and it blooms again...

This is the second bloom from my Stapelia gigantea... tomorrow might actually be more impressive, as I think the other four buds on the plant will all open at once then.. 

It's one of my favorite plants, not only for the impressive flowers, but for the sheer ease of growing the thing.  I yank it inside in the winter and ignore it.  Then I put it outside in the summer... and ignore it, apart from it getting some water occasionally.

And, every fall, it pretty consistently puts these flowers out.  Not bad, huh?  Now, I'm not getting as many blooms as normal, we had a killer summer.  But I didn't fare as well as normal this summer either... so what more can I ask, right? 

The plant carries the common name of Carrion flower.  This is due to the fact that it does smell like rotting meat.  There are some people who prefer the name of Starfish flower.  These are the kind of people who try to change the name of Datura Inoxia from Devil Apple to Angel Trumpet.  I find these renamings silly.  Listen... you can call this plant "sweetheart with a bow on top" but it doesn't change the fact that it looks unearthly, and it smells like something dead.  Carrion flower is what I've always called it and always will. 

Mondo Aloe

Well, again, I don't have anything exciting to add... spent today trying to get some of the yard in order. I'm afraid that with my schedule and everything happening, that it's all gotten a little out of hand.

There is a small, suposedly decorative brick wall in front of my house... I usually find it more annoying than anything else, but I do have 3 plastic planters on top of it, which I usually plant with marigolds or portaluca... for some reason, this spring, I had an aloe that someone gave me, and it had two off-sets, so I stuck 1 of each in each pot. I also put in some cuttings of Stapelia gigantea.

I then proceeded to ignore them. This is actually rather easy, as behind the wall are tall bananas, cannas, and a mexican fan palm, and I'm afraid that pretty much all of them threw their leaves over the wall and the pots... and I'm one of those out of sight out of mind people.

Evidently, the bright shade was just what the Dr. ordered for these guys though... My one 6 to 8 inch tall aloe turned into a monster over the summer

(you can barely see the stapelia in the pot behind the plant... )

the offsets grew up, and they all produced more off-sets... so everything is now uprooted...

well, a lot of the off sets I'll pot up in styrofoam cups and sell at the flea market for a buck or two, depending on the size. The grown ups will go in a bucket with fall leaves around the roots, will sit in a window, and pretty much be allowed to go dormant until next spring.

Same with the Stapelia. I know... I'm supposed to pot them up and baby them... but that's how Grandma did it and she never lost one... so, there we go...

Stapelia gigantea in bloom...

Well, just to prove how distracted I've been lately, the first bloom on this plant, a couple of days ago, I didn't even notice until after it had faded... but I dutifully watched this bud and this morning it was obviously going to open today...

The blooms open in the afternoon, and stay pretty much until noon the next day... and yes they do smell like hamburger that's been left outside for some unknown reason, but the smell isn't unbearable as long as they're outside and you're more than 3 feet away. If you look closely, you will notice a carrion fly on the bloom... these are the plants pollinators.

Not that there's any pollination going on here... either they require a specific carrion fly polinator from their native land, or they require cross pollination and this is the only one within a mile, because for the last three years I've had plenty of blooms and not one ever even tried to produce a seed pod. I'm not that concerned... they're so easy from cuttings I can't imagine the neccesity of a seed.

As mentioned this is the second bloom this year. There are quite a few more buds beginning to pop out on the other side of the plant, but we're looking at a couple of weeks before they're likely to produce.


And now, I feel I should respond to the many people who expressed their condolences on my last post... Thank you all very much. I truly appreciate the kind thoughts and the concern expressed...

Last of the Stapeliad blooms, & ID help please

This is the last of the Stapeliad blooms for the year... most probably. Pretty soon, we'll be looking at bringing it in for the winter, and there is no way I'm letting this plant stink up the house , so any further buds will be picked before they develop.

As you can see, it has a couple of flies attracted....


Now, some of you may remember this plant from a previous post... http://lpfleamarket.blogspot.com/2008/07/curse-you-wal-mart.html

well, it's back...
Now, I know it's a Mammilaria, and that it divides dichotomously, meaning that it splits at the growing point rather than growing branches or pups. The thing is that it bloomed last week, you can see what's left of the blooms if you look closely. They were small, about a quarter inch across, and dark "Hot" pink, and I cannot, for the life of me, find a plant that divides this way with a bloom that color. Any ideas anybody? Or any resources on the web that might be able to help me out? I've exhausted most of my resources...
UPDATE: possibly this plant is Mammillaria crucigera ssp. crucigera, which divides dichotomously at maturity, and also produces pups and offsets at the base, or, it may be M. perbella...