Cleaning up the winter mess

I have been doing some spring cleaning on the balcony today. Many of the pots, especially cacti, had to be moved away from the fence to avoid being flooded by the rain. Today they went back to their summer spot where they spend most of the time.
I checked the pots, cleaned the dry leaves from around, found one casualty and one with few buds on already.





Some other smaller plants (I will take care of the bigger ones another day) were also inspected. Most of the succulents had to have the dry leaves removed, some will need repotting this year too.

This is some type of Echeveria I guess that I never managed to get a proper ID for. It doesn't really matter, it's still pretty cool :)

I grew this one from a single leaf and it is already a few years old, though still pretty small (they have a hard time with me sometimes). It looks pretty cool with the stem being exposed like that and splitting in to two. And the larger rosette decided to split again. They would normally grow little offshoots along the stem. It looks like some malfunction in the plants "brain" to do it this way instead.
I could just cut both rosettes and plant them separately, but while it doesn't tilt too much or breaks I will let it be like this. It's quite unusual.

It is one of those with the delicate powdery film (farina) that protects the leaves from the rain and sun. They still get sunburn though, especially here, so they do need to be protected from the harsh noon sun during the summer.





The powder comes off with the slightest touch so I try not to move them around too much. Impossible not to have some naked tips though after the cleaning.

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_{Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos, graphics and text are my own.}