The Oxford Branch, Mesemb and Succulent Show was a delight.  Some of the Conophytum on show were breathtakingly perfect, especially those grown by Terry Smale.  I was very envious.  I am not very good with Conos. Their growth season does not match my other plants and I forget to give them water when they need it. I also forget to shade them at the right time.  I suppose it is simply that I am less interested in them than in some of the other Mesembs.

Although I have not watered my Lithops for some weeks they still seem to be growing. Some are more plump than I would like.  I have often thought that they seem to be able to absorb moisture from the atmosphere when we get damp humid weather like this.  It is likely that they will be late shedding their skins in the spring because of this plumpness.

Last year I created a hybrid Aloe by crossing descoignsii with rauchii. The resultant seedlings are like a slightly larger and smoother descoignsii. So far they have not flowered but I noticed a flower stem on one of them today.  The stem is certainly more robust than descoignsii it will be interesting to see the flowers.  Rauchii flowers are much larger and paler.  It would be nice to get the larger flowers of one parent with the brighter colour of the other.

My Dorstenia has produced lots of seeds this year.  If anyone has the secret of  getting them to germinate, please share it with me.  So far I have had no success.