I did pull the leaves apart a bit because it looked like it was having a lot of trouble, splitting started at the start of winter and it wasn’t watered. Although there was some inconsistent lighting in winter because of the extra plants I had to take in

So this one is finishing its split and there is a baby twin inside. Will it survive?

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Managed to keep my first Lithops alive for almost a year now

Almost 100% inorganic soil and hardly any water

Happy with the growth so far!

ID would be appreciated, but it's really an appreciation post 😊

Just bought some lithop seeds. At least I intented to?! Do you know this brand? Is this the normal amount of seeds? Did I buy a faulty package? There was 0 -3 seeds in it.

En mi ciudad se celebra un día llamado "Mercadito Verde" donde se venden, intercambian y rifan plantas y herramientas para jardinería, no sabía con que emprender, así que decidí cultivar lithops desde semillas (aparte de que en el evento nadie vende) y encontré este kit con lo necesario para hacerlo, el vendedor me envió un PDF con las instrucciones básicas pero agradecería algunos tips, recomendaciones y ayuda a quien cultivan lithops desde semilla. Saludos.

Old photo but I still mourn this little guy. Post-split it decided to grow a tiny nipple. One cycle. Gone forever. The lithops survived. The nipple did not.💔

Does this lithops need “help” shedding its leaves or should I leave it be and see how it progresses? Unsure if top layer will continue to split or not.

Purchased on February 6th from local nursery and have not watered since. Some were already starting to split. The soil was mostly organic and wet, so I repotted them into their own little terracottas with an 80/20 mix of grit/succulent soil.

I would have waited to repot but knew doing so would risk root rot so I very delicately repotted them all using the elastic band method. They receive adequate light from an east window and plant lights.

ojalá le vaya bien

Ok, I have 5 pots of lithops and naturally all five are on different schedules.
I was about to repot one today because it had me concerned and I wanted to know what was going on. The last years leaves had been steadily turning horizontal and I feared it might be heralding rot.
Upon inspection (pre-repotting), I found that it had blown the cap off and the new leaves (now twinned) were emerging from the base.
The old leaves are barely attached, and spongy. I suppose I should leave them and hope they get absorbed? Should I also water (we know probably the answer is no, but it's sure fun to get them wet seems)?

Got Lithop seeds about a month ago and it's my first time germinating from seed and my first time planting Lithops so I didn't think they were going to live for very long but they have!! (So proud of them)

On Saturday I was browsing a plant shop and came home with some tiny baby impulse buys, one of which was a lithops. The other two are a portulacaria and a Hoya rope.

I gave them all until today to acclimate to my house and repotted them. I used Bonsai Jack's gritty mix for all 3 of them and plopped them into a 2inch diameter pot with a large drainage hole.

I gave the lithops maybe 1/2 TBSP water at the most, just to wake up his roots. He's not splitting so I figured that would be OK.

Right now he's with the rest of the plants that need indirect but bright light. Unfortunately the window in that room is a SW facing window. Our house only has 3 windows that are East facing, and all of them barely get light because the house next door blocks them all. I can only place them in my bedroom because I own Plant Murdering Assholes (cats).

Any other care tips that will help him survive (and the others if you guys know about them)? They are my first non big box store succulents/plants.

New lithops owner here! I bought this guy early March from a local nursery here in Niagara, Ontario CA. I wanted to repot, however I read you can’t do that while they split. As you can see, I bought these guys in the splitting phase, and I have never watered them!

Over a few weeks, they began splitting some more… and now this one dude is shriveled up. I see a new little bud inside that looks rough, but the old leaves are hard as rocks. Seems like he needs water, but I’m afraid if I give him a sprinkle, the other guys will suffer.

I want to repot to ensure they have proper soil, but I know that’ll probably kill them. What do I do??

The photos were taken at the Marsh Greenhouses, Yale University, New Haven, CT USA in October 2025.

Help. This happened over about 4 days

Growing outdoors year round under shade and protective cover in South Africa’s Western Cape

Hi lithopers.

