Babytoes Blooms!

I really love Fenestraria. It's a much tougher plant than its lookalike, Frithia, much easier to care for, and has a beautiful flower as well (though it's not showy magenta, like Frithia's). It's a monotypic genus, all out there alone. The subspecies aurantiaca has yellow flowers. They hail from South Africa and Namibia. They are known as "Babytoes" here and are very popular; new shipments usually sell out in a couple of days at the local nurseries. Do any of you like or grow Fenestraria?

The Sweetest Little Arizona Cactus

This was an unnamed cactus when I bought it- but I believe it's a Mammillaria nana ssp. duwei. A lovely little fluffy globe about 3cm in diameter. Doesn't grow much, but always has a flower or two to show. So pretty!

The kids next door nicknamed this one "Babykins", which is a bit over the top, but understandable.

The genus Mammillaria has so many intriguing and just plain beautiful species, (about 250, I think); a cactus fanatic could just collect them and nothing else and be content. I particularly like the dwarf species such as this one. They hail from Mexico and the SW USA and are pretty easy to grow.

Dorothy Blooms!

It can be hard to explain to people who aren't into gardening how exciting a new bloom in the garden can be...and I'm really excited! This is the first Lithops bloom I've seen live and in person. Wow! What amazing little creatures. The bud was salmon pink, but the flower is yellow on the inside, so the petals are two-toned.
 The flower opens only in the evening. I thought it would open in strong sunshine, but I was wrong. I suppose the pollinators for L. dorotheae come out in the evening? The flower has no perfume that I can detect, but it could well have some odor not detectable by humans.
 PS: Audrey is still taking her time, she's a slow and cautious gal.

Dorothy Today

Just had to share the photo....

Lithops Razzes Universe

OK, my Lithops dorotheae, aka "Dorothy", is in a race with "Audrey", the francisci, to be the fairest of them all. And it does look like she's sticking out her tongue and giving us the razz....

Who will bloom first?? The bets are on, and all I can say is Dorothy's flower is definitely in the pink....

It seems to me that most Lithops do their growth and development at night. It also occurs to me that some of them might like to synchronize, even if they are not the same species, and don't belong to the same colony. In other words, does Audrey's bloom contain some sort of pheromone that's stimulating others to bloom at the same time? That would make sense, in terms of survival. Bloom time is the only time mesembs become really apparent to the crunch and munch crowd. No one likes to be totally vulnerable all by themselves. And more flowers would also make a patch of Lithops more attractive to pollinators. What do you all think?