Update of the 23rd of April 2017

This week has been quite in propagation, because my seedlings are growing but I have not sowed nor propagated that much. Of course, I have many seeds that I'm waiting, some should actually arrive next week or a the beginning of the following week. 

About two months ago, I bought two ornithogalum caudatum or pregnant onion and I'm just amazed by the way it reproduces itself. As you can see on the picture, the outer layer is getting dry and below you can see some bulbils that form before the layer dried. Just amazing.

Mirabilis jalapa or belle-de-nuit (beauty of night in French, I don't know its common name in English). I found the seeds in one of my friends' garden. I have now about 5 growing, I love this plant a lot, because it gives many flowers, smell good and usually has bright colors. 

The three next pictures show how much my plumeria seedlings have grown. The pot they're in looks like a small plumeria forest. I think I will let them as long as I can, as I don't have the space to let them grow in individual pots. 

Below are two cuttings from Disocactus phyllantoides, I tried for one month to root them into soil and it didn't work. The cuttings dried out, like they were really dry. I put them into the water and they finally grew some roots. At the moment the one with the longer roots is recovering. I will wait a few more days maybe a week or two before planting them.

On Wednesday I received some seeds (lithops, strelitzia, etlingera and tacca). I sowed the lithops seeds and today I counted about 6-7 plants out of 50, but it is just the beginning it is also not that easy to spot them at the moment.  

This week I repotted my stapeliad/asclepiad seedlings into bigger pot. At the moment I have 1 fockea edulis, 3 trichocaulon annulatum, 1 dying stapelia variegata (I hope it will recover), 8 sarcostemma viminale and some hoodia gordonii and some caralluma russeliana (I think I mixed them, so I don't know who's who. I learnt that I should label everything, hahaha)

 

My beaucarnea recurvata are going well. At the moment I think I have 11 growing (out of 25). 

One of the hymenocallis litoralis seeds is growing its first leaf. 

I bought a drosera while I was in Mexico city and it had a flower stem, here is the flower opened.  

My sauromatum seedlings are doing well, I've lost one, but I have still 7 or 6 growing. They look pretty healthy and are growing quite a lot of leaves.  

 After my trip to Mexico city, my pomegranate tree was dry. It had dried out, so I trimmed it and now it is growing new branches. It will look even prettier than before. 

One of my aloe gave a flower and some of the flowers are growing a fruit, so it means that I should get seeds and I will of course sow them. :) :)  

Last week I wasn't able to do an update, because I was on holidays in Mexico city. There there is a Flower and plant market, where they sell a lot of plants. They are so cheap, I bought a few but sadly I couldn't buy as many as I want because I had to come back by bus (about 16 hours).

Seeds of some Dietes and of some vine (given to me by a friend). I soaked the seed for about 48 hours (because of my laziness) and the seeds of the vine were already sprouting.

Seeds of ornithogalum caudatum. I ordered these seeds about two months ago, I soaked them into water and then I sowed them. About a week after, one sprouted and from that time nothing happened. This is the result after my 5-days trip. I guess most of the seeds sprouted, by now. 

Wittia amazonica and zygocactus truncatus

The first of my peniocereus greggii v. transmontanus finally sprouted, I think I have spotted two others sprouting today, while the eechinopsis kermesina keeps "growing".

One arthrocereus rondonianus, there are two others. 

After more than two months, my beaucarnea recurvata seeds finally sprouted. I was actually losing hope to see them sprout and was about to throw them away, but I thought that I would wait after my return. And after 5 days, 5 out 25 had sprouted. It is not a lot, but better than nothing...

While my talinum caffrum keeps growing, I have 5-7 out 15, the first schizobasis intricatus came out. It is not easy to point it out (it's a little bit like where is Waldo) but it is here in the middle of the little pebbles. I guess on the next pictures, next week or in a few weeks it will be easier to spot it. There are two or three more coming out.  

Here are a view of my talinum caffrum. 

