Just received this tiny one from a trade earlier this year and must say I am very pleased with it. Had a few intense minutes when it decided to bloom and found that it was monocarpic, but it created some offsets before passing.

Here are some pics to give you an idea of what this one is like. I can't wait to get a larger colony established. Sorry, not the best pics - I will do better when I have more of them.

Orostachys minutum

Wow~~~ Don't know how you keep track of that bitty little one. Congratulations that you have offsets to carry on the colonization.

Great photos twit. My blooms haven't opened up yet. Can't wait to see them. : )

This is such an amazingly tiny Orostachys. I got mine last year from Sandi and fell in love with it.
Mine is getting ready to bloom, but has also produced many tiny, tiny offsets.


I might have to start a portion of one of the raised beds devoted to the tiny hardy succulents.

Some of my offests have subsequently bloomed as well. That is a great pic!

I'm finding references to both O. spinosa var minutum and O. minuta. Now I'm wondering if there are two different types of plants and which one I have.

I'll have to go out and see what it is doing now. I put it in the newly re-done raised bed about a week ago. Hope it doesn't go into shock.

More research to do.

The vendor Sandi purchased hers from called it O. minuta. I got mine from Timberline where it is labeled O. minutum, but that was shortened from O. spinosa var minutum.
I seen them all and believe they are all the same thing.

But this one does not look anything like a spinosa type Orostachys?

There is a discussions by some Scottish Horitcultural big guns, which I do not pretend to understand at

http://www.srgc.net/forum/inde...

The gentleman from DBG has a posting there, if that might help. It seemed they too were confused.

I would say my O. spinosa and my O. spinosa var minutum are a good match to the O. spinosa and O. spinosa - minuta on that site.

A few months ago I thought O. spinosa var minutum looked exactly like O. spinosa only small and I wondered if it was just a pathetic O. spinosa. Now, my O. spinosa has developed that characteristic center, but O. spinosa var minutum has not. It looks more like O. spinosa offsets. It sounds like somewhere along the line somebody mixed up minuta for minutum or vise versa. I'm keeping mine the way the original tag says it is for now.

I think that is the best thing to do Tabby.
The correct names of Orostachys are really in a mess right now.

I have been meaning to post this for awhile and remembered when I checked my orostachys yesterday. I purchased the Orostachys minutum from Bluebird Nursery in case anyone would like to do some research. They are a reputable somewhat large commercial nursery that supplies to higher end retail nurseries in Colorado.
By now, my orostachys is displaying the characteristic sunflower center.

Mine is still tiny and growing in a tight mound.


I just went and looked at their site. They have some really cool plants. To bad it is wholesale only. : (

Hi Sandi,
Because of your post, I went out and looked at mine. And they look just like you describe. Just like miniature O. spinosa with that cool center. Just really tiny. Mine came from Timberline. I'll try and remember to get a picture.