False Alarm

I had a sense of urgency getting the greenhouse ready for a scheduled six-day absence. After a fruitless five hours at the Billings airport, it became apparent that our trip to Pennsylvania was not going to happen in a timely manner and we cancelled everything. After a replacement family activity tomorrow, I will be able to get going on chores Saturday that I had been expecting to start next Wednesday.

Regarding succulents, the main task isn't a strenuous chore but will be deciding which plants will be making the transition from the greenhouse to living outside on the west-facing patio at the house. My thoughts are:

• The larger Jade. It has at least five stalks and probably would benefit from being divided. A couple of these divisions could live on the patio.
• The Crassula 'Rosary Plant.' It is not in the greenhouse, it is in the garage under a grow light and doesn't look great. Maybe some sunlight and fresh air will do it good.
• The second Delosperma 'Fire Spinner.' The first one is in the big grow bag with the Sempervivums. I am not overly impressed with how the two of them have performed since receiving them from The Three Company via Amazon April 17. One again, sunlight and fresh air.
• Echeveria 'Cubic Frost.' The pot has three nice rosettes (see below) and it may be another division candidate.
• Echeveria Purpusorum. The one in its own pot is another sunlight and fresh air candidate. There is another one in one of the big bowls that looks a little better.
• Echeveria 'Raindrops.' This one has developed the characteristic bumps and some color, but is not getting bigger. It's never going to be huge, but I would like to see some growth.
• Graptopetalum paraguayense 'Ghost Plant' (probable ID). This is the one I got at Gainan's April 8. It had four stalks when I got it, but I've already given two their own pots and it is sprouting in all sorts of places. It seems very easy to propagate.
• Haworthia limifolia 'Fairy Washboard.' I sold the main plant. The two pups are not very big, so I'll put one out to see if it grows. It goes dormant when it gets hot but maybe it won't completely shut down because it rarely gets hot here in the Beartooth Foothills. One year, I almost froze to death at a daytime rodeo here on the Fourth of July.
• One of the Sempervivums, I'm not sure which one to choose. Maybe I will rotate.
• Plectranthus 'Velveteen Aromatic.' I need to pick the best of my 6-inch pots to replace the one that was in our bedroom last winter. That plant provided all 12 of the cuttings in the most recent propagation, but it is getting leggy and yellow. I want the new plant to be a good-sized bush by the time it comes in for the winter.
• And of course there's all the little plants in the pipeline. Most are in the sprouting bowl, but one is in a 4-inch plastic pot and soon may be ready for more.
• Not succulents, but I treat them as if they were (chunky soil, minimal watering): Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme, Monardo. Most have been living outside at the greenhouse already and could use a promotion to the patio.
• Not a succulent: I have at least four Coleus that need to spend the summer on the patio in bigger pots than they have now.
• In addition, I will be hanging six baskets of petunias and 2-4 baskets of strawberries on the west and east sides of the house. Picking succulents is easy; the real chore will be hanging the baskets because I have to replace six brackets that are too small for bushy petunias. That will be a few hours up on a ladder.

Deer resistance is a consideration with every plant that I put outside. Succulents are considered somewhat deer resistant, but they might be tempted by some of the Echeverias and other tender plants. I will surround them with the stinky hard herbs, Rosemary, etc. to discourage random browsing.

'Cubic Frost' image taken June 5:

Air roots and little buds on the stalks of the probable 'Ghost Plant' taken April 29. This plant seems easy to propagate, although my cuttings (actually beheadings) are still small.

Jewels

When I first got Pachyphytum 'Little Jewel' from Mountain Crest Gardens Feb. 7, it didn't show the degree of faceting that was in the photos on their site. As it has become more established and the weather has become more favorable, the faceting keeps developing. I posted an update just a few weeks ago, but this is as good as it has been.

This is what 'Little Jewel' looked like back on Feb. 10. Some facets, but not very pronounced:

'Little Jewel' had a rough journey from California. There were about 10 loose leaves that I scooped up and deposited in the propagation bowl. They developed roots fairly quickly, but the little leaves took a lot longer. It's difficult to be certain of plant ID at this stage, but it appears there are six 'Little Jewels' with little leaves. I'm going by the remnant of the narrow, pointed big leaf for the ID on this one; the small leaves don't look like that at all.

This one is not a 'Little Jewel,' but it is one the largest plants in the big bowl. It is 0.7 inches high.

Here's a different type of jewel. The Pachyphytum was faceted, this one is so, so smooth. It is Graptopetalum paraguayense 'Ghost Plant,' also received from Mountain Crest Feb. 7. I have another purchase I believe is a 'Ghost Plant,' from Gainan's in Billings April 8, but that one didn't come with an ID so I'm not 100% sure. I gave them different ID tags as a result, this one being #70 and the other one marked as #71 with an ID of "probable." The one pictured here may be slightly more green that the other.

'Ghost Plant' has been growing in that little cup without much disturbance for four months. When I was watering yesterday I was struck by the (mostly) flawless complexion and just had to snap a picture.

