Surprises are fun, aren't they?! Looks great! Just don't over-water it or it turns to mush (my experience).

Keep warm in winter, a little water once in a while, as much sun as you can give it. For summer, it grows best outside and weekly waterings, assuming your soil is porous. These succulent Asclepiads (milkweed) plants like it warm and weekly wet - treat them mostly like tropical plants, but with excellent drainage, and they're reward you with their orchid-like ostentatious-at-times flowers. If they get pollinated you'll have seed horns. There's something for everyone in this plant family in terms of the flowers and growth habits, not to mention the delightfully foul (as least to the flies) odours the flowers can have - there's a reason many of them are judgmentally named Carrion Plant Flower. Cold and wet spell the death for many of them, so do as Rosemarie suggested and you'll be all right. These are definitely some of the stars of the Succulentum Mundi, most of them are not challenging to grow, and their variations and sheer crazy beauty of their fives is a thrill to behold. There's a Faced group from all over the world which has pictures to blow your mind with.

Here is a link that might be useful: Succulascleps

I have some that are about ready to bloom also. Maybe they are today. I should go and check.

great group , Jeff. To bad I would have to join Facebook.

I bought two more plants today :D the flowers are really beautiful and unique... Thank you for the answers and the help :) I will make sure to keep it warm (it's really warm here in Jordan anyway) and will water it once a week... I'm gonna check the Facebook page now Thanks!! :)

I have had the mush experience. I cut off the offending arm. It rotted at the tips first....odd It must have been a fungal infection. It seem to stop it . Also the spray of draconil and a dusting of cinnamon on the cut. It is blooming so its a go.

The new ones :)

Sorry I don't know how to rotate pictures on here... You should also post a picture sometime :)

You paid waaaaaaaaaaaay too much for that one Diana. Send it to me and I'll reimburse you the 40 cents.

It is so pretty! I love it! I've never grew these but I'm thinking they are going to be on my spring buying list :). Thanks for posting!

This was sold to me as Orbea vriegata but I am not sure it is. It has the texture of O. variegata but the color shape and central structure does not ring true. The habbit of the plant seems a little different too but that might be because the plant is still small.. I am not really familiar with this plant.

{{gwi:633155}}

@Paul_ Yeah they're really cheap here so now I have 3 of them :D
@wantonamara thank you for sharing this beautiful picture with us!!! And if you think that your plant isn't orbea variegata. Then I don't know about my plants either... I'm new to succulents :)
@teisa make sure to post picture once you get one!! :))

Diana, yours is much more the classical variagata bloom in all regards. Mine are quite different from yours. The central structure is a concave ridge , not a bulging cushion. Lets not even mention the color.

Diana-- that is lovely! I am such a sucker for Asclepiads such as orbeas, stapelias, and huernias. Out of curiosity, where did you pick this up? Because if I move there, I am going to have to have a trip to that place for sure. I don't recall seeing a whole lot of nurseries in the NW and figured we'd be stuck shopping in Amman.

Let's go to Jordan :P

Julianna, someone was selling them on the side of the airport road :)) if you come here you should go to the nurseries in Albaqa'a :) you can buy a big succulent (not baby plants!) there for 2 or 3 JDs

senjanevada-- sure thing!

Diana-- Sounds awesome! I don't want to hijack your thread, but I would love to talk to you about the plants and such that are there. I have wasta to bring things in, and I don't want to waste it on stuff i can buy there already.

Airport road-- that's easy enough to find! I remember people selling things on the sides of the roads, but it was mainly a few annuals here and there and mostly down around Amman.

Are you growing anything in-ground? It looks like orbeas, stapelias, and huernias should make it fine outside there. :)

Oh! And if you'd be willing to talk to me about plants in Jordan, I'd love to message you about it.

Julianna

This post was edited by julianna on Thu, Oct 10, 13 at 12:01