New Huerrnia - Huernia Procumbens

While it's only been a few months since I have been on a succulent hunt, it has felt like forever.  A few weekends ago, my friend and I stayed home from the coast and went on a hunt.  As usual, Shades of Green had several things that we couldn't go home without.  One of them was this cool little Huernia.  I was really excited that she had a bloom on her so I didn't have to think about the possibility of me having it already. 

Is this not darling!!

She has the raised middle like the Huernia Zebrina/Confusa 'Lifesaver', but her petals go straight back.  Below is the entire plant.  She's also a much lighter shade of green than my others. 

 

 

Of course, the piece with the bloom on it fell off on the ride home, so Amy's got it rooting across the street.  I'm looking forward to many more cool little blooms from her. 

I'm off to search out her name...  That didn't take long.  I no sooner posted this that I found it, Huernia Procumbens.

Mandy

Kalanchoe Mortagei Crenata

 

My plant has a real, bonified name!!  Meet Kalanchoe Mortagei Crenata, with much thanks to my Florida blogger friend, Julie at A Succulent Life for her tenacious researching skills!!  She found it on this really cool website that I somehow had forgotten about Glasshouse Works, let's just be clear that I've now added this to my favorite list so I don't lose it again!  They have it with the fun name of 'Mother of Hundreds', but I much prefer my nickname of 'Big Mama Donkey Ears'.  These leaves are so much larger than my regular 'Donkey Ear' has ever gotten.  Of course, I lost my original plant after she bloomed.  Once they bloom, they begin to die, so I'm on year one of babies trying to get big and beautiful.  Thankfully my neighbor friend, Amy, has a ton of them as well in case there's an emergency and I need more. 

 

I'll have to take pictures of the plantlets on this one, they are very different as well.  They seem to have a ball that connects to the leaf with bigger roots.  It makes them a little odd to put in the dirt, but we're working on that. 

 

Thank you again, Julie!  I believe you should go by the title of Succulent Rock Star from this point forward! 

 

Make it a great day!

Mandy

Phone Test

Playing around with my new phone to see if I like it or want time switch it out with the iPhone5...looks like I can blog much easier.  Let's  see how this comes out.

Kalanchoe Gastronis Gonnierfi 'Donkey Ears'

One of my absolute favorite Kalanchoes is the Kalanchoe Gastronis Gonnierfi 'Donkey Ears'.  In one of our weekend coast trips, Amy and I spent the day visiting local nurseries.  At a new one to us, I found what looked like a Donkey Ear, but without the mottled leaves.  I saw it from two rows over and knew that if it was less than $25 that it was coming home with me.  At our nurseries in San Antonio, this baby would have been that at a minimum just based on sheer size alone.  That being said, I cautioulsy slid through recently watered muddy ailses and hit pay dirt!

 

This baby was $12.50 and it was huge!  It was tagged 'Donkey Ear' and the little plantlets grow on it's leaves the same as the one I already have, but the leaves are much longer, fatter and not have spots like the one below.   I bought a few other things and ended up getting her for $9.00!!!  Talk about making Mandy a happy girl! We pulled off a number of babies and still had a bunch left on the plant.  If anyone knows anything about this different variety of the Donkey Ear, please share.  I've Googled until I gave up because I can only get the one below to show up.

 

Mandy

Front Yard Succlents Update

It's been so long since I've posted, and since one of the last comments was asking how my front yard succulents were doing, I thought I'd start there.  These were all taken at the beginning of August, so they'd had about five months to take root and get happy.  There is noticible growth in most since my first post Front Yard Succulents. 

 

View From Street

 

 

View from House

 

I was shocked that the majority of them held in there during the intense heat of the summer.  I have also come to face the sad fact that aeoniums and a number of the hen and chicks just aren't cut out for San Antonio summers. 

 

The purple 'Kalachoe' is crazy!  I'm not sure this was a good choice to put in the ground since she's so lanky, but she's very happy.

 

These are all happy.

 

The Senecio fulgens in the middle is doing good, as is the purple echeveria and the 'Wooly Rose' Echeveria in the back. 

 

The Echeveria in the front corner is getting huge and is the Golden Sedum and Senecio that are to it's right and left.  This corner gets the most sun, so my choice was a good one with these.

 

The Echeveria in the middle and far right corner are still doing really good.  The red Hen & Chicks, not so much.

 

 

Aeonium 'Kiwi' is not real hardy right now, but she's still trying.  The Kalanchoe 'Panda Plant' is hanging in, I expect to see more growth in the cooler months out of both of them. I believe it's a Senecio in the top left corner, and she's really spreading out.

 

The Echeveria in the right corner is still going strong.

