Haworthia seeds

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Apparently Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia can self polinate, but rarely. This plant has literally had flowers on it all summer. It's currently got three bloom stalks going at once and has produced hundreds of flowers (likely near or over 100 per stalk total, two or three per day per stalk - the third stalk only started a few weeks ago though), and I have a single fruit developing to show for it.



Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia developing fruit


Bonus - check out this colour it's gotten in full sun this summer.

Will be interesting to see what I can get to grow from these seeds.

New Haworthia & Maybe an Aloe descoingii x Aloe haworthioides

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Likely Haworthia minima?


Possibly Aloe descoingsii x Aloe haworthioides

The second is a tiny plant, forming a decent looking clump in a 2.5" pot. Small hooks on the edges of the leaves and in a single row down the center of the leaf on the top surface and slightly offset from center on the bottom. Tubercles are fairly evenly distributed on the rest of the leaf surface.

I think it might be Aloe descoingsii x Aloe haworthioides. I assume it would prefer higher light than you can get away with with many Haworthia species?

New succulents

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I've recently gotten a few new succulents.



Echeveria cv.

One new Echeveria. It's a touch etiolated but I imagine that's fixable. It's fairly compact at the tip, it's just got a long stem leading up to the good parts. Just pot it deeper into the soil? Cut it off and re-root and see if the stem will re-sprout? It's got some nice colour to it. The lower leaves were badly wilted when I got it but I gave it a good soak and they've plumped almost right up. The soil it's in right now is really bad though because of the way it pulls together when dry.



Haworthia sp.

Another new Haworthia. No ID on it and I haven't really gone looking yet. It's nice though. All the conversation starting ability of its windowed leaves with none of the difficulty of Lithops etc.

I've read that Echeveria and Haworthia both prefer some shade during mid afternoon but otherwise like lots of sun? Would that be a fair assessment? Water when dry for both as well?

I've also gotten a small offset from a nice blue Echeveria that seems to grow to about 4" across and offsets readily. Also about 3 small stem cuttings from a Sedum morganianum and a good sized piece of Sedum burrito that fell off a hanging basket when it was being unpacked. Even if they root quickly it will be a long time before I've got anything of note out of them. I've got time though. And I'd rather not pay $35 for a 6-8" hanging basket. Especially when there's an agave geminiflora that I'd much rather pay well to get a good sized specimen than something like a Sedum.

Haworthia flowers

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The buds on my Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia opened on the 19th - the same day my cat decided to bite the developing bloom stalk. It had reached 14" tall at that point. It finished opening the first flower in water and had its first flower fully open that night.

I'll be keeping it as a cut flower to see how it does. you may see another picture you may not - you can blame the cat if you don't.





Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia flowers

The divisions continue to do well. The main plant and the babies spent some time outside while it was warm. I miss those days and look forward to their return. The current 14 day trend tells me that won't be soon. The thing about a 14 day forecast is that it will change, hopefully for the better.

Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia buds & more

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I shouldn't take credit for this probably because of how short a time I've had this plant but I totally will anyway, because I can.



Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia buds developing very quickly

The flowers are supposed to be less than spectacular but I don't mind, also from the looks of things they'll probably be pretty small.

And on another note - propagation.

There are a few types of propagation that should be very easy with this species. Easiest would be just to divide the plant. Bam, now you have two plants. But that's not fun or unusual.

Next were the runners I had pouring out the drainage hole of the pot. Many had little plantlets on the ends which had to be taken off (as they wouldn't fit back through the holes they were sticking out of). I Potted one up separately and just just bent another to be above the soil line instead.



This is the largest little plant I have growing. It already looked like this only a bit smaller when I bought the plant. I need to re-bury the thick root you can see here, it seems to have been uncovered during watering.

This was sort of strange to me - these didn't seem like runners. Runners normally go out from the plant at or near the top of the soil (or if they do go somewhere else straight down is usually not where they go!) and then sprout at the top of the soil as well. So how come every single root coming out of the pot had a small plant at the tip? When I uprooted it I found that all the roots are tipped in a rough tip, not a normal smooth one. The roots were not similar to what I was used to with any other plant either. The roots were wrapped around the bottom of the pot fairly tightly and while I was loosening them two more root pieces broke off. Oops. These did not have plants at the end, only the jagged tip of the funny roots (almost like the scales on a cedar or cypress branch). Well now they are starting to change colour - they are turning into little plants.



This is the second smallest. You can maybe just make out the leaves forming at the tip of the root. Focus is not good here unless you're trying to get a good look at Perlite but it gets the point across - there's a root and at the tip of the root there's a plant.

Further reading about these plants for some unrelated reason (I think I was asking the internet what soil to use with them when re-potting) I found someone talking about the same thing here (under Propagation from roots), though it seems like they're suggesting that the other end of the root (top vs. tip) be above ground? I'll have to experiment with this next time I've got a few spare roots lying around but in the meantime I'll take my (early) progress as a good sign and see how these grow.

While on the subject of flowers that are not overly exciting I should finally have Ludisia discolor flowers open very very soon (my guess - 4 days). You'll get to see these as soon as they open (lucky you!) and I'll try to get a decent full plant shot so I can ask the internet why is it doing what it's doing (ooh, the suspense!)?

