MOTHER OF THOUSANDS: Bryophyllum daigremontianum

Donna, do you remember this little guy? He was a "bonus" when I bought my varigated Bear Paw plant, a tiny little seedling that I was sure to pot with the very same Bear Paw plant. Anyway, at first we thought that he was going to be a baby Bear Paw, because of the jiggy-jaggy edges, but he always seemed to look a little like something else. And where was his fur? I've noticed on my lastest "freebies," i.e. the baby Chocolate Soldiers, that they are fuzzy from conception, so I'm certain this is an entirely different plant all together.

What's interesting, is the plant that I think it's going to be is one that is on my wish list, and one that I'll be able to share with everyone, commonly known as the "Mother of Thousands." What made me think that this was it was something I noticed on the edge of two of the inside leaves; there appears to be something growing on the tips of them, like a little baby plant. This really surprised me, and so knowing that my camera is a great magnifying glass of sorts, I took a ton of pictures until I got the perfect one to show you. Please click the picture above to enlarge and take a good look at the "bump" growing on the middle top leaf. Doesn't it look like a little plant starting to grow? There's one growing on the leaf exactly across from it too! Okay, so I poked around a bit, and here's a picture of the plant, a Bryophyllum daigremontianum, plus a link to the website, in a language I do not understand, but the pictures are worth a thousand words:

Doesn't it look a lot like my plant??? It's really tripping me out! I believe mine is a varigated version also. I will keep my eye on this little baby and keep you posted as to it's growth. Here's a couple more pictures including one of it next to my dirty little varigated Bear Paw that it came with.
Rats, I just read this article, and realize that maybe I should rid myself of this poisonous plant. Darn it, and it's so cool looking. It explains a lot that it landed in another planter and made it's way to my home, sneaky little devil. Is there a way to maintain it without having millions of babies?

And What About The Conophytum?

So far, I've only got two conophytum that have come up, which is sort of a bummer since I only bought 20 seeds. I think I used them all. I can't remember right now, but still, they only cost two bucks, so I could always get more. Who knows what breeds I've got here. The two biggest on the left hand side and top look very different. I think the one on left looks very different from everything I'm growing. The tiny seedling on the right still has it's seed shell on it's head, so it's hard to know what we've got there. It just recently germinated, so maybe in a couple weeks we'll have a new picture with some real changes!

Three Strangers

The title says it all: Three Strangers. These three come from the "mystery" mix too. There's a cool red plant in the upper right hand corner, and then a green plant, that looks sort of like a lithop or maybe a conophylum, and then I think I've got another little devil popping up just above to the left of the green plant. Not sure yet what I have here, but in a week or two I'll post new pics...if they survive that is!

Oh and by the way, I included a sewing pin and penny, to give you some perspective on their size, plus you can click on it to enlarge the photo.

My Little Devil!

Here's my little Devil! That's what he/she looks like anyway! This is the only thing that came up in this post of the secret, bonus mix that he sent me. It can be anything from a cactus to a succulent, and I'm betting this is going to be a cactus, from what I've seen around the internet. This is an okay picture of it, which you can click to enlarge. Again, I've included a penny and a sewing pin to show the size of the little seedling. This one is quite hardy compared to my lithops, and it's much bigger than them too.

Here's another pic that is sort of nice, maybe a little clearer:

Let's See What's in the Square Pot!

Okay, so here's a close up of what's in the square pot that was planted on March 4th. (Be sure to click on it to get a real good close up). Okay, so those are teeny-tiny Lithops. To give you an idea of how teeny-tiny they are, I put a sewing pin that's next to the top two lithops, and a penny. They are smaller than the head of a pin! This is why I had to wait so long to take photos; my camera simply couldn't pick up the little guys.

Here's a picture of all of them:

I forgot to mention another thing I did differently with these than the other six: I put the sand through a strainer so that the sand wasn't as chunky. Another recommendation I decided to follow with the second set. There are about 11 lithops growing in this container. Not too bad of a germination ratio. I think I put in a little over 10 Lithop seeds.

My Latest Project...

Okay, so my old project, propagating succulent plants from leaves, blew away, literally. Yes, Donna and I experienced a great deal of wind about a week or two ago and I came home to find my leaves and their corresponding pots all over the balcony, and dirt everywhere. I got over it and I'm trying simpler methods, but the other day I picked up some Aizoceace Split-Rocks, Lithops and Conophytum plants at Lowe's and one thing led to another...

So, I got this idea, (which always gets me in trouble), to try to grow Lithops. Why? I don't know, I'm just drawn to do it, and probably because in researching the plants, I came across a few people who were growing them from seed, so I had to try it! I borrowed a tank from Donna, and I'm going to create a greenhouse for the seedlings. I'm so excited, like a mad scientist! I just ordered seeds from eBay, from a company called "The Cactus Seed." (Those are his pics up above). I'm getting a 100 "mixed" Lithop seeds in the bottom pic, and 20 Conophytum, which are those in the top pic.

I should have my seeds within 3 days, I hope. They're coming from Illinois. Hey, I wonder if the California Cactus Center sells seeds???? I emailed them once before, but they never responded, but perhaps I should try calling them or emailing them again? (What do you think Donna)? BTW...I was there this weekend, (The California Cactus Center), and it was great! It's an awesome store, with tons of exotic cacti and succulents, pots of all kinds, great soil, rock cover, etc. It started to rain, which was really interesting. I had a lot of fun that day! They have Sophia, the one-eyed cat, who sits in a box next to the register. She's so sweet. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on how the project goes!