 

The large one at the top got attacked and is no longer in the bed.  The Hen & Chick in the front corner tried to hang in there, but the heat won. 

 

 

 

Mandy

Epiphyllum 'Curly Locks'

Recently I relized that I'd been missing the blooms on my Epiphyllum guatemalense 'Curly Locks', but was excited to see a ball that got pinker each day.  After a bit of Googling, I discovered that it was a seed pod. 

I drug Amy, my neighborbor friend, out to the back to participate in the big event...the seed pod removal!

Next, I sliced it open, and was thrilled that it really did look like a kiwi fruit.

The pulp scooped right out with a spoon.

The pulp was really ooey gooey, and after trying to mush them up like the online instruction said, I ended up soaking them for week to separate them.

I planted them over two evenings...it took forever to put these tiny seeds on the dirt with tweezers.  They are already starting to sprout.  I did three sections the first night, and even since this picture they've grown more! The sections I planted just a few nights ago already have sprouts! I put three or four seeds in each section.  There were still a number of seeds left and those went in the green pot you can kind of see next to this thing. 

This is extremely exciting in my book!  Just think how many baby 'Curly Locks' this succlent momma could end up with if all goes well! 

A littel side note on the blooms, I would have seen the last one except the darn thing opened the last weekend that we went to the coast.  I thought about staying to see it, but didn't think my husband would have appreciated that.  I did notice yesterday though that I have two little blooms just starting again.  They only bloom at night and are just a one-nighter...you have to be quick to see these darlings! 

Happy planting!

Mandy

Mother of Millions: Kalanchoe daigremontiana

This continues to be one of my favorite succulents, no matter how much of a nuisance she can be.   A few weeks ago, I was giddy to see that she's got babies piggy backing on the first set of babies on a number of leaves! 

Of course I forgot to take a picture of the entire plant, but these are really cool enough don't you think!

Mandy

Front Porch Succulents

Moving to the porch.  A few weeks ago, we got a new front door that has red accents in the glass.  I thought it would look nice to have red pots on porch, but I couldn't find any in the size or color that I wanted.  Instead I opted to pick up pots that were the size I wanted and just spray paint them.  I also have a pig planter on the porch as well, and painted it black.  The finished project came out very nicely I think.

The Palmer sedum will be gorgeous against the black once they start spilling over.

My hanging baskets have been filled back up. 

This next one is my mailbox planter at the curb.  I planted the Crassula 'Campfire' last year in the fall.  It survived the winter and is growing strong.  The other thing with the white flowers is something that I had at the beginning of spring last year that died out.  It won't last too long into the summer, but I figured since it's there that it could stay.  I love the way this one gets so red in the full sun.  It doesn't hurt that it's a fast grower, even in the hotter months. 

 

Front Yard Succulents

Now that Thing One and Thing Two have joined our family, I decided to expand my succulent obsession to the front yard.  Planted here, they have a chance to survive without being mauled and ripped apart by naughty puppies. I started with the tree planter; 24 lovely little succulents of various varieties are loving their new home here.

My last grouping came out blurry, but this is the majority of them.  In the few weeks since I've planted them, they have all had a little growth.  I'm really hoping that we won't have another summer like last year.  If we can at least have a couple of weeks of 80/90 degree weather, they might grow a little more before stalling for the summer. 

I can't get more pictures to load on this one, so tomorrow it's the front porch.

Kalanchoe Pinnata Experiment

I'm not sure how it's almost been a month since I've posted, but I guess the only offering I have is that I've been busy.  Last month I posted about a new kalanchoe that I found here.  Most of the kalanchoes that I have grow babies on their leaves while they're on the plant, but if I've read it right this one prefers to have the leaves off  in order to grow babies.  I figured that I could spare two leaves and since the table is already cluttered with plants I would just add two more containers. 

I put one leaf in water and one just on dirt to see which did the best.

Februrary 11, 2012

A few days later, you have to look close, but there are tiny roots forming on both leaves.  The one in the water is most noticable.

February 15, 2012

February 15, 2012

A few more days and we a lot of little roots on the leaf in the dirt, but little babies on the one in the water!!

February 22, 2012

February 22, 2012

 And then today, we have even bigger babies and finally some green action on the leaf on the dirt!  The water leaf is still nice and plump, whereas the dirt leaf is a little wilty.  The dirt leaf has definitely put out more roots though, so maybe this one is going to be the turtle in this race!

February 28, 2012

February 28, 2012

I thought this was a longer process until I looked at the dates and realized it was just really a few weeks.  I'm looking forward to plumping the babies up and sharting them with friends once the weather warms up. 

Mandy