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.

Gymnocalycium cardenasianum

This is one of the other plants I purchased out of the four at the OCSS this last weekend. Besides Agaves, Gymnocalyciums are my 2nd favorite succulent to collect and I have a number of them in the Death Valley Shack.   

Gymnocalycium cardenasianum

Origin is southern Bolivia and has been classified by some as a subspecies of G. spegazzinii. The spines are long and eagle claw like. The growth is to a width of 7 1/2" and a height of about 11". Flowering is in July or June and white to pink in color.   

New Gymno from the OCSS

Friday was the kick off of the three day sale that the Oregon Cactus & Succulent Society is having at the Portland Nursery 5050 SE Stark location. The sale will be during the hours of the nursery. If anyone has the chance go by and see a great selection of cactus and succulents for sale. Plus some of the members have brought a few specimen plants from their private collection for display.

Gymnocalycium andreae v. dopianum

This Gymnocalycium is one of the plants I purchased from Luther of Kara Nursery.

It is only about 1/2 inch wide.

Seedling Update

The seedlings are about 10 days old now. Its interesting how they change, but still have no characteristics of the actual plant at this time.  I'm thinking it will be about 4 or 5 months before they start showing any detail or maybe sooner. I'll keep posting about every 10 days to keep track of changes if there is any. 

Epithelanta

Echinocereus

Mammillaria