09/06/2024
My most "is it dead? no, just sleeping"-est of plants:
A very cherished little Conophytum terricolor, just waking up:
First photo is recently splashed with water, August 24th. Clearly still very dormant.
Second photo is this morning, after it woke up this week!
Conophytums cover themselves with a papery sheath to protect them during the hot summer months, and until late August, I had all of them shoved under a bench in the corner of the greenhouse to keep them adequately dry and sad.
These tend to respond to the days getting shorter moreso than to temperature, so around mid-August I moved them back up on top of my plant benches so they could get overspray/splashed as I watered other plants. This sort of sparing access to water lets them wake up if they want, but doesn't oversaturate them and cause them to rot if they're not ready.
Some of my other conos were ready to wake up weeks ago, but this guy took his sweet time.
In another couple weeks, it'll plump back up into the very pretty little specimen I know it is :)
