Hi #succulentgrowers friends, I haven't written in this community for a while, I apologize. I hope your succulents are all doing well. Mine are mostly okay considering the fact that succulents are slow growers.
I have had a few problems in my succulent garden in the last couple of months. I almost lost some of my succulents due to the incessant rains. Thankfully because I keep propagating succulents like crazy I still managed to hold on to some of them. I'll get back that a bit later but right now I just wanted to show you some of the succulents in my garden. Yep showing them off, nah its more more because I want to document their progress.
Nonetheless this is not a complete tour of my succulent garden just a part of it as this tour could get way too lengthy for any good. Like I said earlier most of my succulents are doing okay. However, the weather here has been awfully unpredictable and after hitting record temperatures in October and November some of my succulents were trying to bloom. Then we had a few days of nonstop rain and some succulents started to get soft and rot. With weather like this I there is very little I can do much to protect any of my plants let alone succulents.
The Crassula campfire was the worst hit. As the plant was changing to its winter colors suddenly it started to rains and it seems to have done more damage to this plant. The stems began to rot and the leaves started to get black. As the Crassula campfire tends to grow clumpy and bushy it gets water logged quickly and tends to rot. I didn't notice it until the leaves turned black, well it was too late by then. I just saved bits of the plant and planted them. The tiny offshoots (branches) always survive. So this years show of the most beautiful winter plant is now a thing of the past.
Echeveria topsiturvy has been doing well, making a number of pups. However, some of them have been facing attacks by pests. The mealy bug seems to love this soft succulents and attacks it as soon as it the pups start growing dense below the head.
My hugest and oldest Echeveria lovely rose developed a root rot, and I only noticed it when the leaves started to rot. The plant didn't survive. Regardless, I did take a stem cutting and planted it separately, it doesn't seem to be doing well as the rot has gotten deep within. I still have a number of medium sized lovely rose plants in my collection.
The crested Euphoria is growing like crazy. It is about two feet in height and one and a half feet in width. This is despite it having had an accident when a piece of the metal roofing from a neighbors place flew off during a thunderstorm and sliced a part of it.
This graptosedum bronze delight seems to have finally acclimatized and has started to grow a little more densely. This one has been struggling for a couple of years even though I have tried to grow it in various soil mixes.
A couple of other plants showed signs of root rot or stem rot and I cut them up and planted them again. They seem to be doing okay. This moonstone is one above is one of them. Moonstone can grow to bushy and tight making room for rain water to collect in the branch nodes causing stem rot as in the case of carssula campfire or crassula pagoda.
Sedum adophii has been doing well, it is one of the most un-killable succulents. Its also unstoppable.
Echeveria melaco is going great guns, multiplying quite rapidly compared to other succulents. Mine seem pretty bleached due to excessive sun exposure. I thought that the cooler months from October would help these guys, but the sun is still beating down like it is summer.
Mamillaria clumps in my garden are growing out of control. These clumps are breaking pots and are in desperate need of re-potting. Maybe I should get to this sometime soon. However, the curved spikes ( which look small but rip your skin off) makes me put this job off for another time each time I think about it.
Senecio Barbertonicus is one of those stunning yet easy to grow succulents. This one has been growing so luxuriously that I have had to prune heavily . I have a few dozen clones of this one now.
This echeveria runyonii hybrid sometimes called Texas rose is a very slow grower. Nonetheless it has been problem free.
Echeveria peachpride has been going through a period of rotting, attack from pests and sunburn. However, this is one of the fastest growing and multiplying succulents. every leaf grows a plant and each plant puts out many pups. These can grow huge like the heads of cabbages.
I guess I'll stop here for now. So bye for now until we meet again. Happy gardening!