Ha - nope I restrained myself! First time in weeks...hehe... I ordered back in the fall from a lady in California that has a greenhouse and sells lots of succulents. The soil is actually pretty good, has a good amount of perlite in it and some bark. I can tell the plants are getting pretty root bound now but want to wait until spring to repot, mostly because I have to do it in the garage and don't want them to freeze. These little guys are in 2" plastic pots, all rooted cuttings. I have two other Crassulas other than my gollum Jade. One is a string of buttons. When I got it it was flowering but then it stopped because of whatever reason. I have it in a Southern window and it loves it. It never wilts and grows at a decent rate so I think watering it every week or two is working for it. The other one is a Crassula marchandii, not a popular Crassula at all and only one other member in the C&S group has one, though Norma knew what it was and said it is a hybrid. It's pretty finicky. I actually started a thread on it if you are interested, I'll post the link. The cutting I got from her had bloomed because I could see where the flower stem was and it was removed. Now it is splitting into two "branches" there which is exciting! So I think I'll keep that one around as pathetic looking as it is. It's one of mine that really likes the water. From her I also have a Sempervivum and two dumb Hens and Chicks (I don't like them, and they do not like me either, they started to stretch out and are fine now in a southern window but they look ridiculous with a neck and compacted head on top - I want to get rid of them but feel like I'm doing something really bad by tossing a living thing out). I ordered a "surprise" mix and didn't have a say in what I got, I just told her to keep in mind that I live in Illinois and they'll be inside lol. The Haworthia too of course that I mentioned. Two Aloes (I think one is a marlothii seedling, the one in the pure oil-dry and the other is a variegata which needs a lot more water than the marlothii right now, its leaves started to fold on me). One thing that's weird with my Aloe variegata is I swear it eats the dirt. The dirt keeps disappearing. When I bought it from HD it was healthy but a lot of dirt was missing. It was pretty much only any dirt that was stuck to the roots. Brought it home, threw in C&S potting soil laying around to hold it over until spring, and it ate it up again. It's bizarre and I don't know what the heck is happening to the dirt, but about 1/3 to 1/2 of it disappears. It clearly has a brain and knows it wouldn't do well in it! So I am obliging to its wishes and will not add anymore dirt for now. It's a really slow grower, both Aloes are. Hopefully they step it up a bit now that spring is coming - we have bulbs starting to poke through the soil already. I also have a Hoya compacta and a Sansevieria. Hoya is a rooted cutting so that won't do anything for years lol - the Sansevieria just sits there I swear it doesn't grow. I think that covers it. I really want a Gasteria next. Someone in the C&S forum had a pot full of Gasteria offsets and it looked really cool, and I guess they do great as houseplants. Here is a link that might be useful: Crassula marchandii thread

Oh boy! Spotted Haws are tough, with several diff species & then all the varieties & forms! Do you know for a fact all of these have columnar growth habits? Seems to be true from the pix, but hard to tell sometimes. Col #1: Might be H. coarctata var. tenuis or H. coarctata v. coarctata Col #2: not sure Col #3: Might be H. coarctata fa. chalwinii Check out these species for spotted types: coarctata, kingiana, minima, pumila, reinwardtii Sorry I can't be more definite for you. :(

I'm in agreement with madabouteu. Although H. fasciata does not usually have its leaves tightened up to the stems like that, I wanted to be sure. They grow on elongated stems (unlike H. attenuata). If the upper leaf surface had been free of tubercles--smooth--then I would've leaned toward H. fasciata. H. coarctata & H. reinwardtii have forms that look very much alike (suggesting they really might be just one species). I'm going to say it looks most like H. reinwardtii 'Zebrina', with the bands on the lower leaves instead of dots. You made perfect sense...descriptive words that paint a picture, even though we had photos to see! Thanks!

Thanks for the ID'ing! It's definitely possible that the Agave needs more light. A question, though: When I compare A. desmettiana variegata to 'Joe Hoak', what my (inexperienced) eye spots right off is the color pattern. 'Joe Hoak' has green along the outer edge of the leaves, with varying amounts of yellow/pale green in the center, mostly yellow; while desmettiana variegata has yellow edges, and is predominantly medium to dark green in the center. What led me to guess at 'Joe Hoak' for mine is the green along the leaf edges and the general paleness of the green in the center. From your reactions, I wonder if there's something else I'm missing. You mention the growth shape; is that the key factor? What should I be looking for as the distinguishing characteristics? Pirate_girl - Thanks for the Haworthia confirmation; I was pretty sure on that one but it's still nice to get a second opinion. :)