I love all Gasteria species. They're just cool looking. My space concerns leaves me to miniatures though. I picked this Gasteria gracilis variegata up from a vendor at The Philadelphia Flower show one year. This summer an animal dumped the pot over and chewed up the roots so I had to repot all the pups. I was pissed off, but at least it didn't eat them like it did a lot of my other plants.
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| Mom and her pups |
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| Close-up of the new babies |
I'm not sure if this is a common trait for these Gasteria, or if it's just my plant, but the variegation is extremely unpredictable. I've had pups with almost no variegation to 100% white ones that I couldn't separate. Those white ones would eventually separate on their own, then failed to make it long term, (due to complete lack of chlorophyll.)
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| Last years pups off the same plant |
See what I mean? These 2 examples are typical for the plant. At least the majority of pups have a fair amount of variegation. This summer they were in full sun for longer than I've kept them that way before. I'm not sure if it's my imagination, (but it seems to make sense,) all of this years new pups have a good amount of variegation. Maybe the plant isn't as unpredictable as I always thought, if my idea is correct. Less sun and they put out variegation all across the board from none to 100%, but an ideal amount of sun results in a good proportion of white and green? I don't know. This is all very unscientific and pure speculation. I'll have to try it in the same amount of sun next year to see if my theory holds up.
