Here it is, repotted. I can provide pics of the flowers but they were already quite wilted. Maybe if those last buds bloom (wait, did i hurt it or interrupt its blooming process by cutting the spent stalks?) Please tell me if my pictures are too big also and difficult to view, though I already cropped and resized them for the web.

First of all, I just wanna say your pots are AMAZING. Please post more pictures of all your plants :)

Basically you've already IDed it pretty well, it is for sure a Senecio, and it should be Senecio mandraliscae "Blue Chalk Sticks", a plant that I tried to acquire earlier but I've already got a S. kleiniiformis and S. haworthii so I decided to wait till next year maybe.

I found these 'Blue Chalk Sticks' at Home Depot a couple of years ago. I only bought a couple and they were all gone when I went back. They were about the same size as yours, but they have grown well. The flowers are not particularly pretty, but they bloom prolifically and produce plenty of seeds. I, too, remove the stalk with the spent blooms. That's no problem.

Mine is planted in the ground. It's pretty much on its own for care. My soil is very sandy in SW Florida. I did mix some grit in the hole when I planted it. This picture is one plant.

(Please ignore the aloe showing off her flowers! LOL)

Thanks David. If you must know, i really like the container i chose for this plant (which i'm also particularly fond of). The blue of the pot and the leaves complement each other so well that i didn't want to put dressing between them! It's also inexpensive (50 cents in US dollars) though i hope my plant will soon outtgrow it (just look at Crenda's plant!). Do you really think it's a mandraliscae? When i first googled that, it seemed too big but then it's hard to tell the similarity from a one stalk and a very young offshoot at that. So i searched for young mandraliscae plants online and the leaves still seemed much longer and bigger than mine. I guess we'll know when it matures.

I WILL post more pics of my plants in the near future but probably the least impressive ones first since i need help with them. Thanks for your reply, i hope you can help me with my other plants!

The flowers look like weed blossoms actually and I rarely buy plants with flowers but yes, Crenda, they do sell fast, that's why i grabbed those last couple of plants even though they didn't look so good. I'm quite encouraged after reading your post, to think that you started out with a same size plant and now, WOW, look at that.

They must prefer sandy soil then... from my last pic, do you think my soil is sandy enough? I do worry about it being too fine for my other succulents.

Aha, i see what you did there. How could i ignore those orange flowers?? I'm not a fan of aloe, i only have a couple since most seem so regular looking. In fact, i chose the ones i have (an A. maculata and an A. ibitiensis/ deltoideodonta) because they look so different from the aloe I'm used to seeing. I haven't seen the aloe veras here bloom like that though, so i think i'm missing out on something.

Thank you so much for your input and for posting that nice photo.

I, too, worry about the sand being to fine. That is why I add grit to every hole for drainage. It is still too fine for some plants, like Echeveria. Those always struggle for me.

That aloe plant sneaking in is an Aloe rooikappie. I do like the way it blooms. Pretty showy.

Gorgeous. And those two plants (graptosedum? graptoveria? what are they?) behind it look so healthy too. I like your garden a lot. Do you fertilize your succulents?

I was wondering if the echeverias don't like too fine sand, is that why mine has such small leaves? Or are they merely in a dormant state? I'll be posting photos in a different thread soon but since you're here, i thought i'd ask.

(And since i'm really quite new here... aren't there notifications for new messages?) Thank you, i hope you don't mind all my questions Crenda.

brown_panda

I like your sense of humor! (I spend hours (days even, i mean nights, that's why i look like a panda)...

I don't have suggestions (I haven't been lucky with senecios - mine are extremely leggy & losing leaves regardless what I do/where they are) - but a question:
I also like your pot very much, but is there a drainage?

Other thing you mentioned: I was wondering if the echeverias don't like too fine sand - I believe fine sand is not too good for succulents; hopefully someone more knowledgeable will correct me if wrong.

And yes, you can get notifications if you check the box while writing a follow-up, that says: Check here if you would like post replies emailed to you. Please ...

BTW, you mentioned in your original post that they looked pitiful in the nursery, so maybe that's one died & other one is still struggling? Were they overwatered-underwatered or?

Rina

I totally agree with Rina that succulents don't like sand. Since my area is so sandy, I dig big holes and throw in perlite, chicken grit, pea gravel - pretty much anything gritty I have - so I can improve the drainage and aeration of the soil. Yes, the sand ultimately gets back in.

