Stapeliad Also Getting Ready to Flower

This is definitely one of the large flowering Stapeliads, but I'm not sure of the specific species - YET. Now that it is getting ready to flower, the identity will be revealed!!!

 

 My guess is that it is Stapelia gigantea, but it can easily be one of the other large flowered species. Stay tuned...

Tavaresia barklyi Growing New Pieces and Parts

The Tavaresia barklyi that Duc gave me several weeks ago is showing new growth and a flower is developing!!!

 

 I am super excited about the flower!!! I'll post more as this develops.

Flattening Out

I relocated some plants - mainly to group together plants with similar watering requirements. This also gave me an opportunity to take a closer look at the plants while I was moving them. The Pachypodium brevicaule showed some changes - notably the caudex seems to be flattening out.

 

 I'm not sure if this is a response to too much water (potential rot), or just the plant continuing to develop (preparing to spread out horizontally). It looks healthy and doesn't have any sunken spots that would indicate rot, so I'm going to go with the prospect that it is preparing to grow out horizontally.

Reference Books

If you haven't been to your local library in awhile, stop by and pull down a reference book. In the days of the all-knowing internet, even the staunchest book worms get a lot of their information from google and a few key strokes. But there is a definite feel to a reference book. Here is my effort to ensure reference books are still relevant: I looked up information that was cited on a website, in the book that it referenced!!! Libraries are awesome!!! And FYI there are some that have gardens attached - so pay your local library a visit!

Nathan's Cracked Pot All Fixed Up

Gorilla Glue Clear - awesome stuff!!! I applied it per directions in the late afternoon and left it upright like this over night. The weight of the upper half served as the compression force. I checked on it this morning and the glue is holding - strong enough to bear the weight. I've also used this glue to fix another ceramic pot from some friends at the ceramic studio - that was broken into several pieces - but all is well there also. If you need to fix a broken pot - definitely give this a try.

Amorphophallus konjac Update

The konjac has unfurled its leaves. I went ahead and moved it to a decently shaded area in the backyard (and I might move it again to the front yard - morning sun only) to get this plant going.

Sedum hernandezii

Yup - that's what these are

It's getting bigger - but really slowly

This is a total learning process for me - I can tell it is growing - definitely swelling, but I don't see any leaves...

I think these are berries??>>...

I was doing some reading on the Myrmecodia beccarii fruiting cycle and I found that these plants take longer to produce fruit behind the flower than the other ant plants I have. From the reading, I think these bumps emerging from the areas where the flowers previously were are emerging fruit. I'm sure it'll be more waiting before its definitive.

Foster Botanical Garden Plant Sale

On Saturday we hit the Foster Botanical Garden Plant Sale. I bought a Nepenthes and a Euphorbia hedyotoides (to replace the one I cut up - but this one is nicer as it's already got a fat base, possibly a root cutting). We also got another Operculicarya pachypus cutting from Nathan. None of the pots I had on hand seemed to work right for the hedyotoides and the pachypus so I went ahead and made a couple that should suite them (but it'll be a month or so before those are done).

Nathan's Cracked Pot

Here's the before picture of Nathan's cracked pot (a really good looking Kitoi pot - looks just like wood). I'm going to use epoxy to get it back together.

Last Group for a While

This is the last set of ceramics for a while - not that we don't want to work on these - I just need more clay ;) These pots are for the plants I got this past weekend. Noe made her first jar and lid.

A Trip out to Nathan's Backyard Again

I'll never turn down a trip to check out Nathan's backyard - I learned the Euphorbia sp nova Northern Madagascar has a new species name - "ramena". Always something to learn! I also got to bring home a Kitoi pot Nathan bought to fix it - split in half. That's another post.

Another batch of Pottery - Whales and a Sea Urchin

Trying to get a good sized batch together before turning them into the ceramics studio. Noe made two humpback whale pots and I made a big sea urchin shell. I'll try to get a few more done tonight and turn in the load on Tuesday.

Euphorbia ankarensis Leafing Out

The leaves on the Euphorbia ankarensis are coming out. This first set of pictures was taken this past Thursday This set was taken today (Saturday). This is one of the plants I got from the Yellin's plant sale - it is very interesting the stage those plants were in as compared to the plants I had growing down here.