Aeonium tabuliforme and Aloe polyphylla.

Greenjay,
You made me laugh.
That is exactly how I feel about my Christmas / Easter.cactus.
Look good in the store,bring them home and in a few months,half the plant is gone. Lol
Sharon

Tylecodon reticulatus...they hate me.

Adenium obesum

Lithops, without a doubt.

Easter Cactus & African violets

Hi Greenjay, interesting question.

Am guessing you didn't change the mix for your Xmas cactus, that's usually the problem (that it's peat based soil & the mix usually turns hard like a rock).

I have NO answer about the Easter Cactus, I've got one struggling now!

I will not even touch Lithops, and for the life of me I cannot get an orchid to bloom. They just linger not quite near death's door.

I've never had an issue with Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter cacti. Interesting there. The Easters I think are more finicky than the other two. I've gotten several really abused Xmas cacti from relatives that I've been able to get to bounce back relatively quickly. Just brought home a very sad fifteen-year-old Xmas from my aunt yesterday that I'm hoping won't be meeting its maker.

It is so odd to me that some people have trouble with African violets and I've had some issues with them in the past (currently have a bloomer; yay)...and then my grandmother, who refuses to water anything more than a spit, can get her four African violets to bloom and her living room has about as much lighting as a cave. Basically pitch black and barely any water is maybe the key, lol.

Lantana.

I know. Crazy.

I can grow 11 species of Fouquieria, a myriad of poorly known/represented cacti, and after 10 years I *still* have not been able to keep a single Lantana alive. Purple, red, orange, yellow...they all look the same after a month or two: brown.

I planted one for my neighbor in her front yard last year, and it's been lush and laughing at me (visibly!) all year.

Hate them. grrrr

I think Lithops has to top my list as well. I'm getting better at it but I've lost enough of them that it stings me. Hopefully, growing them from seed will help me understand them better.

I too had trouble with my Aloe polyphylla for a while. I finally found the perfect spot for it though and it's recovering nicely.

Another one for me is Haworthia cooperi. I had a nice, big one that lost all its roots last winter. I broke it up into 5 plants successfully only to have them infested by mealy bugs, yecch! Those messy little guys LOVE that plant.

I've also lost a few Aloe veras to black rot. That always sucks.

Oh, and let me add Aloinopsis schooneesii. I have a few that give me no trouble, a couple more in recovery, and another few that live fondly in my heart.

Most Aeoniums, Jade I have trouble with and Lithops rot.

On the way home from the plant store I show my new purchases where Interstate 95 is. I let them know it is my way or the highway. My son thinks I am nuts but it seems to be working.

Anything I really like and want to grow promptly croaks upon reaching my house.
Tami

Aloe nubigena, polyphylla tops my list. I have sent my fare share to "plant heaven", but luckily with time its getting better. I have to add "myself" as the most difficult for the silly mistakes I make from time to time.

Wow ! What a topic...lol
SSK22 _ lol Glad you got such a chuckle... i'm STILL laughing, even tho I'm currently being taunted by countless Holiday cactus....
Minime 8484 ~ That stinks, your neighbor's is fine and yours...kaput !
Pirate Girl ~ Re-potting is always job#1 unless it's currently in bloom . I even took a chance and bought a Christmas Cactus that had some age, the base trunk was like 4-5 inches around and bark-like...DEAD ! Not sure , I think they commit suicide ! Now African Violets on the other hand...i have one i bought 4 years ago, basically ignore it ! It's almost ALWAYS in bloom , and has divided into 4 seperate plants , in the same pot i bought it home in . Go figure !
Ilovetogrow ~ I'll have to try that " my way or the highway" speech with any new inductees ! too funny !
Teatree and Hanzrobo ~ I have not tried lithiops yet, sounds like something else to murder, but hey , I'm game !
It's interesting to see that i'm not the only one who has a plant or two that won't do diddly for them ! Funny, how some things will do beautifully , and others no matter what , refuse to co-operate !
Thanks for the great responses !
Jay

Whooo, this is a good topic. Hmm.

