Joe -

Really nice D. Gigas you have there!

I don't have one of those, but my D. Foetida, Crispa, and a baby Gypsophila that I have are flowering right now. I also have an adult Gypsophila that has been sulking for a while (not sure why, I treat it like all my others - including its offspring!). It had a weak flowering period in the late spring, and it is just not pushing a lot of growth right now for some reason. All my others are growing like gangbusters.

In fact, the baby Gypsophila is growing in the same pot as the mom right now. Now, I need to figure out a way to extricate it from the pot without killing both!

Tom

Nice plants!

I'm told by a curator at UC Davis that these should be grown like Adeniums, hot temps, humid, fed generously and given copious amounts of water when night temps are above 65deg to get maximum growth.

My gigas' are still small (largest is 2.5" diameter) I've seen them flower in as little as five years, but that was at UCDavis grown under ideal conditions and 8" in diameter.
A friend has one that is 7" diameter for 10 years abd it has never flowered.

Beautiful pics and thanks for the trip to Socotra! I learned of the island when studying up on a plant I had (for a short time) Duvaliandra dioscoridis. What an amazing trip you had.
Love Dorstenias. Thanks,
Mike

Here is UC Davis' 5yo plant flowering, remember this has an 8in diameter!

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They are much hardier than Adenium.Mine stays outside in the rain,in a pot, all year. Late spring the wife liked it so much she brought it in to put next to the flowering Adenium.Scared the bejezzsus out of me how fast it declined indoors..spidermites and dropped leaves.This,from a plant that is pest free,glossier than the photos show in person and just no trouble-outdoors. I, as fast as i could placed it back outside early this summer. It was only in the house a couple of weeks next to a window that my hybrid Adenium thrives in. Ironically enough,after the many heat waves this year I PUT, the Adenium outdoors..and IT went downhill fast!..stopped flowering almost immediately,and leaves later grew stunted..it's back indoors-whew. Just now again getting to looking happy.
D.Gigas can grow just fine on summer bay area temps and I am seriously thinking of putting in ground as it handles rain as well as most succulents given decent drainage. My old Adenium with the fat gold trunk did okay outdoors in summer..but very marginal. D.gigas-and i wouldnt lead you wrong- seems to be better adapted. I know thats against whats written about it ,but I wouldnt hesitate to grow in ground in soucal.
UC Davis greenhouse has the largest S.gigas in norcal..an enourmous 3' plant with huge trunk in a pot little larger than the caudex. I have found that to get growth for us regular folks they should not be underpotted FWIW.

Tom: I have a few foetidia, a radiata, a 'Taba's gorge', and a Taba's gap'. The foetidia and radiata are religious free bloomers and seem to be very easy to keep happy. The rest seem to be a little more picky. My 'Taba's Gorge' has been trying to flower, but the buds never make it past the size of a pin head and just shrivel. I'm guessing they want more than 70% humidity they get around here.

Caudex: I'm surprised to hear they want to be fed as generously as Adeniums. The warmth and copious water makes sense given the Socotran seasons, but I sort of figured they were from such nutrient poor areas that they wouldn't have much use for fertilizer. So I guess the standard diluted, balanced regiment is the way to go? I would just love to see some large plants in person. The largest D. gigas I've ever seen in real life is my own!

Mike: Those actual photos from Socotra are not mine. The family that did go just have such amazing photos that I had to share. It is totally worth looking though that gallery. There is an Adenium in there that will blow your mind! I sincerely wish I could travel to Socotra, but alas, its just too darn expensive. We actually considered trying to go there as a honeymoon, but its remoteness makes it far more of an expedition than we can afford or justify...

Anyone else out there with a sulking Gypsophila? Stunted leaves, some flowers wilted early on. Very little growth since then...

I plan on pulling it out of the pot tonight to take a peek at the roots (as long as I am trying to extract its baby for repotting anyway). I don't see any insects on it, but I sprayed it for mites as a precaution yesterday.

I have been growing my others in a pretty sunny position outdoors this summer and they seem to love it (I wish I could grow them outside year round as stanofh describes, but the Massachusetts winters just won't cooperate!).

