I did it again

Even though I acknowledge that I already have enough succulents, I can't help but check the online stores to see if some of the rarities have come into stock. I found Echeveria 'Rainbow' (the variegated 'Perle' variant) in a 4-inch pot at The Next Gardener for the low low price of $22.10 and put together an order to reach free shipping at $49. Unfortunately I noticed two seconds after hitting the button that I had two Echeveria Purpusorums, the red-spotted variety that has been out of stock at Mountain Crest for weeks. Oh well, rather than mess around with changing the order, one will get a pot and the other will be prominent in the Bonsai Bowl.

This 'Rainbow' image is downloaded from Mountain Crest, which has been out of stock of 2-inch pots (list price $14.99) for as long as I have been checking, but has 4-inch pots for $29.99. I guess paying more than $2.50 per plant (typical price at Ramsey) makes me a collector.

Other items in the order are Pachyphytum 'Apricot Beauty' (self-explanatory), Echeveria 'Linda Jean' (very dark), and Crassula cv. 'Buddha's Temple' (stacked leaves). So I need to find five pots, and I currently have only one terra cotta available unless some more of my frost-damaged Sempervivums die (three are lingering). I moved the two unknowns from the recent Ramsey order to the Bonsai Bowl to free up two more terra cottas, and moved a rosemary that I had been raising as a succulent (4" green ceramic, cactus soil) to a plastic pot. I also was going to put the Trader Joe's unknown Echeveria into the Bonsai Bowl, but it looks so perfect in its 4" green ceramic that I just couldn't. Instead I printed a gray pot with the same design as the other two I printed, but 20% larger. Here's a portrait of Echeveria Trader Joe's in the pot in which it will stay. There's a little bit of scarring on the underside of the leaves from hitting the rim of the 2.5-inch pot it was in formerly, but other than that it is a perfect rosette:

I have been remiss in not posting an official (non-blurry) portrait of Echeveria 'Neon Breakers,' which I've had since Feb. 27. The coloration looks like 'Red Sky' and 'Perle,' and it has ruffles. Here it is with the plant tag that I 3D printed. The letters are probably twice as tall as they need to be, but I'm still learning how to do things. I'm not going to tag absolutely everything, but it will be in the dozens.

I heard about The Next Gardener in a YouTube video. As might be expected, all of the retailers I've been looking at are in California, many between LA and San Diego but several further north. I don't want to live in the People's Republic of California, but I envy their weather for raising succulents. The Next Gardener supposedly is in Fallbrook, CA, but some of the tracking information they provided made me wonder where these plants were actually coming from. Their address is a PO Box, and their shipping partner is Noblepicks, which sets off all sorts of alarm bells in the Google AI overview. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not ordering a laptop getting shipped from China.

March 12: USPS tracking showed that they got the package in Fallbrook yesterday and left San Diego early this morning. "Delivery" is scheduled for Saturday, so I hope the 72-hour heat pack holds out. We don't actually have any sort of home mail delivery (I never heard of such a thing before I moved here) so I have to pick it up at the Post Office. The temperature is OK through Saturday, but plunges Saturday night. If I am unable to pick up the package Saturday, it should be inside the heated building and not sitting on a truck somewhere. I hope.

March 17: Received three days late. Fortunately the plants survived, but I hate the USPS. We rejoiced when Amazon started delivering their own packages in our little town instead of turning them over to the Post Office.