Faucaria introduction

Description   Plant height: up to 100 mm Plants form small clumps with similar sized leave pairs. Dark green to yellow or even reddish leaves are triangular in shape, keeled and have a bottom chin. Upper surface can be smooth, tuberculated or ribbed. All species leaf margins are distinct and can be toothed, or have white margins which may be smooth. Flowers are mostly yellow, but rarely it can be white. They open mostly by mid afternoon in late summer to Autumn. Fruit capsules are 5-locular, woody and remain on the plant, until old and squeezed out by new growth. At this time 6 species have been identified, reduced from 30+ in 1999. Faucaria bosscheana (A.Berger) Schwantes Faucaria felina subsp. felina (L.) Schwantes Faucaria felina subsp. britteniae (L.Bolus) L.E.Groen Faucaria felina subsp. tuberculosa (Rolfe) L.E.Groen Faucaria gratiae L.Bolus Faucaria nemorosa L.Bolus ex L.E.Groen General area of distribution in Eastern Cape, SA. Faucaria subintegra L.Bolus Faucaria tigrina (Haw.) Schwantes Natural Distribution Dormant season: Hot Summer or cold winter period They are part of subtropical thickets in the Eastern Cape, where they are almost solely found. The thickets are nearly impenetrable with little open areas, within, and this is where they tend to grow. They tend to grow in the shade of trees. This area receives both summer and winter rainfall. Propagation The baggy method works well, but enough light for the seedlings have a longish stem and can topple over easily. Seedling Cultivation notes Soil should well-drained.  They tend to rot on the soft woody stems, so ventilation is important. I tend to refrain from watering on cloudy/rainy days and try to water the soil, occasionally misting the leaves, rarely enough to go through. I also keep mine in a morning sun position in which they seem to do well and flower well. I have grown them in zone9 for a few years, but kept them covered on nights when frost was expected. Z3 Z4 Z5 Z6 Z7 Z8 Z9 Z10 Z11 Notes Zone √ √ √ Indoors or windowsill Yes (morning sun) Outdoors in pots Yes (in mild conditions) Greenhouse Yes (best outside their habitats) Landscape Only in areas with light-no frost – I have one in the garden Sun Exposure Semi (summer) Below is some of the species and their difference in leaf shapes. We will go into these different species at a later stage.

Gardening by the ocean

Just when you guys thought I am set in structure, I am adding another heading page called "Gardening & Hobbies".

Why? This is, or was at least, a great part of being me. I love succulent plants in particular. Aloe plants are the main focus for the garden, but the smaller succulents has become our collecting hobby.

For now, we start at the beginning. Our house had no garden, in fact there is very little going on in terms of gardening where we live, due to the ocean salty winds, which kills about anything a normal garden would see. Succulents on the other hand are growing for the most part, but also be garden weed, in terms of the local species.

In 2011, I set out to develop my garden.

10 Bags of compost went into that sand heap!

By the end of the year (2011), it looked like this.

By then I also developed the garden inside the yard, but that is for later. The main backbone is the aloe. I use various smaller plants, 99% succulents to color the image.

Today this garden has grown well and looks like this.

Some of the plants here include:

Aloe thraskii (Dune aloe)

Small one flowering in the corner is a seed grown Aloe maculata, then a few Crassula species and the midsize aloe is a hybrid branching plant.

Above is a Aloe ferox with smaller aloe species hidden all around. In the bottom picture is an Aloe lineata about to flower with Aeonium 'kiwi' as additional color and a fine Delosperma as ground cover.

My favorite aloe for sure, is the Aloe speciosa in the bottom picture. They turn their heads toward the sun, blueish in color and they have fantastic raceme (flowers), which this one is doing for the first time this year, cannot wait.

Again lots of smaller aloes, and various species of succulents grow around these main plants, creating more and more height differences.

This is just a quick introduction to another part of the our rumbling ocean living space. Doing a blog without including something that is also close to our hearts does not seem fair and true to who we are. We will do posts about our plants in future, which include near 200 species of aloes, succulents like Lithops and other living stones, crassula (Jade plants) and other.