Unfolding bud

This is another stone plant, Lithops bromfieldii var. insularis. The plant has produced two flowers already, and this bud will be the third. I have had the plant since 1990 when it was only a single head, with an incomplete fissure down the centre. Now it has four heads, having lost one or two along the way. I haven't taken care of it quite as well as I should have!

Photographing these plants regularly has been useful for their care. I discovered a week or so ago that two of them had been attacked by grasshoppers. I know these insects are pests of stone plants in their native South Africa, but didn't expect them to be a nuisance here. However, there were one or two hanging around in the conservatory, and it didn't take too long to associate them with the damage to my plants. Fortunately grasshoppers are easier to deal with than mealy bugs, the major insect pest of Lithops.