Spanish Fly, that is what I have been doing before I buy any plant these days..I will usually look up the type of care and environment needed to see if I can provide it..I wonder how many others just buy and search later, buy and guess the care, or search before they buy...I know many that just pick up plants here and there and try and grow theirs like many houseplants...

To be honest, Mike, I am one of those that buy first and research/ask the forum for help later.

If I'm at the nursery or plant section in general I'm "just looking" (he he!) to see if there is anything interesting, unusual or different. If so and I have no idea what it is or how to care for it, then I buy first (can't risk letting it get away!) and ask (care) questions later.

On some extremely rare occasions, I go looking with something specific in mind or just keeping an eye out for something that a forum member posted, so I already have a general idea how to take care of it, however, actually finding those at the nursery are pretty few and far between.

If I'm jonesing for a specific plant, then I usually wind up purchasing from the Internet and in those cases, I've already done the homework.

By far, though, the majority of my collection are plants that I wasn't looking specifically for, but happened upon.

The beauty of this forum is that the members are more than willing to help, are freely giving of their knowledge and by far the majority are nonjudgmental with regards to those of us who don't plan ahead.

Tyler

I have to admit I was a buy first, research later kind of person, but now that I've had to bring them in for the winter, I'm maxed out on how many plants I can have (and they keep having babies...wish I could spay/neuter them). Because I am maxed out, I will need to be more selective when buying, so I will probably only buy specific varieties I'm wanting/needing.

So, I do read up about a variety/species after I've purchased them - but I don't do any experimenting (other than buying them and hoping I can keep them alive) because I'm too cheap, and even if I've only spent $1 on a plant, I don't want to semi-deliberately kill it.

I also agree with Tyler - I've found more GOOD information on this forum than most of the rest of the internet - and everyone here is super helpful.

Sometimes I research first then buy, sometimes I buy first and research later :-) I don't think I've ever experimented on care without research to base that experimentation on.

Any plant I’ve purchased has always been with the arrogant assumption that “of course I’d be able to keep it alive & thriving!” Never considered that I wouldn’t be able to figure it out and keep it alive. For me, if I didn’t believe that I could, I wouldn’t even bother purchasing.

Tyler, you know you sound just like me! I am always scoping the local nursery or box stores for unique plants but never fine those..I usually find them right here on the forum and then the search begins! Like looking for a treasure!

I have to navigate the whole web, E-bay, Esty, Bonaza, greenhouses that do carts before I find the one I want! Sometimes I get desperate and ask for a cutting or to buy one from a member..

Many times before I buy on the web I read the growing details to see if I can live up to the challenge...Most of the time I can. I have almost every type of environment needed to grow most of anything.

Jeez, I think there are many of us that think alike! haha

Has anyone here ever thought of selling their new born or babies or cuttings on E-bay? Many times I will just share them with friends here..

Sometimes I will see a plant posted on here which I really desire and to afraid to ask for that one , a cutting in which one here could make a little something instead of an E-bayer we don't know.

The threads.."flowering in October and in November" have not been good for me. I have been on the prowl for half of the ones posted and found half and yet have more to go..lol

Might I also add that this forum has been a HUGE part of my success and I have been around here for years..Couldn't ask for a better bunch of people.

Experiment, what I meant was this as an example...

I buy two of the same plant and give two different care to see which does the better of the two, which gets the flowers and which grows the best..

Mike

I'm rather new to succulents going on 3rd year this spring. This past year I've accumulated over 150 different varieties and I buy what I like as far as looks and then learn about them after. So I have allot of reading to do on the varieties I've collected. I'm going to get a small greenhouse soon and try to find an area I can use inside my house for the cold sensitive plants.

I usually don't experiment with my plants. At least on purpose;). Except I have experimented with my Lithops.

Normally I would water them all year around. Skipping the two coldest months Dec-Jan. I even watered them about three times a month in the summer. With this watering schedule my Lithops would bloom for me starting in late August/September. By the time Thanksgiving came around they were all done blooming.

The past year and half I've been withholding water. They will only get water from me starting in September. Once every 10 days or so. Then in October when we start getting rain I let them get rain once a week. This has made them start the whole blooming process three months later. Like I said when I watered them regularly throughout the year they bloom late summer early fall. From withholding water they still haven't bloomed yet, but it's coming. Something is going on beneath the surface:).

So my Lithops only get water from me 2-3 months out of the year Sept to whenever they decide to bloom. Once they're done flowering no water from me for about 9 months. Of course they will get moisture from humidity and condensation, but that's it.

I also switched them to pure Pumice this summer. I keep them outside in bright filtered light all year long.

I was curious to see how long they could go without any help from me, and they have proved they definitely don't need me at all. I mean Lithops are amazing they only consist of two fused leaves and a taproot. They are built for storing water. I would be curious to know how long they could go without water.

The main reason why I did this was to see if I could get my different Lithops to bloom around the same time. Within days of eachother. When I would water more often one would bloom, then a week or two later another would bloom. They were all over the place when it came time to flower. The funny thing is, I think me changing the water schedule has worked. So far they all look very similar and seem to be on the same schedule. I will know for sure pretty soon;).

I was just curious if lithops can extract water from air. I know this sound stupid but my lithops have barely been watered since I got it about 4months ago. If I remember correctly, was once. And it was inside my garage planted in pure pumice. Garage gets very hot during summer. It’s in my cool basement getting some light from my grow lights (not directly under the grow light). I checked it yesterday and it don’t look shriveled. Either that or this plant has extreme water conservation measures.

Chris, Lithops do, to some extent, take water out of the air. It is usually in the form of the dense fogs that are common in their habitat. I'm not sure how much they actually do this in cultivation, but you would think that they would absorb what they can.

Chris

I am wondering why do you keep lithops in some light only? And why were they in garage during summer?

I moved to a new house where the back yard don't get dappled shade but full sun. It already burned my my split rock which died a slow death. My previous house had oak and maple trees which prevent too much sun. So I put the lithosphere in a portion of the garage close to the door which gets some light. So far they seemed to be doing well.

this is what I meant by some light, they’re right next to the wall.