Aloes and agaves do best for me. I have Euphorbia milli the previous owner planted that are in pure sand. Sedums and graptosedums do well, too. I am terrible about fertilizing my plants that are in the ground. I probably give them a little fertilizer once or twice a year. My pots, I regularly fertilize. And they are all gritty mix. No sand.

The rosy plant on the left is Graptosedum 'California Sunset' and the one on the right is Sedum adolphii.

Well Rina, there are no brown pandas in the Philippines if you must know, but i AM brown skinned and i do look like a panda. It's funny because I've been a night person most of my life and now i'm addicted to succulents (and coleus) so i've been kind of chasing the sunlight the past months. And i've had a brown thumb all my life too haha. I'm forcing it to be green because my mother left her plants here.

I drill holes in my pots and i learned how important drainage was the hard way. Before, i just used any pretty ceramic container i could get my hands on but September and October were a bit rainy here. Those nice little pots filled up fast!

Thanks for the info about the notifications. I was hoping it would show up in this account instead of having to open up my email.

As for their condition in the nursery, i honestly don't know. The fact that they were the last ones probably means they're not exactly the healthiest and nicest specimens. The thing is, their stock come from a much cooler place than where i live. Most of the succulents i buy from those people look healthy enough, they seem to be really good in bringing out the color of these plants but when i bring them home... eh.

I've always suspected it was due to the kind of soil i use. I bought a sack of soil from another nursery (one that specializes in tropical plants), but it's a bit too fine and has rice husks mixed in it (the coleus seems to like that though). I amend this with builder's sand because i just cannot find perlite here!!! Sometimes, it's 50-50, but i usually put a little more sand than soil. To help with the drainage, i line the bottom of my pots with gravel (particle size depending on the pot size). The water flows out fast and the soil dries out quickly here. But maybe the sand interferes with the root growth? I don't know. But i would really like succulents like yours Crenda. For instance, i believe i also have Graptosedum 'California Sunset' and Sedum adolphii but they look NOTHING at all like yours. I was thinking that you have naturally sandy soil and you don't fertilize your plants in the ground and yet they look amazing (obviously your method works). I wonder what your potted plants look like with their better mix and feeding. I should fertilize mine, i guess. And look for a grittier component.

Sorry i post such long replies. I'm a bit excited (and envious) and i really want to learn from more experienced gardeners. Today a new batch is arriving at the nursery and i can't wait to see and acquire new plants (I always arrive when the stocks are depleted). Meaning more stuff to ID because the people there don't seem to know what their plants are called :(

b_p

You are obviously in warmer climate, so maybe your pots dry out fast. But I would not use sand, especially in pots. Sand tends to clump up, down at the drainage hole it sort of plugs it up, interferes with good drainage.
Also, using gravel in bottom is not recommended any more. It really doesn't increase drainage - that depends on potting mix. Why not using it in the mix itself? - unless its too large, obviously.

Even Crenda says she adds lots of grit to her outdoor planting areas.
Her plants/succulents are definitely nicer than mine - warm season here is much shorter (just watched bit of snow falling down!!!). My plants will be under lights until next spring. So they get etoliated, loose some color. Look at some of my 'poor babies'...
I have fan in the room with most of the plants, but air circulation is still better outdoors.

But, everybody has some challenges. So I am not complaining - could be much worse. Oks2n2, one of the posters here, is growing her beautiful jades in Siberia - that is much colder than here.

Oks2n2's jades in Siberia

Rina

This post was edited by rina_ on Thu, Nov 13, 14 at 15:53

I think i also use the gravel to prevent the soil from draining out of the hole (but eventually it'll get there i suppose). I read some people use mesh? The thing is, i keep reading in other sites that these plants like sandy soil in their native habitat. And yet GW users tell me it is not so :( I think i'll try your suggestions of using smaller sized gravel with the mix.

I guess i am fortunate that i have year-round sun and do not need grow lights Rina. Though i'm a bit afraid of the summer heat here for the succs (gets up to 37C on bad days). You're right, different challenges for different folks!

Thanks,
Iane (i felt odd being called BP or brown panda after a while hehe)

lane

That's better than b_p, for sure!

