I have a routine when I get a new succulent. I take a snapshot the day I get it and pot it up within a day. I wait a few days before watering, then I take a better picture. If I go with the full focus-stacking and a tripod, it can be tedious and I might procrastinate. I was looking for a good image of Echeveria 'Topsy Turvy' acquired locally April 14 and realized I had never taken one. So here are two. These are snapshots with my small camera, but they are better than what I had from last month. This is an example of a local store (in this case Nana's Bloomers in Laurel, Montana) having plants that look far better than anything I have ever received through the mail.
The next two are from a Mountain Crest Gardens order received May 16, Graptoveria 'Titubans Variegata' and Echeveria 'Muesli.' Both were potted in large coffee cups with holes drilled in them, the Grapto in a yellow Menard's cup and the Echeveria in a Badlands National Park cup. The first was cheap, the second was not.
Sometimes I delay taking pictures because the plant looks lousy at unboxing. That was the case with Echeveria 'Linda Jean' aka 'Rob Roy' which was in rough shape when I got it from The Next Gardener March 17. Two months of neglect and it looks fine now.
There are a couple of other plants from an April 30 Succulents Depot order that I'm waiting on to take images. Echeveria 'Atlantis' had some leaf damage it just needs to grow out of. I got two copies of Echeveria 'Blue Rose' that I want to grow just a little bit more.
And now for something completely different. One of the survivors of the February Semperpocalypse was this roller named 'Budai Mountains' (Mountain Crest Gardens). The purple balls are the rollers that have been attached to the plant ever since I got it Feb. 7. The green balls are new rollers that started forming this spring. I don't know if the purple balls will ever roll away to form new plants or if it is up to the new crop of green balls. The purple balls that are still attached look viable; I'm not so sure about the one off to the right that has detached, which seems smaller.
