Some new babies for the new year and my Gasteria.

David

What are he babies? All same plant or? Very organized :) I am assuming that different color of tag is for different variety?

I am sure you wanted to say Gasteria? Nice variegation.

Chippedchinaplate, what kind of plant is that with the yellow flower? That is my next acquistion...Love it and all the others of course..

David, I love the little yellow plant-lets coming out..Very nice!

David, I just have to ask--what soil is that in the top photo? Truly curious, not a a questioning-your-choice thing.

Hi rina

mostly Lithops and some titanopsis. Pleiospilos too. Oh and two cups of button cacti.

David

Thank you. Hope to see them again when bigger.

Hi Jeff

im new here and don’t want to dig too deep into the good old soil thing. Lol.

im currently using mix of 100% mineral and I buy it from a local Supplier in Sydney. It’s called Gritmix No 2 seed raising. Seems to work well. I also blend a 1/3 coco coir with this or peat. But seeing better results just straight mix.I use a aquarium sand for the top dressing to give nice grainy surface. Photo shows some older babies.

David, very cool. I thought it might be some sort of sand, but it looked very yellow under the lights. That sand is a little coarser than the sand that I use as a top layer (just regular fine sand, not anything special). Looks like it works very well. I might look into that.

I just made a very cool discovery. A cactus lady from an ancient mailing list (when we used parchment and messengers) sent me some plants in those ancient times (by messenger). She was the one who gave me little Aloes. I was rummaging around the basement--it's amazing what you find when rummaging and you're a collector/hoarder--and I just found a label of hers for my little Aloes. The plant is a hybrid of Aloe descoingsii and A. hawothioides. If you go up 25 posts to the little Aloe photos of mine you'll see it. I wish I had her other labels. I wish I was more careful. :/

The flowers are amazing, although they never opened up for me.

Hybrid of A. descoingsii and A. haworthioides is Aloe 'Pepe'.

Love those descriptive names. It's hard to tell all of those small aloes apart.

xSedeveria 'Harry Butterfiled':

Yeh Jeff those aloe’s are amazing, would of loved to see them open.

With the sand I found that the washed aquarium sand is much bigger grain size to the river sand , try to find the cleanest looking stuff. About 10 dollars a bag. We should start seedling thread.

nice harry butterfield there rina .

David

Thank you.

That sounds like a good mix - do you have a photo of the mix? Do you know what is in it? Many of us make our own 'gritty' mix, using mix of few of grit (granite chips), pumice, perlite, scoria and other inorganic substrates.

There are many different threads on propagation; but not that many on growing from seeds. Maybe you can start one pls? Those seedlings look good...

Some amazing plants here folks, keep them coming, a great thread to look and see what everyone’s passions are!

Gill

David, we should start a thread on seeds you're sowing, or seeds you've sown this month or whatever. I've taken some macros with my camera, but don't have them on the puter yet. That sand would be nice; I'm going to look for it.

Kalanchoe luciae - offsets, and what looks like inflorescence - still quite a bit to grow:

Few babies - grown from leaves, except top right, which is growing from older stem:

Here is one of favorite Aloes. Love the color texture and leaf forms. That is a little 'Red Horn' jade rooting next to it..

Rina, those are some of the most beautiful little bluish plants I have ever seen! Should of had yous end me one or two. I have always wanted these. You have some of the most beautiful plants)

Euphorbia Francoisii

Got this aloe for about a year, since than a few pups grown around the mother plant.

Rina, I have to ask what those are. I love them too. Pachy...? I want one, I need one. I don't think I saw one at Home Depot.

Mike, the texture on those Aloes is very cool. I also stick random things in random pots. Wherever there's room...

Ycloh, that Euphorbia almost looks like a Croton. I have one of the latter and need to behead it this spring (not a succulent).

They are either Pachyphytum oviferum or Graptopetalum amethystinum. Those plants are quite similar and often sold under wrong names. Mine didn't bloom yet, and blooms would help to make sure. Other description (size of rosettes - leaves and exact color) suits better to P. oviferum - but growing conditions change plants...I'll know for sure if and when it blooms). I received plant from one of the members here five years ago :)

JeffO, I have not try Euphorbia Francoisii by cutting. But some seller will tell you this Euphorbia Francoisii is seed grown or by cutting. What seller said cutting caudex will be small.

But I did a test, propogate it by leaves. I tried different similar type Francoisii only one successfully. No shoot yet, but can feel the leaf rooted.

Ycloh

Your Euphorbias are beautiful. How do you get them looking so good? Lots of light? Lots of water? Or something else?

Rina, I place them under grow led light. They get water (drench) once a week. Sometimes I add B-1 and fertilizer with high PK lower N.

I will post more images and also how to revived problem plants.

Some random pictures of my overwintering plants that caught my eye.

A few more...

I hope that last pot has a drainage hole! Kidding. Such great looking plants.

Is that a Christmas Carol Aloe 2nd from bottom?

But of course it has a drainage hole! Drilled it myself. :) No regrets when the pot is from TJ Maxx.

