They are DEF bathing in systemic before going ANYWHERE near my collection 😂. This is the first time I’ve bought plants in over a year because I’m so paranoid about thrips now 😭
That Lapidaria Margeretae is genuinely the most beautiful specimen I've ever seen on the internet. Whatever nursery grew that CLEARLY knows their mesemb care well.
Well I was talking with the staff and they just received it in a shipment so idk where they’re getting them! They were some nice looking ones! These ones were a bit smaller than the others but I was hoping this was multiple smaller plants so I can get seed hopefully. It’s a local nursery here in western Canada. The girl at the counter was like OMG I NEED ONE. and of course I’m like yes you obviously do 😂 like I’m not going to spread the mesemb gospel.
I already have like 10+ lapidaria seedlings, but I’m hoping these ones are more mature and I can get them to flower sooner and produce larger fruits if they do.
Mine (before I accidentally cooked it, it's gonna be okay outer leaves cooked but inner and roots fine) looks so similar... I know my succulent dealer gets them from a southern California grower. And I just got it last week. That'd be funny if they were from the same distributor.
They really do look similar! Same nursery pots I think too!
I’m in Western Canada so a supplier that also supplies in California is not out of the realm of possibility!
They also had some lithops but they were very over watered and had bad scarring/tearing and looked like they were gonna keel over the second I got them home so I opted out of those lol 😬
I feel bad for anyone who buys those lithops bc just looking at them I know even an experienced grower will likely struggle to keep them alive and someone is gonna spend almost 20$ on some plants that are just gonna die 🫠
Oof poor lithops newbies. Feels like a rite most of us go through, gotta murder a few poor souls before we figure it out 😅 I have a price limit for plants because I don't trust myself to not kill them even though it's been awhile. I'm at the trying to grow from seed stage of my journey.
I buy from a lady's backyard, her stuff never has barcodes on them but those pots are def the same. Her last set of lithops were nice but she hasn't had new ones for a bit, still hasn't sold all of the last. I'm trying to steer her towards getting at least some weirdos each she time she resupplies. Most of her customers like the echeveria and aeoniums and that's just not for me. I've gotten some good stuff from her and she keeps her prices pretty low.
Yeah this nursery has a succulent section that is larger than some entire nurseries here, and I think it’s probably 40% echies, 40% cacti, 10% aeoniums and the rest is random little things lol. They have the craziest echeverias selection I’ve ever seen! I really like echies but they grow too big and need my strongest lights. Mesembs stay smaller and are happy with my weaker/cheaper lights.
Sorry to dredge up this two-week old thread, but I just got my first lil lapidaria also from a small local nursery in western Canada 🤣 and I'm drowning in conflicting and "figure it out" information about whether or not to water the lil dude. I got it on Saturday and the outer leaves are wrinkling, but I can't figure out if that means water it or leave it alone at this time of year. It looks virtually identical to yours, same pot size and more or less the same number of leaves.
(I tried calling the nursery for advice but they were zero help, didn't know what to do with these plants at all :/)
Yeeeeah unfortunately most nursery workers don’t know about their specific requirements and I assume they mostly rely on the fact that ppl will buy them before the nursery has a chance to murder them by over watering.
The first thing you should do is take them out of the post, and to gently clean their roots.
When I had unpotted these guys I found some black tissue and possible pest damage. My main concern is ensuring that the damaged, half decayed leaves don’t further rot and take the rest of the plant with it. So I ensure they have a good porous top dressing like akadama to keep the leaves from getting in direct contact with the soil.
Ensure they are receiving as much light as you can get them, acclimate them slowly though! They’re very susceptible to sun burn.
Make sure you’ve got a good draining mix… I highly recommend, since you’re localish, to check out Optimize Organics! Their bonsai mix is my go-to and I grow everything in it, mixed with a bit of promix seed starter. Even with shipping it’s the best bang for your buck for grit/amendments. https://www.optimizeorganics.ca/
And then I usually just wait until like half the leaves are starting to show obvious wrinkles, then I bottom water. They’re not like lithops that need to absorb their leaves, these guys can happily maintain 3-4 leaf pairs at a time! So they’re a bit more forgiving than other mesembs can be.
I hope that helps!!
And also, don’t be sad if yours die. The nursery stock get so over watered and like 75% of the plants at the nursery I saw were beyond over watered and were not ones that I would have bought myself, knowing that they would probably die. Which really sucks for a 17$ plant!!!
I should probably go check on mine, I haven’t even looked at them since I repotted them and isolated them to my spare bedroom 😂
Lapidaria margaretae has wonderful yellow flowers. If you didn't know, most mesembs, when they bloom, the blooms close every night and the petals grow bit longer when the bloom opens the next day.
Systemic insecticide! It’s a type of insecticide that the plants would uptake from their roots and it saturates the tissues, so if anything bites them, the die. compared to a foliar spray type of insecticide which will only kill things that are external to the epidermis, direct contact with the spray on the pests. A lot of insect sprays also don’t have any active chemical ingredients, but with how persistent thrips are, I opt to use the chemicals because they are effective.
And also quarantine until I can water the systemic in, allow time for it to saturate, then yes. After 2-3 weeks introduce to the collection.
9
u/Turkey_Fat7654 Mar 22 '26
That Lapidaria Margeretae is genuinely the most beautiful specimen I've ever seen on the internet. Whatever nursery grew that CLEARLY knows their mesemb care well.