Hi Liz! Well, after being devastated at how quickly my plants roasted out there after I spent so much money and energy hauling them over, I’m not sure I want to risk it again. I was running a literal infirmary all summer through fall, trying to recover just one cutting or piece on every windowsill in the house. I changed out the soil in most of my pots from gritty mix to potting soil with perlite in hopes of maybe increasing their ability to survive out there, but I think perhaps I did too much perlite because they are drying out rapidly. Guess I’ll have to see. Thanks!

I love these blooms-per-month threads. Great to see all your blooms, such variety! I did not have many blooms this year, as my plants suffered from the transplanting into gritty mix. Nothing wrong with the mix, but I greatly overdid the carefulness with water in the beginning, like you mentioned recently in another thread, Rina. No rot, which had claimed many of my plants last year, but no roots and growth either. I think I did much better later, and my Titanopsis calcarea seems to think so too: A kind of Mammillaria and a Parodia (?) joined it in the sun today. Can anyone identify further? Just for fun, my two pots with Lithops, because I have so much fun with them ;-). No blooms this year, I think.

So, with respect, I'm very confused, because up until very recently, this plant was in my office window. My office window faces south, and during most of each season it gets constant sunlight. It has grown like a weed since I got it. I did just recently move into a new apartment and my fiancé put it in a different place than by the window, so it's since been moved back to the window where it receives significant sunlight during the morning hours. The branches are heavy and very long. They don't stick up, they usually grow along the windows. They're far too heavy to stand and each branch from the pot is around 3' long or more now. (Maybe I take horrible pictures?)

@kara I LOVE the way the Mammillaria Hernandezii looks in the white pumice. It's a very nice aesthetic. I am using 100% pumice as my rooting medium for cactus. I think the very light nature of the soil is very helpful to the new root system and it is able to expand out widely and develop roots rapidly without expending energy moving heavy soil particles. So far I have not used pumice as a soil ingredient. I will probably start using horticultural lava soon, which aesthetically I far prefer to pumice. I am also thinking of buying an off-the-shelf soil product made by Gary at Laguna Beach Nursery named Top Pot. Gary limits organic components in his soil mix to 30%, which stops the collapse of the soil and allows it to live for five years or more without a change. He uses peat for that 30%. He uses as inorganic components pumice, sand, and perlite. I find that an odd mix. I am having problems finding a local supplier. I could create my own mix based on his idea, and as a worst case I will do that. But the time to create soil mixes has value to me as well. My suspicion is that String of Pearls would thrive in such a soil. I fully agree with the idea that succulents can be raised in 100% small-particle organic soil and still do well. You simply need to water them with extreme care and make sure the environmental exposure allows for rapid evaporation of the soaked soil. But this requires an expert gardener who is dedicated to plants. What I thought I was getting with a structured soil was the ability to be a lazy gardener who could just abuse and over-water my succulents and still have them thrive. It turns out that it is not that simple.