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Sansevieria “fernwood” in bloom

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Stomatium sp.

This one is a night bloomer from South Africa.

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A nice xGasteraloe I’ve had for about four years. I love these flowers - intermediate between Gasteria and Aloe.

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the Succulent Broadcast Network

Interested in increasing your knowledge of succulent plants beyond “beginner” level? This is for you. Or maybe you are already a member of a local cactus & succulent society, but meetings are cancelled right now? 

I’ve been compiling a calendar of all the live streaming presentations put on by cactus and succulent societies around the world. You can see it here with the schedule normalized to California time, UK time, or Central Europe time.

You can also subscribe to the calendar in whatever app you use with this link.

These events tend to be habitat exploration slideshows by botanists, scientific overviews of a group of plants, or advanced care or horticultural information from professionals at botanical gardens. Most are free, but some do require tickets or free registration, so check the details and reserve early.

Please share widely among succulent hobbyists!

If you know of other live events of this nature, contact me and I will add them to the calendar.

And if you enjoy a presentation, consider joining the institution that put it on, or a similar one in your area. Your support for cactus and succulent societies and botanical gardens helps them make all this interesting content available. Most also have fantastic journals and newsletters, in-person meetings, and plant shows.

- Jon

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Late spring! A time of danger.

A few weeks ago, I started to put window screen mesh (acts like a shade cloth) over a few of my more exposed Haworthias. This was something I experimented with last year to great success. It lets them stay compact and color up, but keeps them from getting too much sun. There are only a few hours a morning of direct light, but it's increasing fast, and there are more hot days now. The combo of too much heat and light can be deadly, especially if the pots get hot and the roots cook, or if the leaf surface burns. The screen will gradually expand over more of the collection in the coming weeks, diffusing the light before it hits the pots and plants.

If you can get this nice red color but the leaves stay plump, you found the Goldilocks zone.

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Astrophytum ornatum

The whole genus Astrophytum is very popular with cactus growers, and A. ornatum is the biggest species (it can get over a meter tall - 40 inches, though you don’t usually see them this big). It is native to eastern Mexico. What is remarkable about this photo is the pink color of the flowers; everybody knows that Astrophytum flowers are yellow. Well, these flowers actually started out yellow as well, but on the second day they had a bit of a pink tinge, and on the third day they were this amazing color, before they wilted later in the day. I felt fortunate to be there at the right time to take the photo.

-Brian

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Acantholimon caryophyllaceum

This little plant is quite short and often overlooked by visitors to the Ruth Bancroft Garden. It makes lots of tiny heads that heap up to form a kind of “living boulder” (much like Deuterocohnia brevifolia, which we also grow at the garden, but on a smaller scale). At a glance, you would not expect it to be as prickly as it is, but I have included a close-up to show how needle-sharp the tiny bluish leaves are. It comes from Eurasia (specifically, the Caucasus, Armenia and Kurdistan), and it is quite cold-hardy. Excellent for a rock garden. It belongs to the Plumbago Family.

-Brian

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Update, 2 years later. May 2020. This has grown into a really lovely mature plant.

Haworthia hybrid, golden hour.

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Update: May 2020

Jim Smith Haworthia hybrid in an unglazed Richard Rowe pot with green rings.

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Haworthia wimii repotted to accent incoming offsets.

Container from Schulps Pottery and Knives

Also, photos of the old staging and the custom potting mix I’m using this week (Pumice, red lava, akadema, coco coir, and Bonsai Jack succulent mix)

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do you know anything about desert roses? I just got one and I’m not sure how to care for it correctly. Thank you

I collect rocks and minerals too, and to me, a desert rose is a gypsum rosette. But yeah, people also use that term for Adeniums. I can’t really grow them well here in San Francisco (a foggy coastal wet winter climate). Like a lot of succulents or plants in general, the environment they come from gives clues. These are from arid regions of East Africa and Arabia. They need a LOT of heat in the summer, and a lot of light. Water during growing season, which is not winter. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.

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Hey!!! I just rescued a succulent from a big chain store. It had fallen and the pot was destroyed and it's been torn to several wilting pieces. I'm not sure what sort of care I can give but I have it home now. Please help me get it situated!

A lot of people will probably think I’m a monster, but imagine this was celery you bought to eat. You dropped it on the sidewalk coming home and now it’s broken and wilted looking. What do you do? You toss it and start over. No need to feel guilt about wanting to have a nice plant and not spend years caring for something that looks crappy. This isn’t an aging family member, it’s a commercial vegetable you are using for aesthetic purposes.

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The tag says "classic footed crackl stnwr crm" whatever that is jaja

I think that is describing the pot, not the plant? “Classic footed crackle (glaze) stoneware ceramic”.

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Hi! I just started keeping succulents and cacti! Do you have any advice for propagating them? So far I just have leaves hanging out in a sunny window which I water every couple of days. I live in Louisiana if that's any help Thanks so much in advance 💕

You probably aren’t going to like this answer, but I have a very limited growing space on my window ledge, and I honestly don’t propagate that much.

Leaf props take FOREVER, and don’t really make a lot of sense unless you just like waiting, or have a LOT of space and want to make thousands of plants for sale. I only leaf-prop an occasional rare Adromischus leaf these days.

If I’m pruning an older Sedum or Echeveria, Crassula or something like that, I might take a nice rosette and stick it in a small pot of pumice. Usually it will have a nice “stem beard” of roots in a month or 2 and I very gently replant it in a slightly bigger container with my regular mix. I’d use these as backups or give them away. Once a week is plenty of water and really just use pure pumice at first, and a small container that won’t hold much moisture. If the stem is healthy, less moisture will make it produce better roots.

Or just “stick it in the dirt”. A lot of times it works.

Offsets from Haworthias and Aloes are more valuable to me, but to be honest, I like clumps so I tend to keep them together until it becomes obvious that it is holding back their growth.

Not sure if that helps, but you could take this away: don’t feel guilt about discarding fallen leaves or pruned branches, or even sickly plants. No one needs 8 tiny jade props. Only do it if you actually enjoy it and have room, and if not, buy a variety of small plants and get some experience by possibly killing them. When they die or no longer look good, maybe chop and prop the ends of the stem, or try another plant or the same plant with a different location or technique. That’s the best way to learn and not get weighed down.

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You have successfully gotten me addicted to Haworthias, and I finally bought my first one a few days ago! I'd had my eye on him for almost two weeks and I finally caved when I saw that he had started growing pups. He was sun-bronzed, but it's faded a bit, and he has a lovely flower-stalk that helps me find him among all my other succulents.

That’s so exciting! I just realized I had these old questions I had never answered and I don’t know how long ago you posted this, but I hope it went well. Hawo’s are a little tricky sometimes till you get the rhythm and become sensitive to the root and light signals. If it didn’t go smoothly, don’t give up. I’ve killed many, I just don’t post them ;)