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[INDOOR-GARDENING:343] Re: Who grow a litops?

>Help: I'm feeling very ignorant.  Is there another name for litops?  This
is
>new for me.  Batya Levin, Bronx, nY
Lithops is a succulent, common name Living Stone Plant (because it looks
like a stone...)

>what and how much illumination  and water they need, that they blossomed.
In >what season blossoms the litops usually? What age they must be?
Elena ekulya@mail.ru

My Botanica CD has the following:
Confined in the wild to the driest western part of South Africa’s Cape
Province and the adjacent part of Namibia, this fascinating genus of the
mesembryanthemum alliance contains about 40 extreme succulents, which
develop singly or in colonies. They are composed of pairs of extremely
fleshy, upright leaves fused together to form a cylindrical or hemispherical
mass with a deep crevice running across the top. New leaf-pairs and white or
yellow daisy-like flowers grow up through the fissure. The plants look like
smooth river stones, explaining the genus and common names, and have
translucent upper surfaces.
Cultivation: These frost-tender succulents are easy to grow but require very
dry conditions, so need to be kept under shelter in all but arid climates.
Plant in coarse, gritty soil and allow full sun. Water only in spring and
propagate in summer from seed or by dividing bodies and treating them like
cuttings.
-------------------------
The ones I grow (in E. Scotland) stay in the conservatory all year, and
flower in the late summer;  I water sparely from April to the beginning of
August, from then until the end of September I keep them damp whilst they
flower and from October  until April they get a little water perhaps once a
month when the weather is sunny.  Be careful not to let water stand on the
leaves as the sun will burn them.  Oh yes, and they have long fleshy tap
roots, so appreciate a deepish pot filled with very gritty compost and with
gravel round the neck of the plant to stop water rotting the the base of the
leaves.
They should flower when they are about 12 months old with just one pair of
leaflets.
Liz in Scotland.
(swallows are here, I have my first hedgehog casualty, but no-one has told
the weather it's spring!)
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