C and D's Succulents

[C And D]

I will get to the Adromischus soon, we have many new ones...

But first, some more odd balls.

Here is all that's left of the Othonna cakilefolia
It lives fast and dies back early

As note to novice growers
Always let the leaves of a plant going dormant dry out naturally, do not cut them off.
The plant sucks out the nutrients slowly as the leaves dry, and it needs that subsistence to grow a fatter caudex/root/bulb.

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These odd bulbs from South Africa are quite uncommon I'd suppose
Eriospermum

This one is Eriospermum sp. nova
The leaves sprout from the bottom of the bulb and travel to the top of the soil.
The bulb travels down in the soil by building new growth downward.

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Eriospermum cervicorne

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the baby one-close up

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Steven Hammer gave me these.
Carl Fredrick sent me seeds of E. paradoxa last year, and after the seed sprout they send a runner to the bottom of the pot and start producing a bulb as deep as they can go, it's weird!

[C And D]

The first Bulbine to flower and go dormant is;

Bulbine mesembryanthemoides
(which is funny (not so ha ha) because the Bulbine aff. mesembryanthemoides is the last to flower and go dormant, which makes it one of the best Bulbines to grow. It's a very different species that's for sure, it just needs a proper name)

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I'm getting lot's of seed!

Bulbine bruynsii is the second earliest Bulbine to flower and go dormant, which will happen later this month.

[Allison 17]

the Eriospermum cervicorne's leaves look special! How many years it takes to grow a new leaf (or never)? Is the one near the "baby" mature already?

[KittieKAT]

I gatta say that's prob one of the cutest 'baby' leafs/plants ive ever seen lol!
I have some othonna seeds haven't planted them yet with the kids, don't know what they look like but if half of them have a cute baby leafy stage like that one does I'm sure the children will dig it in the program i run lol!

[C And D]

The Eriospermums loose all their leaves in the spring, and grow new ones each fall. If it flowers, it will do it in the Spring.

Both plants in that pot are at least 7 years old, the baby one must have some problem with it's roots, since it hasn't grown up like it's partner.
I'll have to repot them and see what's up. The soil is at least 4 years old.

[C And D]

One great thing about being an "old timer" ( ha, I'm only 56) is that the folks older than me start giving away their treasured plants.
My old freind Rosemarie Sauer, who started collecting around the same time as me invited me and Denise to her house last fall.

She has an awesome collection and lot's of old stuff in the ground.

I've always wanted a couple of these, and lo and behold she said just take them if you want them... Yea!
Sarcocaulon peniculinum

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Unfortunately, I dropped the pot later in the day, and broke off the top of the best one, Whhhaaaa!!!
It'll grow back, in about 5 years!

[Aiko]

You can reroot the top. It is usually spread through cuttings, I believe.
Nice plant. Is high on my wish list too.

[C And D]

Good timing Aiko, Thanks

It was half dark when I cleaned up the mess and didn't see any plant pieces and just thought that the piece had turned into mulch and went out with the trash
But after your post, I checked out the broken plant and saw that it was a rather big piece had broken off.
So I looked around where I spilled the pot.... and there it was, ready to be saved.
I think I can reroot it, since it is it's growing season.

[C And D]

I had a prolific day last week with the camera
and the next in line for a gallery is the..

SPIRAL LEAF BULBS
I uncovered the bulb for these photos, usually they are covered with soil and gravel.

Albuca spiralis
the bulb is about 4" across

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Here is a younger one

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the bulbs are onion like, and the yearly growth builds the layers into a fatter bulb.

Albuca circinata x spiralis
They grow a similar bulb, they will spiral more if you give them more sun.

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Of course Albuca condcordiana will always spiral
Here is my pot of keepers

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They needed more light, but we had no where to put them.... all the other plants were hogging the good spots...

Albuca namaquensis
This is my older plant, and I have another old one that looks the same.

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But my other new Albuca namaquensis have a much different look,
and they have a lot of spicules that are cool, like an octopus.
I could be a different species or not.

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[C And D]

Some more strange South African bulbs.

Ornithogalum scabrocostatum
This plant isn't even searchable on Google, not as Ornithogalum or Albuca when I use the wrong spelling with 2 r's !!!
I would call it an Albuca.

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It's closely related to
Albuca unifolia
since I crossed them and now have hybrid seedlings
You can see the slit on the mature plants, where the flower will sprout from.

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Another cool Albuca is this
Albuca villosa

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[Aiko]

Really nice.
Where do you obtain all of these interesting succulents. Via Ebay?

I don't really see these on offer on succulent sales up here, oddly enough (most species are offered on sales in Europe). And I hardly see seeds of these species in the trade.

And as you stated earlier, we youngsters can benefit from collections being sold, broken up or trimmed down. It can add some interesting plants to ones own collection.

[C And D]

I have not bought a single plant from e-bay.
I don't even check it out, I'm not going to bid on a plant that I can probably buy out right at a cheaper price
But those Haworthia Hybrids!!!, I do want them, yes, but I refuse to have a bidding war for them.

After years of collecting, you just start to accumilate things that you wouldn't have taken interest in before.
Since I have so many plants, the odd rare ones are now the prize I look for.

I get the odd ball ones at shows, friends or people like Steven Hammer.

[Allison 17]

Many bulbs! I bet there are many in line to be posted Fulfill "their" wishes!

[One Windowsill]

Ornithogalum scabrocostatum with only one r in the specific name is googleable. Though some call it Coilonox scabrocostatum such as at http://www.bihrmann.com/caudiciforms/su ... ca-sub.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and Albuca scabrocostata.

[C And D]

Good call One W.

It turns out I just spelled it wrong, the tag had the correct spelling.
When I gooogled the correct spelling, it was there, but there weren't very many good photos.


Here the last of the photos I took a couple weeks ago.

Ornithogalum fimbrimarginatum
Not that exciting, but uncommon.
Steven Hammer sent them to me a couple of years ago on one of those orders where I said "send me a bunch of new stuff"

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A pot full of Lachenalia bulbs, with at least 3 species
They were volunteers in a couple pots of plants I bought from Tim Harvey a couple years ago.
Last year 2 of them flowered, hoping that this year they will all flower.
They have great flowers!

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