I seem to have some trouble with cacti. Doesn't really matter what kind. I haven't killed all of them, but of those I've killed, the list includes M. gracilis fragilis, Chamaelobivia "Rose Quartz," O. microdasys ("rabbit ears"), O. microdasys albata ("Angel Wings"), my wonderful mystery Echinopsis, and now apparently my M. elongata cristata ("Copper King").

I've also managed to kill a number of Aloes, Agaves and Haworthias. I have only 2 aloes left to speak of, a teeny-tiny agave pup from a larger plant that just up and died on me (I'm sure I did it in, I just don't know how), and two Haworthia - one of the "juicy" kind (as I call it), and one of the "scaly" kind. I find the most common culprit (not including the agave) is mealies, particularly on my Haworthias.

Sometimes I have a hard time with Portulacaria. Lately mine have been doing ok, so that seems promising.

I also can't seem to keep ivy alive - but that's a different forum.


*CG*

chaparralgirl ~ I also have some difficulty with Cacti...now , I have night blooming cereus that, no matter what , just keeps getting bigger and bigger ! While it did look and do better in Sc , it seems to have adjusted to the WNY climate...it's currently spilling out of a 20 inch pot and is over 6 feet in height ! So, go figure ! I tend to think that some plants are just " allergic" to me haha !

Jay, if you ever feel like you need to cut that cereus back, I'll be happy to take some of it off your hands. :)

I've been fairly lucky with most of my plants. I'm sure with less hardy specimens I'd kill 'em off in a week. The bulk of my collection is C. ovata, so even if I manage to lose everything else, I'll still have that. I can kill an ovata, but I generally try to avoid it. (Putting them outside in the summer out here in the desert will do it.)


*CG*

chaparralgirl ~ would you believe that i even listed that cereus on craigslist , just to maybe swap for a nice big , fat jade, and NO takers. even offered to donate to the local botanical gardens, but, they didn't want to invest the space for something that size, that doesn't get interesting until it blooms, then, only at night, and only for one night ! After the winter, I'd be delighted to provide some cuttings for you ! Remind me, i'm old haha !

Sounds to me that we have cultural growing problems, most of which is too much water the wrong time of the year. Poor drainage of soil, wrong mix. That will solve most of the problems. Lake of food or too much at the wrong time of the year, lack of light, and fresh air circulation, Good Luck, Norma

I have to say that the most difficult plant for me is 'Jade' - I never seem to have any luck with them. It's a shame because I really like them.

Anything that's rare and expensive.

I'm shocked at so many responses for Lithops. Something must be terribly wrong to not have decent success with them.

For me, I think Discocactus horstii from seed must top the list of impossible to grow after germination.

For a long time, I had minimal luck with Avonia quinaria and Muiria hortensae from seed. Then I tried again with much more frequent watering and that proved to work. I still have no answer for D. horstii - it probably needs something very specific like extra acidic water or soil or both. Can't figure it out.

x

X,

Et tu?

My friend McFryerburger agrees with you on this plant - I can't remember the number of rants I've heard about this plant's difficulty, but what a delight to have in flower, eh?

Cadence - Wow. Jade? It's my experience (both in growing and in reading about) that jade is one of the hardest things to kill. You can neglect it 'til the Second Coming and it still grows. I wonder what conditions you have that seem so unfavorable.

Norma - I second that. I'm definitely a fuss-pot over my plants, and it takes a lot of self-discipline for me to not water (which is probably why I've lost a few succulents over the last year since I started collecting/growing). In addition to succulents, I keep a number of more traditional houseplants - Philodendron, Diffenbachia, Ficus, Dracena, even a Queen Palm - mostly for air quality. These tend to be a lot easier for me since I can water them more frequently and it won't kill them.

X - I can't seem to grow anything from seed, so I'm impressed with anyone who can.


