Nil - Your H. retusa 'Carl Grover' is pretty neat. I have few Haworthia glossy leaves like that. How big is it? Looks like a nice size pot. Good choice with the H. 'abouykuu'. It's one of my favourite plants: Howard - Are those four all different hybrids? The middle two do look very similar. I remember that springboks grow slowly? May be a while before the differences become evident. Here are my two slowest Haworthia. If any of you have them as well, I'm curious to see if they are slow for you too. Haworthia truncata 'Maruko' Haworthia 'kegani' x 'korizato'

Yeah, fixtures are surprisingly expensive. If you're OK with wiring a cord on yourself, you can save quite a bit of money by keeping an eye on Craigslist (or a saved search to alert you). After waiting for a couple months, I ended up getting a six-bulb T5HO fixture for $20, from a lighting contractor who'd been hired to replace all the lights in a warehouse and wanted to get rid of the existing lights. (The rest of the lights were T8, but there was one T5HO, which he didn't originally know about but still sold me for $20 once we discovered it.) I had to attach my own cord (so add another $10 for an extension cord to cut open and attach), and had to provide my own chain to hang them, but still a much better deal than new. (Came with the bulbs in it, too!) I think I remember someone here saying they got their lights similarly from a general contractor they knew, so if you know anyone who does lighting work they may also be a good source. One caveat: you may also see T12 fixtures this way (or even new!). In my opinion, even though they are cheap, they aren't worth it: the bulbs are being phased out (or already are phased out?) similar to incandescents, due to not being efficient enough, so finding new ones is tough and will only get tougher. (Plus, it'll cost you more in electricity, probably enough in a year to offset the higher cost of T8.)

Ooof, that looks serious, Doc. I haven't seen that before. This is from indoor light straight into sun? I mean, what conditions can do this to a haworthia? I've scorched some before but never quite that badly. BTW, Conny! I want #9. These wimiis are something else. Someone else will have to chime in for you, Michael. I've never bought haworthia seeds. They take too long to show proof of provenance, I'm not sure I'll want anyone's seeds unless I know them personally, as well as their pollinating practice. But Mesa Garden sells some! And you're one of those people whose haworthias look like dessert! I want that~ It's getting long so let us continue here:

Here is a pup from what I believe is a H. retusa 'Mutica'. It was completely brown when it was on the outskirts of a grow light in my basement. I brought it upstairs and put it next to a window. It's now partly back to green. I thought the pattern was interesting. The bottom part isn't in shadow, it really is brown. (I'm referring to the leaf facing the camera.) It almost looks like one of those chocolate Haworthias or even the H. 'Violet' above. I wonder if keeping it in just the right amount of light would keep it this way. Probably impossible, plus I like this one green, but it might be interesting to try.