I thought I'd do a quick update and see how other peoples' plants have fared this summer. My plants have been in the greenhouse all year and I put up external shading cloth on very sunny days but with the heatwaves we've had the plants went into a very deep dormancy. I water them monthly even when dormant but they were closed up so tightly that hardly any green was visible at the tips of the stems. I also noticed that they went into dormancy early this year and that reduced flowering on all the plants. In mid-September though they started to show signs of life again and after increasing watering they are now opening up nicely. Well mostly. Some stems are still dormant and showing no signs of revival yet. I can see green so I know they're still alive. I'll wait until all the plants are fully revived before removing old flower stems and pruning.
Plant on the left is reviving well but only one stem of the right-hand plant is responding so far.
You can just see the green leaves at the tips protected by that shroud of dead ones.
Has anyone had any problems with their plants during the heatwave? This side of the country didn't get as hot as some parts of England. The plant's native range in Algeria is also really suffering from record heat and drought so I'm curious how the plants are doing there. I haven't seen a single record on iNaturalist this year.
grinel wrote: ↑Sat Apr 30, 2022 12:11 am
One thing I can't really get my head around is rooting them. And I'm not only talking about S multiceps, but any winter grower. When is the best time to do it, spring/summer or autumn/winter? I mean.. warmer temperatures would be more conducive to forming roots, I guess, but still, their growth cycle starts in autumn and they're active during the cold season.
You said you rooted yours in spring, and I've read other accounts of people doing similar stuff with their winter growers, but it seems a little counter intuitive to me.
My limited experience: I have also purchased a Tylecodon paniculatus last April, and a little 4 cm branch, thinner than a pencil, snapped during transportation and I had to chose between tossing it away or giving it a chance to live. Out of curiosity, I stuck it in a tiny pot full of grit and watered it every 3 weeks or so, not dissimilar to the S multiceps. I didn't really have any hopes, especially considering how small it was, but it didn't rot as I was half expecting it to, and last autumn it surprised me by sprouting 2 leaves, bigger and stronger than the stem itself. I took it out of it's pot, and I saw it had one nice healthy root, somewhat proportional to it's size. I moved it into the pot the mother plant is in, it didn't grow further but stayed nice and plump during winter and now the leaves are starting to go soft and wilty. So the little branch started growing roots all through summer when it was supposed to be dormant (?), woke up in autumn, active during winter and it doesn't seem confused about what season it is, so it just doesn't really make total sense to me.
Does anyone have any experience with this, or have a better understanding of how these succulents work?
In my particular case, the choice was made for me and it may have been nothing but luck that it has worked out in the end, so going forward, what would be the best course of action, trying to strike roots in the warm season or waiting for the active cool season?
Winter growers should root down easily in September. From late October to December bottom heat helps greatly.
As other people have said, winter growers in the UK are really autumn and spring growers. If recent weather trends contiue summer growers will also be spring and autumn growers.
Allan
Orkney
conophytums,Lithops,Sempervivum, Tylecodons, small cacti. and Haworthias
I put together a montage photo of the plant reviving from its summer dormancy. Left is the dormant state.
I pulled back the dead leaves from around one dormant shoot and there were only around a dozen leaves hidden inside so it seems that the plant growing new leaves from the centre of the rosette pushes the protective layer of dead leaves aside rather than the existing leaves swelling. The plant comes back to life after the autumn equinox so I'm assuming the green tips of the dormant plant are assessing day length to signal re-growth. Maybe one day I'll test the theory by manually adjusting day length for a dormant plant using some kind of blackout cover. There must be other factors otherwise you'd see a more consistent regrowth rate between plants.
Thank you for a very informative amount of information. I have been puzzling how to get the best out of my plant and killed one in the process. I have another, which thankfully I should be able to care for better, now.
Obsessive Crassulaceae lover, especially Aeoniums but also grow, Aloes, Agaves, Haworthias and a select number of Cacti.
Well I'm sad to say that the cold snap caught me a bit by surprise and some plants that should have been indoors were out in the cold greenhouse for the duration. I'm glad to say though that all my multiceps plants came through it with no issues. I lost quite a few other species including ones that are always in the cold greenhouse over winter. I hear that this is a common story though but it does attest to the hardiness of this plant. I've moved them indoors now to avoid any risk of mildew in this damp, mild weather.
Santa brought me a macro photography focusing rail so I'm playing with that at the moment to get some better shots of the leaves. These are 12 shot stacks blended in Helicon Focus. Both are full frame photos with the bottom on being at 2:1 magnification.
Despite the cold weather, I've found that Sedum multiceps cuttings root readily in winter. I had a plant that looked pretty much shrivelled, like the right hand one in your original posting. On unpotting it, the roots were gone, so I chopped all the branches off, and stuck them in compost. and kept it moist. Quite a few were rooted and greened up within a month or so, and look fine, despite the low termperatures.
Just an update on my bonsai pot project. The plant is looking great and responding well to this type of growing. I've just had to pin down the next set of stems as they were putting down air roots again. I use galvanised fencing staples to pin them down into the gravel. Next year I'll either need a wider pot or I'll let the stems spill over the edge, maybe a bit of both. I changed to a darker gravel to highlight the stem structure a bit better. Some people asked about when to take cuttings and going by the number of air roots the plant is making at the moment I'd say now is an ideal time as long as the stems have good leaf growth.
I've written up the information in this thread, along with my other research, for the Sedum Society. I've made sure to thank forum members for all the help but if anyone wants a specific name check or anything please let me know.
The cuttings I took that I mentioned in my last post have all taken and are growing well. They were taken from plants that were actively growing indoors and are kept on a bright windowsill.
Bonsai pot project update: I've moved it into a wider pot and pinned the next stage of growth out as it filled the other pot quite quickly. It's getting some nice shape and filling out the bigger pot already. I've added a photo of a couple of plants that I've been keeping pruned back and you can see the growth is denser and the rosettes are larger. My plan is to get the bonsai pot plant established with its extensive root system and then start pruning back to fill in the gaps.