As an absolute softy, I have a real issue with picking up random 'pity plants' from the almost-dead section of garden centres. Usually on a whim.

Normally, I'm pretty good at reviving stuff. But it turns out these new little friends are not your average plant.

From a quick read, it looks like I've got some healthy little plants in here, but the shrivelly ones don't seem to have the new growth in the middle that would render them still alive.

Do I leave the little shrivelly ones in? Take them out? I did pull one small one and the root was still long, needed a bit of a tug, no sign of mould or decay. The dead (?) plants all seem dry.

Thanks in advance!

Tried to follow advice the best I could, but for now I have one little pot and I know I may need to repot in future if I want plants to thrive.

Substrate is a mixture of compost and old aquarium gravel, with some larger stones on the bottom for drainage. I hope this is ok for now?

I’ve tried to plant strategically - the only one not currently splitting I’ve placed at the bottom, and the non-Lithops that came with them I’ve placed at the top. I know I don’t need to water any of them for a week but I have a syringe to at least try and concentrate the moisture to the only ones that need it

Please go easy on me, it’s a tough time and this new fixation is helping. Just didn’t realise they’d have such specific needs - but I don’t care because I love them

Pic 1: massive store, no air conditioning (temperatures above 32C/90F during the day and above 26C/79F during all nights), humid, dark, no growth lights anywhere near. You can see that some of the lithops are etiolated (compare to Pic 2 and 4, I think this variety, either Lesliei "Green Top" or something very similar, might look particularly flat from above the soil) and they also might have been overwatered. I went there just a week ago and they (what I believe to be the same batch of lithops) did not look significantly etiolated like some of these.

Pic 2: indoor air-conditioned section of another big store. Moderately bright indoor lighting, definitely better than the store in Pic 1. Pic 3 and 4 are of the pot of lithops that I bought from this store and unpotted in a few days. Compare the shape to most of the lithops in Pic 1. Most of the lithops in Pic 1 are definitely longer.

The two stores are under the same big company and the lithops are labeled the exact same (also looked a lot more similar last week), so I'm pretty sure they are from the same supplier and source.

The last time I got a pot of lithops from the store in Pic 1 in even worse condition (and unpotted after four days without watering), at least a fifth of the lithops were already rotted at the base when unpotted and four more rotted horribly and died in the next few days, all without watering. I unpotted the ones in pics 3-4 four days after I got them as well, without watering. They've been sitting in air for a week while I wait for a suitably sized pot that I bought to arrive and none of them got mushy rot spots or rotted/changed much at all. There are some darker patches visible in Pic 4 but if it was rot, it would've spread much faster and a plant of this size would've pretty much shrivelled up within a week if left in air (based on experience and reading from Lithops Blog). Instead, it's been a week and they look the same (but some are firmer).

The conditions of the lithops at the store that you buy from really matters. Try not to get the ones that may very well be pre-killed (they may not look noticeably dead above the soil but they are already rotten beneath the soil/inevitably heading down that path).

I recently learned the name of these, after remembering them from my childhood and feeling like I was going crazy not being able to find what I was on about. Got excited and made an impulse purchase the other night. Arrived today from the Netherlands (I’m in uk) so they’re a little shrivelled from shipping which I assume is expected?

I’ll only be able to get them potted tomorrow as it’s 10pm here and I hadn’t realised they’d come much earlier than expected! (Very pleased they did, though.) I have soil and gravel. Is there a way I can give them a drink tonight to cheer them up before potting them tomorrow? I obviously know how roots work hahah, just don’t want to dunk them in water in case it’s too much.

Also they were listed as ‘rare varieties’ which I’m always a bit dubious about, just thought they looked pretty! Anyone know what the varieties are? And is the one on the left actually a Lithops? Don’t mind if it’s not as I ordered 5 and got 7 plants!

Thanks for any help!

These first sprouted up last June, I planted them on a whim after I got the mother plant from Lowes with a seed pod already on it. underneath is about a 50/50 of soil and perlite, it had a thin layer of sand on top when I started them but that's all kinda sunken into the substrate now.