Here is photo from Al (tapla), of so called 'gritty mix' he strongly recommends.
Maybe you read about it. If not & you feel like studying, just search for gritty mix on this forum & you can read & learn a lot.

Many people don't want to bothered with getting all recommended ingredients, or may not be able to find them in their area. Some ingredients could be substituted, some even omitted (for example, now I seldom use bark in mix for succulents, since it's difficult to find).
But read what one of the members had to say about her plants:
Grace's experience-click to read

I just picked-up above randomly, out of many other posts.
Rina

just to add to rina's post, i found this post by al is super enlightening when it came to understanding the difference between what our plants might naturally grow in and what we grow them in when we put them in containers. it might explain why your guys may like sand ind the ground but not in the pot!

meowmeowmeow (oh dear), your link's not working. But it looks really interesting so please re-post it.

Wow, Rina, that's one gritty mix. I did try to experiment before. I used cork, rich soil i dug out of our drainage (before i realized that at the rate i was going, i'd get to the sewers), re-using the stuff the plants came in (i mean, after all, it worked fine for them all that time), mixing in with a bit of rice husks, construction sand. Once i bought a bag of what they sell as succulent mix here but it had lots of coir and fine particles i couldn't identify. It was airy though a haworthia still rotted in it.

I've been reading a lot (making me look even more of a panda) here but thank you for pointing out some relevant posts since there are a LOT of them. I'll be scouting the nurseries later for grit, grit, and more grit but i don't think i'm going to find much of what's on that list. I can't even find chicken grit.

The thing is, our weather is much warmer so i think i need more moisture retention? I read in another post that some people don't like sand because it stays wet too long but here, it's not the case. When i water the sandy soil in the morning, it's quite dry by the afternoon. I do fear it's clogging the roots though.

Here's my 'topsy turvy' (from another post) in one of my grittier mixes. Someone from that thread reiterated that sand was bad. You guys are patient teachers haha.

{{!gwi}}

sorry, i don't think the pic loaded right away

lane

The photo posted right! Topsy turvy looks good with the babies.
Maybe your sand is much grittier.
I don't use any - having some plants in mix of soil+sand doing very poorly before I got to garden web & lots of reading (maybe my sand was too fine?-but it was just a big dense blob).
Chicken grit is easily found here (in Canada) in farm supply stores in 50lb bags under $20. Comes in different sizes (I use #2-grower size). Just don't get one with crushed shells in it. Sometimes, garden stores/centers carry small bags of it under all kinds of fancy names, bur price is way too high.
Another place to look would be garden centers/landscape supply centers that carry different kinds of stone (crushed granite-granite chips, pea gravel, and similar).

I am not sure what post the link was to, but here are few (just few!) that you may want to read...
WARNING: lots to read.
Some find it very 'complicated' - and some may think it refers to only 'other' plants but succulents. This kind of info could be found in countless books...but here, someone (thank you Al/tapla) taken time to learn & share = what a time saver for people like me that wouldn't even know what to look for.
And there are people that disagree. Doesn't matter. One will find at least some usable tips. And eventually more will make sense.
So if you are interested, read some of the below:

container soils...

good growing practices...

fertilizer program...

Even discussions on threads like this are worth reading - questions, disagreements - they all make one think more & learn more.

Rina

PS: I apologize to all for such a long post. Thnx.

No, no, that's fine. It's really helpful of you to pass on these links. I like reading, and these posts look very informative and interesting. It condenses my research time. I've acquired a lot more plants yesterday (A LOT) and i really want to be more careful with them. I consult a lot of sites but eventually i get confused so it's good to actually get info from people with clear experience.

I was actually thinking of getting some chicken grit soon, so thank you so much for the tip about not getting the type with crushed shells. The sand i get is the mixed type, with (I think) little pieces of pumice so it must be grittier. And i'm happy to report that i acquired some perlite (expensive though, didn't know it was so light) and fine gravel.

Have a great day!

lane

you can always sift the sand with ordinary kitchen sieve (or piece of window bug screen) & keep whatever doesn't fall thru - that would leave you with good particle size...Rina

oop, sorry! the container soils link Rina posted is the one I was trying to post

No problem. I've got a LOT of reading to do :)

Iane

This plant is dying and i haven't even fully identified it... :( it rained for a couple of days here and my mix is so bad the roots rotted. I cut off the base and repotted in some perlite but i don't think it's going to make it.