Monilaria in bud

[topsy]

HI All,

Noticed a couple of days ago that a Monilaria was coming in to bud for the first time ever for me, don't know which one it is, the flower colour may help with identification. Another 3.5" pot.

Suzanne

[Aiko]

I assume in the UK it was sunny the last few days too? That could have helped.

Thanks to the sun I had most of my Mammillaria hernandezii in flower. About 14, just a few were not flowering. While last year the buds of all to-be-flowering plants were growing but they never opened... I hope your Monilaria will not do the same if the weather degrades in the coming weeks.

[Tina]

try monilaria pisiformis, lovely little plants, amazing dermis if you get a magnifying glass to them

[TJa]

Hi Suzanne,

This is truly exceptional.
I never managed to flower any of the monilarias, dicrocaulon or meyerophytums back at the time here in Belgium.
I once had a plant with a single but, but it never progressed.

Based on the photo you can check the Hartmann key ("aizoaceae F-Z").
I would go for Monilaria moniliformis, but also pisiformis might be a possibility.
They're all so difficult to identify and I'm out too long...

Bye,
Tom

[topsy]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your thoughts and you never flowered a Monillaria ! I have four or five plants of Mitrophyllum in flower currently, mostly yours, but they are much easier to flower once they have reached maturity and are growing fast enough. I am hopeful that one of my Meyerophytums is thinking of flowering, it's looking fit to burst.

There was an automatic watering system in play last week as five plastic roofing sheets came off the roof over the mesembs including the Monillaria area and several of the trays I keep the mesembs in were flooded and so they are still soaking wet now. The Lithops also got soaked, just hoping they don't succumb and manage to dry out enough.

You have been away too long, come back one day.

Suzanne

[Aiko]

Bye,
Tom

Oh, looking at the remark from Suzanne, are you Tom from (then at least living in) Rumst?
I also have quite some mesembs from you from back in 2010 and 2011. Almost all of them are still doing very fine. But the ancient Mitrophyllums I got from you still haven't flowered, but look fat every winter. They should be of age to do so by now, as are those of Topsy. Apparently the UK has had better autumn weather than the rest of northwestern Europe...

Are you back into growing mesembs again?

[TJa]

Hi Suzanne,

The soaking of the monilarias shouldn't be much of problem at this time of the year. They're fully active and can take some water now. Maybe it even encouraged the flowers to develop further... The mitrophyllums actually need such a flooding during their active period to be in good shape. So they'd look happy I think. The lithops might not appreciate such a late drink though...

Unfortunately I'm not able to get back into growing mesembs yet: the garden is too small for a greenhouse and Debby is strict regarding the window sills in house, but I lately have a couple of seedlings of Haw springbokvlakensis, ario kotschoubeyanus and 2 avonia quinaria ssp alstonii and 2 pacypodium namaquanum juveniles, so maybe one day...


Hi Aiko,
The mitros you got from me should be 20-25 years old by now, some mitro grande would even be 40y by now, but I think these are among Suzanne's. Except for M tenuifolium, which flowers at the age of 5y, all mitros need at least 30 years, so expect flowers in 5-10 years. Once they're old enough, they should flower annually without any effort.

Here's a flower of M tenuifolium, as a form of teaser:

Bye,
Tom