Sinningia leucotricha

A truly outstanding plant with orangish-red flowers early in the season and these gorgeous, velvety leaves.

Pachypodium lealii var. saundersii flower

This is growing on the windowsill in our front room next to the Christmas tree...making its own contribution to the holiday spirit.

Pachypodium succulentum

Though slow growing, Pachypodium succulentum is a fairly easy to grow caudiciform plant, flowering readily each year. As far as culture is concerned, the plants are dormant in winter and during this time we keep ours completely dry and attempt to keep the temperatures above 45 degrees F, though they have been subjected to lower temperatures on occasion to no apparent ill effect.

Matelea cyclophylla

 

Also grown and sold under the name Gonolobus cyclophyllus, this is a fascinating addition to any caudex collection. When introduced by the ISI in 2002 the flowers were described as "bizarre and beautiful, typical of the Asclepiadaceae."

Fouquieria purpusii

Grown from seed, this is the crown jewel of the Fouquierias.  Not readily available and much prized, for good reason, with its  outstanding markings. This is a good-sized plant and is available for sale to the discriminating caudiciform collector. Feel free to inquire.

Nights are getting colder (in the mid 50s F), but still sunny and no rain. Moved some 20 wheelbarrows of composted horse manure the last few days and now have to start sealing up the greenhouses and getting the plants back in. I love Autumn, but getting all those plants organized and back in the greenhouses is not a favorite task of the season. But it has to be done...

Avonia quinaria var. alstonii

These wonderful small succulents are impressive, even at a young age, but as they get older, they produce a caudex which makes the plants even more impressive. For small plants, they surely can steal the show. Check out these additional photos from our nursery list.

Enjoy your plants!

Fockea edulis

Nicely grown specimens of caudex forming plants can be very impressive. For perspective, this is an 8 inch diameter pot and the caudex is 4 inches (10.16 cm.) in diameter. And the great thing about the Fockea is that they're very easy to grow!

Pachypodium brevicaule

Because we have so many different succulent plants around our house and nursery, we've never really had room for a lot of very big plants. Some of the larger pachypodiums are a case in point. But this is another matter, as it's a dwarf, staying quite small. It can be difficult to grow on its own roots and is especially sensitive to cold and wet conditions. On the other hand, it doesn't really like to have its roots totally dry out. But the challenge is worth it for these unique little beauties.

Bombax elipticum leaf

Lynn-Marie took this photo of the sun shining through a Bombax elipticum leaf. And, yes, it does provide for a feeling of autumn (though this is a new leaf), which does seem to be settling in on us. Getting cooler at night...

Uncarina roeoesliana and Uncarina peltata

A little change of pace today. The flowers in the first photo are on Uncarina roeoesliana. The second photo includes both U. roeoesliana (in the front row) and U. peltata (in the back row), showing the difference in the caudex. The U. peltata flowers have a purple throat. They're from the island nation of Madagascar.

These flowers are pollinated by beetles and the usual method of hand pollinating the flowers doesn't work. They like a fair amount of water, with - of course - adequate drainage.

The following picture isn't from our plants. It shows the seedpod on a plant in Madagascar.

Image via Wikipedia

Enjoy your plants.

Jatropha berlandieri

We've always had a soft spot for this odd little creature...Jatropha berlandieri, It's just coming out of dormancy for us and grows it's green growth very rapidly at this time of year.

I'll be trying to get some new photos soon as I'm now feeling a lot better.

Fockea edulis

This is one of our old Fockea edulis plants.


It appears that one of our pot hanging geckos has crawled up on top.... :)