Some agave. They look quite elongated, I don't know if they will grow well or not. 

My hoodia gordonii/caralluma russeliana (I think I mixed them and I don't know who's who) keep growing.  

Some hymenocallis littoralis. The seeds are bigger than those of Amaryllis (from the same family) and they are green like in the picture. But after a few weeks (2-4), a root came out of the seeds. They are like clivia seeds (I found 3 of those in Mexico city and sowed them, I can't wait to see them grow too.) 

My adenium seeds, my project. So after my trip it was time for them to be repotted into individual pot or in this case glass. I have 78 of them, I have another 6, 3 will probably grow, 3 won't. I am a bit afraid and also wondering to know whether all of them will make it after the repotting. The weather is pretty hot and they have almost no roots. Also since the moment I've lost one after repotting, I'm scared of losing them when repotting. 

  Here all of my baby adenium. 

When I went to Teotihuacan, I passed a nursery, where these beautiful epiphyllum (ackermanii) was growing. It was huuuuuuge, I told myself that I had to go and see if I could buy some cuttings. So I walked to the nursery and asked the owner if he had some cuttings or plants to sell. It had some plants, but I'd rather some cuttings because of the trip. I asked him if he could sell me some cuttings, he gave me about 8 cuttings for very cheap, this made me really happy, because epiphyllum cuttings are quite hard to find and aren't that cheap either. 

Update of the 2nd of April, 2017,

Yesterday, I sowed some seeds of epiphyllum that I couldn't sell. I had two species of epiphyllum hybrid and anguliger and also some seeds of zygocactus. 

Regarding the epiphyllum anguliger and the zygocactus, I sowed some seeds on top of a damp paper. I had ordered seeds of epiphyllum anguliger about a bit more than a month ago and none have germinated until now, so I wanted to have a better record and for that I sow in damp paper.

I also sow more seeds of frangipani, about 40 seeds. I really don't know what I will do with all those seeds, but they will take time to grow and if I don't give them much space, they should keep small. Then I might use some of them to play with grafting. 

I ordered some seeds from Koehres that I sowed last week, I think I mentionned it. And among those seeds were seeds of Talinum caffrum. I checked online how to sow it, and I couldn't find anything interesting. 

I basically soak them for 24 hours in water with oxygenated water (I don't know whether it changed something or not) and then sow them onto soil with some of those gravels. After 2 days one was already pupping out. 

This is today pictures, three popped out, one is already showing its first true leaves and I think I spotted three more. 

About three or four years ago, I planted some seeds of Gossypium (cotton) that I had found during my travel in Central America (I guess). It did fine at the beginning and then it was covered by bugs. So I kept it alive, god knows how and I was about to throw it away when I saw that it was actually growing back and now it gives me a lot of flower and here as you can see some cotton. 

My plumeria (from a cutting, I did) is flowering, another flower is arriving soon. 

My baobab seedlings (adansonia digitata)

 This week I also spotted some flowers that will be coming soon. First on my hedychium coronarium and secondly on an aloe I bought in February. 

My stapelia variegata is finally showing some growth and having the appearance it will have later. 

  

This is my stapelia gigantea with two blooms, they have actually already withered but I'm so happy to have it. It comes from a small piece and in two years it has grown this big. It is with two pachira and apparently it is doing fine. 

An update about my seeds of asclepiads from Koehres. It is going fine, I've had quite a good germination rate, except for the fockea edulis. However, I'm wondering if I shouldn't use the floating method with these seeds. Some seeds usually sprout after being soaked for one night in water and after being placed on a damp paper, some other seeds sprout during the day. I might try with my next order of asclepiad seeds to let them in water until they sprout. I read somewhere that using tap water is actually pretty good, because it has chlorine and no bacteria or fungus would develop unlike with distilled water. They usually sprout pretty fast, usually in one day, the slowest in two days. But this way, it might increase my germination rate.

fockea edulis

caralluma russeliana

sarcostemma viminale

hoodia gordonii