I had hoped that with their late start because of the poor weather my plants might save their flowers for our show.  No such luck.  They are all racing into flower and most of the best will be over before the 17^th.  I can’t decide if this is just a very good year for flowers or if it is just that as the plants mature they produce more flowers – there certainly seems to be a great abundance of blooms on many of the plants.  

It is difficult to judge when to water plants in this strange weather we are having.  If possible I like to water my plants early on a sunny day so that any moisture that gets on the plant will have dried off by the cool of the evening.  Just lately it changes from cool to scorching to cool again in such a short space of time that one has to just pick the most likely time and hope for the best.  So far they don’t seem to have suffered unduly.

Lithops seedlings are starting to shed the first skins so they should be soon ready to prick out into seed trays.  The seedlings have grown so thickly this year that I have had to thin some of them out. I don’t like to do this as each batch of seedlings may contain some especially good plants and it is not possible to judge which will be worth growing on, until they are about a year old.  Thinning them out may risk missing a real treasure.  Nearly all the mature plants have now been watered and are in full growth.  The plant bodies are at their most colourful and attractive at this time of the year. If anyone is interested in seeing them or in adding to their Lithops collection they would be very welcome – just give me a ring to make sure I am at home.

Almost without realising it I seem to be building up quite a collection of Echevaria.  Many of these are in flower at the moment and are most attractive.  Because, generally speaking, Echevaria are easy, undemanding plants they tend to get overlooked.  What is it about many of us that we are more interested in growing the difficult, challenging plants which are often much less beautiful than some of the easier quicker growing plants?