Thursday, 4 July 2019

Meanwhile in the greenhouse _ Adromischus maculatus

 
Adromischus maculatus leaf cuttings that I lay on top of a pan of very gritty compost , around the end of May this year .
 In fact the top layer is just grit . There they lie , all friends together .
     Actually , they are not strictly cuttings .....but rather " leaf drop offs " ! :)


                                                         Hooray !
         This morning I notice that they are beginning to put out roots !
   You can click on the pictures to get a nice close up !  Go on !  :)


 Adromischus maculatus .....hard to say and  hard to spell , probably the most common one of all the Adromischus . Beautiful fat and shiny , green and red speckled leaves ....I just love this South African plant . Such an extraordinary and interesting thing .
   Surely this must have been brought to Earth  by visiting little green men in their Flying  Saucer . Maybe the NASA  Mars Curiosity rover buggy will find it growing on Mars !


It deserves a nicer pot ....but it is so fragile...the leaves just fall off at the slightest touch .
 I have to be very careful with watering them too . I only water when they are bone dry  and the pot feels light as a feather when I pick it up .Then I give a good drink of rain water from a watering can that has been left in the greenhouse to get to the same temperature as the plant and the compost in the pot..so as not to shock the plant . I,ve had these Adro plants for over 20 years , I have never fed it.....should I ?  It looks healthy enough to me . If I re-pot them they will have the nutrients in the fresh cactus compost anyway .
   Lovely thing ! It loves the full on sunshine ! So it is on the other side of my greenhouse with all the hot sun loving succulents and prickly desert cacti .
It is very hot up in the  greenhouse house today , opened up all the windows ...must remember to get some more shade net to keep the Epies happy .
 Waiting for the postman to come with some new Epie cuttings ! Squeals of excitement !

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