I have been meaning to visit a grower who lives near my workplace and see his plants but my working hours just kept getting pushed later and later as lockdown was lifted until all I want to do is go straight home. When he told me he was selling at a market close by, I leapt at the opportunity to escape from work for 10 minutes to go and get plants. I wasn't disappointed:
I dislike Agaves in general but I have always wanted one of these
Agave regina victoria was named for Queen Victoria and it's a small, slow-growing species, one of the few that isn't a listed invasive in my country. The leaves on one side were a bit bashed so it was cheap but I'm not too stressed about it, these are usually expensive and hard to find at the best of times. It prefers a bit of afternoon shade so it will be happiest in the front garden.
Now that I'm back in the habit of growing cacti, I couldn't resist this one, although I don't know what it is. Any ideas @ewkaw or @ludmila.kyriakou?
I prefer indigenous plants and was happy to find a Caputia scaposa: these grow under similar conditions to Gasteria. They used to be listed as Senecio species, due to the little yellow daisy-like flowers but is yet another renamed plant.
This one is Crassula nudicaulis var. herrei and you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's a mesemb. It is native to the hot, dry parts of the country so it's one that will probably need to be kept out of the summer rain, Crassulas get stem rot very easily if they are overwatered.
Finally, some seedlings. The first one is a mystery plant that sprouted in one of the outside pots over summer last year and I was curious to see what it would turn into. Seems it's a Sarcocaulon so it must be a seed that was in the soil of a plant that I bought, my Sarcocaulon hasn't made any seeds: either there are no pollinators in the area or you need 2 plants. Although they are from a very arid part of the country, they seem to tolerate high summer rainfall well. The more rain, the more they flower
This is possibly Sarcocaulon salmoniflorum
I grew this little Pachpodium succulentum from seed 2 years ago and although it's still small, the caudex is developing well. I want to grow this one outside in the garden, it can tolerate extreme cold as well as high summer rainfall so I have started getting it used to growing outside
