Orbea hardyi

I understand that in its natural habitat in northern South Africa this plant tends to grow in dense shade and it tends to be more a speckled green. In our greenhouse it turns out to be much more red. It's a rambler and kind of looks like worms squirming all over the potting soil. So, of course, we grow it. Need I say more?

Crassula 'Tom Thumb'

I posted this plant last year but the flowers were so profuse, I couldn't resist. So, here it is. An old time favorite: not rare nor hard to grow, but certainly worth having around. As I mentioned before, we've had this plant around for 40 years or so and, even though it tends to get ignored much of the time, it thrives in spite of us. What more needs to be said.

Aloe deltoideodonta var. candicans

This is a lovely, small growing Aloe from mountainous slopes in South Central Madagascar. Its 6-8 inch long, 2" wide, leaves are streaked with white and the leaves are edged with small triangular teeth. It clumps from the base, eventually forming a small mound.

Enjoy your plants!

Mammillaria hahniana 'Superba'

Lynn-Marie just potted up a few trays of one of our favorite cacti: Mammillaria hahniana 'Superba'. It has a lot of pluses going for it; it's easy to grow, not prone to rot, and eventually makes a magnificent show plant, with clumps of plump, white-haired beauties.

The picture below is the normal form, showing the flowers, but also the relatively small amount of white "hair". Still an interesting and beautiful cactus, but it doesn't have the "wow" factor of 'Superba'.

Miscellaneous Succulents

This is a view of a miscellaneous group of plants on a side table in one of our greenhouses. It just caught my eye so I took the photo to share.

Haworthia 'Manda's Hybrid'

A nice, stocky hybrid Haworthia that's quite easy to grow and is quite attractive, it appears that the parentage is unknown. However the name -Mandy - seems to be a reference to a New Jersey grower and hybridizer of some time ago.

Mammillaria gracilis 'Arizona Snowcap'

No, it's not flowering now. This was taken last March of little thumb sized starts of Mammillaria gracilis 'Arizona Snowcap' (Syn.: Mammillaria vetula ssp. gracilis 'Arizona Snowcap'). These will be forming nice clumps of this very unique cultivar of gracilis, which makes an outstanding, easy to grow, pot specimen.

They've had their summer growth spurt and now they'll get their winter dormancy... not that we're really getting Winter weather yet. We've had a couple of mild frosts (37 F) but no killing frost yet. And certainly no snow like in the Eastern Rocky Mountains and in the Northeast. Brrrr.

More Haworthia truncata crassa

A couple more of the same seed batch of Haworthia truncata 'Crassa'. Some very nice plants came out of this cross (a cross of two large growing truncatas).

We spent a nice quiet Halloween with our grandson handing out candy to the trick-or-treators as they came to the door. The majority of the children in this community head up a few streets to a large Victorian house which gets transformed into a Haunted House on Halloween. Admission is a couple of cans of food for the Oregon Food Bank and they must bring in thousands of cans for this good cause.