Emma, "moderate" is a transitory phase. It doesn't last.

Yep, moderate is just a brief stop on the way to Lost Cause :-)

Yes, welcome! Looks like you have a good start to a collection there ;)

We were all moderate at some point. Until we got over a hundred plants...

Not bad, but dont rely too heavily on ceramic pots- ive seen you dont water some of your plants a lot though. I prefer plastic myself- reusable, easy to tweak, easy to clean, easy to drain, .....

Milevskistefan, I'm well over a hundred plants.. I'd say those pics are around 2/3 of what I have, but until I forget to eat and sleep, I insist on calling myself a responsible adult ;)

I'm definitely aware of the downside of glazed or non-draining pots.. Hopefully in another month or 2, they'll all go in the ground outside. If you took that good of a look you probably saw that I'm in the process of nursing several that have been over watered and sunburned.. They're pretty resilient to amateur errors though. I like that in a plant. :p

Then no, you are way beyond moderate... first I had 10, then 30 then 100, then 150, then lost some.....now im about 260........ and ive only recently started growing euphorbias and apocyanae. Started with aloe and agave, bought houseleeks, switched to cacti.... and that was 6,5 years ago. Now i started growing from seed , with some success. Currently im avoiding mesembs because they are difficult .... dont know why though.....

Do you grow yours outside? Closing in on 300 sounds like a grand place to be, assuming house space isn't an issue. ;)

I've heard mesembs can be difficult.. I've been avoiding those too, cuz I just feel awful whenever a plant isn't faring well, and telling them "it isn't you, it's me" just doesn't seem to cut it. :p

I only started to feel the unquenchable craving this past winter so I'm still a noob.. My 1st purchase was a load of haworthias in November, and it kinda steamrolled from there.

I tried a few (probably old and possibly lousy quality) seed packets from ebay and Amazon with no success so I gave up on those.. I've got 2 full size sheet pans full of leaf starters going gangbusters though!

Welcome to the group!!! Beautiful collection. Thank you for sharing.

Picture #2--very nice. Haworthias? It's like a grove. I like it.

Hi socks! Yes, they're all haworthias.. Probably not supposed to have favorites, but they're my favorites so far, I think. I just rotated my trays... It used to look like this.

I have a number of other coarcatas and resendeas and zebras and concolors.. This is a terrible pic cuz the sun was so bright, and I might get chastised for using glass containers, but I've found they grow very well for me and get HUGE roots when I can see exactly how dry the soil is and can constantly check root growth without disturbing them. :)

And a lousy pic of some assorted variegated ones, which I think are just so cool. ☺

I don't want to make enemy and chastise you...but have to mention that drainage would be much better for your plants...what bothers me even more is how deep inside the glass they are potted...I don't know how long they have been in this glass prison and how much sunlight they get, but in the long run they should have good air circulation around plants and I would worry about them getting baked as amount of sunlight is increasing. They are nice plants and would be shame to bake them; maybe there is not that much sunlight there...but that is JMO.

No worries, Rina. I was expecting someone to speak up and I've read a number of your posts to know that you have quite a good handle on what you comment on. :)

Over the past 5 months they've been doing well in the glass. They did arrive to me sunburned badly from being outside in Florida, so even though they have full exposure here they've been subjected to far less intensity than at their prior home. They're near an exterior door, so perhaps the frequent breeze (and I do mean 20x a day at least) from people and pets coming in and out is enough to circulate the air? I'm not sure.

I did have them in mostly indirect (about 1 hour of full sun) light for about 2 months after I got them, since I had read that they have much lower light requirements, but there was very little new center growth and they stayed tightly closed, and so I moved them to the window where they seem to be opening up and growing more actively now. It's totally counterintuitive from what I've read.. But like I said, it seems that they're doing better as shown. I just mess around til I see that they're happy and don't question it much from there.

I do understand that this shouldn't be a good environment for them, and it could be tragic if left indefinitely, but rest assured... Basically all of my containers are a temporary measure til it warms enough for them to go outside in the ground. :)

Emma

That sounds quite reasonable, and as temporary situation can be handled by someone as aware of 'possible problems' as you seem to be.

So are you going to PIG (plant in ground) them all? Not sure if you mentioned your general location/growing zone, and if they can overwinter PIG or they will have to be potted again before winter.

I check them obsessively for any sign of sunburn, watering and light requirement changes and have had to make a number of adjustments, for sure... I do try to be mindful of possible issues and I will most certainly add your insights to my mental checklist when giving them their daily look-over. :)

I'm zone 6a, so I'll have bring about 90% of them back inside in the fall. (Which lasted til mid-November last year. Climate change, anyone?) It'll be a chore, but if they take off in the ground like I'm hoping, it'll be worth the back aches. ;)

By the time they're ready to come back inside I plan to be better prepared.. I have a number of grow lights I'd forgotten about til last week, and a pottery wheel and was thinking of throwing my own pots when I don't feel so much like a hibernating bear!

I would think that many have to be indoors for the winter in your zone. Obviously, I can't see all plants you have - but what I can see is all too tender. What hardies do you have? (besides Semps you mentioned that I have outdoors).

I would love to grow some PIG, but am not sure if I want to do all unpotting and potting within 6-7mo. I have been thinking about using some xGraptoveria 'Fred Ives' in a sunny bed, PIG, and not to bother to pot them in late fall, since I have too many and they grow so easily from leaves that could be replaced :)

Emma lee, i improvise during winter with half of the plants.... the other half though, mostly aloeae and crassulaceae that are not hardy, like it where they are.

Nice looking collection. The Baker's rack tells us that you got it bad, albeit organizationally wonderful!!! Green w/ friendly envy ;>)

I'm w/ RIna abt the glass containers, not just their depth; rather their lack of drainage holes. This is especially concerning given Haworthias being prone to root rot; I just wouldn't grow them like that.

While you seem to be looking out for everything else, root rot is not always apparent until a Haw just collapses. Want to guess how I know this ;>)

Rina, I have about 40 semps right now with 120 plugs on pre-order from mountain crest gardens.. I also have about 10 cold hardy varieties of sedum. I probably won't end up planting ALL of them.. milevskistefan's suggestion of keeping the aloes and crassulas in pots could be a good idea.... That's a good idea too about leaving something that propagates easily.. For me the perle v.n.'s and sedum rubrotinctum come to mind... The rest of them that I'd want to bring back inside.. Well.. It'll be a lot of work, but I enjoy digging around for now, so it's not yet a deterrent. Key word "yet". :p

Karen, I found out about root rot the hard way as well.. That's actually why I switched to glass for the haws. I kinda favor glass in this case because I can visually be sure that the water isn't pooling at the bottom, as well as seeing where the roots are - if I see they're coiling around the bottom, I purposefully planted them a little low so I can loosen everything up and gently tug them a little higher towards the top and add more soil as needed. That was the idea at least, we'll have to see if it works as well in practice as it does in theory.....

Holy Toledo!!! Where have you been???? Could certainly use pics of more beautiful plants and another crazy about succulents person.lol

welcome and Amazing collection!! :)

Chuy

welcome and what a nice collection you have going !!!

Amazing group of plants. I could use your organizational skillz. Keep experimenting. I'd love to see how things progress.