NEW GROWTH!! On Our Asclepiadaceae Stapelia Hirsuta

Here's my hubbies Stapelia! (That sounds sort of nasty, doesn't it?) He picked it out when we went to the California Cactus Center a month or so ago. Anyway, I should give you all the details, but I'm so short on time any more, so I'll just give you it's scientific name: Asclepiadaceae (ass-kle-pee-ad-AY-see-ay) Stapelia (sta-PEL-ee-uh) Hirsuta (her-SOO-tuh), and if you want more info you can visit Dave's Garden, to find out more about it. (Why reinvent the wheel?) Do you see the three arms growing from the side of the arm? I'm so excited! Click on the pic above for a great closeup of the new baby arms, that I noticed just the other day. Here's a pic of the whole plant:

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!

The Other Two Pots of Lithop Seedlings

I have two round pots of lithops that I'm growing too. Let me see if I can give you a count of how many are growing: Okay, there's 9 in one pot, and about 14 in the other pot. Here's my concerns about these guys: Quite a few are laying on their sides. I'm not sure why this is happening, but it is. I have this urge to push them down into the soil, but I'm going to leave it alone and let nature takes it's course. Fingers crossed, I'll be providing you with some pictures within the next one or two weeks, depending on if there is much change. I've read that this is where it gets real boring, as they take a really long time to grow.

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.

How's My Project Going?

My project is going pretty good, for the most part. I received my packets including a bonus packet of 20 cactus and succulent seeds. That was really cool! I love bonuses. When they said the seeds were tiny, they weren't kidding. They are extremely small. I'll have to get pics to share with you, but just think of a tiny piece of sand, and that'll give you an idea of their size. Really, really small. After planting the seeds, (basically laying them on top of the moist soil and tapping them lightly) I misted the top of them and put them into the Aquarium, creating a sort of greenhouse. (I really want a greenhouse now, and have been reading up on them).

Oh, and I guess I should tell you what I planted, right? In the first two pots, I planted Lithops. In the second row of two I planted Conophylum (which aren't doing so great), and in the last row, I planted the mix, which is revealing some really cool specimens.

Then the waiting game began...tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock. I planted the first 6 on March 2nd, and the last one using Lithop seeds in the square container on March 4th. I did this to test out the "actual" instructions that came with my seeds. That is to simply plant them in a pot filled with moistened soil and cover with plastic wrap. Both methods were successful, however I think the aquarium method worked the best, so after about three days, I removed the plastic wrap from the square pot and put it in with the other six. I was getting some transparent, spindly ones. They seem much happier!

So it's been 11 and 13 days respectively for all my plants and in the next post I'll post some great pictures of them.