Pretty sure you do need to monitor extended cool and wet with these guys - I lost one a while back under those conditions outside in the spring.

Tom

Joe -

My experience with the Gypso is similar to yours with the Taba. That said, its seedling has great foliage and is flowering already! Go figure...

The Taba is the one I lost to cool/wet a few seasons back. Maybe a form of Darwinism with us hobbyists...

I'm glad to hear some other people think gigas is a little more hardy than the literature seems to indicate. Last winter while it was dormant, I left the big out in the rain a couple of times. I was really discouraged and figured I'd probably rotted it. As soon as the weather warmed up though, it exploded with new growth. I just figured I'd gotten lucky, but it sounds more like it wasn't really a big problem to begin with After hearing what you all have to say, I'm going to bump up the active growth watering even more, and start the fertilizer.

Caudex: Awesome pic, thanks for sharing. That is a beast! Do they grow them in beds in the greenhouse? Is it just the climactic conditions they provide that allow for such fast growth?

Tom: I meant to add that gypsophilia is on my wish list, but most of the plants I've come across for sale never seem very healthy. That makes me think there is some secret to their cultivation that isn't widely known yet...

The UC Davis Dorstenia isnt the same as in caudex photo.Since i was there as part of a job duty,I dont recall if that greenhouse was open to the public. It was double,triple,overall the mass of the big one on display at UC Berkeley.
Ernesto's is about the height of mine..larger base.I should pot up mine with half a summer to go....
btw,not sure why you avoid mentioning my name in particular j.s.

Stan: I honestly wasn't trying to slight you!!! Please accept my apologies. I've been a little scatter brained lately and didn't do a very thorough job of responding to everyone's comments. So.... Do you have yours in the ground, or just a large pot? I was so worried about rot that I ended up using that smallish pot instead something a little larger. Next season I am going to move it into something bigger. Do you have any pictures of yours? Do you have any pictures of the super huge one from UCD?

Socotra is a definitive tropical island, warmth year round with seasonal monsoons. D gigas thrive in warm, wet conditions. They are adapted to seasonal drought but do not require it so in perfect conditions they can grow all year. My gigas and Dendrosicyos have been active since about June and I water them freely. Adenium socotranum is not active right now but they are on a different schedule, preferring late summer and fall for growth.

I don't have gypsophila but maybe they have specific pH requirements since they originate in soils high in gypsum (calcium sulfate)????

Sorry j.s I though maybe you didnt want to hear my tales-wink.
The one at Davis,if Caudex hasn't seen it then it must be in a greenhouse off limits to the public.It is awesome. Ernesto's would be a nice branch for the plant that is likely the mother of his. I saw it about 4-5 years ago. Darn,no pics.
Xero, you would be shocked at how much cold D.gigas can take and how much cold wet when it is dormant. I couldnt say if the same as dry dormant because mine has never been dry in winter other then I not watering it. Just the 14-18" of rain Hayward CA,gets. ALL rain is winter rain. Last year it was hitting a stride.The indoor fiasco set it back a little. Thanks to you guys I'm more encouraged now to baby it-lol.
D.gigas photos on the net dont really show what a great looking plant it is. It is a dark glossy green unlike most fat plants..the corrugated leaf texture is different too.
btw,it has taken a few 32's and one 30f..came out with not a loss of a single branch.Full sun,good drainage and it's a outdoor California plant I'm tellin ya!

Here's mine. Just a must have if your serious about C&S.

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stan -

That is a sweet gigas! Maybe I need one of those - sounds like they are much less temperamental than Gypsophila..

X -

Interesting theory re: gypsum and ph. What, then, would be the ph you would expect it to thrive in? Interesting, though, that the seedlings in the same pot are doing really well...

So, I repotted it (and managed to get two of the seedlings into their own pots). The parent plant had no fibrous roots to speak of! The soil was pretty damp deep down (probably due to no roots pulling out moisture). I did not see any rot, though.

