An interesting group of plants, IMVHO. Some of the most interesting foliage.

Loving the "ivy" shaped foliage on this one, candle plant (Curio articulatus).

Yes, I love this plant too. During summer or once we start heating up dryly, it will cease leafing, but it does like to drink, just making sure media is nicely well draining so it does not rot the base of the plant. It is funny how it grows like cucumber with segmentation..I guess it shows a period when it was not getting enough moisture it needs.
I am experimenting now having wick watering for it so it ably endures our excessive dry heat here.



This cutting which has adapted quite well using water gel beads and some clay rocks as media ably kept the leaves, as long as I just grow it by the west facing sliding doors. But I still draw the sheer curtain to protect it from excessive afternoon heat.



That really help me understand it is somewhat moisture needy when temps are higher already.

Before I was guilty of underwatering it..no wonder some dried out badly before.

That is interesting! TY for sharing. : )

I have 2 and both are in pots with other, very thirsty plants so they aren't having dry times. One is in mostly shade, and the other is in the sun all day. They're pretty different looking by now.

I need to take pics of some of my other Curio/Senecio/Kleinia to add to this discussion. It's been so hot, I haven't been taking many pics the past month or so.

Senecio kleiniiformis.
Spear Head (Senecio 'Kleiniiformis')

These 2 plants did not get put near a window this past winter, and had developed long, etiolated stems. So I cut them at the point where sturdy turned to weak. The stumps are stalwart and each has formed a potato at the base over the years.



Most of the potato is buried.

Kleinia anteuphorbium survived our rainy winter quite well, and is now actively making new arms yey! At least it will not be like boring long candlesticks🙂




Kleinia petraea also survived winter nicely:

A segment fell off during the mix of rains and winds last winter, so I just put it on one other container where I have been trying some cuttings from it before:

This is another cutting from it I took many years ago..growing longer slowly through the years, making it rest on one of my echeverria containers:


Curio articulatus living indoors in water gel beads and clay rocks peeks for more sun:


Curio articulatus mother plant survived winter outdoors nicely inside the grow camp. But I will soon move it to shadier area. During drier, hotter days, it prefers shade:

I don't have that many to appreciate! But I appreciate yours, Tarev! : )

Update on tubers grounded 3/24, pics above.

Update on the plants in my last pic.

Nice growing!

I'm impressed too, the effect of summer vacay in the ground, not anything special that I did.

I haven't seen that same full appearance manifest in pot but not saying somebody else wouldn't. I only get to see it as a shuffle plant, going inside to struggle for winter - right at the time of year when it always looks its best, in the fall.

I rarely pull up roots when saving summer-grounded plants for winter, but I'm curious to see what the potatoes look like now so I'll pop those out and take them inside. If they don't mind being potted high, that particular pair will end up looking like a cool caudex plant. If that is bothersome, it's OK, I have other individuals of that. Curiosity dictates the experiment must happen. I'll take pics when I pop them back out of the ground.

Senecio articulatus (candle plant) is starting to make its winter leaves. Such interesting, backwards seasonal behavior.

For a while I was actively seeking out those backwards plants, to put in the public garden here, where they can enjoy the winter rainfall and summer drought equally.

From that period: Kleinia neriifolia, aka Senecio kleinia, summer deciduous native of the Canary Islands, a plant with sausage-shaped stems. This one on the patio is a seedling volunteer from a rooted cutting from that plant in the public garden.



When you think of the winter growers, as a group, you don't tend to think of the winter annuals, which sprout in the fall and go to seed in the spring. We have various winter annuals here, including invasive mat-forming ice plants. Backward in most of the world but forward in Mediterranean (winter rainfall) climates.

That's a nice looking plant! Winter annuals here are chickweed, cleavers, Geranium carolinianum, a few others that will remind me of themselves soon. LOL!

I guess zone 8b is still quite permissive for that sort of thing (you are after all in the south there). I discovered the hard way that hardiness zones are not allowed in the database with winter annuals. Specifically because cold hardiness is irrelevant by definition to the other (typical, forwards, warm season) annuals. Even though (as I argued) the zone will reliably predict where winter annuals are capable of existing in nature, for example with the problematic invasive ice plants we have here and in much of coastal California.

That is an interesting concept. I agree that defining a hardiness zone for plants that aren't "hardy" anywhere is not the solution.

But you make a very powerful point. Many annuals do tend to have a range where they persist in perpetuating themselves as if perennial. This behavior can cause people to make an argument that they are perennials. An idea that is rejected by those who prefer to define perennials as only those plants that stay alive as same individuals for an indefinite length of time.

And many of them are much more ubiquitous but variations in climate can cause variations in their timing. In colder climates with snow cover, plants can only grow during the few warm months but the same plant could be a "winter annual" as one gets closer to the equator.

It might be worthwhile to break these last few comments off, into a new discussion. This is worthy of a separate discussion, IMVHO.

The start of inflorescences!

Spear Head (Senecio 'Kleiniiformis')

Winter is happy time for Curio articulatus, happily able to form its leaves again and maintain its cucumber-like segments:

That looks great, Tarev! I have some that looks similar, but there are so many other plants in the pot, I can't get a good pic of just that plant.

Ah, that is why I do not mix this plant with others, so easy to over run another and vice versa, then it becomes tougher to appreciate

Kleinia fulgens growing 2 new stems where one was cut 2 weeks ago.

Curio articulatus. I look forward to these leaves in the spring as if they were blooms.


K. fulgens with blooms.