Gasworthia Hybrid

[emmahobbit]

Can anyone help me ?? I have a Gasworthia Hybrid & I'm not sure how to look after it, it's a cactus so I didn't think it would be too hard but it seems to be harder than I thought. It has little fat leaves at the botttom then long stems which had flowers on when I bought it, the flowers have all gone but do I trim the stems once the flowers have gone or leave them. Any advice would be great, thanks....Emma

[gardening_guru]

Hello Emma,

Gasworthia is not a plant that I am familiar with. I understand it is a cross between Gasteria and Haworthia. The most commonly grown type has the common name of 'Banded Pearls'.

I think my advice to you would be don't tamper with nature. In the wild, Gasworthia would grow happily in the desert, flowering away and probably dropping it's spent flower stalks when ready, after scattering seed.

On the other hand, if you cut the spent flower stalks off with a sharp, clean knife you are effectively dead-heading, which might encourage the development of more flower stalks.

If you can, acquire another Gasworthia, leave one to drop it's own flower stalks and cut off the stalks from the other plant. I would be interested to know how the two techniques affect flowering performance.

Hope I have been of some help.