Terry Smale
Xerophytes & Geophytes
Information &Nursery for Conophytum,
Other Succulents & Bulbs
PLANT AVAILABILITY AND ORDERING INFORMATION:-
Succulents available Ordering Info
SOME USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT SOUTH AFRICAN BULBS AND SUCCULENTS:-
Growing Conophytums Difficult Conos Untypical Conos Recent Cono Descriptions
Growing South African Bulbs Growing Lithops
Literature & sources Photo Gallery About Me
WELCOME TO MY WEB SITE
Starting in 1965, I have put together an extensive collection of succulent plants and bulbs and having ceased to be a research scientist, now have more time to grow my plants and maintain this web site which I hope is of help to other enthusiasts. My particular interest is in South African plants, with the succulent genus Conophytum being the big favourite, followed closely by Haworthia and Gasteria. Among the bulbs, I have a penchant for Lachenalia, the Massonia group, Haemanthus and Strumaria. .
For about 17 years, I propagated conophytums and other South African bulbs and succulents on a modest scale for distribution by mail order, using lists that I mailed, Emailed, or posted on this site. I have now stopped this but I am continuing to propagate a few species. I will bring plants along when I give talks or when I am invited to sell plants at events. If you are coming to any of these then contact me in advance if there are any conos that you particularly want.
I do not have any lists of plants or seeds for sale, nor can I help with any "Wants" lists
WHAT'S NEW?
My Lithops and Conophytum collection was filmed for the BBC Gardeners' World programme. They managed to visit just at the peak flowering time for the conos so plenty for the film crew to photograph. This material was included in the Gardener's World Episode 24 programme on BBC2 on Friday 28th August, 2020. It can be seen on-line at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08qn68n
The Florent Grenier book entitled "Secrets of Namaqualand Succulents" is available from his website https://namaqualand-succulents.com/buy-the-book/ and should be available from specialist book dealers in due course. It concentrates on the bulbs and succulents from that area and includes many images of rare plants some of which have not been depicted elsewhere. The text provicdes a wealth of information about habitats, ecology, climate, pollination syndromes, etc. The work is based on many months (probably years) of field work and is highly recommended to anyone who is interested in the type of plants covered by this web site.
I have recently added a few more images to three of the galleries and also some conophytum articles that might be of interest. There are now images of 145 Conophytum taxa in the Gallery so not very many more to go. These pictures have all been taken of plants in my collection.
Many of the names used for Lachenalia and Polyxena (now lumped into Lachenalia) in my photo gallery have now changed as a result of the publication of Graham Duncan's magnum opus "The Genus Lachenalia". This a monster work that incorporates Graham's observations on the genus made over the last 30 years or so and is a must for everyone interested in the genus. The only downside is it's price.
Page updated 19th July, 2020