent window at its tip that adjusts itself by becoming more or less translucent depending on the weather conditions. It does all this for optimum photosynthesis and protection from the harshness of the sun. This is why they say that if your Baby Toes aren't getting enough sun, the translucent window will spread further open and can change the look of your plant!

Let's get to the scientific stuff:

Family: Ficoidaceae (fy-koy-DAY-see-ay) meaning "fig-like"
Genus:Fenestraria (fen-es-TRAY-ree-uh) meaning window in Latin and rhopalophylla
Species: rhopalophylla
Common Name: Baby Toes
Min Temp: to 32 degrees F
Bloom: A variety of colors such as yellow, purple and white like a daisy! - Varies
USDA Zone: Zone 9
Exposure: Bright light/Partial Shade
Height: Under 6 inches
Origin: Cape Province, South Africa and South West Africa

Here's what The Cactus Collection has to say about it:

"Fenestraria or "Baby Toes" are very unusual plants from the deserts of South Africa. These plants belong to large family of Aizoaceae (synonymous with Mesembryanthemaceae), which includes plants known as "Mimicry" plants for their ability to camouflage with their environment. "Baby Toes" have finger-like leaves in upright clusters. Each "finger" has a translucent "window" at the tip, and it is through this window that the harsh African sunlight if filtered to enable photosynthesis. In habitat, often only these "windows" are visible above the quartz sand. Prefers a soil with less organic material; extra pumice or perlite provides excellent drainage essential to these type of plants. Requires bright light to prevent "stretching" of the leaves. Water thoroughly when soil is dry to the touch. Will not tolerate water-logged soils. Somewhat frost tolerant, but protection is advisable to prevent scarring."

As you can see from above, they list a different family name for Baby Toes. I listed the family that I found in one of the books I checked out from the library, ficoidaceae, but they list it as Aizoaceae, which means "evergreen."

Below is a beautiful bloom on my Baby Toes! It looks just like a pretty daisy!

And here is where my Baby Toes lives, protected by Sir Patrick Corridan, my fabulous garden gnome.

Side note: I sure wish the spell check was working...