Just a couple of observations from my experience with Worsleya: I have my one and only one potted in Hydroton, balls of fired clay, and very little organic matter. It loves as much sun as I can give it in the Northeast, but I haven't been watering it enough lately, and it is suffering in vigor. I certainly would not classify it as difficult to grow, but getting it to bloom might be a different story. I have read that in its native habitat, it grows on cliffs next to waterfalls and so gets a constant watering with mist and spray. Dell, in West Virginia From: Leo A. Martin <leo@possi.org> >To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2013 12:57 PM >Subject: Re: [pbs] Growing in cracks between boulders > > >Jim Waddick wrote > >> Worsleya appears to grow in full sun on, >> in and among rocks on steep cliffs. As Lee >> said "they really do grow in large cracks >> in mountain-sized granite boulders." > >I can't echo enough Jim's suggestion to find out what microclimate plants experience in >habitat. "Brazil", "Mexico" and "Madagascar" isn't much information. A lot of >non-temperate habitats just don't occur in temperate zones so we gardeners can't imagine >what they are like unless we see them and understand. > >I haven't been to Worsleya habitat but I have seen this environment in other places. >Visitors to the American Southwest can find a similar habitat if they look under rock >overhangs here and there; ferns survive in some of the hottest and driest areas. Sedums >and a native prickly pear, Opuntia humifusa, in the east of the US, occur in similar >situations, though usually in flatter terrain. > >All over the mountains of Mexico succulents like Echeveria, Graptopetalum, Sedum and >Villadia occur in similar conditions. In Brazil I have seen various cacti in this >habitat, along with a Hippeastrum and lithophytic Laelia orchids; I also saw but did not >recognize Sinningia tubers. > >In Madagascar, the yellow-flowered Pachypodium grow in such habitats; also angraecoid >orchids like Jumella and several species of Aloe and Cynanchum. Also in Madagascar, many >Oeceoclades orchids grow on the forest floor in the layer of fallen leaves. This leaf >mat often is about a foot / 30cm thick but overlays large, jumbled boulders. It can be >treacherous walking since the surface seems smooth but is not. The orchids have a thick, >well-aerated layer of leaf mold with air underneath. > >In the rock-face habitats rock cracks accumulate a little dust and a very small amount >of decaying leaves and moss. Mosses and ferns fill the cracks; frequently they are >"resurrection plants", green and growing with rain, and brown and shriveled during dry >seasons. Larger plants grow in these hummocks of moss and leaf litter. > >Any plant living there will have lots of air at the roots even when soaked with rain for >many days on end. During dry spells the thin mat of organic matter holds moisture much >longer than expected. The decaying organic matter provides and acid environment. Water >runs off rapidly so minerals with a basic chemical reaction are not leached to the >surface as they are in arid environments. > >Some of these habitats are wet to damp all year owing to nightly dews; others have >distinct dry spells. Some have cool weather and some warm. This needs to be taken into >account. Plants growing on high rock walls facing the sun will be accustomed to high >heat and insolation for at least some of the year. I was not able to grow some Brazilian >cacti well until I realized some grow on black rocks in full sun in places where daytime >temperatures may exceed 120 F / 50C. > >John Lavranos taught me how to grow some of these plants in containers. He said to >choose a wide, shallow dish-type container with large drainage holes; fill it halfway >with pumice or something similar; top it with a 2-5 centimeters of crumbled fallen >leaves from my garden; and nestle the plant into the leaf mold. The leaf mold keeps in >the moisture, while the spaces between the pumice provide excellent aeration. I was able >to grow some lithophytic orchids for the first time with this method. It is the same >method Jim described in his message. > >Leo Martin >Phoenix Arizona USA > >_______________________________________________ >pbs mailing list >pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > > >