The Succulent Shack in North Nowra | Garden centre

The Succulent Shack

Locality: North Nowra

Phone: +61 2 4444 4444

Address: Undisclosed 2541 North Nowra, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.thesucculentshack.com.au

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14.01.2022 Good photo representation of classic over-watering in semps!

10.01.2022 Fun morning! Have been quite neglectful lately, been busy with work and hoping for some cooler weather. Hoping soon to get back in the garden!

09.01.2022 Plant Profile: Stapelia (aka Orbea/Heurnia) Long overdue, kinda forgot about this genus even though I literally see it on a daily basis in my garden. Stapelia are a clump forming succulent from Southern Africa, with approximately 50 different species. Another name for them is a Starfish Plant or a Carrion Flower due to their putrid odour of rotting carrion to attract blow flies as pollinators. This succulent commonly has erect stems that branch from the base and flowers multi...ple times a year, the flowers are different between the species but are all uniquely beautiful. General Stapelia Care Tips: This species in the wild lives under shrubs and much prefers light shade rather than full direct sun. If grown in too strong of sunlight the branches will develop a red/brown colour, and growth is slowed, which can stress out the plant. Acclimatising it to full sun over a period of several weeks is required if you have hot spots in your garden. My stapelia leendertziae is in direct harsh sunlight and has been for about 2 years, with some shade cloth to help at first, but now its growing strong with some nice green stems and lots of smelly flowers. A minimum temperature of about 10'C (50'F) is okay for stapelias, so long as the plants are kept dry, especially during the Winter months. They require a gritty compost with excellent drainage, a bit of grit on the surface of the compost prevents moisture from accumulating around the base of the stems and causing rot; clay pots are adviseable for this delicate species. Stapelia Pests and Diseases: If you are concerned about pests and dieseases on your Stapelia you can water with a systemic insecticide before you see anything just as a preventative. Mealy bugs are common and appear as just small little fluffy spots, normally in the cracks and crevices of the stems. If you find any fine webbing on the stems is a sign of red spider mite, you can wipe the stems with a wet cotton bud to remove the mites, but if they persist you will require a spray of a systemic insecticide such as Rose Guard. Stem rot is commonly found if it has been overwatered, or if the soil is not very well draining, this appears as black sections on the stems, just remove any affected parts and the plant will recover. You should not worry about watering during the cooler months, unless they appear shrivelled then give them a good drink in a container of water and water more frequently. However too much water is definitely more harmful than underwatering. --- I don't have a whole lot of Stapelias, but I started with the Variegata and the Leendertziae (Black Bell flowers) and put them in full sun. Which is a big no-no, but one ended up pulling through (the one in the second photo) and now is happy and growing green stems in very bright, harsh sunlight. It took a few years for it to be happy. I do find them absolutely fascinating and I love the whole genus.

08.01.2022 Stapelias are coming into flower! This is one of my larger stapelias that is dealing with a lot of direct sunlight for almost 2 years. My mistake but with shade cloth it pulled through and I get tons of these large beautiful (smelly) flowers! I realise I have not done a plant profile on these guys, so that is to come in the very near future... especially if I can catch the other flowers on display! I also will attempt to grow from a seed pod I collected from just yesterday (after forgetting about it, oops). A tutorial of growing from seed is also coming! So stay tuned!

02.01.2022 Another Stapelia showing its flower fully open, has an unpleasant smell but uniquely beautiful. I will have their plant profile up later on in the week. Stay tuned for that! On this beautiful day I decided to finally give my plants a good drink. Accidentally ended up soaking one of my favourite garden bugs, the praying mantis. It stared at me for quite a while like how dare you!

01.01.2022 Had a big morning moving some big plants, on this beautiful sunny Autumn day! I will be selling some rooted cuttings shortly of some firesticks, milii, blue bird and the kalanchoe scallops if anyone is interested!