Agave Seedling You Say!!!!!

I do........that is an Agave havardiana seedling that finally popped out of the soil yesterday! I have planted 4 seeds of the following Agaves: celsii, havardiana, ocahui, ovatifolia, parrasana, utahensis eborispina, & victoriae-reginae.  I was really excited to get them going so they were in the freezer for a short amount of time (6 days). But of course the seeds were planted August 3rd, so I guess a week is not that long.  
This is the first Agaves I have tried, I think after this I'm going to try some Aloes. I'll try to keep up with the updating. As a matter of fact I have a collection of cactus seedlings from a July 14th planting that I'll show in the next couple of days and I guess I should show the growth on the seedlings from the July 14th 2012 entry. Stay tuned! 

Agave havardiana seedling

 

 

Pine Cone Cactus

Succulents and cacti are both very odd and interesting the way they grow. Some take many years to grow, like the Saguaro which will not start branching out till it is around 50 years old. Where others some take only a few months. The photograph below of the Tephrocactus articulatus var. diadematus was taken on May 25th and the next photo was taken this afternoon. What is very interesting about this is the bottom plant is from the mother plant that I have had for about five years still looks the same, it has never branched out.

 

 

Echeveria imbricdo in Bloom





Actually there are two plants in the pot, but only is in bloom. I purchased them about four years ago and this is the first time either one have bloomed. The flower colors are quite outstanding with that strong yellow inside and the soft coral outside.  You can see the flower stem coming out of the one Echeveria and its about a foot long. The two Echeveria plants are six inchs across, the one blooming is around a foot and a half tall. The other droops over the side and the stem is only about six inches in length. After the one is done blooming, I'm going to cut both of them back and re-root them, hopefully the stems will sprout out with plant heads. I look at it as refurbishing old plants, that's what is amazing and great about succulents.  

 

Echeveria is a large genus of flowering plants in the Crassulaceae family, native to semi-desert areas of central America, from Mexico to northwestern South America.

 

The genus is named after the 18th century Mexican botanical artist

Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

                                          Happy Holidays

One Becomes Two and So On.....

I really had never been a fan of Lithops, but I bought a group of three last year. One died, so I was left with two, now one has developed into two plants so I'm back to three. The new thing that has helped me is that I learned the watering system for them. Since the plant is made up of so much fluid, you must be careful and not water like other succulents or cactus. When the Lithop is developing into a new plant it is receiving its moisture from the old leaves and no watering should be done, otherwise they will rot.

One of the old leaves is that little shriveled reddish piece on the right at the base of the plant in the photograph below, at one time it was about the size of the new plant. But no water was given during this time.

Still add one or two to your collection, you might surprise yourself and be able to grow them. To find out more information about Lithops check out these blogs, Gaia Nursery, Lithopsland, and Lithops Stories

Copiapoa barqentisis

This is another cacti that I purchased from Luther of Kara Nursery at the last OCSS sale that was held at Portland Nursery. Currently it has two flower buds, there were no flower buds when I brought it home, so this is very exciting. 

Copiapoas are an interesting group of plants that come from the coastal desert regions of Chile. Shape is globular, later often columnar, clumping and forms large mounds gray to green in various shades. Spines are various in amount, length and having whitish wool at the base of the spines. Flowers are short tubular, yellow to light yellow in color which is a good identifying feature for this genus. Some of the species have fragrant flowers. Copiapoas should be protected from excessive heat and sun in summer.

Gymnocactus viereckii

This is the first Gymnocactus that has been added to the collection here at Death Valley Shack, due to the fact I have not come across many that have been for sale, but there other names for this plant read below. The spine coloration is what I find interesting very similar to the new Opuntia that Loree of Danger Garden has added to her collection.

Origin is in the Tamaulipas area of Mexico and found at an altitude of around 2500 ft. Growing solitary or occasionally clustering they live in cracks in rocks, on cliff faces, getting very little nutrients, and growing nearly free of organic matter. The only naturally occurring organic matter will be leaves blown around and getting caught on the spines. G. viereckii will grow to about 7" in height and 3" in width, it's a small plant but the flowers are a bright magenta or pink with a greenish-white throat making up for the size.Other names that have been given this variety is Thelocactus viereckii, Pediocactus viereckii, Neolloydia viereckii, and Echinocactus viereckii.