Dia's Garden Style

They are originating from Madagascar. There are over 2000 species of Euphorbias in the world. This plants are known as crown of Thorns plant. Ephurbia Produces flowers all the year round. The flowers are tiny, but each is surrounded by a pair of kidney-shaped, bright red or yellow bracts, which look like petals.




Light : Bright light, can tolerate direct sunlight. The brighter and more constant the sunlight, the longer its flowering season will be.


Temperature : Keep temperature above 60F.


Watering : Require little water. Allow soil dry between watering . Keep moderately wet in summer, reduce water in winter.

Soil :  Mix soil with coarse, rock, perlite or sand. They can tolerant of salty soils.


Feeding : Apply standard liquid fertilizer every two weeks from late spring to early fall.



Propagation : Cutting.

A man known as John Burchell is the individual who discovered the Lithop in 1811, while he was off exploring Africa. Lipthop is a genus of succulent plants native to southern Africa. "Lithos" means "stone" and "-ops" means "face" in Ancient Greek; therefore "Lithops" means "stone-like". They are common known as pebble plants or living stones. They are flowering in the fall and winter. Once the flowers fade, the leaves will shrivel and a new pair of leaves will push up through the split to replace them. This is one of picky succulent.




Light :  Lithop do well if they receive about 3 or 4 hours of sunlight during the early part of the day, and partial shade during the afternoon. But place the plants in a location where they'll receive indirect sunlight if they've been inside at a garden center and move gradually to direct sun light or bright spot near window. Dry condition are best , avoid area with excessive humidity .

Temperature : Protect from frost, avoid temperature less than 40F.

Water : Keep the soil barely moist, allow top of the soil dry between watering. They need water when growing season only, ussually in autumn however it is depending your enviroment. Do not over watering they may die. when your lipthop starts to  shrivel then stop watering. They are sensitive to rotting. Treat them as cactus.

Soil : Lithops thrive best in a coarse, well-drained soil mix or soil special for cactus. Place lithop in container with drainage hole

Propagation: Seeds, cutting or divide clumps in early summer.

Cacti and succulents are easy to care, basically very little require.

According to wikipedia, A cactus (plural: cacti, cactuses or cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae. The tallest is Pachycereus pringlei, with a maximum recorded height of 19.2 m, and the smallest is Blossfeldia liliputiana, only about 1 cm in diameter at maturity.



Light : Most cacti and succulents need good to full sun, but there are the exceptions. These would include jungle cactus such as Schlumbergera and Rhipsalis. Certain Aloes and Howarthias do well in filtered sun also.

Temperature : Prevent from freezing.

Water : During growing season (spring to summer) water thoroughly and let the soil dry before rewatering. Try to water when a sunny day. The best to water is in the morning so than excess will evaporate in the sunlight. Do not over watering. It is better to use clay pot.

Fertlizer : Generally need less feeding and not so often, houseplant fertilizer is good for cacti.
Never feed for new purchase or transplated cactus. Give them a month to adjust their condition. Feed 3 times a year.

Soil : Use soil special for cactus or a good general soil mix with perlite or any other non porous material such as rocks or pumices.  Choose clay pot , there are pros and cons to using either clay or plastic. Really it doesn't matter, the important is good drained soil . However, clay pot tends to more tolerant to over watering.