Explains the sulking! Not sure why it isn't growing, though. I potted it up in a bit more coarse material and put it in a shadier spot to see if it will recover. Any other thoughts out there on treatment/prognosis?

Thanks.

Tom

T

I'm not sure what the preferred pH may be, the chemistry can get complicated. Gypsum-based soils probably drain well and hold little moisture, and are definitely very high in Calcium. I would consider adding a healthy amount of granular gypsum, available at any garden center, into the soil periodically. It sounds like your pot may have an anoxic zone at the bottom which may be suffocating the roots. A repotting sounds like the way to go.

There are several species of Mexican cactus that are gypsophiles (some Ariocarpus, Aztekium, among others), and they all have high calcium levels in their mucilage. Whether this is an adaptive benefit, or simply the result of high soil calcium, is unclear to me. Maybe calcium is a macronutrient for Dorstenia gypsophila? There's not much info out there regarding its cultivation so who knows?

Dolomitic lime is also a good source of calcium for plants, but it will raise pH. Gypsum, because of the sulfates, will neutralize or even lower the soil's pH. I prefer gypsum as a soil additive for that reason. Most alkaline lovers will tolerate acidic soils, but acidophiles generally do poorly in alkaline soils, FWIW.

Mets in 1st after tonight????

x

x -

Bullpen is in the process of choking up another hairball - not so sure about 1st....

ugh.

spoke too soon, i jinxed it

they'll go get 'em tomorrow and hopefully still get 2 of 3

SIX runs in the top of the ninth?!?! What?

I appreciate your optimism, x.

Sorry folks, for the off topic venting...

Tom

I haven't been UCD grenhouse, saw the plant at the show and spoke with Ernesto there.

As for hardiness, mine have survived 20deg with over head protection, but there is some tip die back. I keep these with a group of plants I try to water every other day and repot them every year to give fresh soil, need to get around to doing it this year. I don't feed, just the repot is enough to give them a good growth spurt.

Next time I go out to my friends place I'll get a photo of his beauty.

josciece, in the 4th picture to the left what is the name of the plant with the different colors and the branches comming off of it. It has green,lt. green ,tan ,brown it looks great I would like to have one thanks rob email me at skipperdeer@aol.com

Stan: Thats a beauty! Whoever owned mine before me wasn't giving it quite enough light, so many of my branches are a little etiolated. Yours has much denser growth. It looks really nice. It's also too bad that mine lost the main growing point. I'm hoping another branch "takes over" for it to maintain the columnar shape that yous has. I assume yours get full sun all day?

Robs: It is probably Euphorbia mammillaris. The variegated version of this plant is much more common, and has a whiteish purple/pink color instead of the green. However, it came from Home Depot, so there is a good chance it is really some sort of greenhouse hybrid...

Caudex: How about some pictures of yours?

Will post some tonight or in the morning.

Full sun from about 11am,natch,to sunset. I'm really tempted to put in ground. The Davis plant is really something.And i wont approach those results in a pot. And i recall that the Davis plant barely fit in it's pot. Maybe it was wild collected?

Great plants!

I have a D. gigas - if I recall correctly it's an imported cutting from The Huntington Botanical Garden. Unfortunately it has become etiolated but I can't extend the dormancy until May (when I put my plants outside). It leafs out in April.

I'll post a photo...

Best regards,

Martin

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Nice growth out of that small pot Martin. Hey,you need to do a post on your Plectranthus ernstii. That's a neat looking fat plant. I have to look for one now.

Stanofh, thanks. There's no need for a bigger pot. My plant doesn't produce a lot of roots. It never has, and I wonder why.

Yes, indeed, Plectranthus ernstii is a neat plant - and fast-growing! I have three "motherplants", and they flower all through the growing season. They are pretty easy to propagate by cuttings.

Best regards,

Martin

Martin and Stan: I just bought a tiny little P ernstii seedling from Out of Africa. It is only 3" tall and the stem isn't any wider than a pencil. I'm glad to hear its a fast grower! Any tips on this species?

Stan and Joscience: I have started a new thread/topic named "Plectranthus ernstii" to keep this thread "clean".

Best regards,

Martin