Wednesday 22 August 2012

New Lithops


So it hasn't been a very plant-y or blog-y summer. Between my thesis, cottaging, camping and the sadness from losing 2/3 of my lithops collection this spring, I just haven't had the heart to blog :(

I'm still pretty disheartened over the beating my collection took. We've had a much drier and hotter summer here than last summer, but also so much more humid. And I was stupid and put one tray of lithops outside on a bench that critters could easily climb. And climb they did, climbed and nommed a bunch of plants. Poor plants.

On the positive side, I have a ton of lithops, mesemb and caudiciform seedlings just waiting to be planted.

So why haven't I planted them yet? Well, THV and I are moving in a few weeks. Super excited to have our own place again. Once we are settled in I'll be planting like mad. No point in have fancy seeds if you don't at least try to turn then into fancy plants.

My local nursery finally got in some lithops plants this week (after a year and a half of waiting!). Surprisingly the plants are of much better quality than you usually see for nursery lithops in Canada. They even had L. dorotheae! The top picture is what I brought home with me - three dorotheae and a mystery lithops that I haven't identified yet. I'd have gotten a few other pots, but at $20 each it was too expensive, particularly with the upcoming move.

I did bring my camera with me and took some shots in the nursery:

L. marmorata (I think):


More L. dorotheae:


A whole pot of the mystery 'thops (sorry for the poor picture quality), can anyone identify it?:


Hopefully this post will break my blogging slump. I've missed it!