Growing Lithops: Indoors or Out??

I grow about five dozen Lithops both indoors and outside:

Lithops: An Indoor Herd

My outdoor succulent garden is only about 2 square meters, but has about 3 dozen specimens, including Lithops:

Lithops Living La Vida Loca, Outside

I enjoy both gardens. Indoors, Lithops can be highly decorative, in special pots, perched in strategic locations. My friends and family enjoy them. And I have somewhat more control over their environment.  Outdoors, the survival strategy of the Lithops becomes plain. They really blend in! When I'm standing up, I can barely see some of them. Makes it easy to understand how they have survived herbivorous creatures out in the African desert. And each species has evolved to camouflage itself among a different sort of rocky surface. Amazing!

Some species, like L. julii, and some of my karasmontanas, seem to do better outside. Other, more fragile species like being indoors better (L. dorotheae comes to mind). Since everyone's garden is different, experimentation, trial and error are necessary to figure out who should go where.

We get torrential downpours that can last for days here in the summertime, so I supplemented our sandy soil with lots of perlite and pumice. So far, no outdoor Lithops have burst or rotted from too much water. I also chose a location where they are shaded from the hottest afternoon sun. They seem to prefer morning sunlight.

Hurricane Sandy Brought a Lot of Rain!

The main limiting factors for indoor/outdoor cultivation are, of course, water (not too much), temperature (no freeze, please), and light (most places indoors are too dark).  Inside, many factors can be compensated for with artificial lights, special soil, and total control of watering. But it's really fun to see Lithops growing free and in the wild, at least as close as I can make it, this far from Africa.

We Are the Lithops Who Grow, Then Glow!

While my outdoor plants have been budding and blooming, my (mostly) indoor Lithops have been regenerating like crazy. Here are a few beauties:

Lithops Dorothy (L. dorothea) is doing well, and now that more light is coming in from the east side. She's getting chunkier, rather than more leggy.

Here are a few of the "French Blues" regenerating in their terracotta pots.

And a few more Lithops julii doing their Spring Fling.

And now a gratuitous Lantana photo:

Hope your week is going well, and your Lithops are glowing well!

Lithops Regeneration: Lithops Inspire Art!

I've been teaching and coaching pretty much forever, it seems, but my two favorite subjects have always been creative writing and art. I particularly love working with people who have very little confidence in their artistic abilities, because they are always wrong, and I get a real buzz when they realize how creative they truly are. Lithops are inherently artistic and creative. Mine are mostly in regeneration/re-leafing mode now:

L dorotheae and L. julii in Regeneration Mode

I find them quite inspiring, so I wasn't at all surprised when one of my young students gifted me a beautiful ceramic sculpture he named "Spirit of the Lithops". He wishes to remain anonymous, so we'll just call him "The Lithops Sculptor".

"Spirit of the Lithops" by the Lithops Sculptor

I'm very happy to see my favorite denizens of the plant world inspiring art in kids. I may have to try a Lithops sculpture myself....

Lithops Go Wild!

These are just a couple of my avidly re-leafing Lithops. The nutty weather has spurred more than half of my collection to bloom quickly and releaf even faster. I do not know if this is a healthy thing for them in the long run, but obviously, there's not much I can do about it....

 Here's one of my L. juliis in full releaf mode. These are some of the "French Blues" I got this summer.

Lithops julii

Here are a few more. The old leaves have only taken a few days to shrink up like that. These are the same Lithops that got "bleached" (sunburned) this summer when I kept them outside for too long. They recovered, and as you can see, the new leaves are full of rich color. I am as relieved as they are (pun intended).