Echeveria is a flowering succulent that is native to areas like Mexico, Central America, South America and other lower hemisphere regions. They look like spikey rosettes and come in a variety of size, colors, quality, and selection.
Echeveria
There are plenty of chubby varieties and shapes of echeveria succulents. Succulents echeveria produce are especially beautiful in appearance. They come in a number of different colors everyone likes such as purple, blue, and green. Hybrids of echeveria succulent come in exotic hues. They are common houseplants with arrangements found in the window of a kitchen or bathroom with exposure to sun and humidity and come in all types of size, forms, and foliage.
Types of Echeveria
- Echeveria agavoides – The red edges on the lime green echeveria plants are why this variety is named “lipstick”.
- Echeveria elegans – With pearlescent tones, these echeveria plants will send out tall stems with yellow-tipped flowers.
- Echeveria gibbiflora – This echeveria plant can have rosettes up to a height of 16 inches across. The spoon-shaped leaf is reddish-green and produces a red and yellow flower.
- Echeveria harmsii – Pink-tipped, green echeveria leaves with an orange flower.
- Echeveria laui – These echeveria plants only grow to the height of 6 inches tall but sports blue-gray leaves. Echeveria flowers are a peach color.
- Echeveria minima – Smaller varieties of echeveria with dense leaves that have a slight pink.
- Echeveria peacockii – The proud “Peacock” shows off its red rosette edges on blue-gray leaves when it receives the full force of direct light.
- Echeveria pulvinata – The fuzzy leaf gives it the name of “Chenille”. Spring brings orange flowers on the echeveria plant with a bright green leaf with red tips.
What Are Succulents?
Echeveria and other succulents are popular house plants that love the afternoon sun and make a great addition to any green thumb. Humans have grown this genus for years and they can be found in many parts of the world from Paraguay to Hawaii to Texas to Canada to Spain. These echeveria succulents are friendly for pets with many types being low in toxicity. They are affordable, they make a great backdrop for photography and. video, and are popular with many different age groups.
One of the more well-known succulent varieties is cactus plants. Succulents are popular to grow in pots and can thrive indoors. Outdoors, requirements include well-drained garden beds (rock gardens), a good amount of light, humid to hot temperatures, little shade, and nutrients. If your area is prone to rain you should use care during wet or frost periods by investing in a greenhouse in your gardens.
If you are trying to identify a succulent, start with its form. See if its stem has spikes or is plump. As it grows, do the arrangements have anything that hangs over the edge? There will be other indicators like shape, sizes, diameter, texture, foliage, and color. Then you have information to start your family search.
Echeveria Care
This plant loves dry soil and desert conditions, needs little water, and can be grouped into pots or containers for indoor house growth. They prefer drought to rain, so water sparingly, but you will need to take caution to frost.
Desert natives, they can take some watering but only if there is sufficient time to neglect in between. You can use a combination of three things, cactus mix, potting soil, and compost, in the pot. Be sure the container has sufficient holes to help with moisture release. Without good drainage, one reason for a planting problem is with roots and rot. That is an echeveria plant code for less water and more help.
Don’t let excessive watering accumulate in the center of the mother rosette. This also makes areas of the plant prone to root rot. Pruning is done by removing dead leaves from the bottom. If you are heavy-handed, this can result in a mark and the leaf skin will not look nearly as nice on the plant.
If you fertilize, use a low nitrogen mix and dilute it. It is very easy to cause fertilizer burn in succulents so lack of fertilizer does not cause offsets in the of these echeveria plants.
Reproduction
Echeveria propagation works by sending out baby plants. Growers can be found right up against the echeveria plants. The main rosette is usually called the “hen” and the offshoots are called “chicks”. In fact, if you go to buy them at a nursery, the sales folks will know exactly what you are looking for. There are two methods for gardeners growing echeveria species.
If you want, you can separate the new plant from its parent. It should just pull out with ease. You do not need to start from seed or bulbs. The offshoot should have some roots attached and you can just replant wherever you like and growth will occur.
Another way is to take leaf cuttings from the main part of the echeveria plant. Let echeveria cuttings dry in sun. The original echeveria leaf will wither, become compost, and you will be left with a new, rosette on your echeveria plant.
Sometimes the echeveria plants will get spindly. If that happens, help care for it by cutting the top part of the stem.
Potting
It is a requirement that pots have sufficient holes in the bottom for good drainage. The soil will slip through those drainage holes. In order to prevent it insert a piece of newspaper, tray, saucer, or a clean coffee filter. This will let the amounts of water drain without wasting potting soil.
Fill the pot with a cactus potting mix or all-purpose garden soil with some parts sand or perlite. Be sure the echeveria or echeveria leaf cuttings are above the edge of the container and gently tap the soil and sand to ensure roots are secure.
In the garden, find the right spot and place the echeveria plant in the ground, mounding the soil and then gently tamping the roots to secure the plant in place. Mulch to maintain soil temperature and to deter weeds with pruning as needed around the succulent echeveria being produced.
Pests
The main threat or risk with pests or bugs is mealybugs (genus Plannococcos). They will travel from pot to pot and seek soft-stemmed plants especially like the echeveria succulent.
A good water stream will disrupt a mealybug from feeding. As an alternative, you can touch the surface of each mealybug with a cotton swab soaked in rubbing alcohol. The alcohol must come in direct contact with the bug for the best results.
Blooms
The Echeveria will send out a bell-shaped flower stalks. Depending on the plant the echeverias can be tones of orange, red, or white. They will flower in sequence with the source bloom dying out in favor of the new bud at the end of the stalk.
When the bloom occurs is dependent on temperature, but primarily on the issue of sunlight changes they receive. Note that this is about the intensity of the light, not the time. These are not annuals so will return for years.
Conclusion
You can easily mix and match an assortment of Echeveria into lovely groupings. Start with the larger echeveria plant in the center and then work outward. If you want to arrange a cultivar or series of cultivars that is fine.
Growing echeveria and echeveria care can be simple! For more information, look to nurseries or a newsletter or guide from a specific website like ours with blogs created for echeveria plant care.
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