As I'm sure many seasoned Cephalotus growers will agree, this species is not very particular on what medium it grows in. There are lots of different mixes around, containing lots of different ingredients and ratios, such as peat, sand, perlite, leaf mould, live moss, dried moss, charcoal etc etc. I have tried many mixes and to be honest I cannot differentiate any discernible differences in growth rate or colouration. If you look at pictures of this species growing in habitat you will find it in anything between heavy humus soil to white sand. The species grows in coastal areas and one medium ingredient I have seen mentioned a few times is beach sand but I can't find any articles about anyone actually growing a plant using this, though there is undoubtedly someone using it as it is mentioned HERE. So, to satisfy my own curiosity I have decided to give it a try. I live next to the sea, so I took a walk to the local sand dunes and collected a small amount of sand from the banks where tall grasses (I think they are grasses?) grow. The tide does not reach this height, though undoubtedly it receives spray from the sea. I noticed that there was a line which below grew no grasses, so I took from above there, in amongst the grasses. I have a few 'expendible' seedling from last year so used one of these for this experiment. I will periodically update this post with the progress. The pot is filled with a 50/50 mix of peat and dune sand, with a top 1cm layer of just dune sand. The seedling was taken from its existing pot with a plug of moss peat and planted into the sand, with the lower part of the plug coming into contact with the peat/sand mix below.
Maybe my 50/50 mix was 40/60 in one of the pots! Either way I blame my watering.
