Nature's camera filter! Thanks for the explanation. I wondered if you had used some kind of filter, either on the camera or via a photo program. It made a really interesting presentation.

But nature really does cause unusual effects. Just about anything that causes a change in the light. Overcast skies, lots of dust, smoke, or pollution in the air. Excessive heat. Sunrise, sunset. Partial eclipses or total eclipses. Those last really do weird things. I've wondered if a show of the aurora borealis would make for odd lighting, but all the photos I've seen were of the aurora itself, not of some other object while the event was ongoing. Or at least not identified as such.

I still have not experienced the aurora, though one day I hope to do so.

The light is super critical with pictures. We are blessed with a good amount of fog, or the marine layer, whatever, a thin layer of humidity in the air just above ground level where the incident light is basically diffuse light at half the intensity of sunlight. Very neutral effect on color but much better detail. More of the subject available to view in a picture.

Shade puts you in a colder place color-wise (blue-shifted) and that north-facing part of the patio is very different from the south-facing part at this time of year. I have to correct for the color on the computer, if I don't change the settings on the actual camera.

Actual rain clouds are lower intensity light and they give rise to weird hyperintense colors, very strong greens and browns and reds there. This is a winter phenomenon here mostly.

These weird effects with color against the house are soon to be a thing of the past. Our new house is all brick and the patio is all brick, so you will be seeing more of those earth tones in plant pictures in coming months.

Sun and shade versions of Echeveria cuspidata (8" pots)





E. runyonii with a closed posture



Blue Wren about to bloom (8" squat pot)

Baja, they are beautiful !

Baja, next spring I will have some in individual pots like yours :), they looks so pretty!

Some Echeveria adjacent plants on the patio here.
Sedum clavatum with a developing flower scape

pachyphyllum with an out of focus flower scape and rubrotinctum


Some intergeneric Echeveria hybrids

Some excellent color there. Is the green plant a setosa hybrid? Do you have a name for it?

Yes, it is a setosa var. ciliata hybrid. It is xSedeveria 'Letizia'. I grow it side by side with pure setosa var. ciliata here. In most respects it is quite similar to the setosa parent, but the flowers are very different (white and somewhat tubular, in contrast to the bell shaped, reddish orange setosa flowers).

Opalina blushing bright pink after being moved from a protected location to a spot where it gets day long sun from the side (S exposure).

In the same location, also with good color, and about to bloom



Pachyphytum with a drinking problem



Lots of lower leaves splitting down the middle as the volume expands beyond the point of containment.

'Lola' is trying to grow bloom stalks. Here, nearly every night is dropping below freezing, but I've been trying to move 'Lola' out back into the sunlight during the day to avoid etoliation as much as possible. So far , I've remembered to bring it back inside for the overnight. Lots of other plants could benefit from that moving in and out, but there are too many plants to do that. I wish it was more willing to go dormant in the winter months, but it will persistantly grow and put on blooms during winter.

needrain said: 'Lola' is trying to grow bloom stalks. Here, nearly every night is dropping below freezing, but I've been trying to move 'Lola' out back into the sunlight during the day to avoid etoliation as much as possible. So far , I've remembered to bring it back inside for the overnight. Lots of other plants could benefit from that moving in and out, but there are too many plants to do that. I wish it was more willing to go dormant in the winter months, but it will persistantly grow and put on blooms during winter.

Wow that's ready to put a good show. I was looking up if I have one as I have Echeverias that I lost the tags but apparently not. And I found your photo from May 2013. If that is part of this, you did great!


Here's my E. Pollux? This one likes me! It makes a lot of babies:



And this one, I have a lot:



I have a few more that keeps multiplying, such as cubic frost, topsy turvy.

@GigiAdeniumPlumeria
Yes, that's the same 'Lola'. It's just gone through lots of transformations during its lifespan here. And some close calls. It's long been the only Echeveria that I grow. They haven't liked the excessive hot, dry summer temperatures here. When they get stressed from the heat, you can kill them overnight by giving them water even though they should need it. They also are happy to grow in the winter months. For me, the leads to etoliated plants. I can't persuade them to slow down and go into even semi-dormancy. The past couple of years, I've gone to more trouble moving 'Lola' in and out to prevent etoliation than for any other plant. So far, I haven't forgotten to bring it inside when the overnight temps drop enough to damage or kill it. It does like very bright light in order for the rosettes to maintain tight form and to slow down the stem growth. It handles really cool temps (not freezing) quite well and does great if it gets enough light. It usually blooms in the cold months, along with the Haworthiopsis. Haworthia, and Gasteria. It seems all those are happy with cool temps and look their best then if they are provided enough light. I can't really provide that light during winter months.

We got an inch of rain over the past 3 days and this was the scene in gigantea land... spoon-shaped leaves indeed.



This is Rosalinda from a couple of days ago.



That sort of thing kills E. laui (and others) in our climate, unless they grow under cover.

I should have caught this going on a week ago... Echeveria agavoides, with about a dozen inflorescences, all completely swarming with bugs.



The solution is to remove all inflorescences at the base and spray the plant down with soapy water (carefully, away from other plants), with quarantine and followup. Also need to keep eyes out for ant traffic in case there is some symbiosis here between the two bugs.

🥵 I have those once in awhile on the adeniums, to completely remove the inflorescence will be a better solution, otherwise I have to remove them manually using wet brush with soaop water.

Aphids are weird, so many different ones. Some are ephemeral, coming and going and not causing much trouble. Other times, they move in permanently. Suddenly, there are dark gray aphids on almost all of the plants in one of my mini gardens.

There are always ants on everything here but I have no idea why suddenly they are farming aphids there. There is definite farming going on. The ants put the aphids on plants and then they harvest the honeydew. Try to pull one of the ants' host plants and you'll get a lightning-fast swarm attack if it's over about 65 deg.

First time I've ever seen aphids on any Graptoveria, Sedeveria, or Graptopetalum. I was going to completely empty and redo it at the end of the month anyway. I'll probably have to do it in stages, waiting for the ants to leave after I disturb it initially.

I think the best possible treatment for that plant (after amputation of inflorescences and a thorough spray down with soapy water) was 2 inches of rain over 2 days. The rain helps immensely with bug problems.

New plants arrived today, a trio of E. cante (good size seedlings) and E. unknown, to be investigated further. The cantes are going in the ground once I grow them to size.



Slightly better picture of the unknown



Those are 6 inch pots. For reference here's a nice picture of two full-grown plants in bloom:



Revisiting the Pachyphytum with a drinking problem



This splitting behavior is a more or less predictable outcome after 2 inches of rain, unfortunately.

'Lola' had a close call this week. It got colder than it was supposed to so when I woke up and realized it, I was out with a flashlight in my pajamas gathering it and a couple more plants to bring inside. In time, apparently. She's progressing, but very slowly. I just cannot get a sharp photo of both the blooms and rosettes.

That small rosette in the middle growing off a stem has a twin on the backside. I'm not sure which one, but one is now covering a volunteer cacti seedling, so it will have to be clipped off to start another plant. No clue how a cactus seed got in there, but it's grown enough I can tell it's not a native opuntia, so I want it to keep growing if it will.

Echeveria-adjacent new arrivals: Pachyphytum, Graptopetalum, Jeronimoa.



High hopes for these all filling big pots one day.