Some winter growers

[iann]

Dudleyas are usually considered winter growers and they certainly go dormant in high summer, but this hardy one will flower right through spring. L. lanceolata:

Muiria hortensae is another winter grower that is active well into the warm season and it can be a struggle to get the old leaves to dry out. Sheathing for any length of time is unlikely in my climate. It is just starting to turn now but more water would keep it fat, probably right through summer.

Conophytum burgeri has gone. No saving those leaves at this point, and any attempt to do so would probably kill the plant. Once it gets warm-ish, the old leaves collapse and in a few weeks it will be a dried husk.

[rodsmith]

I love the colour of C. burgeri.

[Eric Williams]

Lovely plants Ian, I love the Con. bergeri. Quite rare in collections and of difficult cultivation. Seeds on E bay, £1 each. You have to buy 100 to be able to see them with my eyesight lol. Cheers

[Terry S.]

Have you ever flowered the Muiria Iann? It is a very good-looking plant.

Conophytum burgeri is not really any more difficult to grow than most other conos, it is just rather slow to reach flowering size. I hand-pollinated my burgeris last autumn and there seem to be a couple of dozen capsules ripening on the plants. So maybe it will be on the BCSS seed list at the end of this year if those capsules prove to be as good as they look. This is one of the problems with producing mesemb seed, it can take in the region of 9 or 10 months for the seed capsules to mature on the plants. I have the theory that the seeds will germinate better if the capsules get a really good baking before harvest and therefore do not harvest until September.

[Aiko]

My plants also look like those of Iann. Fat, blobby, red.

I also have many seed pods ripening. And indeed it takes many months for the seed pods to ripen. They flowered in October, and probably somewhere in the heath of summer the seed pods are mature. A spray of water on the seed pods will prove this, if they open when water touches the seed pods.

I will offer some seeds on my free seed list (probably swapping only) for those that don't want to pay huge sums of money for C. burgeri at commercial seed lists. Al remains might go to the MSG or to Succulenta. More likely Succulenta, to support it's 100 year celebration next June. C. burgeri has not been on its seed list very often.

[iann]

Terry, I've never produced a flower. Obviously something not quite right with my growing conditions. Winters are very dull here. They grow, they get fat, they dry out more or less, then do it all over again, but no flowers. I live in hope.