This is why it’s a good idea to go into the greenhouse everyday, and maybe more than once-you never know what you will find. I was in the greenhouse yesterday and apparently overlooked the bud on this plant. Today I wander in, and Bam! there it was. And thank goodness I went in when I did, which was about 3:00, because by 4:00 it was beginning to close. They do that.
Argyroderma roseum is native to the Knersvlakte area in Namaqualand in South Africa. Called living stones because they can be overlooked as stones, they are small plants that are easily overlooked in native habitat. Each plant only has two leaves; the bloom comes out from the cleft of those leaves, and as you can see in the one that is not blooming, two new leaves come out of the center and get nourishment from the old leaves. You don’t want to remove those old leaves for that reason. So they don’t always look good until the new leaves plump up and the old ones dry up and go away. They tend to like water in the winter when they are blooming and then like to be drier in our summers. When the plant gets wrinkled-looking, that’s when to water it a little.
I know the plant doesn’t look like much now, but when the new leaves come out and mature, they really are fleshy and neat-looking little plants.
And then when they surprise and reward you with a flower like this, well, what’s not to like?
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