New Plant - Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia

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When I was picking up supplies for my seedlings I had a good wander through the store and found this "Cactus and Succulent" (sometimes the tags in plants are more useless than others).

I recognized it as a Haworthia but had never seen one with that growth pattern. So I bought it. I've ID'd it as a Haworthia limifolia (probably var. limifolia? var. striata has more defined stripes, var. gigantea sounds like it should be bigger? There's a variegated form which this isn't either.).



Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia
You can clearly see here the same pattern that this plant shares with Pandanus utilis and so many other plants. Huge bonus points with me for any plants that grow in a spiral. This may even help me from needing to track down an Aloe polyphylla. Well, for now anyway!

Actually even in Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia there seem to be at least two more distinctions?

v. limifolia - Barberton (not mine)
v. limifolia - Hluhluwe (maybe this one)

"Hluhluwe" is a small town in the north east corner of South Africa. "Barberton" is also a town in the north east corner of South Africa (a little north of Hluhluwe) so I guess these are collection points. If there are only two collection points then mine is the Hluhluwe form. If there are more I can't be sure as I've only seen pictures of these two.

Update - There are several more collection points. I can't be completely sure but I'm fairly certain that mine is the Hluhluwe form.

Anyway the internet tells me that these are fairly easy but should be kept on the dry side. More water in spring and fall, less in summer (maybe the same amount since it'll dry faster even given the same amount of water) and much less in winter to match the lower light and temperatures.



Haworthia limifolia var. limifolia
Unlike many other plants which express a clear spiral pattern this plant basically grows with a pair of opposite leaves with the next opposite pair being offset by a certain amount.

Mine has a full pot of roots (I assume) and will need be re-potted umm.. soon? Not soon? Early spring when it's growing more? Now while it's somewhat dormant? From the sounds of it it'll be dormant or almost dormant during hot and cold weather and from experience and reading re-potting should be done while plants are starting to grow so that roots can also grow, especially if there was damage done. So early spring?

I've also noticed around 5-7 (or so) runners coming out the bottom of the pot. At what size can these be separated and potted up? Most are very small but one is clearly beginning to form a (very) little rosette. So it looks like it'll produce new growths at the base of the older ones as well as send runners out a longer distance, which is nice. It means I can have a nice large clump and still be able to propagate by runners without breaking up the larger plant.

This is also supposed to be an easy Haworthia to start with, and is attractive as well. It's always nice when you buy a random plant with no ID and it ends up being exactly what you needed.

Succulents, followup

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So I have my list narrowed down to a few selections that might work out well for me.

Sansevieria trifasciata 'Hahnii'


Sansevieria trifasciata 'Hahnii'

Tolerates less than perfect lighting, stays relatively small (to 12" I believe? Varieties with less green should grow slower and stay smaller I imagine) and has a nice compact shape.

Haworthia sp.


Haworthia glauca

There are a lot of these that I like, and most stay small. There's usually a decent selection of these readily available so I'll have to see what's around and choose from those.

Sedum morganianum


Sedum morganianum
(photo by Morningdew51 used under CC license from here)

Nice plant, have seen these in person many times and have been tempted before. Completely different look from anything else I have and available without much searching.

I may be able to get my hands on Sedum adolphii 'Sunset' &/or Sedum nussbaumerianum though I imagine these will be a little pricey for their size but we'll see. Sedum morganianum won't be cheap either for that matter.

Echeveria sp.


Echeveria 'Hummel #1'
(photo by hortulus used under CC license from here)

I've been warned, but these are so nice! I'll get one, but only one, and not spend a lot on it just in case it doesn't work out. I can probably get E. 'Peter von Nurenburg' easily but probably around $10-13 in a 4-4.5" pot. NOIDS should run me a little less but if they aren't exciting enough, or are more expensive that what I'm willing to pay for a NOID... we'll just have to see. The orchid budget comes first, and hardy succulents just may come before tropical succulents.

Other cultivars of note (which I found here) include 'Fire and Ice,' 'Apricot Glow,' 'Debbie,' 'Empress,' and 'Violet Queen.' These cultivars include a large and several smaller plants, as well as anywhere from a tight to a very open rosette, blue/orange/green and purple colours, thick or thin leaves which are round, pointed and ruffled.

Generally speaking the plants on this list are fairly tough, some tolerating less than perfect lighting, the rest interesting enough to justify a front and center place in the big south window right up there with the sun loving orchids, ferns and other orchids can move back and to the sides a little. I'm not likely to try and grab all of these at once but I do want to get most of these, at some point. Maybe the smaller and/or easier ones first, then maybe a more demanding plant later on. We'll see.

I'm also looking at some seeds, mostly to fill a minimum order so I can get something I really want (which is only $2.40, minimum order is $15). They have Echeveria mix, Lithiops mix (sold out) and Lapidaria margaretae (which I wasn't going to get because it sounds fairly tricky to keep happy... but I do need to fill that order!). So... maybe I'll try a few from seed and see what I end up with that way.