*CG*

Easter cactus (just lost another one), Lithops and Aeonium 'kiwi'

Natalia

i hope someone stated this, although i didn't read all posts, the christmas/thanksgiving/holiday cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) is a cactus from the amazon rainforest. Therefore, it needs to be watered more than once a month, as is the general rule for cacti. For some reason retailers don't let the customer know, as they do for other plants. I mean this basic care information is so elusive that the xmas cactus specimens at my university's greenhouse are about to dry to death. At my own house i had a plant that always stayed in the corner, barely alive enough to stay in the house, and when i realized it wasn't a desert plant and altered how i took care of it (watered with straight earthworm casting tea for a while) and it has rebounded tremendously. It has a flower, and i mean a real nice one, comparable to the ones that were nice enough to be photographed for the internet! Also, animals love nibbling at these, so keep them where cats, dogs, elephants, ocelots and whale sharks can't get them. If it helps you to keep the plant away from your pets, then yes, the plant is poisonous to your pet, but not so much that you need to get rid of the plant, just keep it where the pet you love can't get into it. If you don't care about your pets getting poisoned, then you still probably don't really care that this cactus won't poison animals. But still keep a safe distance or your holiday cactus' inability to move will prove an insurmountable obstacle to repel any animal's attack!

Peace,
DGT

I cannot keep a pathos alive inside for the life of me. After overwatering and killing four in a row, I broke down and bought another. I just can't resist the neon green one. I repotted without watering it, gave it no water for two weeks, and within one day of giving it about 6oz of water, it started to rot.

Also, strangely, I have killed a lot of tillandsias indoors. Several times the root has developed a white mold/fungus and died with no warning. But I love them and keep buying more, maybe I'll get it right one of these days.

So in summary, succulents in the ground in SWFL? Easy. Pothos and air plants, the so-called easiest plants in the world to grow? Hard!

Lithops for sure. I refuse to buy any after killing several.

Chem, lol, I remember how often I killed Pothos...the easiest plant in the world. NOT!

Problem was, no matter how often clerks say they live in low light, they are definately wrong. They need light. I also found they prefer drying, 'similar to many succulents,' to thrive.
Now, I have some in water, 'over 10 years,' and a couple in pots..They're watered when I think about doing it.

Hoya ceropegia, 'String of Hearts,' are very difficult to keep, and some Aeoniums. Toni

Sorry Toni,

But there's no such thing as Hoya ceropegia: it's EITHER a Hoya or a Ceropegia. Am guessing since you cite 'String of Hearts' that you're really talking about Ceropegia woodii.

Yes, that plant can be tricky to keep (I do fine w/ it), trickier still to get the variegate C. woodii to survive, much less to root. I'm finally getting the hang of rooting this one.

I can keep Thanksgiving cacti alive and blooming moderately, but they don't seem to grow. It's probably a water issue, like with everything that didn't grow last year (pretty much all of it, except for one that was accidentally left standing in water for months and the Jades later in the year. Nice roots though).

xerophyte_nyc: "I still have no answer for D. horstii - it probably needs something very specific like extra acidic water or soil or both. Can't figure it out."

I think they're one of those weird niche cacti that would be considered less difficult if the standard cactus mix was coarser and drier (often I read warnings that cacti should be very carefully watered so that the soil isn't still full of water when you add more. I think that if plant roots are in something that forces them to drink or drown, they should be elsewhere). Their natural habitat is a mix of quartzite sand and gravel, and any nutrients not coming down with the rain will have been built up by thousands of years of rock breakdown and very occasional doses of organic matter. Possibly other cacti, as they might not live very long after developing a cephalium even in the wild.

They'd probably benefit from being grown using the baggie method and left in the bags for at least a year (how have you been doing it?). As long as you use a fully mineral mix and there's some nutrition in the water they can stay in their little greenhouses for as long as you like. There are some species that do this naturally, lying under transparent sand and not sticking their heads above ground until they're thick-skinned and have enough mass to survive in the open air. I can't remember if it was these that do it or if it was one of the Uebelmannias, a similarly finicky Brazilian genus.

The pH of the water is probably more important than the pH of the substrate, especially for species that naturally grow in stuff with little to no pH buffering. I can collect rainwater pretty easily, but I still use a particular brand of slightly acidic and very soft mineral water when I don't want to worry about algae and things. You might be able to find some bottled water locally if rainwater isn't an option.