This is what 'Ghost Plant' looked like back on February 10. I snap these pictures to prove to myself that they actually are growing. Most of them.

There's also the Pachyphytum 'Apricot Beauty' that looks more similar to the 'Ghost Plant' that it does the other Pachyphytum mentioned above. One thing the two Pachyphytums have in common is they lost a lot of leaves in transit. They are both healthy now and producing multiple plants from leaves and beheadings.

This is how the succulents fit into the greenhouse. About 80 of them are on the bench and shelves to the left, with two sedums in hanging baskets. The closest grow bag has three Sempervivums, a Delosperma and a little sedum cutting. Barely visible are the two big pots I turned over to Echeveria 'Lola' and Aeonium 'Floresens.' The bed I eventually want to convert to succulents it the closest one on the right, now full of onions. This view is facing east, so the mid-day sunlight comes from the right. Because we have an incredibly short growing season, most of the baskets shown here won't go outside for another week. (Some sources say we haven't passed our last frost date yet. The weather forecast says we are safe, but it will get down to 43 overnight on Saturday.)

With the petunia baskets out of the picture, the most visible plants in mid-summer should be 'Teddy Bear' sunflowers and other flowers such as zinnias on both sides. Back on the bench, the tender succulents should keep getting bigger and more colorful as they soak in the sunlight. In October they have to go back under growlights in the garage, and by then I hope to have a permanent home for the hardy succulents after the onions are harvested.

Diagnosis

I watered everything today, and it give me a chance to inspect each plant to see if something new was happening. The Echeveria Setosa Var. Deminuta isn't setting the world on fire and it has had a notch in one side for quite a while. Today as I was watering, I took note that the notch looked sort of like an offset forming. If so, that would be a "good" something new.

And then there is the "bad" something new. The Crassula Capitella 'Campfire' has a bunch of white patches.

First thing I did was remove 'Campfire' from the greenhouse and put it on a vacant shelf in the garage. Upon further reflection, I also parked the Kalanchoe humilis 'Desert Surprise' on that shelf. Its powdery covering looks like farina and is not in patches, but one of the stems recently died and the plant does not look normal. I'm reconsidering that it might be something else. The current working theory is powdery mildew, for sure on the 'Campfire' and possibly on the 'Desert Surprise.' There are some relatively inexpensive treatments for powdery mildew, including a copper-based fungicide or potassium bicarbonate.

I didn't see it on any other plants, except maybe the Crassula 'Coastal Coral.' It has some lower leaves with white rims, a different symptom. So for now it has not been quarantined. Maybe I will haul it in tomorrow just to be safe.

Death of a Sempervivum

Most cold-hardy succulents such as Sempervivums do not get very tall. It's easier to avoid freezing by keeping low to the ground. I was surprised to see the plant I know only as Sempervivum heuffelii unknown #5 start to rise above its surroundings. Its leaves have always been burgundy but they are getting patchy. My interpretation of this is it is getting ready to flower...and then die.

Sempervivums are monocarpic, which means they die after they flower. Fortunately, this plant has produced two offsets which will carry on after the main plant croaks. It's all rather fascinating. The first photo is from Feb. 15, showing it already had an offset. Next is May 27 and shows the beginning of changes. The next two photos are from today and show the dramatic change.

Mountain Crest Gardens says it is possible to stop a Sempervivum from flowering: "You can temporarily halt the blooming process by scooping out the bloom stalk with a sharp, clean knife. This only works if you catch the bloom stalk as soon as the rosette center starts to close in and elongate." I'm not going to try that. I want to see what happens, and there are two good offsets to take over.

Sempervivum unknown #6 also has undergone dramatic change this spring but is not doomed. The tips are much darker than before, and it is producing offsets on stolons.

Here is the Aeonium 'Floresens' in its new big pot under the grow light. Since Aeoniums are summer dormant I wonder how much it will develop before it shuts down.

Goodbye Perle

The garage sale came and went, and afterward I was without 'Perle von Nurnberg,' the largest Haworthia 'Fairy Washboard,' six Plectranthus 'Velveteen Aromatic' ™, and an old bike. The replacements for 'Fairy Washboard' are in their own cups, and I still have plenty of 'Velveteen' cuttings, but I don't have any active propagations of 'Perle.' Disregarding the plants that are easily replaced, getting rid of one large succulent does not justify a buying spree on my part. But I will be on the lookout for a 'Perle' at the usual locations, such as Home Depot where I got this one. I don't want to start completely over with a 2-inch; I want a bigger one like the 3.5-inch I had before.

One visitor to the sale said the plants looked so perfect that she wondered if they were fake. I assured her that they were real. I did post a notice with a Billings rare plant group, but a small-town garage sale may not be the best venue to move $20-$40 succulents. I'm hoping the group has a plant swap event this fall.

