They are strange flowers, and can smell a bit strange as well. I find them very easy to grow, and the following year you get the seed pods, which split and fill the greenhouse with white fluff.
At one point I had a huge Stapeliad collection. But they tend to get a nasty black rot. And one bad winter, i lost a lot of my plants unfortunately.
That's a pity. I only have two kinds and variegata is one of them, the other is a dull purple with slightly larger flowers. They tend to look after themselves really and often only get noticed by the amount of flies they attract, along with the aroma.
Pete, Stapeliads are known to be suseptable to this type of rot. Some people say it is due to not high enough temps in winter. But some of my plants that I had indoors got it. So I am not convinced.
I must have been lucky up till now. I'm more likely to suspect its down to a damp atmosphere, or watering too late in the season.
Could it possibly be a bacterial rot problem which can be spread from plant to plant regardless, almost, of growing conditions.
Just struck me as strange that it struck on plants indoors and on greenhouse plants. The growing conditions must be very different.
