Botanical names are incredibly difficult to remember-seriously, difficult to remember. I took a trip over to the good ole public library this morning because it really isn't acceptable to spend so much money on books you can read for free. Though the library was rather disorienting and left me with a sour stomach (HURRY UP RECOVERY), I managed to find both the botany section and gardening section (they are in totally different aisles and many of the books were very similar). I have been dying to know the names of all my little cacti guys so, I checked out one of the many picture books of succulents (seriously the books were scattered between the botany and gardening and they were just a load of pretty pictures with captions). Despite the many pictures, the book I chose only identified two of my plants: Echeveria derenbergii and Pleiospilos nelii. Remember what I said about botanical names. I'll save the Echeveria for another post. This one is all about the Pleiospilos Nelii-- lets call it the Ple-Nel for short.
Not a Living Stone At All
I have been referring to this plant under the common name of Living Stone. That is just plain wrong, or so I've learned. The common name is Split Rock; Living Stone is the common name for the Lithops variety of succulents. The two look very similar and are actually in the same family. The Ple-Nel is fully above ground with pale green leaves (and by leaves, I mean two bulbous chunks of cactus) that have little raised dark speckles. It flowers in the spring (unlike the lithops which flowers in winter) and can have more than one flower, as my plant does (again unlike the lithops which only ever have a single flower per leave pair).
You have to love the internet: I search for the Ple-Nel and loads of sites pop up--and they all contradict one another. Some say it is really hard to grow this plant and people kill them left and right, while other praise the ease of growing the plant. A few talk about the difficulty in getting it to flower and some just talk about flowering as if it is nothing to worry about. Here is my take:
1. Buy one (I think mine came from Lowes, but possibly home depot)
2. I then mixed some little rocks with soil and sand (no precise measuring here, I just threw in what I had).
3. Find a container.
4. Put the plant in the container with the soil mixture
5. Stick it in the sun.
6. Ignore the plant for most of the year.
7. When it rains, it gets watered. Other than that, I water the cacti at my apartment once a blue moon (perhaps every two months)
Now, I live in So Cal, so it rarely rains. Do I fertilize you ask-- heck no! Why? because I'm not fixing what isn't broken. And that is the secret.