I think that Aloe is labelled Christmas Sleigh.

https://shopaltmanplants.com/products/aloe-christmas-sleigh

More Euphorbia Francoisii, I collect mostly red leaves.

Below Euphorbia Francoisii leaves are pestal pinkish.

This more or a maroon color.

Another dark red maroon color

2. Firesticks and assorted Aloe's.

3. Moonglow.

4. Aloe California.

I wonder if that's an E. prolifica. What size is the pot? I like the wood box.

Lizard, what great colors on that plant. I want one now. I'm also intrigued by your soil mix. Would you mind me asking what it is? I'm experimenting with gritty mixes. I just got some black and red lava rock, and some smaller sized pumice. Not that I want to derail the thread, but it's the end of the month anyway.

Fantastic photo too. I'm setting up a small studio in my basement.

Hey Jeff, Thank you! She really seems to dig the grow lights! I got the soil mix ratio from Rina on another thread... It's 40% sifted Perlite, 40% chicken grit and 20% turface. The turface was hard to find locally, so I ended up ordering a bag from Amazon.

I just got a used Canon DSLR last week off craigslist... This is my first non point and shoot camera, and this is one of my first photos with it. So, thanks for the compliment! Truthfully, I don't really know what I'm doing yet, but forcing myself to use the manual settings. I built the light box with some tissue paper and clamp lights.

Lizardhandz, WOW, I love the color! Any time you want to trade babies, let me know. Just beautiful. I too use lights and what a difference. It's all in the lights I tell you.

How often do you have to water that plant with that mix? Sounds like a great mix also judging by Rina's beautiful plants) Nice pic too. Thank you for sharing with us.

Mike

Jeff, it’s only about a 2 inch pot. It doesn’t look quite the same as a prolifica I have, but of course different growing conditions and all could make any succulent look different!

Lizard, you sure picked a great spot as far as lighting. It looks like a two light setup that's similar to what I'm going to do for studio type shots.

I'm wondering about using Vermiculite, which would replace of Turface in Rina's particular mix, just because it's what I have. I know people don't think that highly of it here. It's supposed to break down somewhat, but if we repot regularly, and it's the only ingredient that's really holding water, I wonder if it would be OK. I've got some Haworthias in Pumice, Perlite, and a little Vermiculite as an experiment.

Thanks Aleen. I have some pots like that (plastic ones). It's a great way to dress up those plastic ones.

Thanks Mike! I water the Ganzhou about once a week. If i notice some wrinkle lines happening I sometimes fill a tub with water and let it soak up from the bottom for a few minutes... But, I haven't had to do that for some time now. I just invested in the lights this fall as my jades were getting very lanky. Most of my plants are loving it and getting amazing colors on them. I'm still having some troubles with a few plants figuring out how much they need with the T5HO. I think I will post a thread asking for help on them as I have gotten some really good tips here in the past.

I have never shipped plants before, but once the weather gets a bit nicer I would totally trade!

Lizardhandz

I am glad to hear that someone is using similar (in this case I would say 'the same' :) mix! I hope you'll have excellent result with it. I grow all succulents in it, and even few smaller potted tropical plants. I would use it for big ones too but big pots get heavy with so much grit. Color of your mix is very nice too - it depends on color of chicken grit a lot. What I bought in past, was white. Latest bag has some grayish speckles to it - it comes from different supplier I was told.

Your plant has beautiful color. It is supposedly xPachysedsedum of uncertain origin, with one of the parents possibly S. craigii (responsible for color of leaves). It is suppose to grow several stems from the base, so I wonder if yours may be inflorescence? But it looks more like leaves, so maybe not. In case it blooms, pls. post photos! And do so even if it doesn't bloom :)

Jeff, It seems like there are a million different soil combos and no matter what you pick there will be someone to tell you its wrong. I read so much about how my Jades wouldn't like the super gritty mix. Once I figured out how much water they wanted they are doing better than they ever have before. I haven't used Vermiculite, but it's worth a try!

This is my basement DIY setup.

Ah, I post so slow!!! Thanks Rina! You have helped me so much and probably don't know it. I have now switched over all my succulents to this mix. I get the chicken grit from a farm supply company... I believe the grit is from Manna Pro. I too like the color, but I have to sift it to get the really small pieces and dust out. That's the only downside.

Thanks for the info! Oh boy, I hope it's a inflorescence! I have never had a succulent bloom.

So it is a studio shot. What's the background of the photo you posted? I get dibs on trading.

Could someone tell me what inforescence is? Is it a flower stalk? It's hard to get a definition of it in context.

Yup, light box photo. The background is just a piece of foam I had in the basement.

I wouldn't be the person to properly define an inflorescence. I have never had a succulent bloom before, but I think I may have one here? Maybe it's just a baby... but it's growing just off center of my Black Prince. He has had babies before and they grew on the sides near the base.

Sorry, I've derailed this post pretty bad... Here is another photo of one of my plants.

Those plants have such nice color. Can't stop saying that. And the last one looks retouched, it's looks so matte. I like that background a lot.

New commer Euphorbia Francoisii.