Well, your conditions are a recipe for plant death, coming soon. Standard "cacti soil," as sold in bags from stores and nurseries, is not adequate for any succulent, let alone something as particular as a pleiospilos. No one sells bagged soil that drains fast enough for a succulent, despite what the bag says; that soil will usually cause root rot because it contains a lot of peat and retains a lot of moisture. It's impossible to tell whether your plant is in fact still living without a photo, but it probably has no chance of survival if it is kept in the soil you have it in now (bonsai soil is not suitable or well-draining enough, either). It will not live under fluorescent lighting. Hardly any succulent will really thrive indoors, with the exception of ones that enjoy some shade (like some Gasteria and Haworthia), but even then, a good window is needed and artificial lighting in an office setting is out of the question. Succulents are outdoor plants, sorry to say, and need the real thing. You have to consider where the plant grows in the wild and try to emulate that environment to the best of your ability. The only exception might be if you were to look into grow lights, which I personally know nothing about.

These aren't plants that can survive if you put off getting proper soil and/or don't give them adequate light and air circulation. They take a lot of research beforehand.

Here is a link that might be useful: one of the many threads about grow lights

This post was edited by teatree on Mon, Aug 12, 13 at 19:05

this what I get for not researching and impulse buying.... live and learn I 'spose.... well, here is a pic I just took to show what it looks like currently. for soil, I read that I should be using a mixture of potting soil, sand, and perlite? or is it vermiculite? I really do want to grow some of these weird little creatures, but outdoors is not an option here, since I live in Western Washington state, which is rainy/cloudy and cool for 75% of the year... are there other similar plants that are more hardy for a beginner to start with?

Well, while I am slightly entranced by them, I don't grow these guys! Actually wouldn't dare to; they can be tough to get a handle on. Similarly, I am fascinated by Fenestraria -- commonly known as 'Baby Toes' -- and they can be difficult to master. So cute, though.

A few pinches of potting soil; just very little in comparison to other ingredients in a mix for most succulents. And a lot of us say no vermiculite; I'm one of them. Pumice and perlite are great, but just be paying attention to the size of the pieces because too tiny of particles can end up retaining moisture like sand kind of will. You want slightly larger pieces to help drainage. Doing some forum searches on soil mixes will help you.

I understand Western Washington State. I'm right over in rainy Oregon. I don't know whether split rocks, in our area, can be pulled off indoors, especially because our winters and springs are so gray and cloudy. I know I struggle during the winter to keep 'shade' succulents from etiolating/stretching and starting to look unhealthy and ugly. During those times the plants are struggling to find light that we're not receiving through the windows. I have a greenhouse as an option, so if it's not too darn cold out and we can keep it heated, that's where things have to go when the sky is gray for days on end. I'm really fortunate. Wish everyone had the option.

Perhaps someone else will chime in about whether one could pull off wintering over split rocks indoors. With a lot of things, you can winter them over indoors and gradually decrease watering to the extent that the plant will essentially go dormant until you can resume normal watering in spring or later, when light levels have increased. That way, you can prevent the plant from getting etiolated when light is insufficient. I just don't know if that's possible to do with what you have.

In an office environment? Forget it. That's not right for anything, and I hope you can bring your little guy home, pronto, and stick him by a window. Or better yet, right now, stick him outside in a shaded area and do some forum searches on care for this plant. For indoor plants, consider Gasteria or Haworthia, which you can slowly decrease watering during our supremely gray winter season to slow growth if need be, but can do well indoors for the rest of the year. Just not as office plants; they need to be by a good window.

It's misleading when split rocks are sold at big box stores and in cruddy normal soil, right? Makes it seem as though you can grow them anywhere and in any soil mix. Those plants don't live long, and a lot of times they're already dying in the store when someone purchases them.