ChemGardner, Tillandsias just are not indoor plants. T. cyanea will do OK, but nothing else. You indicate you live in southern Florida, so just put them outdoors - if you do have a frost comig, bring them indoors for a few nights, that won't hurt them! DO NOT put them in soil, except for T. cyanea. Mount them on wood instead.

I've killed a few bishop's caps but have three now and will continue with these until I get it right. I love them. Same with Old Man of the Andes. For each cactus I have, I've probably killed one or two just like them previously. I have my first thriving Christmas cactus (ready to bloom for the third time) and my first Jade plant to do well (has grown enough that I've had to cut it back several times to keep it at a manageable size for my plant shelf.) I think a lot of our loss is due to improper care, but we can't take all the blame. I have 50 thriving african violets, many in full bloom, but if I buy ten at a show, I only expect half of them to survive and thrive. It's rare that one of my violets dies, but usually instead just does so poorly that I finally throw it away. Some just do better with one person's culture than another. I haven't been as lucky with cactus....they DIE! I'm trying to learn more about their individual care to increase my success.

No C&S in particular (definitely because I have only had experience with aloe vera and jade)

But LEMONGRASS!!! It always dies for me. That and rooted willow cuttings. The lemongrass i have tried to grow from seeds several times, and it dies, and I will grow little cutting for a long time until they always end up with this obscure water born fungus that I cannot remember the name to.

Andrew
PS Sorry for rant

I thought and thought about this one because, frankly, my thumb is quite green. Then a candidate came to mind--the plant that I love to kill?--Tree ferns. Doesn't matter if they are in the house or outside in a Spring of constant humidity and heavy rainfall. Dicksonia antarctic, Cyathea...makes no difference. Currently, have the latest Australian tree fern in a long line. Christmas and Easter cactus are easy. Got one of those in the garage now blooming its head off. Remember, these guys are true cacti but they call the tropical rain forest home--not any desert. In the winter, I do grow mine on the drier side. In the Summer, mine go outside in partial sun. Soil needs to have excellent drainage--I use a mix similar to that for bromeliads on these cacti and the orchid cacti.

I've killed many an Aloe polyphylla, though I finally decided to put this last victim into a carefully chosen spot in the ground, and it seems to be recovering. Fingers crossed!

"Tillandsias just are not indoor plants."

You know, I actually have a few tillies that I've been growing indoors without issue, at least two of them for something like three years now. I grow them upside down, as per the instructions of various tilly-related sites, because apparently they trap a lot of moisture when grown right-side up and promptly rot out, especially the more bulbous ones.

On the other hand, I can't grow the more Neoregelia-esque ones for ANY length of time.

(Pineapples on the other hand are probably up there with snake plants in terms of being really, really hard to kill).

Anyway, wrt C&S, I can't really grow desert cacti at all. I just don't have the light for it. Everything else I've tried will more-or-less adapt and grow more-or-less normally. Most of the cacti, though, just end up weakened from too little light and end up succumbing to mealies.

I've also broadly give up on Crassulids. Similar issues with Echeveria -- they need more light than I have. I've had similar issues with most other Crassulids I've tried, with the exception of Sedums which sort of etiolate on me but otherwise grow well.

Oddly enough I think I'm doing okay with the mesembs I have. They seem to go incredibly dormant in the winter around here. Glad I didn't throw any of them out, thinking they were dead.

"x" are you saying you have no trouble growing lithops? Would love to know how you do it. Any special soil, type, etc? Is there a certain place on-line that you can suggest buying them? Obviously I'm very anxious to try them again.

Also the bishop's cap. Had two that are gone, but would like to try them again also. My area doesn't have any great nurseries that sell these, so I have to chance buy online.

Amccour-

Yes, I agree that despite my lack of luck with them, it is more than possible to grow them indoors. If for no other reason that there seems to be amazing amount of blog and forum posts about air plants and very few discussing difficulties with them.

