Nice finds! How I wish I could discover things like that in the big box stores here in the UK...we just have 'ordinary' stuff like etiolated crassulas and sedums on the c&s bench even in the garden centres. I think I will have to move countries, lol.

Gill UK

I needed some "grit" to mix with my commercial cacti-palm-citrus potting mix so I walked 100 yds to where a small creek flooded last year washing away all of the sediment and leaving nice sand behind. With a spaghetti strainer I ended up with "True Grit". It is mainly decomposed granite from the foothills west of town.

Cool. Might have to add a plant to my want list, gee thanks! :-)

I am surprised that this Stapelia gettlefii is blooming already. The flower is sitting on a Pleiospilos simulans.

Wow, very nice. If that stapeliad is happy, you will need to find a pot just for it because it will get bigger fairly quick.

I try to keep my plants small and don't try to grow large specimen plants...more like bonsai plants. If they get too big to suit me I just cut them back. So far, I have cut back a "Blue Chalk Sticks" three times because it grows like a weed and removed a "Flapjacks" kalanchoe because it was just too big and couldn't be cut back and still look right.

wow that's amazing. thanks for the followup. Is lava rock crucial to healthy succulent/cacti growth? after seeing this i'm considering keeping an eye out for it when i go to lowes or nurseries...or wherever.

I don't use lava rock...that was what they were potted in when I bought them.

I use 50-50 coarse sand from a nearby stream bed and Miracle Gro Cactus Palm, and Citrus mix.

This Stapelia is blooming again for the third time. I never expected it to be so "floriferous".

I love these, such beautiful flowers!

-Erica