This post was edited by teatree on Tue, Aug 13, 13 at 13:23

seriously, it's just like buying pets at a pet store it feels like. all the wrong conditions, and no one to tell you otherwise when you purchase the things. well, I'll be definitely taking all my plants back home, since I also just added a little lithops, a Haworthia (really tiny guy that is sharing a pot with some sort of mini pear cactus looking thing, got it at Fred Meyer), and placing them in the window that gets the best light for them. Will be repotting everyone ASAP as well, in better soil. Question is, what do I do with that bag of cactus soil now?

I will also look up that Gasteria you mentioned and see what it's about and whether I can find it easily.

I just can't stand not having plants at work, I used to work Garden at a Lowe's and got to play with plants all day, and from then always had something at my desk (used to be by a window that got lots of light, not so much any more). Maybe at the next job I will be able to have a small plant...

Lithops are tough too. One of the toughest.

You can gradually use the bag of so-called cactus soil, but consider it the normal potting soil you'd use just a few pinches of in your new soil mix that will include mostly pumice and/or perlite, or turface if you could locate it. (Not a little of the cactus soil and a little of something else dense, like Miracle Grow soil -- the cactus soil is not far off from Miracle Grow and is likely the only regular-soil ingredient you'd include). Bark can be good to include a little of as well. More of the bark than the regular soil -- just a few pinches of the regular soil, I'll say again, as it's heavy and rich and does not drain well. The regular soil, if there's much of it, will cake on the roots of succulents and cacti, and gradually smother and kill the roots and the plants. You'll see it caked on roots when you go to repot a plant you've bought from a big-box store, and trying to get it off the roots is a pain, but a necessary one.

Your new mix will be well-draining ingredients with a few pinches of regular soil, and perhaps bark, to provide nourishment. If you're not sure if you've got it right, take a photo of the soil before you've potted plants in it and post the picture here.

You'll probably find that bag of soil you have will last you a while because you won't be using much of it per pot. And I understand, no one tells you anything when you buy something that isn't suitable for your environment. It isn't potted properly when you buy it, and it probably has been sitting inside a store being watered daily. The long-term viability of the plants is not the businesses' concern, and Lowe's is right in there, unfortunately. Employees at big-box stores just aren't trained in succulent care, either. Everyone recommends that good ol' "cactus soil," and most people don't know it's a sad sham.

You will want to have one type of plant per pot, not a pot with different plants that have different care requirements. Read up on Lithops; best of luck! Everything you have there you'll need to research separately and pot separately, until you have, say, more than one Haworthia, in which case the two of a kind could be placed together.

This post was edited by teatree on Tue, Aug 13, 13 at 15:48

Thank you so much for all your help, I hate killing my poor plants! I will definitely be repotting everyone in the proper medium and hopefully save that little split stone. I just got a light meter for my phone and it said there was basically no light at my desk even though I'm surrounded by windows so everyone is coming home today and I will make due without at work :-).

You can still use the cactus soil, just cut it with perlite and find a plant that will be happy in a medium that holds moisture. I'm in the Northeastern US, so the climate is not quite the same, but I wanted to say that as long as you have the sunlight, indoor succulents are quite easy.

I grow my succulents entirely indoors, year-round ... in my office. Not only that, it's the ONLY kind of plant I can keep alive where I sit. The building is glass, and I sit near a south-facing wall. I fried several houseplants before settling on succulents, and I've never looked back.

The only drawback, and it's a big one, is that the environment is so tightly controlled that there's not enough range in temperature to trigger flowering. I will most likely never see the kind of blooms that get posted here so frequently! The Haworthia blooms, my goldfish plants bloom year-round, and my orchids bloom twice a year. But the rest won't: there is growing season, and there is resting season ... but no flowering season. I'm going to work on a more strict watering regime, though, and see if I can't trick a few more into flowering.

Wax Begonias might do well on your desk. IMO, they don't get enough respect as a great plant for inside, low light, doesn't mind lower humidity. If there are still any (with the annuals) at the store, they should be very inexpensive, worth a try if you like them.

What is the white or white particles that is on the top of the soil?