On one hand I wanted more of the plants to sell so I could start some new things. I would not have bought direct replacements for 'Blue Curls' or 'Lovely Rose,' for example, but would have tried something else. On the other hand I was happy that most of the plants are not going anywhere.

And I did move a lot of 'Velveteens,' which are ridiculously easy to propagate. I'm 18-for-18 on cuttings this year. I could easily do 100 cuttings from plants on hand if I had the room to grow them and a market to sell them. It is so amusing to see Proven Winners Direct selling what they call Plectranthus hybrid 'Cerveza 'n Lime'® for $11.99 online. I'm tempted to do local farmer's markets with nothing but 100 three-month 'Velveteen' cuttings in 4-inch pots for $7 each. (At three months, they start branching.) Maybe next summer.

Here is a look at 'Perle' since I acquired it Feb. 17, starting with a phone photo of it with 'Red Sky,' which I confused it with a week earlier, 'Perle' on the right in a small ceramic which was quickly replaced:

March 13:

May 25:

Spotlight

Even though the succulents are in the greenhouse, the amount of sunlight each receives during the day varies due to the shelves, walls, other plants, and outside trees. So, taking no chances, I put 'Lola' under a SANSI growlight in her big new pot. It was still light out this evening when I snapped this, but obviously most of the illumination is coming from the SANSI. Cue the dramatic music.

To mount the light, I needed a bracket that was about 10 inches long with a base no more than four inches high so it would fit on a lateral beam. I am in the process of replacing six of my outside flower pot brackets, which are 10 inches long. I just figured out that they don't provide enough clearance from the wall for bushy Supertunia baskets. They are the perfect length for mounting the light, but the base is too tall to fit on the beam. Rather than spending all day searching on Amazon and Home Depot, I made one on the 3D printer. My rudimentary design skills are enough to produce such a thing. Due to printer size limitations, the length is 9.25 inches, so I slid the pot back 3/4ths of an inch to center it. After making sure the first one worked, I printed a second one to hang a SANSI above the Aeonium 'Floresens' in its new pot.

I don't know if the 3D printer actually saves money on such things when you account for all the costs, but rudimentary 10-inch brackets are about $18 for a pair and BambuStudio claims that the pair I am made cost less than $2. I printed them with brown PETG filament, which should be more than strong enough to hold up a light bulb.

Those big pots and grow bag looked so dry, so I watered them today. I also added a small cutting of SunSparkler 'Lime Twister' hardy sedum to the grow bag. It's not really a cutting; it broke off when I was potting up the main plant six weeks ago and has been in a 2-inch pot since then.

New direction

I have pulled Echeveria 'Lola' and Aeonium 'Floresens' from Saturday's garage sale. I came up with something different and perhaps exciting for them.

It all started when deer nibbled on some of my deer-resistant plants I had in a 15-gallon grow bag outside the greenhouse. I potted the remnants in a smaller bag and moved it to a caged location at home, and also used the dirt for a few other pots. I ended up with half a bag of dirt and nothing to put in it....

I had been thinking about converting part of a planting bed inside the greenhouse to a succulent area as the first step toward converting the entire bed this fall. Eventually I planted the first of my tomatoes and peppers there instead. But a 15-gallon grow bag is almost the same area. I mixed the remaining soil with a cubic foot of pumice and some coco coir and filled the bag with that. In that I planted three Sempervivums (all from the Chick Charms line) and one of the two Delospermas.

• Sempervivum 'Berry Blues'
• Sempervivum 'Appletini'
• Sempervivum 'Strawberry Kiwi'
• Delosperma 'Fire Spinner'

I should know better, but I scattered broken pottery on the surface in an attempt to be artistic:

In addition to the excess grow bag, I also had two large ceramic pots that until recently held fake plants. There was enough of the soil mixture to fill those two pots also, with some left over. I decided to plant 'Lola' in the bigger pot based on a photo on the Mountain Crest Gardens web site showing a clump of 'Lolas' filling a large pot. I want that. I picked 'Floresens' for the other pot because it is quite active right now and I want to give it a chance to stretch out.

Lots of room now for 'Lola' offsets to make their appearance:

This is the image from Mountain Crest Gardens that helped send me down this path. I would settle for a small percentage of that.

I often cite Mountain Crest Gardens as a source of information. When comparing prices, Ramsey's is the cheapest, Succulents Depot and others are in the middle, and Mountain Crest is the most expensive. But they have the most extensive online selection, and unlike other dealers they have good descriptions for each plant. Sometimes it is worth paying up.

Taking the place of 'Lola' and 'Floresens' in Saturday's lineup are 'Doris Taylor' and 'Cubic Frost.' Yes, I just got Doris. I'm putting a $50 price tag on it. Everything has its price. If nothing else it is something that will get people to stop and look. 'Cubic Frost' has three nice rosettes and I really should divide it and sell the pieces. But I put a $35 price tag on it and we'll see if it draws any interest.

Really, I just hope I sell my old bike and at least one of the three orthopedic ice machines. Update: I sold the bike. The ice machines, not so much.