It's interesting that you mention the more bulbous ones trapping moisture, because those are exactly the ones I have struggled with. I have killed two medusa (I think the official name is 'bulbosa'), while caring for them the exact same way as my other couple of airsplants which seem to be doing quite well.

I am being very careful with my third bulbosa hybrid, with one change being that I am not keeping it upright, instead it is nearly horizontal. So far, so good :)

Retracting previous statement about feeling better about mesembs. Glottiphyllum rotted out over Christmas and I'm not really sure why because I don't think I watered it that recently.

Maybe it'll resprout from the "stump" or something. Blugh.

Oh, one interesting thing I read about bromeliads, specifically tillies.

If they bloom naturally, they'll offset profusely and apparently become more or less impossible to kill at that point.

On the other hand, a lot of commercial growers treat them with hormones to induce blossoming, and instead offsetting after flowering, they just die. This might be my problem with neoregalia-esque bromeliads.

So if they're dying on you it might not actually be anything you're doing wrong, just the end result of unscrupulous growing practices on the production end.

Hi all, I'm new here and while going through topics, this one caught my attention. So true!!! After many failures with various succulents I have adopted the following method - just do not give any special attention, put the plant with the rest and forget it. Many times the special treatment is just too much for the plant. I had serious problems with Dorstenias until I did just that - forget they are there and one day you'll find a very nice plant... worked for me...

aeonium zwartkop (or I think it was zwartkop, I'm not positive, wasn't labeled) but anyway I thought I could treat it like my jade, put it in the same fast draining mix, in the same window, watered when it seemed equally dry, everything was fine and well until I noticed it's leaves seemed quite thin and getting smaller/paler and some falling off, when I felt the trunk it was a paper shell of what it had been... I guess it rotted out? When I unpotted to see the roots weren't mushy... I have no idea what actually happened, there were two in the pot and both met this sad fate... I have not tried again since I found the murder of these two beauties very disheartening and decided to try to stick to things who enjoyed my company better (mostly euphorbias I think...)

Lithops! Ortegocactus macdougallii, any Neoporteria and Othonnas

Denise

String of pearls, they hate me for some reason...I've been through many, trying different ways of caring for them, and they always die....makes me frustated cause I really love that plant, they just don't seem to love me back....

Aeoniums and most def Ademiums. The Adeniums grow great during the summer but soon as I bring them in ...I have lost 3 so far this winter.
I keep saying I wont buy any more I gave up last winter when I lost all 10 I had bought in Fla the spring before(huge 3 gallon pots) and yet here I am again, I couldnt resist they are so pretty.I still have 12 left this year but winter isnt over yet.

I've only really been hobbying with plants the last year or two but so far I have not killed a succulent. I don't have any cacti. Every succulent I've had I have kept alive. I have not tried lithops though, or any holiday cactus. I have several tropical plants that have all stayed alive. I killed one but I let it die kind of...I didn't water it for FOUR MONTHS and then finally I threw it out because it was in really bad shape but it was still alive. It was my first plant and was still in the black muck and I was too scared to repot it because hubby once said he saw millipedes in it (blech). I was really just waiting for it to die but it wouldn't. It was a Chinese Evergreen, whatever those are called.

Actually, I did have an Ivy die but that was probably because it was in a plastic pot without a hole and I didn't ever get around to making one myself.

I have good success with orchids, though I have two Cattleya hybrids that are struggling. I have brought a Dendrobium and a Wilsonara back from the dead.

I have NOT had luck with African Violets but I also didn't really try at all and am trying again. I'm giving up on them if this time around I don't succeed.

I really credit all of my success with you GardenWeb people. I would have given up a long time ago if it weren't for you all. I've learned so much here.

Wow ! I had no idea this would be such an explosive topic haha !
I simply thought i'd get a few raised eyebrows at my ability to get a few things to grow beautifully, and complete inability to even keep others alive !
It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who suffers from that phantom "difficult plant " syndrome !
Also , some of the responses simply have cracked me up !
One lesson I have definately learned here, is to not take things too seriously...Thanks for a GREAT thread everyone !
Jay