I, along with my plant peeps Kathy and Karin, had a plant sale at Kathy's.  We decided against doing the Farmer's Market in Plattsmouth this year.  They changed their location, which is actually a good thing, but the new location would require setting up a canopy because we would be right out in the blazing sun.  And they want us set up by 7:30, which is a little daunting.  Parking was going to be an issue - vendor's cars would be about half a block away.  That would be a big issue for me since I'm still Miss Gimpy...  I never sell that much, so it's no skin off my nose and I'll certainly NOT miss getting up at 5:30 so I can be leaving here before 7:00!  But I will miss seeing my peeps every week... that's really the only reason I did it.  I never came home with more than 20 bucks, so it was NOT the money!

Anyway, we decided we will just have a couple sales this summer.  This first one was ok.  I'm sure Kathy and Karin did ok.  I didn't do much more than break even.  I made a few bucks, I spent a few bucks.  But it's more about hanging out.  And Friday was gorgeous!  Warm, in the mid 80's but super low humidity, so it was just perfect.  Saturday, on my drive to Papillion, all hell broke loose with an all-out torrential storm.  Buckets of rain made driving a real challenge!  Ran into a bit of hail as well.  It delayed our start time by an hour, but then quite a few people showed up for the next couple hours.  Even though the temp was 10 degrees cooler, it wasn't as comfortable as Friday due to the humidity.  But it was still decent. 

But I acquired a few new gems.  I got one of the miniature Haworthias from Kathy.  It's H. maraisii:

It was stuffed in a 3.5" pot and I repotted it into one of those shallow but wide (maybe 5") clay pots.  This one has a shallow root system - many Haworthias have a big tap root and need deeper pots, but some of these minis don't and they tend to lose their roots easily if they have too much "leg room" in the pot.  So I'm hoping between the porous clay and less soil I won't experience root loss.

I also got a very unusual plant from Karin - one I'd never heard of nor seen anywhere.  But maybe that's because technically, it's a tropical.  But it has a nice caudex.  I'm going to show a pic from the web as the one I got only has one leaf and a tiny caudex right now.  This shows what to expect:

I guess even though it has a caudex, it needs to be kept relatively moist, so that will be a challenge for me.  But I'm going to give it a shot.  It's name is Monolena primuliflora.  

Karin also had a neat Gasteraloe (which is a cross between an Aloe and a Gasteria) called 'Flow'...

It's kind of a messy pic, which I took to do a google search.  I'm in the process of trying to find out its "parentage".  I know it's not really important, but I'm curious to know what two plants were crossed to get this.  I checked with my Gasteria expert, Breck Breckenridge, but he said he has little interest in hybrids, but gave me the email address for a hybrid enthusiast in Spain who can hopefully shed some light on it.

I also came home with a couple of outside plants - a miniature Hosta... I'm trying to figure out where I want to put it.  And a perennial called Pig Squeak (Bergenia).  What a neat plant that is!  I had one planted last year and my idiot lawn guys pulled it when cleaning up my landscape, thinking it was a weed!  I put it in the shade next to me generator.  

In other plant news, my Ceropegia africana is finally blooming...

Looks very much like C. woodii flowers.  It's an interesting species with a big bulbous structure that sits mostly on top of the soil with roots coming out the bottom and the vine sprouting from the top.  I find almost every other species of Ceropegia easier to grow than the annoying woodii that is so common.  I love woodii, mind you, but it's the worst mealybug magnet I've ever seen.  And it has a tendency to die back of the very fine vines.  The others I grow have much more hefty vines that don't die back nearly as easy.

A couple months ago, I placed an order with an Etsy seller thinking toward the Farmer's Market.  I got a big order of 50 mixed Lithops for a decent price... I think they were about 75 cents each...  I expected them to arrive bare-root, but they arrived rootless!  I asked the seller why they had no roots and he said he "trims them off" because they'll root faster.  Very weird!  But they did root just fine and oh what a nice variety I received!  I put them in two of those shallow clay pots like I was talking about before and here they are:

I sold two little pots, one with 2 (for $3) and one with 3 (for $5).  I'll probably keep one of each and sell the rest at our next sale.  I love Lithops but only seem to grow them well for about 2 years after which they start growing funky for me.  Maybe I'll figure them out one of these days!  I keep trying!

My Hoyas are all doing well.  Most are growing, many are budding or blooming.  A few of the ones I lost over winter and put out on the back porch have come back to life from the roots.  We'll see how they look by fall.  Many of them were duplicates and I would probably just sell them or give them away if they look acceptable.  Otherwise, in the trash they go!  I'm going to be selective about what I keep this year.  

I sent a package of cuttings to the sister-in-law of a Des Moines club member last week.  He said she had an interest in Hoyas though she didn't have many.  I think I sent her cuttings from about a dozen species, so that should get her hooked!

Well, that's about it for today!