A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Cacti and Succulents in the Garden Anacampseros Rufescens, I need info on care.

I bought a anacampseros rufescens at Lowe's. It looked like an interesting plant and since my other exotic succulent died I decided to try this as I heard they are easy to grow and I liked the color.

My trouble is online there is little info on growing them. First I read they need full sunglight to make the leaves turn purple, then I read on another site they prefer the shade. Then with watering I read they need to be watered once a month, except during winter. But I also read to water ONLY when leaves start to wilt and during winter to also water only when leaves start to shrivel. Which is it?

I have mine in cacti mix with extra perlite for drainage. It on a window sill which gets plenty of sunlight but in Winter gets to about 50 F.

I also had something odd with mine. One leaf was bright orange! I cannot find any others with a leaf this color, they are either green,purple, or for the variegated form bright pink, but never orange. The leaf fell off during packing and im trying to save it by it growing roots. I also wondered can you cross pollinate 2 flowers or do they open/close so quickly?

here is my plant.

Here is what I found.
"Culture: Anacampseros rufescens need full sun to partial shade, with a well-drained soil mix. Use a soil mix consisting of equal parts of loam and sand with small gravel added to insure good drainage. The plants should be well watered and then allowed to dry thoroughly before watering again. Fertilize them twice during the growing season (in early spring and in late summer) with a balanced fertilizer diluted to ½ the strength recommended on the label. During the winter months, the plants should be moved to cool rooms, and the nighttime temperature is allowed to drop to 48°F (9°C), with daytime temperatures typically in the mid 50’s (12°C). During this period water is restricted to only enough to keep the leaves from shriveling. In early spring, watering is resumed."

I am pretty sure you found similar. I will say I have had leaves turn orange and fall off too. I hope your baby roots. Mine were outdoors in the ground and were crowded out and killed by other plants.

Is the perlite as good as the sand for drainage? I've used it for all my cacti and most of them do great in the mix. I always re-pot the cacti once a year for new soil/perlite.

Do you think watering once a month (except winter) would be good for the plant. It takes about a week for the soil to fully dry, but being succulents I assume going 3 weeks without water should be fine I dont want to over-water. I do this for my other basic cacti and they have taken well to this schedule.

Besides the fertilizer, the room they are in is great all year round it follows those instructions very well, so it seems im on the right track.

I just bought the plant yesterday, and it had the orange leaf. If that means the leaf was dying i'll soon know, if it lives however that would be really cool!


Now do these plants get taller or do they stay flat? Can I remove offsets to keep the plant from getting too large? Also my plant had seedlings in the pot, can I fertilize them too, or no?

I think the perlite is just fine. Especially as your other cactus thrive in the mix you use.
Water when it dries out completely, or whenever you see any wrinkling in a leaf.
They stay fairly short, about 3 inches or so with taller stems for the flowers. And they are mat-foming.You can remove offsets and begin new plants if it overcrowds the pot.
I cannot answer any of your pollination questions you asked in your first post. You are more expert than I on that subject. I just plonk my plants in the ground and let Mother Nature do what it wants with the bees and such.