Repot or not?

by Helen
(Germany)

I bought a group of Lithops from a Dutch garden centre last week hoping to be able to transplant them into a large shallow pot along with various other succulents such as Euphorbia trigona rubra, Mammillaria elongata, Sansevieria hahnii, Aloe and Haworthia.

However, from what I´ve read, it would seem that Lithops has different needs from all the others due to its unusual dormancy period so I´ve abandoned that idea.

I´ve got two questions concerning these plants. They´re in such a tiny pot, would it be safe at this time of the year to separate them and plant them in a more suitable container? Failing that, could I retain the original group and just give them more space?

By the way, I only know the names of some of my succulents because they were labelled so please don´t think I´m at all knowledgeable.

I love succulents but I´m a complete beginner and all I know about them I´ve learned from your very interesting website.

I can understand your obsession. The more succulents I collect the more fascinating I find them.

Comments for Repot or not?

Click here to add your own comments

Apr 07, 2015

Those are not Lithops
by: Jacki

First of all, they look more like one of the Conophytum genus, which are related to Lithops, but only distantly. This plant is very similar to what you have. That article has a link to more on Dave's Garden Website as well, so check that out.

These plants also dislike being planted with other types of plants, especially those like Haworthia which need more water and at different times.

So, the other thing these guys need desperately is more light.

Although in their natural habitat they will grow beneath other shrubs and trees, because the light is so bright they are quite happy there, but in our climates that are much less bright they really struggle.

You can see that these plants are stretching already, and in time they'll just dwindle and die unless you give them 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night.

This means that you will have to use a grow light. So, they need more light (brighter) as well as more length of light in the winter.

So to answer your initial question, I would take the whole lot of plants out of the pot, and try and remove the Aloe and plant that separately.

The others I would put back into the same pot without disturbing them, and just put a bit of small gravel where the Aloe was, and over the top of the soil where you can.

Then find out when is the correct time to water them. Without knowing more about their dormancy requirements you'll kill them off in no time.

Hope that helps with your obsession. Best of luck with your plants!

Apr 07, 2015

Thank you
by: Helen

Thank you so much for your help, especially for putting me right about the genus. I was misled by the label on the pot which said they were "living stones" and in my ignorance I just assumed that they were Lithops.

By the way, the Aloe is in a separate pot though that´s not clear from the photo.

Now that our weather is improving I´ll be taking all my succulents outside every day to enjoy the sun which isn´t too strong at present to do them any harm but I´ll certainly buy a grow light before next winter.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Ask the Horticulturist.