This plant is one of my most favorite succulents - Gasteria carinata - and I think it is one of the most beautiful plants of any generic. These are an unusually small plants for the genus, Gasteria which makes them outstanding windowsill plants. They do very well in the lower light conditions of winters in northern climates and will take temps. in the 40s without dieing.

This plant has just gone through a month of temps. in the 40s in our basement under artificial lights. The plant is in a state of rest and a little shrunken in the leaves. The older leaves that are dieing are a beautiful red color, but in another month this plant will likely go though a growth period and put out lots of new leaves.

This is the largest G. carinata in our collection and it is almost as large as these plant will grow. I probably have more than 30 of these plants, and most of them are only about two inches across. At some point I hope to offer them for sale, as well as continue to grow and propagate these beautiful succulents.

Here are some seedlings I'm very happy to see growing, and these seeds are from Mesa Garden under the number 1238. I flicked these seeds before planting them just like I do with Pediocactus seeds (method in earlier postings) and am having a fairly good germination rate. The hardest part about growing these plants is keeping the insects from eating them. These plants are very difficult to grow and I'm still learning about them. I've managed to grow lots of them from seeds in previous years, and have eventually lost almost all of them to insect attacks. I'll keep trying and hope that these will grow and perhaps even flower someday.