Echeveria

Check your light →

It wants 6 or more hours of sun on its leaves, so your sunniest window, south or west, is home; there it stays tight and colorful. A few hours of sun gets it by, though with less it stretches toward the glass and fades.

Sun brings out its color: NC State Extension notes the leaves color up in sunlight, and Iowa State Extension wants ten or more hours of bright light a day for succulents like it.

No sunny window? A grow light works: an LED within 12 inches of the rosette, on for 12 to 16 hours a day. Move a plant from a dimmer spot into full sun gradually, over a week or two, or the leaves can scorch.

Soak it every 10-14 days in spring and summer, letting the mix dry right through, then every 3-4 weeks in winter, just enough to keep the leaves plump. Soil kept wet in winter is how it rots.

Water until it runs out the bottom, empty the saucer, and let the mix dry all the way down before the next soak, which takes 10-14 days in a sunny window. In winter, give it just enough to keep the leaves from shriveling: UF/IFAS calls keeping it too wet in winter the worst sin, since that brings rot.

Gone for a while? Three weeks is fine; its leaves store water, so it barely notices you’re gone.

A flat, tight rosette, typically 3-4 inches, that sits low on the soil and grows slowly. In time it sets pups around its base, building into a small clump wider than the first rosette.

Growth is slow. There’s nothing to prune: pull off dried leaves at the bottom of the rosette, and cut the flower stalk off once it fades.

The ASPCA lists echeveria as non-toxic to dogs and cats, and CHOP puts it on its nonpoisonous list for kids. If anything, the plant comes off worse, since a chewed leaf stays scarred.

Kids too: Echeveria is on the nontoxic plant list from the poison control center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The plant comes off worse than the pet, since a chewed leaf stays scarred.

1. ASPCA: safe for dogs.
2. ASPCA: safe for cats.
3. CHOP: safe for kids.

Cats and dogs: The ASPCA lists it as non-⁠toxic.

Kids: CHOP lists it as non-⁠poisonous.

Any room from 45-85°F suits it, and a sill that cools off after dark is just right. Dry air down to 10% humidity is no bother, so winter heat needs no fixing.

Temperature

45-85°F

Humidity

10%+

Mealybugs are the one pest to watch for: tufts of white cotton tucked between the leaves or along their undersides. Wet soil, which rots it, is a bigger danger than any bug.

• Mealybugs

Not many. Mealybugs are the one pest to watch for; rot from wet soil is the bigger danger.

Mealybugs look like tufts of white cotton tucked between the leaves or along their undersides. Dab them with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol, then check again next week.

Rot shows as leaves going yellow, soft, and mushy from the base up while the soil is damp. Let it dry out completely and water less often; if the stem has gone soft, cut off the healthy rosette and reroot it (see Propagation).

A quarter turn toward the window each month keeps the rosette growing evenly, and a few weak feeds in spring and summer are plenty. Pull dried leaves from the base, and repot every 2 years or so, once pups crowd it.

• Feeding in season3× a year
• Quarter-turn toward window12× a year
• Pull dried lower leaves4× a year
• Repot in gritty mixevery 2 years

A gritty mix that drains fast: cactus mix, or potting soil cut with twice as much perlite or coarse sand, in a terracotta pot with a drainage hole. Clay breathes, so the mix dries quicker, which it likes.

It’s happy snug, so repot only when pups crowd the pot, in spring or summer.

Food is optional: an all-purpose fertilizer at a quarter to half strength a few times in spring and summer is plenty, and none in winter.

Thick, fleshy leaves about 2.5 inches long, waxy and gray, blue-green or blushed, stack into a tight rosette like a stone flower. In real sun, a stalk of small pink bells may rise for a couple of weeks a year.