Haw, Haw, Haw

It's funny. Haworthia is not one of my favorite genera. I don't usually come across one in a store and think, "Oooh, nice plant. I've got to have it!" (This is my general reaction to almost all Aloe, every Echeveria, several Sansevieria, a bevy of Bromeliads and, well, I won't go on.) But I accumulate quite a few Haws anyway, because I love making Haworthia dish gardens. You get all the charm of a succulent mixed bowl, without the worries that occur when planting species with incompatible needs together. I've shared some of my bowls before in this post and this one, and now I've got a few more. Quite a few of these plants are NoIds. Haworthia are tricky to identify, and I admit to not trying that all that hard. They tend toward a lot of similar subspecies and varieties, not to mention crosses with both Aloe and Gasteria. I lose patience trying to pinpoint what's what.

Five new bowls, three mixed, two with a single species

Haworthia limifolia var ubomboensis, (bottom) and xAlworthia 'Black Gem,' (top left) both acquired in trade, share this bowl with a NoId plant

Haworthia gracilis, (or some subspecies thereof) at the top, and a NoId

A variegated plant that I think is some form of Haworthia attenuata

From the bottom left: Haworthia limifolia, something that is probably a Gasterhaworthia, and at the top, a complete NoId

Yet another unidentified variety

I enjoy adding mineral specimens to each bowl as decorative elements, along with the aquarium gravel I use as top dressing. I now have a total of nine bowls, and that number will probably increase, as several of my older plantings need to be divided due to new growth, and there are always new plants waiting to be snapped up.