I've been growing those guys for about a year or so. The ones I put in the ground here in drought-stricken SoCal doing a lot better than the ones in pots. In fact, every one I tried to grow in a pot has died. I'm responsible for some of the overwatering, but also sometimes the apartment landscape crew takes it on themselves to water my potted plants, and usually make a mess of it.

It's been the same with lithops. The only rock-shaped mimicry plants I've been able to keep alive in pots are argyroderma.

ltecato--

do they ever multiply on their own, or just continue to break in half and regrow from the middle? also, how hardy are these things? it seems delicate but i don't have enough experience to say. i looked up the argyroderma and it seems neat-- does yours flower?

thanks for the follow up--

I'd bet your potting mix has a fair amount of peat in it. When the peat dries out, the roots die. Then, when you water again, the plant rots because it is sitting in wet soil.

If you eliminate the peat, the roots will not die and you can water safely because there will be roots to absorb the water.

In the ground, the roots are alive and well. That's why it is healthy despite less water.

Also, in a pot the roots heat up quickly and can cook. That doesn't happen in the ground. Try to find a spot where the pots are shaded. You can try lining up the pots right next to each other to block out sun, and place a brick along the south side to shade the exposed surfaces.

Mesembs like cool soil conditions. In nature, they grow in cracks and under quartz where the soil is cooler than the air.

Try using fine gravel, Turface, pumice and/ or perlite in high concentrations, mixed with a little garden soil or topsoil. Avoid peat and those pre-packaged cactus mixes in a bag.

Chairman: I can't say for sure any of my P. Nelii have reproduced. Some of them put out more than one flower and the seed capsules or whatever you call those things are still attached to them. As far as I can tell, they just keep splitting open and adding leaves. They seem to do OK here in SoCal, and I think they're related to the iceplants we have growing all over the place. They made it through the winter here fine and came out with a lot of blooms in spring.

The argyroderma are very cool plants. My only gripe is they seem to have bleached out a bit in the sun and lost the beautiful blue shade they had when I bought them. Also, they're not as round as they started out. They do bloom and their flowers are very strange if you look close at the center. IIRC they flower in fall.

I have found that in the beginning I was overwatering mine. I've cut it way down and now my Nelii and Lithops are doing great. It's a hard lesson to learn but less is more.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lithops and Whatnots